Gratitude Monday --Bison Camping Edition

This past weekend was our annual camping trip with our friends. We went to Elk Island National Park which contains a herd of buffalo.
This park is east of Edmonton about a half -hour drive, if that. This is the second time I've been to it and the first in summer.
We spent a great deal of time on Astotin Lake. We saw a wide variety of bird life from sandpipers to pelicans.
At one point during a paddle we saw a heron. Behind him, a buffalo.





Later that day Mike and I drove around the park and checked out the bison loop. No bison were about, but as we drove back to the campground it started pouring rain and two of them were out enjoying the shower. Here's a wet buffalo:

We came home on Sunday and were treated to this sight along the road. Here's a dry buffalo:





And here's a field full of them. They were across the road from the bison loop.


I am so happy to have finally spent some time in the park and to finally see some wild buffalo roaming.

Gratitude Monday - Wild Memories

Coyote and buffalo. Please click to enlarge.

Our Christmas drive yielded many great sights including coyotes. We see them from time to time. It's a treat, though not really a rare one.

We sometime hear their mournful howls in the night here in town. I've grown to enjoy their singing as it reminds me the wilderness is just a short walk outside my door.

Back when I was growing up we had forest all around us and it was filled with all the critters one would expect. We heard and occasionally saw coyotes, timberwolves, moose, deer, lynx, and bear. The sad longing song of the coyote filled many a night and punctuated cold clear winter days. It scared me then.

Today it simply reminds me of a former wild abundance.

I'm grateful to have been surrounded by the creatures of the wood, and today I am grateful when I see them again.