Nature in the City : Calgary Airport to Calgary South

Although we set out early this morning, the moment the sun was up we could already feel its power, and we knew it was going to be a hot day. While the afternoon did reach a record breaking 37°C, at least for most of the day on the Trans Canada Trail we enjoyed a relatively cool breeze. 

When we set off once again down the paved cycling trail across the grassy fields of colourful wildflowers, the shadows were still laying long across the trail.  The dark rusty curves of the railway tracks snaked along beside us, and beyond them the already busy highway paralleled us.  Ahead of us stood the tall towers of downtown Calgary, blanketed in a white haze, and to the west we could just make out the outlines of the Rocky Mountains through the brownish smog. 

As the morning wore on we passed under many overpasses, and watched as several very long trains wove their way beside us.  As we walked by an off-leash dog park a herd of friendly and enthusiastic dogs bounded up to the wire fence and congregated in order to sniff us as we walked past.

Slowly the trail was bordered with more houses, and then we threaded through an industrial park, with many businesses that remain a mystery to us.  At the far end of one of the industrial area was a small pond where two Common Merganser females were snoozing on a log.  A Mallard was swimming on the far shore, and we could hear a happy flock of American Goldfinches chirping away above us. 

By 8 am the trail was already full of people out cycling, jogging, and walking in the sunny, still cool morning.  The 'ding, ding' of bicycle bells became our constant companion, with some riders seeming apologetic when we stepped off the trail to let them pass, others giving a wave or word of thanks, and the rest seeming impatient with our presence or choosing to ignore us altogether.  When crossing cities it is always interesting to see the range of reactions our strange appearance invokes. 

 

 

For a few moments we might have almost blended in with our hiking carts as we traversed the Fox Hollow Golf Course.  It was a large, treed course and it was absolutely full of people.  Periodically we would hear gleeful cheers when someone took a particularly good shot or made par.

After skirting around the golf course we found ourselves in another industrial section.  While this may not have been too exciting in some ways, we noticed a lot of naturalization efforts in this stretch.  The cycling path was still winding along beside Nose Creek, and its banks had been seeded with native grasses and wild flowers, and left to regenerate naturally.  These efforts were intended to support pollinators, bees, and native birds. 

So far, as we've made our way through Calgary we've been impressed with the number of large natural areas, and the naturalization and education projects that are going on across the city.  In 2021, Calgary became one of Canada's first cities to be certified by Nature Canada as a 'Bird Friendly City' (along with Vancouver, Toronto, and London).  To achieve this certification a city must identify and mitigate key threats to birds, restore nature so native birds can thrive, engage local residents in monitoring bird populations, and create an organization to develop progressive municipal policies and local events to help protect birds.  Calgary has clearly made an impressive effort to protect bees, birds, and other wildlife! 

Next the trail skirted around the Telus Spark Science Centre. The Calgary Science Centre originally opened in 1967 as a planetarium, but became a Science Centre in the 1987.  It now features interactive exhibits, multimedia presentations, and educational demonstrations and receives over 430,000 visitors per year.  We were intrigued by a forest of inflatable structures standing outside, which upon further investigation seemed to be a luminarium.  In luminariums, multi-coloured finials sit atop quadraxial domes, and natural light shining through the fabric provides an experience that feels like walking through a kaleidoscope. This sounds like a pretty cool experience! 

After a short walk past the parking lot, and ducking under yet another overpass, we came to the junction between Nose Creek and the much larger Bow River.  Wow, what a surprise!  The wide, clear, fast-flowing river was the bright turquoise typical of glacier fed waterbodies!  The Bow River is 587 km long, beginning in the Canadian Rocky Mountains, and winding through the foothills of Alberta to the Prairies, where it meets the Oldman River, joins the South Saskatchewan River, and eventually flows through the Nelson River to Hudson's Bay. 

Prior to European settlement First Nations Peoples used the river for fishing and as part of the Buffalo hunt.  In the Blackfoot language the river's name is 'Makhabn,' which means 'place where bow reeds grow.'  This refers to the reeds which used to grow along the shores of the river, and which First Nations Peoples used to make hunting bows. Today the Bow River provides an important source of drinking water and hydroelectric power for Calgary, and irrigation. 

