Photographing and Enjoying Alberta’s Nose Hill Park

It’s an abrupt transition, going from the tropics of the Brazilian Atlantic Forest to the sparse plains of Alberta over ten thousand kilometers away, especially when that transition also goes from the Austral summer to the Boreal winter. This transition is one of landscapes, wildlife, and ecology, and it is something I experienced during my recent move from Brazil to Canada. My first introduction to these new and alien facets of existence was Nose Hill Park in Calgary, Alberta.

The Sparse Plains

When it comes to being surrounded by wildlife, my favourite places are the remote locations far away from civilization. For me, they are the most peaceful and tranquil of places. They feel right and provide a tonic from the strangeness of advanced industrial civilization. And although permanently disappearing into such a remote place is my ultimate dream, for now I contend with more urbanized places. City parks provide at least a shadow of the remoteness I crave.

In the past months, my favourite park has become Nose Hill Park in Calgary. Although I was born in Canada, I spent most of my life in Ontario, which has a completely different forested habitat compared to the endless grassland plains of Alberta. Thus, the strangely-named Nose Hill offers new and unexpected adventures. And it’s a big habitat, standing out at 1129 hectares – very large for a city park. Compare that with New York City’s Central Park at 340 hectares.

Nose Hill’s vast, grassy plains are a home for a variety of larger wildlife, flowers, and birds. Though at first glance in the winter, it seemed to me that Nose Hill was devoid of life. Yes, I’m sometimes a little impatient and I want to see the animals right away! But after roaming through the park on multiple occasions, I realized that seeing the wildlife of the park is just a matter of learning the habits of the fauna and spending lots of time just… wandering.

After some visits, I found that it wasn’t so hard to locate the large deer population. A few weeks ago, I approached these graceful animals very carefully, and they didn’t take much notice of me when I sat down opposite to their hilly feeding area.

Of course, birds are closest to my heart, and during the winter, there aren’t too many birds around. The exception is the gregarious Black-billed Magpie. A type of corvid, these Magpies love to hang out in huge groups and fly across the sunset sky against the Rocky Mountains. It’s not always easy to find them here, and some days I see none, but on other days their noisy calling gives them away. Then it’s just a matter of hoping I can catch up to them on the snowy slopes before they fly away. Usually, they fly away first.

A little more reticent are the coyotes. They don’t come around very often, but when they do, they give a definite sense of wildness. I’ve yet to figure out the best place and time to find them, but that’s part of the fun of wildlife photography – each new species is a new challenge.

And more than that. Each new place brings new advantages and new lessons to learn about wildlife photography. In the case of Nose Hill, the winter’s long and slow setting sun is an advantage, giving golden light at a glacial pace. But the sparseness is a lesson that reminds me that beyond gear, beyond traveling to exotic places, the most important thing is just to show up, be there, wait, and repeat again and again.

As for those days when I just don’t get any good shots? It’s not a problem. Nose Hill is so large that I can often go to the center of it and not hear any cars or see any people in any direction. Having a source of solitude so close to a city is a rare privelege and one I enjoy every time. It is exactly this solitude that motivates me to try and capture wildlife in a photograph, so I consider it part of the process.

So, what are my thoughts on Nose Hill? Well, for me, the most interesting thing about exploring a new habitat is discovering a new piece of the biosphere, and seeing how it might be linked to other pieces already experienced. It’s something that’s unique to being outdoors because it informs us not just of some abstract system, but of the natural system that gave us life itself. Nose Hill’s sparse prairie is another piece of that puzzle tucked away in the north, and it is one that I am eager to learn much more about as the winter turns to spring in just a few more weeks.