A walk through the prairies with Jared Clarke (Podcast)
Aerial view of Fairy Hill South, Saskatchewan (Photo by Shaylee Booty Sebastian)
After work on April 25, I went out with Jared Clarke from The Prairie Naturalist radio show (CJTR community radio) to Nature Conservancy of Canada’s (NCC's) Fairy Hill property. Our conversation starts after we’ve walked down the hill a short distance and into a small meadow, escaping the noise of the highway. We walked through the property and looked for birds and early blooming wildflowers and we were not disappointed!
Prairie crocus (Photo by Sarah Ludlow/NCC staff)
We saw seven species of birds while walking, plus nine more after we finished recording. We also found a large patch of blooming prairie crocus. This was a great opportunity to promote NCC's upcoming Conservation Volunteers event at Fairy Hill, as well as to introduce NCC to listeners who may have otherwise been unfamiliar with the organization. Overall, it was a nice walk and a great conversation.
Here is my species list for the walk.
Observed while walking:
- Sharp-tailed grouse
- Turkey vulture
- Ring-billed gull
- American crow
- Common raven
- American robin
- Black-capped chickadee
Observed after:
- American wigeon
- Mallard
- Blue-winged teal
- Northern shoveler
- Northern pintail
- Northern harrier
- Killdeer
- Red-winged blackbird
- Western meadowlark
Hear the podcast here >
(Interview starts at 7 minutes and 23 seconds into the show)
About the Author
Sarah Ludlow is a former conservation science coordinator-GIS with the Nature Conservancy of Canada in Saskatchewan.