We followed the treed cycling path along the shores of the Bow River, suddenly finding ourselves skirting around the Calgary Zoo.  Tall wire fences topped with razor wire bordered both sides of the trail, creating a kind of shoot. Since it was the long weekend, and a gorgeously sunny day, the trail was full of people out cycling, jogging, and enjoying the afternoon. The zoo itself was extremely full, with the crowds of excited people so densely gathered around the enclosures it was often impossible for us to catch even a glimpse of the animals inside. 

The trail skirted along the Bow River for quite  a while before finally crossing over and returning back to the starting point on the opposite shore. It was a pleasant walk along a treed cycling trail, offering stunning views over the water.  Several bridges crossed over the river onto the island, which was also part of the zoo, and so remained inaccessible to us.  Highlights were spotting several Common Mergansers paddling the fast-moving waters of the river, and seeing mixed flocks of gulls napping out on the rocky shoals. 

Eventually we made our way back to the Inglewood neighbourhood, where we turned south down one of the branches of the Trans Canada Trail.  Inglewood is Calgary's oldest neighbourhood, and is located directly across the Elbow River from Fort Calgary.  It was established in 1875, shortly after the fort, and today it is an upscale neighbourhood, shopping district, and arts centre. 

At the junction where we turned onto the spur there was a beautiful treed park, at the corner of which stood an intriguing statue.  Like every single one of the monuments and statues we've encountered in Calgary so far, it was missing its interpretive plaque.  We later learned it was called 'Wolfe and Sparrows,' and represented General James Wolfe, who led the British Army to victory over the French during the Battle of the Plains of Abraham in 1759.  While the general's body is a traditional bronze cast, there is a flock of sparrows - a species native to England - obscuring his head.  Brandon Vickerd, the Canadian artist responsible for the creation, designed it after connecting with the local community, and says it is meant to provoke alternative understandings of history. 

We stopped for a break and a (very) large milkshake on a shady bench in the park before continuing on down the trail. Almost immediately we noticed signs for the Bow Habitat Station and Sam Livingston Fish Hatchery, which we later learned are part of a public environmental education facility dedicated to fostering an appreciation for Alberta's fish and other wildlife.  A Discovery Centre, the Sam Livingston Fish Hatchery, the Kids Can Catch Trout Pond, and Pearce Estate Park Interpretive Wetland are all part of the facility.

As we walked the trail we briefly explored the edge of the Interpretive Wetland, which was a 15 hectare Ducks Unlimited marsh.  Bird blinds in the marsh provide an opportunity to observe and learn about local waterfowl and other birds, and interpretive panels explain the importance of wetlands for maintaining clean water.  A floating fen and sandstone-lined pond are used to filter water from the nearby hatchery. Nature trails snake throughout the wetland, but we simply explored along the edge of this amazing place. 

An historic plaque along the main trail indicated that Pearce Estate Wetland was donated to the city of Calgary by William Pearce, a prominent Calgarian who died in 1930.  Pearce was born in Ontario in 1848, and began a 30 year career in government in 1874 when he became a surveyor. He was involved in the Red Deer River settlement and later in surveying the Canada-US border.  In 1884 he became Inspector of Dominion Lands Agencies.  In this position he was responsible for the allocation of land, forest, mineral, and water resources for over 400,000 square miles of land stretching from Winnipeg to the eastern foothills of the Rockies.  His incredible influence earned him the name "Czar of the West."

A few meters farther along we came to the Harvie Passage Outlook.  This stone viewing platform offers views over Harvie Passage, which is a popular spot on the Bow River for paddlers and rafters.  The passage offers a high water channel for skilled paddlers, and a low water channel for novices.  The channels were constructed below the existing Calgary Weir with the express purpose of creating a series and rapids, drops, and waves for river recreation, and they were re-opened to the public a few years ago after suffering damage in the 2013 flood. 

