Birbs of Saskatchetoon - the Sketchbook Volume One

I created my first tiktok video. 

@tim.in.saskatoon Birbs of Saskatchetoon Sketchbook 2022 Volume One #birbsofsaskatchetoon #birdart #birdartist #yxeartist ♬ original sound - tim.in.saskatoon

If the embed isn't working, you'll just have to follow this link... 

Birds of Saskatchetoon 2022 Sketchbook

I started this project at the beginning of this year. The idea was to draw or paint a pictures of every new bird species I saw this year. Kind of like a visual bird list.

The main idea was to give myself a challenge; to do something new and keep making art without having to put a lot of thought into it. I just had to draw the next bird that I saw. Honestly very little thought was put into it beyond that and that I was going to do it all in this one book. So things are a bit all over the place.

I have been posting the individual pictures created across a few social media platforms, as I created them. Now that I’ve finished filling the first sketchbook, I thought I’d share a video of it so people who can’t just come over to my place and have a look at it could see what it all looks like together. 

It’s been a bit anxiety causing doing it all in one book. If they were done one individual pages, if I fucked something up I could just throw it away, do another one. If I got something horribly horribly wrong and someone pointed it out on the internet, posts could be deleted. Hard to do any of those things when it’s all bound in a book together… 

Hey if anyone else is on tiktok, please share or send me a link to a video or profile so I can find you there. 

Birbs of Saskatchetoon - Wilson's Phalarope

One last bird I spotted on my travels in and around the Northeast Swale, on Saturday, 28 May 2022 - Wilson’s Phalarope. 

Now, I WAS carrying “The Good Camera”, but the battery died… (last time I will make THAT mistake! Well… probably not… buuuuuut…) Luckily I was still carrying my little pocket camera (so, technically, I was carrying THREE cameras that day; pocket camera, The Good Camera, and the one on my phone) because I was still just “trying out” The Good Camera and was able to take a few not-terrible pics of this new bird paddling around in circles the pond. Between that and a quick stretch and notes I made after looking at it with The Good Binoculars, Amanda and I were able to figure out what it was, when I got home; a FEMALE Wilson’s Phalarope!? 

Wilson's Phalerope in the Birbs of Saskatchetoon 2022 Sketchbook (Volume One) 

It also happens to be the LAST ONE going into this first volume of the Birbs of Saskatchetoon 2022 Sketchbook! Yay! 

odd little thing out on the water. 

Just kind of zooming around in circles and munching on stuff. 

clearly smaller than the ducks around it. 

The little sketches I made in my field book

Birbs of Saskatchetoon - American Wigeon

I kind of spotted the American Wigeon by accident. I think I was trying to take some better pictures of Gadwalls with The Good Camera - something better than the ones I first took with my pocket camera. When I got home and was looking at them, I was, like; “who is THIS that was paddling around amongst the other ducks!?” It took some looking, but eventually Amanda and I were able to figure out who this was! 

Later, I ended up with another bunch of pictures of Wigeons. But, again, they were photobombing pictures I was trying to take of Pelicans and others out on the island in the river!? 

American Wigeon in the Birbs of Saskatchetoon 2022 Sketchbook (Volume One!) 

That first America Wigeon I spotted. 

Photobombing American Wigeon amongst the Pelicans and Cormorant. 

I'm totally going to just remember these as the ones that photobomb pictures of other birds. Look at it just parading through my shot!? 

OMG! MORE of them!? Fucking Attention Hogging Divas!? 

(I am, of course, just being silly. They are lovely birds. I just find it funny that BOTH times I happened to take pictures of them, it was purely by accident!? ) 

Birbs of Saskatchetoon - Clay-Coloured Sparrow

After returning home, picking up Finnegan's lunch and riding all the way back to give it to him at work, I returned to my ride. I took a slightly different route along some pathways I'd never ridden down and spotted a few tiny birds flitting about the low brush and trees. On actually sat still long enough for me to get a good look (and a few pics!). Checking our reference books on my return to home later, We (that is, Amanda and I) figured it was a Clay-Cloloured Sparrow! 

Clay-Coloured Sparrow in the Birbs of Saskatchetoon 2022 Sketchbook (Volume One!) 

I feel like I’m kind of rushing with these... partly because I'm feeling way behind (spotted this nearly a MONTH ago!?). Partly it’s because I just want to finish this sketchbook I’m doing them in and start a new one - two more after this and the first book is FILLED!

This ended up a tad darker than I'd planned... and legs kind of look like they are at a funny angle... but, whatevs... it's done, I’m moving on.

Can you see it...? 

Take a really close look! 

Flitted off to another location - at least this time there were not so many leaves in the way! 

There it is! 

Tiny little thing! 

I think it's spotted me, better get a few more quick shots before it takes off!? 

Also finished up the American Wigeon last night, so I'll probably get to posting that later today. 

Then I've got ONE MORE PAGE in this book (which will be Wilson's Phalerope!) and then Volume One is DONE! 

Birbs of Saskatchetoon - American Avocet

 On Saturday, 28 May 2022, Finnegan had to travel to a remote location for "training" at a different library branch. It was at the one that is probably furthest from us and he had to be there at the regular time (which is really, REALLY early for him) and I was going to go for a bike ride anyway, so I thought I'd ride with him, to show him how to get there on a relatively car-free route (there are actually multi-use trails that we were able to ride and the only interaction we had with motor vehicle traffic was crossing a few streets. 

after stopping by the library, I kept going north, through the Northeast Swale and checked out a few wetlands looking for birds! At the first I stopped at I realized Amanda had been sending me panicked messages that Finnegan had forgotten his lunch!? - so I had to ride all the way back home, grab his lunch, and ride all the way back to the library - and got there just in time for lunch! 

