In steady rain, Vilis and I explored Maligne Canyon trails a few kilometres from Jasper this morning, the colours of stunted vegetation and spilling river enhanced by the overcast sky and wet rock surfaces. We peered down into the narrow, twisting canyon from boardwalks and spotted a crow’s nest on a ledge, with an adult attending two large nestlings. I looked carefully for black swifts, this canyon one of the few Canadian nesting sites for this uncommon species, but saw none. With the Jasper Rockies having experienced the heaviest snowpack in years, spring has arrived late. So, apparently, will the black swifts.

The rain eased into drizzle as we walked paved trails near the canyon and muddy dirt trails on steep slopes above Maligne River. Again and again, our eyes were captivated by water-sculpted rock formations and sparse, tenacious vegetation colonizing the difficult environment of canyon walls and rocky riverbanks.

As we retraced our steps toward the canyon, we spotted five mule deer foraging on the side of the esker we were walking atop. Undoubtedly accustomed to seeing humans nearby, the mulies lifted their heads periodically to follow our movements, but otherwise continued feeding.  Their coats appeared coarser than those of white-tailed deer, and their black-rimmed ears and black-tipped tails provided other identifying fieldmarks.

It was a day for observing mammals and avoiding mammals. Following our Maligne Canyon walk, we spotted a white-tail buck near the 5th Bridge trailhead for the Canyon, and a small herd of elk on the outskirts of Jasper. After lunch, we hiked up the steep Old Fort Point trail and walked within twenty metres of bighorn ewes resting or grazing on an exposed esker. We walked the length of the esker and headed down through greening poplar woods and brooding, mossy-floored conifer forest, careful to avoid trails leading to an area east of Jasper townsite closed to the public because of an abundance of bears out of hibernation. We concluded our day’s hiking by circling Lake Beauvert on the far side of the Athabasca River and encountering elk calving areas also closed to the public.

Today’s fauna: northern ravens, American crows, Clark’s nutcrackers, dark-eyed juncos, yellow-rumped warblers, mule deer, white-tailed deer, red squirrels, elk, bighorn sheep.