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The area I have chosen to observe is the Chinook Rotary Nature Park in Calgary, Alberta. Once a gravel pit, this 40-acre park in the southeast corner of the city was is now part of Fish Creek Provincial Park and contains engineered wetlands that help filter run-off water from surrounding areas before it enters the Bow River.
Chinook Rotary Nature Park (Google Maps)
The park is located along the eastern bank of the Bow River. It is flanked to the east by a steep incline, with a residential neighborhood at the top. The north end of the park runs alongside Highway 22x, while the southern park land continues as natural land beyond park boundaries. The land within the park consists of a combination of flat fields and small rolling hills.
Small pond with green algae visible
The focal point of the park are the 2 man-made ponds, a small one at the north end of the park and a larger one to the south. The ponds are connected by a narrow straight, however their waters are separated from each other by a small dam-like structure. There is a walking path around both ponds, and a small bridge across the connecting point of the two water bodies. The majority of land within the park is covered by long grasses with patches of small shrubs. There are deciduous trees, in both small groups and individually, found intermittently around the park as well.
I first visited this site today, June 2. The weather was approximately 22 C, the sun was out and there was minimal cloud cover. The air had a smokey haze due to wild fires north of Edmonton. I noted that there wasn’t heavy human presence in the park, with only 2 small groups seen during my observations.
Three questions that came to mind while I was in the park:
- I noted that the smaller pond had more green algae on its surface compared to the larger pond. I wondered if this was because the small pond was closer to the highway, and would therefore get more run-off from the roads in the winter, potentially changing the water quality in some way? Alternatively, I thought perhaps this pond water was more stagnant than the bigger pond, which could be favorable for this type of growth.
- I noted a lot more birds, both in density and number of different species, present in the larger pond. What is it about the larger pond that is more desirable to these birds?
- I noticed small minnow-sized fish in the deeper waters of the large pond, as viewed from the bridge between the 2 ponds. This being a man-made wetland, I wondered if these were human-introduced species (ie: stocked fish) vs natural fish (perhaps from the nearby Bow River that made their way upstream during high water levels or flooding). Since the larger pond was where all the birds were congregating, I wondered if the smaller pond had fish as well, or could this be a reason they were all drawn to the large pond?
