BT Edmonton Blogs

No chore - chores!

Malcolm gives us an idea of what he has to face at Birch Bay Ranch no matter what the weather conditions are!    “I was doing chores (chores never stop - rain, shine or snow storm!).   I happened to have my camera and was feeding our llama when I saw this view.   Even though it was storming it looked so neat!    We agree!

DID YOU KNOW?     Birch Bay Ranch is a nonprofit organization.    Drive 45 minutes south and east of Edmonton and you’ll find 104 acres of wooded lakefront property.    In 1966 the land was donated to Central Pentecostal Tabernacle as a church playground and a camp for kids and was only open in the summer.    Today it is a year-round retreat centre for kids of a-l-l ages!

http://www.birchbayranch.com/

GET THE JOB DONE – AND THEN GET THE ACCOLADES YOU DESERVE.    CAMERA-CAPTURE A FRESH AIR PHOTO, SEND IT TO US AND EXPECT TO BE PAID IN COMPLIMENTS WITH YOUR VERY OWN SPOT ON TV AND THIS BLOG.

Mexico ~ magnifico!

The lightest of ocean breezes cooled the evening as Karrie watched the setting sun in Mazatlan.  “I’ve had the opportunity to travel quite a bit and I have to admit, Mazatlan has the best sunsets I’ve seen.   At the end of January while friends and family were scraping windshields, we were applying sunscreen in 30 degree temperatures - and loving it!  Our ‘home’ was the 4 Star El Cid Castilla Beach Resort.   It’s the locals who make the difference – we were treated like royalty!”.

DID YOU KNOW?    Mazatlán has a Malecón – a promenade where you can find shops, hotels, nightclubs, street vendors, old buildings, monuments – cliffs and of course the beach.    It is almost 21 kilometres long.    To find out how you can shop and stop for lunch at the street cafe below, click here:     http://www.summerlandtravel.net

Rockin' Robins

When they aren’t happily hopping across the lawn, they are assembled in trees looking for dinner.    Bruce heard the birds in song and when he looked was rewarded with a sea of red-breasted Robins!    “The Mountain Ash attracts all the berry loving birds including robins - especially this time of year (when worms are scarce LOL!)   These are my first robins of the year.   We had a mild winter in Grande Prairie with less snow than in recent years, but enough to keep the shovels busy”.    Aren’t robins one of the first signs of spring?    They sure are.    The males arrive about a week before the females, and when the females fly in, they immediately begin building the nest.

DID YOU KNOW?    You have most likely seen a robin cocking its head to the side toward the ground.    It “looks” like he’s listening for the worms crawling under the ground, but really he’s watching the ground for the tiny movements that would indicate a worm is moving close to the surface.     After mother robin has created an architectural masterpiece made of mud, grass and twigs – she’ll lay 3 or 4 blue eggs.    It takes about 2 weeks for the eggs to hatch, and then after another 15 days – the little ones turn their parents into empty nesters.

FRESH AIR PHOTOS ARE EVERYWHERE, OUT THE BACK DOOR – & DOWN THAT UNBEATEN PATH .    DON’T DELAY, SNAP AND SEND TODAY.

See you LATER ALLIGATOR!

Brent calls his photo “Guardian of the Swamp“:  ”I was just 7 feet away from this alligator in Louisiana three weeks ago!   Henderson Lake is where many weekend fishermen come to catch largemouth bass, white crappie, bluegill and many other species.   While they are fishing, it is not unusual to see alligators swimming next to their boats trying to snag a quick meal.   This was the biggest gator that I saw.   He was a 10 footer trying to warm himself in the morning sun.   The weather was beautiful – about 20 degrees  … but not that warm if you are a cold blooded reptile”.

