This morning, while brilliant sun lit the spectacular mountain scenery surrounding Banff, the air temperature at 8 a.m. was noticeably warmer than yesterday morning’s 3°C. Again, Vilis and I parted ways at the Banff Centre, he to be inspired and stimulated by research presented at the Canadian Society for Ecology and Evolution meeting, and I to explore more trails adjacent to the Bow River.

I hiked northwest along the Bow River’s shoreline, spotting mountain chickadees and red-breasted nuthatches busily foraging for food in shrubby vegetation bordering the shoreline path that skirted yards and streets in Banff’s south end. The fresh morning air resonated with the shrill whistles of Columbian ground squirrels, rollicking vocalizations of ruby-crowned kinglets, clear calls of crows, and chattering rattle of a belted kingfisher. A common loon, mallard, and buffleheads floated on the green mountain river rippled into gentle scallops by breezes. I crossed the railway tracks, the bald sky brilliant blue above me, the snowclad peaks searing my eyes with sunlit whiteness.

Fenland Trail led me through dense, dark forest where a northern three-toed woodpecker rapped on a dead tree and varied thrushes sang breathy, long-note whistles separated by intervals of silence. Dead branches of spruces hung like grey skirts above a rumpled, mossy dance floor, and deadfall created impenetrable tangles. I recognized the call of a black-throated green warbler and envisioned my woods in Nova Scotia, where that species is a prominent member of the warbler community. The fen itself – a flat, marshy ecosystem surrounded by forest – lay damp and brown in a large clearing, its spring-exposed vegetation jumbled and flattened by winter snows. I noted elk trails on the fen and yellow-rumped warblers and a Townsend’s warbler singing at the forest edge.

Having agreed to meet Vilis to attend a plenary lecture at the conference, I retraced my steps back to the Banff Centre, but on discovering I had time to spare, explored an unnamed trail leading upslope through pine woods near the centre. Stunted trees formed an open woodland on stony soil brightened by the flowers of scattered cinquefoil plants.The scent of conifers was redolent in the hot air, the noon quiet broken only by chirps of yellow-rumped warblers and distant calls of ravens. Strong gusts of mountain wind pushed and released me, repeatedly upsetting my balance while I stood near the edge of a precipice to photograph farflung views of the Bow River Valley.

I descended the exhilerating trail and attended a conference plenary lecture presented by Dr. Philip Currie, a paleontologist based at the University of Alberta. Dr. Currie spoke incredibly knowledgeably about the ‘Paleoecology of the Campanian (Late Cretaceous) of Dinosaur Provincial Park’, a world-famous locale in the Canadian Badlands from which over three hundred dinosaur skeletons were removed in the early 1900’s, and which was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1980.

On the heels of Dr. Currie’s lecture, I drove west from the Banff Centre, crossed the Bow River, and then hiked much of Marsh Trail and Marsh Loop, both of which offered excellent birding and soul-expanding mountain views. Mallards and Canada geese swam in sunlit elegance in the marsh. Red-winged blackbirds, yellow-rumped warblers, and an orange-crowned warbler sang from thickets of dense shrubs bordering the trails, while canoeists paddled on the Bow River and trail riders rode single file, their mounts’ hoofs kicking up dust in the brilliant spring sunshine.

Today’s fauna: black-billed magpies, Columbian  ground squirrels, ruby-crowned kinglets, dark-eyed juncos, mountain chickadees, red-breasted nuthatches, white-crowned sparrow, buffleheads, Canada geese, mallards, golden-crowned kinglet, Lincoln’s sparrows, American crows, yellow-rumped warblers, belted kingfisher, pine siskins, common loon, red-winged blackbirds, tree swallows, American robin, rock doves, northern three-toed woodpecker, varied thrush, black-throated green warbler, Townsend’s warbler, red squirrel, osprey, northern  raven, chipping sparrow, orange-crowned warbler.