My thoughts go out to all the people who are going through the effects of the horrendous shooting by a 20-year-old young man, at an elementary school in Connecticut, US. Twenty children, between the ages of 5 and 10, were shot and killed along with six adults including the school Principal. He got the guns from his mother's house (she bought them legally - but why did she have them in the first place?), and killed her first before going over to the school. These things are happening more and more often and something - not sure exactly what - needs to be done to try and prevent such massacres from happening. Gun control is so controversial - but the solution seems pretty straight forward to me.

Ice crystals on dead grass, taken at the east end of Fish Creek Park, Hull's Wood area, on 26 November 2012.

Got the first annual Christmas Bird Count today, in Canmore, near Banff. I ended up getting maybe an hour's sleep last night - didn't help that the little spare alarm that I don't normally use, was still set at the time before the time change happened, going off at 3:00 a.m., instead of the still-unearthly hour of 4:00 a.m. Gonna be hard to stay awake this long day! Have a good day, all you birders who will be taking part in a Bird Count somewhere today, though the sadness over the Connecticut shooting leaves a heavy heart.

Later: back home this evening from the first Christmas Bird Count, feeling so tired (after maybe one hour of sleep last night), and feeling as if I have the wrong legs attached to my body, lol! A small group of seven of us travelled a total of 18 km on foot, 8 hours of walking - I think that must include when the group split into two and each half covered one side of the creek, meaning that each one of us actually walked quite a bit less then 18 km. We didn't see anything unusual in Canmore (near Banff), but saw a few specially nice things, including Clark's Nutrackers and 8 European Wild Rabbits (for me). List below, just in case anyone is interested in what we found:

Mallard-191
Common Goldeneye-3
Common Merganser-1 f.
Wilson's Snipe-1
Rock Pigeon-5
Downy Woodpecker-1
Clark's Nutcracker-10
Black-billed Magpie-26
Common Raven-30
Black-capped Chickadee-6
Mountain Chickadee-26
Boreal Chickadee-1
Red-breasted Nuthatch-3
Pine Grosbeak-2 f
White-winged Crossbill-10
Common Redpoll-1
House Sparrow-10