DID YOU KNOW?    Brent is right on the money.    Alligators are cold blooded and gain body heat by basking in the sun.    A gator’s tail is half the whole body length & is invaluable!    It is used as a weapon, is used to make gator holes (pools of water during the dry seasons), is used as a propellor in the water, and stores fat that the alligator needs during the winter.    An alligator’s uses its jaws and teeth to catch prey and with one snap, can crush through bones or a turtle shell.    But the alligator cannot chew its food – it swallows its prey whole.

GET CLOSE – BUT NOT TOO CLOSE!!!    ONCE YOU HAVE ZOOMED IN, SNAP THAT FRESH AIR PHOTO AND SEND IT TO US.    OPERATORS ARE STANDING BY.

Halong Bay, Vietnam

Gloria reports from Cambodia

If you think the photos are magnificent – read on for Gloria’s amazing adventure!  “I spent  three weeks in Vietnam and Cambodia.   The cities of Hanoi and Saigon (Ho Ch Minh) have prospered and developed into very busy tourist spots.   Halong Bay is one of the newly named Seven Wonders of the World.   We stayed overnight on a Great Junk Boat, had breakfast and coffee on deck floating in the middle of paradise.   We climbed one of the protruding “island mountains” to get this shot.   It was overcast, 39 degrees and humid!   After 11 days it was on to Cambodia which is another beautiful and prospering country filled with tourists.   We spent some time in Phnom Penh – a city influenced by French architecture, and then to Siem Reap, an historical city with many ancient temples.   I am standing in front of Angkor Wat built in the 12th century.   Thank you BT for the microphone!   I definately had fun with it and many, many tourist and locals wanted to use it or just wanted it”.

DID YOU  KNOW?    Ha Long means:  Descending Dragon in Vietnamese.    In the bay there are more than 3,000 limestone islands, and each has thick jungle vegetation.    Several of the islands are hollow, with enormous caves.    In 1994 Halong Bay was designated a UNESCO World Heritage site.

WE KNOW WE CAN’ T GO WITH YOU ON YOUR VACAY … BUT PLEASE THINK OF US WHILE YOU ARE ON YOUR TOURISTY TREK.    UPLOAD YOUR PHOTO TODAY, SEE IT ON BT AND THIS BLOG TOMORROW!

Friday the 13th Fright Night

“Smile you’re on candid camera!”    We see the white-tailed deer clear enough — but WHAT .. or WHO is behind?    Spooky.    Murray is the photographer .. sort of:  “The trail camera is located just east of Ponoka on our 60+ acre wildlife preserve.   The image was taken one early morning in the fall.   We have noticed that the deer population in our area is way down from other years, but we have not found any carcasses.    What we do know is there have been cougar sightings in the immediate area”.

DID YOU KNOW?    The deer in the photo is a white-tail.    It is easy to see that there is one main beam with additional antlers growing out of it.    And I can almost see a flash of white on its raised tail.    When startled, this deer can jump 3 metres high and about 9 meters long(that’s almost as long as a school bus).    And they can run - reaching speeds of up to 58 k/hr.

AS YOU CAN SEE FRESH AIR PHOTOS CAN HAPPEN AT ANY TIME.   SECURE YOURSELF A PICTURE AND SECURE YOUR SPOT IN BT AND BLOG HISTORY.    UPLOAD YOUR PHOTO TODAY!

Record Breaking conditions are waiting!

CLICK HERE FOR THE MADNESS!   http://www.jasper.travel/madness

At the beginning of Marmot’s ski season, Mother Nature – as if on cue – blessed the peaks with pretty white snow.    And then she followed it up one snow storm after another.    By March the folks at Marmot were looking for new ways to measure snow!    First they were shouting from the snow-laden  tree tops about the 90 cms of fresh powder that had fallen in one week alone.    Then they started talking about an old record from the 1960s that just ‘might’ be broken .. and it was!    That old record is buried under more than 550cms (16 feet) of snow … with more on the way.

