Gold Bar creek named after treasure at its mouth
This creek lies east of the Gold Bar Wastewater Treatment Plant, with the City of Edmonton owning land on the west side and Imperial Oil owning the land on the other side. The creek itself falls under provincial administration and flows into the North Saskatchewan River.
The creek received its name for the gravel bars at the mouth where early miners used to pan for gold. Today one can still find prospectors on weekends panning for gold and teaching others the secrets of prospecting down at Gold Bar Creek. Doug Winkleman is one of these folks.
Gold isn’t the only treasure you’ll find along the river. Garnets, rubies and opals can turn up in your pan. Winkleman has also found petrified coral, small dinosaur bones and ancient arrowheads. One of the neatest things he has seen was a huge piece of petrified wood a student found. “In the centre was a piece of amber. He had it appraised and it’s worth $1,000.” Read more at https://www.avenueedmonton.com/avenue-edmonton-june-2014/golden-eyes/
Voles your underground friend or pest
A lot goes on under the winter snow. If you’ve noticed long, meandering lines that look like giant worms have crawled and chewed their way across your lawn, it’s a good bet that voles have been having a party down there.
Voles are compact and stocky with short legs and a short tail. They’re the darkest coloured varmint and more closely related to muskrats than mice. Short-lived, monogamous and surprisingly prolific under their thick snowy blankets, voles inflict their damage at ground level or below. They construct elaborate tunnel systems, chewing their way through roots as they go.
Voles are also a benefit to our environment. Their nutrient rich fecal pellets are widely dispersed through their habitats to the great benefit of new and growing vegetation. They also accelerate the dispersal of vital mycorrhizal fungi and thus influence the survival and growth rates of many important species of trees
If they are a pest in your yard, note that like all rodents they hate capsicum, the ingredient in hot peppers that gives them spice. Blend some of the hottest peppers you can find with some onions and drip the mixture into every vole hole you can find. Learn more at Voles 101 https://www.salisburygreenhouse.com/voles-101/
Edmonton’s first organized sport becoming popular again
Next to Victoria Golf Course, you’ll find the Victoria Cricket Club. Cricket was Edmonton’s first officially organized sport after the founding of Fort Edmonton. The original cricket ground was near Jasper Avenue and 103 Street. That’s where the Edmonton Cricket Club formed in 1882.
The Edmonton and Strathcona cricket clubs have been in operation since the 1880s. The Edmonton and District Cricket League traces its founding to 1901. And the Hudson’s Bay Company river flats were host to games as early as 1912. The walls of the Victoria clubhouse proudly display the history of cricket in Edmonton.
But the story isn’t over. Cricket’s popularity has surged in recent years as Edmontonians with origins from Pakistan, India, South Africa and the Caribbean share their love of the sport. The ancient sport has become one of Edmonton’s newest passions once again. Learn more at https://www.edmontoncommonwealthwalkway.com/storyline/history/61
Listening to birdsong may help scientists conserve at-risk species
New research from an Edmonton-based wildlife biologist suggests much can be learned about at-risk songbirds by listening to the rate of their songs. Birds' song rates, or the number of songs they sing in a given time period, change throughout their breeding season and researchers from the University of Alberta found they could predict breeding status by analyzing those song rates.
Their findings offer a new way to monitor at-risk birds that could potentially aid future conservation efforts. Determining breeding status by monitoring nests is expensive and challenging, like finding a needle in a haystack, according to wildlife biologist and lead author Emily Upham-Mills.
"If we can just listen to a bird and determine its status, then we can take that information and expand across the landscape and look at habitats where there are lots of birds that are successful at breeding," she said. Learn more at https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmonton/how-listening-to-birdsong-may-help-scientists-conserve-at-risk-species-1.5472046
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Sincerely yours,
Harvey Voogd
North Saskatchewan River Valley Conservation Society
780.691.1712
nsrivervalley@gmail.com
https://www.facebook.com/NSRVCS/
http://www.edmontonrivervalley.org/