Moving west, as a lifetime easterner, brings new awareness about many things. One of those things is wildlife.

I’m not really a guy that’s into wildlife biology to much, despite the ecological background. Yet it’s strange and interesting to me how one becomes so familiar with local wildlife to the point of not even noticing it. In Toronto, it is not uncommon to see birds like Blue Jays, Cardinals and Robins in the spring. Raccoons are starting to come out and find their way into garbage cans. And there are squirrels everywhere.

In this part of Alberta, I’ve noticed a number of creatures that I’m not used to seeing – such as the white-tailed jack rabbit. Apparently, according to the folks who know these sorts of things, this lagomorph is a hare with longer ears and hind legs than those of a cottontail rabbit. They are a good enough size – somewhere between a chicken and a turkey – that you can see why some people would eat them. And they are all over the place as the spring arrives. I was riding my bike the other day and I had to swerve to avoid hitting one that streaked onto the path. In the winter, their fur turns completely white except for the tips of their ears. How strange it was to see a white rabbit hopping around on a snow covered street in February. I just figured all these mammals hibernated all winter.

The other unfamiliar species is the Black-billed Magpie – a black and white bird with a lovely blue wing and tail feather, member of the crow family, whose tail makes up more than half its length. Again, these birds are everywhere I look, to the point that I notice them. (I even blog about them – that’s how much a notice them.)

So…my message here is a subtle one. There is newness all around when you move to a new place – not just in the human worlds we inhabit, but in the wild worlds we share with the creatures. It’s worth noticing.