So make ’your’ way to Marmot and take advantage of unbelievable deals on the hill and in town.    There are so many deals – I wonder if someone has made a mistake.    Offers range from 50% off full day riding with ‘any’ ski area pass to riding FREE for the rest of the season when you buy a new Season’s Pass.    See you there!

Something for EVERYBODY

Imagine yourself HERE

Welcome to Jasper National Park.    Marilyn stood with the sun on her face – enjoying a pretty spectacular view:  “One of my most favourite photos from Spirit Island at Maligne Lake, September of 2011″.    Even if you have never been to this particular spot, you have most likely seen it on a postcard.    It is said to be the most famous photograph of the Rocky Mountains.    Drive 48 kms from the town of Jasper, and take the 90 minute cruise called “best boat tour in Canada”.

DID YOU KNOW?    Maligne Lake was well known to the First Nations People in the area, including Samson Beaver who knew it as Chaba Imne (Beaver Lake).    He drew the first map of the lake and showed the route to an American woman Mary Schaffer in 1907.    A year later, Samson Beaver made it possible for Mary Schaffer, Mary Adams and guides Billy Warren & Sid Unwin, to reach the lake from Lake Louise.    When Mary and her crew arrived at the lake, they nicknamed their raft HMS Chaba and explored the unimaginable beauty.    About 5 years later in 1911 Mary Schaffer came back and named several of the mountains and peaks .. one in honour of Samson and one in honour of his wife Leah.

http://www.malignelake.com/act_cruise.html

Maligne Lake, as well as Maligne River, Maligne Mountain, and Maligne Pass, takes its name from the French word for malignant or wicked.    The name was used by a man of the cloth Father Pierre-Jean De Smet.    He spent time in the area in the late 18hundreds and used the word to describe the turbulent river that flows from the lake (in the spring), – the description soon spread to the lake, canyon, pass, mountain and range.

TAKE ONLY PICTURES – LEAVE ONLY FOOTPRINTS.    CAPTURE A KOKAK MOMENT OF MOTHER NATURE OR HER CREATURES AND BECOME A FRESH AIR PHOTOGRAPHER TODAY!

Bambi is that you?

Keven has a wooded retreat near Fork Lake and lucky for us, has camera captured many an adorable critter:  “One early September morn.   This little sweetheart likes the open space in front of our cabin.   Mother deer wasn’t as brave and left the clearing when I came outside, but I was standing no more than 25 metres away from this fawn and she kept coming back to eat the clover.   I’m proud of the fact that deer up by Fork Lake seem to recognize they are safe around me and my place”.

DID YOU KNOW?    Newborn fawns have almost no body odor and their reddish brown coat with white spots makes them virtually invisible to predators.    Late September/early October they will lose their spots and mom will nudge them out of seclusion.    By the end of November they’ll have their brand new winter coat.

Fork Lake fawn

BE AT ONE WITH NATURE AND BE OUR NEXT FRESH AIR PHOTOGRAPHER.    UPLOAD YOUR PHOTO TODAY – SEE IT ON BT AND THIS BLOG TOMORROW!

Calm after the storm

George is behind the camera:  My wife Danica and I took the kids skiing to Marmot for Spring Break.   On the way to Jasper through Edson & Hinton the snow was falling and flying with a vengence.    We were forced to wait out the whiteout conditions but ‘this’ beauty shot’ and the powder on the hill were our reward.

DID YOU KNOW?    When there are whiteout conditions there is no visible horizon or shadows because the white cloud layer appears to merge with the white snow surface.    A Blizzard Warning is issued when:  winds of 40 km or greater are expected to cause widespread reductions in visibility to 400 metres or less.    These conditions must be sustained for at least 4 hours with blowing snow, or blowing snow in combination with falling snow.

BE CAREFUL WHILE YOU ARE OUT AND ABOUT – WE WANT TO MAKE SURE OUR FRESH AIR PHOTOGRAPHERS ARE SAFE AND SOUND.    DOCUMENT YOUR JOURNEY AND SHARE IT WITH US TODAY!