As we followed the treed and shady trail past Harvie Passage we shared it with many people who were carrying inflatable rafts, wheeling kayaks, or toting other small watercraft.  This was an unusual sight on the Trans Canada Trail, and one we quite enjoyed, although it added another layer of complexity to navigating the long weekend crowds of walkers, joggers, cyclists, tourists, and sightseers.  The lookout itself, the rocks around the channel, and the novice passage were absolutely packed with families and people of all ages out enjoying the cool waters of the river on what was turning out to be a very hot, sunny day.

 

After crossing under another highway and following the paved cycling trail through a very upscale riverfront neighbourhood we came to the main reason we'd chosen to divert onto this branch of the Trans Canada Trail - the Inglewood Bird Sanctuary and Nature Centre.  Tucked into a meander in the Bow River, this 36 hectare natural greenspace has been providing migratory birds with a place to rest since 1929.  A series of paved trails and wooden boardwalks take visitors around a small pond, across a wetland, along the rocky shore of the Bow River, through an area of shrubs and regenerative growth, and into stands of balsam poplar and deciduous forests.  The Nature Centre (which sadly was closed for the holiday) offers parks nature programs, school programs, and special events bookings.  

 

The diversity of different habitats provided by this beautiful nature sanctuary supports a high diversity of different wildlife.  An impressive 270 species of birds, 21 species of mammals, and 347 species of plants have been recorded in the sanctuary.

It was a hot, still, sunny afternoon as we walked the trails through the Inglewood Bird Sanctuary, which never makes for optimal birding conditions.  However, we did spot two Wood Ducks paddling quietly through the reeds at the edge of the pond.  We heard the busy, friendly chatter of Black-capped Chickadees in the shrubs, and the softer calls of Cedar Waxwings, Eastern Kingbirds, and a Yellow Warbler.  Along the banks of the river we spotted a Double-crested Cormorant fishing, and the rocky shoal was covered in Ring-billed Gulls.  Tree Swallows and Northern Rough-winged Swallows wheeled and spiralled overhead, and as we approached the Colonel Walker House we came across a Northern Flicker foraging for ants, a family of Black-billed Magpies hanging out on the lawn, and a group of American Robin fledglings being fed in a nearby shrubs. 

As we sat at a picnic table in the shade outside the historic home, we watched a Swainson's Hawk being mobbed by a pair of Red-winged Blackbirds overhead, and we listened to the calls of a Wood-pewee in the trees beside us.  Altogether, the Inglewood Bird Sanctuary felt like just that - a peaceful sanctuary in which to relax and connect with nature in the midst of the city. 

Eventually we continued walking south down the spur, passing a large and very active train yard, walking under another highway, and then crossing over to the south side of the river.  There we began to climb up to the top of the river valley.  We were pretty hot and winded by the time we reached the neighbourhood at the top of the grassy slope, but the views from up there were worth it!  

We could see the towers of downtown Calgary rising up in a cluster to the north.  Below us the turquoise waters of the Bow River meandered through the Beaver Dam Flats, and beyond that the city sprawled to the horizon, where the ghosts of the Rocky Mountains were just visible through the haze. It was easy to imagine that on a clear day the scenery from our elevated vantage point would have been breathtaking.  

 

 

As we stood high up on the ridge, enjoying the panoramic view, an Osprey circled below us, hunting for fish in the green space along the river.  Beaver Dam Flats is a 43 hectare park that was created along the eastern banks of the river in the 1980's.  It protects an extensive shrub community, which is composed primarily of Canada Buffaloberry, Saskatoon, American Silverberry, and Water Birch.  The park was named after the abundance of beaver dams that were constructed along this old channel of the river way.  The slower, gentler flow in the river at this point provides habitat for diving ducks such as Common Goldeneyes, Buffleheads, and dabblers like Mallards and Blue-winged Teals.  We were too high up to identify any waterfowl below us, but we could certainly enjoy the view.  

As the sun continued to sink towards the horizon the late afternoon became uncomfortably hot.  We made our way the last few kilometres off trail to our accommodations, having thoroughly enjoyed our hike across Calgary, and being greatly impressed with the amount of work that has been done to create a naturalized green corridor through the city for both wildlife and people.  Calgary’s trails are truly wonderful to explore and help people connect to nature!

See you on the trail!

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