All trails lead to Dauphin
Swan River to Ethelbert
All trails lead to Dauphin this summer for GC59ZQW Country Legends 2015 (WestCan5). A series of trails has been created to connect some of the main highways in Manitoba that pass thru Dauphin.
This is what you can expect on this trail: The caches are approximately placed 2 to 4 miles apart and are usually no more than 500 feet from the highway. Cache containers are micros and larger. There will be a mix of container types and some will be winter friendly and some won't. For this reason there won't be a winter attribute at all because of snow levels on the sides of the roads in the winter will vary. Some of the caches will require you to walk thru ditches so depending on time of year and water levels rubber boots might be a good idea.
The caches in this trail have been named after birds that were identified in the Dauphin Christmas Bird Count.
White Breasted Nuthatch:
The white-breasted nuthatch (Sitta carolinensis) is a small songbird of the nuthatch family which breeds in old-growth woodland across much of temperate North America. It is a stocky bird, with a large head, short tail, powerful bill, and strong feet. The upperparts are pale blue-gray, and the face and underparts are white. It has a black cap and a chestnut lower belly. The nine subspecies differ mainly in the color of the body plumage.
Like other nuthatches, the white-breasted nuthatch forages for insects on trunks and branches, and is able to move head-first down trees. Seeds form a substantial part of its winter diet, as do acorns and hickory nuts that were stored by the bird in the fall. The nest is in a hole in a tree, and the breeding pair may smear insects around the entrance as a deterrent to squirrels. Adults and young may be killed by hawks, owls, and snakes, and forest clearance may lead to local habitat loss, but this is a common species with no major conservation concerns over most of its range.
