Storytelling on our nature walk

When I was in Banff in April I had the opportunity to take lots of nature walks. On these walks I started thinking about the 'stories' that nature had to tell, and I started wondering how I could use stories to share the experience of nature with my children. It would be easy enough to make up a little story about the squirrel tracks in the snow,

or the mountain crocus pushing its way through the snow to be the first flower in the spring,

or how the mountains came to be, with their majestic lines showing the layers and layers of sediment pushed up from deep within the earth.

I came home and we quickly got back into the routine of life and I forgot about the nature stories.

This week I was reminded again from a number of sources that I should try out this idea of making up my own nature story. I recently got a few books from the library about storytelling. Basically, your story needs a main character, and that character has a problem. They have a few adventures trying to solve the problem and then the problem is solved.

So, on our walk today I gave it a shot. We walked by a small pine tree and I began to make up a story about a pine seed. The little pine seed wanted to grow into a big pine tree like its mother, but it was trapped inside a pine cone. It couldn't get out, because the cone was closed too tightly. Winter covered it with snow. In the spring the rain washed it into a river and it was carried downstream. Finally it washed up on shore. Then a squirrel carried it high, high up into a tree. He began peeling back the sections and eating the seeds inside. He was just about to eat the little pine seed when he was startled and dropped it on the ground. The little seed sprouted, grew roots and became a tiny pine tree. Soon it grew into the small pine tree we had passed by, and one day it hoped to become as big as its mother.

The kids loved the story, and were begging me for more, but I thought one story per walk would be more than enough.

It is tempting to stuff my kids full of endless nature facts, but telling a simple story seemed to resonate with them on a different level. I enjoyed it as well, pausing in places and letting them fill in parts of the story as we went along. No one knew quite where the story would take us as we walked along the shady path.

Banff Springs Hotel

I'm back to writing about our stay in Banff in April. While we were there for the international programming contest we stayed at the Banff Springs Hotel.

We have had the opportunity to travel and stay at some nice hotels through my husband's involvement with this event, which takes place at a different fantastic location every year. This hotel was by far, the finest one we have stayed at. If you happen to be very, very wealthy I highly recommend staying here.

View of the hotel from a lookout on tunnel mountain

View of the hotel from the top of Sulphur Mountain

The hotel was a sprawling complex of the main hotel plus wings with more rooms and a giant conference centre. You can see the beginning of the golf course in the top right of the photo.

Here's our rental car parked at the front entrance of the hotel. We were treated to valet parking during our stay. It was lots of fun to pull up to the front entrance and have the valets open the door for me, help me unload my stuff, and then drive off with the car. When I needed the car again I just called the main desk from the phone in my room and they would appear with it again. Magic!

We had asked for an economy car at the rental place and they gave us this luxurious, fully loaded Volvo by mistake. We did not complain. It took us a few days to figure out how to use all the features. By the third day we could open the sun roof and adjust the power seats properly. I never did figure out how to program the personalized settings.

This is a view of one wing of the main lobby. When we arrived at the hotel we were actually whisked back to their secret celebrity check in at the back of the hotel.

This is one of their many banquet and reception halls. The conference used ALL of them at one point or the other. The above room was used for registration. The room in the photo below was where all the meals were served. The food was amazing. The chef at the hotel could make hot dogs into a gourmet meal for 700 people. He might just charge you $25 a hot dog though.

This hotel is very old. It originally opened in 1888. It has burnt down once or twice, and many wings and additions have been added over the years. You can take an historical tour of the hotel, ask at the concierge desk for times. The tour I took was with Tony, a Jamaican who wore a scottish kilt for the tour. He was an excellent guide. Unfortunately I only heard half of the tour as the Chickadee was simultaneously conducting her own very noisy tour of the hotel.

On the tour I learned that this ornate set of brass doors, leading to one of the many banquet halls, was worth 2 million dollars.

Our room was in the conference centre. We were in the top of the right turret.

This is our room. The Chickadee spent a great deal of time climbing up and down the stairs to the turret. I have always wanted a turret. I dare not mention this secret desire of mine to my husband, he would probably run out and start constructing one on the side of our suburban home. Then he would build a moat just to complete the look.

