A Time to Frolic...

Fresh grass, warm weather, life is good!

Nesting Time in the Yard

Here is the spot on my deck where I can keep track of all six birdhouses. I can zoom in on all of them with the camera without moving, At the peak of the garage is the house that the sparrows appear to have settled on. Last year it was occupied by chickadees.

 I don't know what time of Sparrow this is. I am guessing Harris's Sparrow.

 Another one is occupied by House Wrens. Yes, I know, the house needs repainting!

 Watching the bird trying to get an oversized twig into the nest is interesting.

 Full of songs

 And here are the Mr. and Mrs. together. How she is going to fit through the hole, I don't know

The tree swallows are trying to pick a nest out of the 4 others, but haven't settled on one yet.

More pictures to come when they settle in.

Another First for Me!

Today, Daphne and I ended up at the river on our daily walk. I thought I saw a Muskrat playing in the rather stiff current. Then I realized that Muskrats are lazy and stay in calm water or swamps. I took a few shots when he surfaced and then found out it was a River Otter. He wasn't very cooperative and would not come to shore.

Note the very impressive teeth! 

He was very sleek and graceful!

You can see most of the long tapered tail. Now that I know where he is (was), I will keep a look out for him in the future.

Big Health Improvement!

Here are the steps that I have taken to improve my health significantly!

Conditions before:

My weight was at 210 pounds, about 30 pounds over where I should be. I was tired, fatigued would be more like it, sleeping 9 hours at night and napping one to 2 hours during the day. My muscles ached constantly. My feet and legs cramped almost at will. I had to force myself to walk any where. My wrists hurt constantly and I was wondering if it was arthritis or Carpal Tunnel Syndrome. It was difficult to get 3500 steps per day on dog walks. All in all I would say life was almost at a survival level.

Conditions after three months:

I have dropped 20 pounds of my 30 pound goal. All my aches, pains and cramps are gone and I am back walking my goal of 10,000 steps per day and I am enjoying it! I am back to sleeping 8 hours a night with a few naps during the week. The wrist pains are gone. The fatigue is  normal, but with cause like after walking more than 10,000 steps per day. I am still 75 years old and have not regenerated.

How did I do this?

First of all, I cut my food intake back significantly. I don't believe in dieting as I found in the past the weight that went comes back over time. Instead, I went on a routine schedule. For breakfast, I have two pieces of raisin bread with butter and an apple. I like raisin bread! For lunch I will have something light like an ice cream bar and a banana. If I get hungry in between, I will have another apple. Suppers are normal, but at half portion size. Once the stomach shrunk, I stopped being hungry.

I Googled my symptoms and started looking for vitamin deficiencies. I found pretty quick that as a person gets older, the body muscles do not tale up magnesium as they should. Magnesium is required for health muscle mass. There is apparently no easy test for mag deficiency (according to my Doc). I started taking magnesium citrate at 250 milligrams. Within 2 days my aches and pains were totally gone! After a week when my walking steps increased, I found the aches were starting to come back. I upped the mag to twice a day and have stabilized at that. I dropped some other medications such as a pill used for acid reflux. It turns out I shouldn't have been on it because apparently anything over 8 days may harm the kidneys. When my stomach muscles stopped hurting due to the magnesium supplement, I haven't felt the need for it.

I still stay on Vitamin D3 and B12 du to or shortage off sunlight.

What Have I learned?

I have had ultrasound and  X-rays to try to determine the cause of my troubles with no results. I found I had to do my own root cause determination to find the cause. This procedure I used regularly as technical director in the pulp and paper industry, and it worked in my case . Doctors can miss the root cause. When I talked to my Doc on the effect, he did say that too much mag can cause the runs. So far I have avoided that side effect!

Where am I now?

My weight is coming off slowly and I see my goal of getting to 180 pounds being achieved by July.
I am back up to wearing my dog out with 10,000 steps per day. The fatigue, stomach pains and other muscle pains are gone and I feel much as I did 30 years ago! I do not have arthritis or carpal!

Life is back to being GOOD again!

Hope this helps. I am not a medical doctor and can only say what is working for me. Google can be a good source of information!

Watching the Sandhill Cranes

Daphne and I went for a small walk today while waiting for the Boss to be done with a meeting. The small walk turned into a sit down at the edge of a field to watch a Sandhill Crane perform. I didn't see the female. I'm assuming she was in the bushes at the edge of the field. Daphne was off leash, and I just told her to come and sit, and she did while I took a few photos (about 60). I won't bore you will all of them!

 They have an enormous wingspan!

I'm not sure what is with the lumps on the head. If he was a bear, I could see him popping his cheeks to show annoyance.

 Here is a view of the knobs. Cranes don't grow horns, so that can't be it.

 So long, adieu, until we meet again!

What's New at the Pond?

The Northern Shovellers are back and paired up.

 The Buffleheads have arrived and are strutting around the pond

 This one here seems to have found a mate already!

 They are a very pretty duck with the high contrast black and white crowned by iridescence on the head. It's very hard to capture the colours! 

 Then there were the Muskrats swimming around and doing?

 I can see where the "Rat" part of there name comes from.

 They are very, very agile in the water, and fun to watch.

Every day seems to bring new surprises to my birding, animal areas. Now that we have had our last snow, I hope, I can get out more often! We are forecasting temps in the double digits starting Wednesday. That is around 70C for all you unilingual folks.

Have a great day!

The Ospreys are Back!

I was taking Daphnie for a walk in the Dog Park today and noted an Osprey sitting on a nest. The Town of Whitecourt installed a telephone pole and a nesting platform in Rotary Park about 8 or10 years ago. It has produced 2 to 3 chicks each year. The post is set back a bit from the walking trail, and a sign display gives the Osprey story. It is really pretty nice! Today was snowing, blowing and downright miserable and not conducive to photography so, here is a shot or two from last year

Lets hope this years nesting is as successful as this!

The Last Two Days

The weather was good and I got out and about. Here are a few of the results. It might be a few days before I get out and about again, as we are forecast to get 20 cm of snow overnight.

The first two are of a Juvenile Golden Eagle that decided to thermal right over me. I had to get some help from Alberta Birds to identify it.

 The next two are of Common Gold Eyes that are showing up in droves.

And here we have the Canada Goose having a good stretch. They are starting to nest up and things are getting quiet on the Athabasca

The next couple are of a Rough Grouse having a bad hair day.

Finally, here is one of the 15 Elk that I came across in a farmers field.

A Couple of Surprises

Daphne and I took to the bush today to try and get out 5 miles per day in. On one of the trails, Daphne put up this Roughed Grouse and it perched right beside me in a tree.

We also came across a herd of about 15 Elk. I could not get a shot through the bush, so we moved down the road and waited for them to cross. I guessed to crossing point quite well. They came single file, in a hurry.

We also found a few geese in the slough.

All in all, not a bad day in the bush!