Wednesday, April 27, 2011 Edmonton

6:20 am

The temperature is +3 C, with a high predicted of +15 C.

From the Environment Canada website:

Today Sunny with cloudy periods. High 15. UV index 5 or moderate. Tonight Clear. Low zero. Normals Max: 15°C Min: 2°C

7:30 am

I am not sure that these additional entries are a good idea, but will stay with it for a few days. It is easier to have some entries when one is travelling but once we are back in Lethbridge I will be more judicious in their use. Who wants to know that I had another cup of coffee, unless of course it is a special cup.

I also agree with Mark Twain when he says, "man cannot tell the whole truth about himself, even if convinced that what he wrote would never be seen by others". [p. 1]

It has taken about an hour to update yesterday's web page and add this idea of including diaretic entries.

This morning we will stop for breakfast at a restaurant near Spruce Grove and then continue west to Jasper. I am looking forward to seeing the snow on the mountains. At the moment I am not sure if there will be much birding or geocaching. At least the weather forecast has improved a little. Jasper is now supposed to have a mix of sun and cloud with a high of +9 C. Hopefully we will be able to see the mountains, but nothing is certain. Snow is still forecast for tomorrow but so far it look like the drive from Jasper to Banff should be okay on Friday.

I continue to Learn. I just realized that my iPad, which was working fine, was connected using the 3G data roaming capability rather than the (free) wireless system available in the hotel (and which I am using at the moment with my laptop to create this web page). I just turned on the iPad and used Safari to access the Web. This brought up the motel's website for connecting to the wifi system. I must remember to turn off the 3G system when I am not using the iPad or I may find that I am running up a huge bill. Life used to be simpler.

Although I brought my Canon Rebel 2Ti camera with us, I did not bring my small Panasonic camera which would have been a good idea for taking quick photos of things like the outside of the Art Gallery. Then I could have added that to these pages. Oh well. Not a big deal. Next time.

1:00 PM Birding

The weather for the trip from Edmonton to Jasper was much better than we were expecting. There was a fair amount of cloud, but also a lot of blue sky. Most of the cloud was in the form of small squalls. The big surprise was the fact that most of the lakes were still covered by ice. We saw a large number of crows along the side of the highway for the entire trip, but virtually no other species.

Once we were near Jasper we decided to drive to an area near the Snaring River campground where we had seen a Barrow's Goldeneye on a previous spring trip. We were quite surprised to see another couple in exactly the same spot again. The Barrow's Goldeneye was a 2011 lifer.

3:00 PM Geocaching

After we checked into the motel I went for a short walk to see if I could find a couple of geocaches with coordinates I had previously loaded into my GPS unit.

GC2Q8J9 Mount Edith Cavell - Jasper Discovery Trail

I was lucky to spot this container fairly quickly. Here are 3 pictures of the cache site:

I forgot to take a photo of the open container. The cap screws off. The threaded portion is hollow and contains a small logsheet.

GC2Q8HQ Roche Bonhomme - Jasper Discovery Trail

This took me a couple of minutes but once I saw the rock under the spruce tree I realized that was it.

It has been awhile since I did any geocaching. It is still fun and I am looking forward to more searches now that the snow is no longer on the ground.

3:30 PM

I realized when we checked in to our motel that we were less than a block from a private house that had a number of birds visiting its numerous back yard feeders. While I was looking at the birds the owner of the house came out and invited me in for a closer look. A few questions and it turned out that we knew each other from my high school days. Once we realized that we both knew each other I was invited in for a cup of coffee. We had a grand time reminding each other of various stories from 50 years ago. It even turned out that I had baby-sat their kids when they were young. Wonderful!

4:30 PM Birding

Oh yes, while visiting I saw the following birds:

• White-crowned Sparrow (first for 2011)
• Pine Siskin
• Purple Finch (first for 2011)
• Slate-colored Junco

Here are a few photos:

 

 

 

 

8:30 PM

After an excellent dinner at the Atha-B we returned to our room and watched the third period of the 7th game of the series between Montreal and Boston. Montreal scored with 2 minutes left in the game to tie the score at 2, but Boston scored in overtime to take the series. That leaves Vancouver as the only Canadian team left in the Stanley Cup play-offs. It also means that I won't be watching as much television as I usually do at this time of year. I think this is a good thing.