"If you want to take pictures, have a long lens"
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Tucked away in northwest Edmonton, hived off by the Henday, the shoreline of a shallow natural lake sprawls eight kilometres at the beating wetland heart of Lois Hole Centennial Park.
Big Lake is bigger than ever this year, thanks to the province chipping in another 238 hectares in January 2024. That’s up from the 1,119 hectares of lake and wetlands designated Big Lake Natural Area in 1999, and Lois Hole Centennial Provincial Park (LHCPP), formed by the province in 2005 in honour of the late lieutenant-governor of Alberta.
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At-risk birds that hang out among the 235 species spotted at Big Lake include Sprague’s pipits, trumpeter and tundra swans, and peregrine falcons.
Among the pelicans, great blue herons, lesser yellowlegs and loons, the world-travelling Franklin’s gulls flock in annually by the thousands from Peru and Chile to create floating nests anchored in vegetation flourishing in the shallows.
A small mammalian universe, Big Lake hosts an impressive array from the large — lumbering moose — to the small — 13-striped ground squirrel.
Others in the marshy habitat range from white-tailed deer and beaver to red fox, snowshoe hare or the shy, fierce wolverine.
Coyotes can be seen frolicking there from nearby Ray Gibbon Drive, which is too often bloodied by moose strikes.
Realism of details
Big Lake is also the artistic home to prize-winning St. Albert photographer and artist Memory Roth, whose misty-tinged and grippingly detailed wildlife paintings are known for capturing infinite details in realism, like the sunset’s glow on a moose’s beard.
In 2006, a friend invited her to do an art class, and Roth found her niche in painting — oils, not acrylic, as she prefers the longer window for blending.
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Before he died, her husband urged her to pursue her artistic talents.
“I wasn’t sure if I would, but I did a series, and it just kind of grew up,” Roth said.
That led to recognition — awards and publications — particularly after she joined the Federation of Canadian Artists.
Roth recalled needing to find something new to do on quiet evenings.
A photographer friend introduced her to Big Lake, where she looks to capture the beautiful and the unusual — first with photo images, then with brushstrokes. Like the bristly bulk of “Porky,” the resident porcupine, perched up a tree like some prickly, oversized bird.
Her favourite Big Lake denizen? The ruddy duck, also known as Oxyura jamaicensis, is a smaller, stiff-tailed charmer with his own modus operandi for impressing females during mating season. His grey bill turns bright turquoise and he flirts aquatically.
“The male makes bubbles just below his chest to impress women,” Roth said.
Big lake, old origins
Just four metres deep, Big Lake is part of the Sturgeon River chain that leads from Hoople Lake to the North Saskatchewan River.
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One of just three bird’s-foot deltas in Alberta, with long channels that branch outward like a bird’s foot, it’s numbered by Alberta Fish and Wildlife among the 20 most important habitat areas in the province.
Nomadic people’s sites as well as recovered stone tools and weapons show the lake was a prehistoric centre, perched on the sands and gravels of the glacier-born Empress Formation, an aquifer 100 feet below its surface.
The Big Lake Environment Support Society (BLESS) welcomed news of the lake’s growth.
“These additional lands will now be environmentally protected and only used for nature-based activities compatible with the conservation of this important wetland and bird habitat,” said Kevin Aschim, BLESS vice-president, in a media release.
The addition included a 90-acre parcel north of 137 Avenue and a parcel southwest of the intersection at Ray Gibbon Drive and LeClair Way. A parcel in the northwest corner of Edmonton’s Starling neighbourhood was also set aside for LHCPP.
A proposed realignment of nearby roadways is expected to protect the natural area.
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Take pictures, protect the wild
Memory Roth recalls a surprise encounter with a 1,200-pound male moose on the trail at Big Lake.
“I thought, ‘What do I do? Do I run? Do I lie down? What do I do?’” she said.
Another woman called out, “Are you OK?” and distracted the moose.
But then Roth responded “I’m OK, as long as he’s OK,” and he fixed his ire back on her. Then, thanks to the distraction from other hikers, she evaded a closer, more dangerous encounter.
She applies lessons learned about respecting the hulking herbivore that’s not an uncommon sight on the trails of Big Lake or the nearby Grey Nuns White Spruce Park, where she sometimes wanders for inspiration, with its four kilometres of trails, boardwalks, picnic shelters and viewpoints.
In a panic during mating or calving seasons, a stressed moose can build speeds to 60 kilometres per hour.
“You stay far away. If you want to take pictures, have a long lens,” Roth said.
“If you see they look agitated — the hair on the back of their neck and on their backs will start to stand up — or if they start snorting, if they start pawing, if they urinate, if they flatten their ears, it’s almost too late.
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“You have to respect the wildlife that you see, respect the boundaries that you need to keep, and if you get a great shot in those boundaries, great.”
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2024-06-23 23:13:35Z
CBMiZWh0dHBzOi8vZWRtb250b25qb3VybmFsLmNvbS9uZXdzL2xvY2FsLW5ld3MvZWRtb250b24tYmlnLWxha2Utd2lsZGxpZmUtcGhvdG9ncmFwaHktYXJ0aXN0LW1lbW9yeS1yb3Ro0gEA
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