The view from our room.

The hotel has a large heated outdoor swimming pool that used to be fed by a nearby set of hot springs. The national park is preserving these springs and no longer allows the hotel to pipe water down to the swimming pool. It was amazing to be outside early in the morning and see the mountains through the mist created by the pool. The air was cool, it was early April, but the water was quite hot.

When we returned home I wandered about the house, lost and forlorn. Who would make me gourmet meals? Who would make my bed, twice a day? Who would park my car? Reality was there to greet me with open arms.

Banff Wildlife Part 2

Here is the next installment of animal photos that I took on my trip to Banff in early April. It took me quite awhile before I saw my first elk, which I found rather frustrating. I went to Banff with the expectation that the place was literally crawling with elk, that they were wandering around town, next to the highway, on the golf course, everywhere. I was even more aggravated when I would spend my days driving all over the park, not a single elk to be seen, only to return at the end of the day to have someone tell me they saw one walking in front of our hotel.

One day I took a long walk on the golf course, where elk were often spotted, but I saw nothing but birds and squirrels. There appeared to be random sections of the course fenced off (I'm not a golfer), which I thought was odd until I realized they were protecting the greens from being grazed by elk and deer.

Elk Cervus canadensis

Finally one day, I was driving back to the hotel by a back road and there was this beautiful male elk with a great set of antlers. He had a female nearby, and they calmly grazed while I took photos with the remaining light of the day. I stayed well back and used my long lens. I could tell that they were far more skittish than the big horn sheep I had seen earlier. The male watched my movements and kept his antlers towards me at all times.

For the rest of the trip I often drove down that same road and saw the pair of elk grazing nearby each time I went. One day I brought along a friend to show her the pair as well, but alas, they were nowhere to be found. I was just about to turn around and drive away, when we saw the cars slow down and stop ahead of us (a good sign that they had seen some wildlife). We drove on a bit more and saw a whole herd of elk! There must have been 30 animals. They hung around the same area for the next few days and I saw them often.

The following picture is of a different pair of elk that I came across on one of the last days of our trip. My husband was along for the drive and he was able to see this pair as well. They were also wary and nervous around people, I managed to get a few photos before they disappeared into the forest.

Banff Wildlife Part 1

Big Horn Sheep Ovis Canadensis

I saw a lot of wildlife while in Banff. This was the first animal I saw, and I must admit that I didn't even know what it was. I thought it was a mountain goat. There was a group of them standing in the middle of the road. Later I learned that mountain goats tend to stay way up high on cliffs and do not venture down onto the road.

Young Big Horn Sheep

I saw these sheep a number of times. There was a beautiful road near the town of Banff that lead to Lake Minnewanka that I was compelled to drive down every few days. It was even more amazing since spring had slowly been arriving during the two weeks I was there and I could see changes every time I went.

I often saw them standing on the road and licking it. I don't know why they were doing this. Some animals need to eat small stones to help with their digestion, or perhaps they were licking salt off the road, I don't know. I'm not even sure that they salt the roads in Banff National Park. Salt would have a negative environmental impact on the surrounding lakes that the park management would want to avoid, they might just sand the roads there.

What you don't see in these pictures are the 6 or 7 other cars and the crowd of people that had also pulled off the road to look. The sheep ignored all of us, although at points I could tell they were bothered that people were coming so close and they would move off a little ways. I actually saw a father put his 8 year old daughter right in front of the large male so he could take a picture! During my stay I was wondering if our society's move to a more urban lifestyle has caused us to lose some of our common sense, but that's material for another post.

All of my photos were taken from the car window, the sheep were very close and I was using my longer zoom lens. At one point, the sheep were not moving off the road and I actually had to drive my car around them. I could have reached out my window and touched them (if I happened to be lacking in common sense). They were very used to people and cars.

Female Big Horn Sheep

Wide angle photography

While in Banff I attempted to take some wide angle shots using composition suggestions that I picked up in a book entitled 'John Shaw's Nature Photography Field Guide'. John Shaw's books are great, they have a clear style without being too technical, and his photos are amazing. His book 'John Shaw's Landscape Photography' will also explain how to take this kind of shot.

