Walking the Land
By Pam Asheton
For the first time in five years my red-tailed hawks haven’t nested across the creek, replaced instead by two stunningly powerful ravens and a pair of nesting Swainson’s. I have missed those distinctive hunting screams as part of past summer memories. Red-tails are, though, beginning to gather these hot afternoons along the exposed limestone hilltop slabs atop Horse Creek’s winding road, a significant indication of their migratory journey southwards. Last Sunday, an incredible 14 were circling above the exposed slabs of rimrock, feathering the thermals.
Swainsons have definitely been more numerous this year than in previous years. Dropping in at the annual picnic enjoyed by organizers and volunteers of the Rocky Mountain Eagle Research Foundation at the historic Perrenoud Ranche on Weedon Trail last weekend, I found out why. Eight to 10 years ago these hawks’ wintering grounds in Argentina were bombarded with DDT spray, and their population dropped dramatically. (DDT reduces fertility and also softens the egg shells so dramatically as to be transparent).
Alternative methods of controlling mosquitoes and grasshoppers (their favourite food), were negotiated and their breeding numbers have popped right back up again — something that happened about 7,000 miles away is noticeable right here around Cochrane.
Organizer of the Perrenoud Ranche event Peter Sherrington, and his birders, brought binoculars, waterproof notebooks and pencils. They may count eagles but they’re also birders.
On this hot, perfect afternoon they noticed the little slough to the back of the property, notebooks came out and you could hear mutters of, “Coots, of course, and did you see (some obscure name) finch?”
Those aerobatic miracles, barn swallows, dipped and dived, and I learned that worldwide their population is dwindling too, fewer insects apparently in the air these days.
Peter recently received a wonderful accolade by his peers in the form of an Emerald Award for “institutional and organizational leadership. Shortly, he’ll be collecting another of real merit, the Dr. J.D. Soper Award, awarded by the Alberta Society of Professional Biologists, for his ornithology and migration authority.
He tried very hard to look suitably modest while passing along this information, but I know how hard he has worked, how his wife Barbara has supported every inch of the way despite four long-term individual bouts of cancer, and their gratitude to pipeline company Enbridge for sponsoring research last year (a contract not renewed despite stunning publicity through full-page advertisements, particularly noticeable in Canadian Geographic).
It is the Sherringtons’ dedication to long-term studies that will, in the end, provide priceless research for future generations of eagle migrations that began, incredibly, more than 11,000 years ago.
One of the ranch’s original log buildings at the back of the property is still well intact. One member peered through a glassless window frame and remarked on the chimney of original yellow bricks from the foundry that would have been close to where the Highway 1A restaurant is located, of which most Cochrane heritage houses were constructed.
The ranch’s first buildings had roof boards covered with sod, and log corrals. This was primarily a horse supplying ranch, for homesteaders and then for the First World War, with Hackneys, German Coach, Clydesdales and Shires). The French-born Charles Perrenoud (who had trained as a diamond cutter in London) and his wife Ellisa had three children: George, Emma and Agnes.
The family was artistic and the present curator, Stan Phelps, likes to think they would approve of the two-storey farmhouse’s exhibitions over the last four years. (The building is owned by the province and leased by the Cochrane and Heritage Association).
The spring venture displayed more than 93 works of art, including many of Agnes’s paintings, in the building constructed by carpenters the Chapman brothers in 1910-12. Interestingly, Agnes had received tuition from famed artist Roland Gissing, whose granddaughter showed up to admire the art nearly a century later.
The next exhibition and fall celebration runs from noon to 5 p.m. on Sept. 13-14, and Sept. 20-21. It will feature work from the Foothills, Cochrane and Chinook Art Clubs. There’ll be somewhere around 40 artists and roughly 150 or 200 paintings, and you get to talk to the artists about their techniques and ideas that sparked their work — a neat intimacy that personalizes purchases.
Stan, a resident there who tends to work outdoors, first with fast drying acrylics and then into oils, is a natural host. He’s encouraged Grade 4 students from more than 27 Rocky View schools to attend this year, attracted 100 works displayed upstairs, while downstairs he explained the Perrenoud and Hutchinson family photographs framed up along the pine walls. Ice cream served atop the original stove was very popular indeed.
This year’s fall exhibition will have every artist bringing in a home-baked pie Sept. 13, with local judging and ice-cream and coffee served alongside.
Pam Asheton can be reached at Sunwired@hotmail.com.
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