Another nice sunrise

Another nice sunrise, looking down the 10th hole, on May 21, 2013.

Cormorants

The Double-crested cormorants found in Alberta are all black with some color near their bills.  They eat mainly fish and eels and spend time along the pond edges drying their wings.

Ducks Unlimited

Here is a good shot of a pair of Northern shovellers in the pond on hole 7.

Irrigation repairs

Most of the irrigation repairs are done on dry ground but from time to time we need to venture into the ponds to make a repair.  In this picture John prepares to do some diving to repair a  water line that feeds the self-cleaning lake valve.

American widgeons

Another spring visitor on the golf course is the American widgeon.  I think the Turf blog is starting to resemble Ducks Unlimited.

Buffleheads

Every spring we get a visit from the Bufflehead ducks.  They are the smallest ducks that stop by the golf course on their migration north.

They normally stay around the golf course for a day or so but this spring we got to see them for a week or two.

May storm

So far it has been a very good start to the 2013 golf season at Woodside.  Lots of sunshine, some wind and warm temperatures took care of the April snow and we transitioned into the nightly irrigation cycles.  Within about three weeks our water supply was running low and the rains arrived just in time.  Normally 30 mm is a good amount and the golf course pond system can handle that amount without any problems.  On Thursday May 23 we received just under 30mm, then on Friday the 24th another 45 mm came down and it was still raining on the 25th when the pictures were taken.

 

 

If I could only bottle some of this up and get it back in July and August.