Despite this frigid temperature, we had a good turnout this morning:
Everyone was bundled up and the lack of wind made conditions less harsh.
Back on Valentine’s Day in 2016 we walked in -23 conditions.
On that day we met a Russian gentleman who exclaimed “This is spring weather in my country!”
This morning at Marie Curtis Park we had many Canada Geese flyovers:
Other birds:
Park views:
Some botany:
MAILBOX
I got this announcement about a course at the Guelph Arboretum:
In response to the new stay-at-home rules and gathering restrictions, we are going to try to do something different with our Virtual Bird Sounds Workshop this year. We are going to offer our course for eight consecutive weekday noon hours (January 17-21 and 24-26). This way if you are stuck at home, you can join us every day to learn your bird sounds. If you can’t make every day, you can watch the recordings anytime that they fit with your schedule (they are up for 4 weeks after the end of the workshop). We are also going to make the recordings available to you again for a couple of weeks in April so you can review them as the spring bird songs really start to get going. And, of course, you can also just sign up for individual courses instead of the whole series.
We are hoping this new concept will also allow keen young learners a chance to take the course while they are at home. But we need your help! We don’t have a lot of time to advertise for this idea so please forward this message on to anyone you know who might like to take the course.
Further details are on our website at: https://arboretum.uoguelph.ca/educationandevents/workshopsTo register please go to: https://secure.e-registernow.com/cgi-bin/mkpayment.cgi?state=3285
As always, we appreciate your support of The Arboretum and its educational programs!
NATURE POETRY
Winter’s sleep so close to death,
piercing with his arctic breath.
Brittle, naked limbs stretch high
in the icy pewter sky.
Bitter chill and stinging wind,
quiet earth grows gray and grim. – Patricia Cisco
Miles Hearn
Miles
Thanks for leading this morning’s enjoyable and informative walk. I had forgotten how much I enjoy getting out in nature on these cold winter days.
Anne Powell
Happy New Year Miles.
I just discovered your newsletter late last year and it is bringing me much pleasure every day. Thank you for sharing your beautiful photos and poetry and your information about birds.
Regards
M H Spence.
Thank you for our walk this morning.
Your photos are an extra plus to your talk during our walk.
I also enjoyed the history of the park.
Very pleased that my friends and I came out for our very 1st birdwatching walk on such a cold day👍
I’ll never forget that 23 degrees below, pre-pandemic walk, on Saturday morning, at David Balfour Park. I loved it (no sarcasm emoji). Thanks for the memories, Miles!
Marie Curtis Park looks beautiful. I’m glad I can see it here!