This shot requires some planning and setup. First of all, you need a tripod. Because I had the Chickadee with me, and we were traveling, I didn't bring mine with me, which ruined some of my other attempts. The reason you need a tripod is because you must set your aperture as high as it will go, which will result in your shutter speed being too slow to hold your camera in your hand. These shots were taken at F-22. This gives you a great depth of field. In the above photo, that means the rock and the mountain will both be in focus.

Next, you set your lens to the widest angle it will go. I used my 18-70 mm zoom lens and set it at 18 mm.

The next part is the time consuming, body contorting, tripod adjusting act of composing the photo. You need to choose something interesting to place in the foreground. In the above picture I chose a boulder. You will need to get very very close to this subject. I was probably less than 6 inches away from the boulder. Then you work on getting an angle that includes your subject and the background in the distance.

Now you're ready to take the picture. Your shutter speed will probably be slow because the aperature is so small, hence the need for the tripod.

If you're interested in learning how to take this shot, read John Shaw's books, he explains this much better than I did. (His photos are also much better than mine).

A fly on the hand is better than an owl on the arm

Great Horned Owl Bubo virginianus

We went to Banff because my husband was working at a conference. It was an international programming contest for university students. The students participate in regional contests and those who win travel from across the globe to compete in a grueling 5 hour challenge against the best in the world. It is a great event, with lots of energy and excitement.

As a special surprise one day before dinner, we were treated to a visit from a birds of prey exhibition. There was a Kestrel, a Golden Eagle (who had been blinded in both eyes), a burrowing owl, and a few others that I don't remember.

The star of the show was this Great Horned Owl. The owner had raised the owl from birth, and he was quite comfortable with people. Many many people held this owl that evening. When you watch the video, look for the part where the owl leans in for the photo shoot. You can also hear the Chickadee yell 'Bird!' in the background at the beginning of the video.

My sons were not present at the conference (they were staying with their grandparents) and did not get to hold the owl. They did see the video when we returned, and were disappointed that they did not get a turn. My husband consoled the Nuthatch by pointing out that a fly had landed on the Nuthatch all by itself, and the owl had to be put on Mommy's arm. So it was better to have the fly come to him of its own free will.

So, if you're feeling jealous that I got to hold an owl, you can go in your backyard and hope a fly will land on you, all by itself. You should feel better after that.

The Many Faces of Mount Rundle

I'm back! I've just returned from a two week vacation in Banff National Park. For obvious reasons, I did not want to announce my departure online. I was able to get in a post or two while I was away, although I didn't have access to my photo software and wasn't able to upload photos until the end of my trip when I posted the sneak preview.

The sneak preview photo was a bank of spruce trees growing on a mountainside in Kootenay National Park. I took a drive up the mountain pass from Banff into Kootenay one morning after a fresh snowfall. It was spectacular.

While in Banff I managed to take a whopping 900 images. Banff was so amazing I felt like I could wave my camera wildly around my head while pressing the shutter and I'd have a ton of great photos.

This is Mount Rundle. It is located next to the town of Banff. It took me several days to get over my sense of disorientation and start to figure out which mountain was which. They looked different depending on what side of the mountain you were on and even what time of day it was and whether or not they were covered with clouds.

I became particularly fond of Mount Rundle. On the western side (see the above photo) it was gently sloping and covered with trees.

View of the western side of Mount Rundle from the top of Sulphur Mountain.

In the Bow Valley, near the town of Banff is an area of marsh land called the Vermillion Lakes. Mount Rundle is on the left, and Sulphur Mountain is on the right.

And on the eastern side, it was a face of steep cliffs, striped with layers and layers of sedimentary rock, lifted and exposed for all to see. The Bow River can be seen as the frozen white patches in the foreground.

Mount Rundle (left) is separated from Tunnel Mountain (right) by a U-shaped valley carved by a glacier.

This is a view of the peak from our hotel room early one morning.

Sneak preview

I have lots of fantastic photos that I will start posting next week. Here's a sneak preview of things to come. In my world it is still winter. I am going to miss it when it's gone.