(Okay, I didn't HAVE to. I could have just said "welp, he'll learn not to forget it in the future!" or whatever... but I'm just not that sort of person... my plan was to do some riding, and riding I did!) 

On my way home, though, I was passing by one of the smaller wetlands that usually doesn't have much in it, when something caught my eye! Stopping to have a better look I noticed an American Avocet! (and then another!)

this was the first day I was carrying the good camera, so I actually got some pretty decent shots of it. 

Also, because I am getting very far behind on these, I have since seen a few more American Avocets... and took pictures of those... too many to really share here... but I've included a few. 

American Avocet in the Birbs of Saskatchetoon 2022 Sketchbook (Volume 1) 

this is the first one I saw. 

Then I noticed they had a friend. 

They are lovely birds. 

And this new (to me) camera!? 

Next one I saw was in another wetland not so far from the first, a week later. 

Just wading around doing avocet things. 

I've seen a few others at others at other wetlands since. 

I often stop at the top of Chief Mistawasis Bridge, while out on my bike rides, and have a really good look at that western shore, as I've spotted Herons down there in the past... and what did I see the other week...? Waaaaaaay down there by the shore....? 

Zooming in.... can you see it yet? 

Zooming some more! There it is! 

Not a Heron - another American Avocet!? 

Three more pics to fill up the Birbs of Saskatchetoon 2022 Sketchbook (Volume One!) 

None of them will be herons. 

Birbs of Saskatchetoon - Grey Catbird

While chasing a Yellow Warbler around Riverlanding to get a good shot of it, Amanda and I heard and then spotted this chirpy-chatty bird hiding in a tree. Neither of us were entirely sure what it was, but we both took pictures and later figured out we'd been looking at a Grey Catbird. 

Grey Catbird in the Birbs of Saskatchetoon Sketchbook

this was the best picture I could get - though I did get a better look at it through the binoculars. 

Completely didn't notice these girls while I was taking the picture, who seem to have noticed me and were probably wondering why this weird, pervy old dude was taking pictures of them!? 

These are the pics Amanda took with the better camera... 

Elusive little bird. 

I spotted another a few days later - well I HEARD it first and then spotted in on top of a tree, but as soon as I stopped to get the camera out, in hopped down amongst the branches where I totally couldn't see it. I could still hear it chirping away, tough! 

The Birbs of Saskatchetoon 2022 (volume 1!?) is nearly filled. I have four more pages to draw/paint in and those will include the American Avocet, Clay-Coloured , American Wigeon, and Wilson’s Phalarope. There are another dozen or so birds I've spotted that need to get drawn/painted! I'm going to switch things up for Birbs of Saskatchetoon 2022 Volume 2 and use a larger book for the next batch. 

I've also already thinking ahead to next year!? Will I do a Birbs of Saskatchetoon 2023!? I don't know. One idea I had was to do a DAILY sketch diary of things I saw - which could include birds and other critters and/or plants or other stuff I've noted in my ramblings...? We shall see. It's a way off... 

.

Birbs of Saskatchetoon - Eastern Kingbird

Thursday, 26 May 2022, I went for a ride south of town out Strathcona Avenue/Range Road 3055. Turned East through Casa Rio and then south again to the north edge of CFD Dundurn and past the village of East Beaver Creek. Just after turning back north on Range Road 3055 to make my way back into town I spotted a bird up on a power or phone cable that I initially mistook for a Swallow - of which there were many along the route - then realized I was looking at something else - the first Eastern Kingbird I saw this year! 

Eastern Kingbird in the Birbs of Saskatchetoon Sketchbook. 

Kingbird is an interesting name... looks more like a hooded bandit... or an executioner!? 

Who is that up there...?

(this is that first one I saw) 

Why it's an Eastern Kingbird!

The nest ride out of town I saw two or three. 

Thereafter, I've been seeing them EVERYWHERE!? 

Dried up section of the Chappell Marsh Conservation Area.

Birbs of Saskatchetoon - Barn Swallow

 In addition to the Yellow Warbler and all the usual suspect waterfowl, there were SWARMS of Swallows zipping and diving to and fro scooping swaths of mosquitos from the air. Among them were definitely some Barn Swallows that I hadn't yet seen this year. 

Barn Swallow in the Birbs of Saskatchetoon Sketchbook

It was incredibly hard to get a picture of them as they never stop moving!? With Tree Swallows, all you need to do is find a nesting box - of which there are MANY around the marsh and lining fields... Barn Swallows, not-so-much. Unless you have (or have access to) a rural property with buildings that they might build their nests in... 

Some kind of swallow we saw that day... may not be a Barn Swallow

Same. 

Birbs of Saskatchetoon - Yellow Warbler

 The day after I went for the ride with Keiran and saw the Vultures and Osprey and Purple Martins, Amanda and I went for a ride on the tandem out to the Chappell Marsh Conservation Area. 

Amanda brought the fancy new camera we bought for Finnegan to use for his Photography class last term. She's been hounding me to take it with me as it is... well.. new and fancy. I do like the handiness of my little camera that fits in my pocket and can be deployed in seconds and... takes reasonably good photos - good enough that you can sometimes recognize what I was trying to take a picture of... it certainly zooms better than the phone camera! 

I feel like she kind of brought it along to SHOW ME how much better it is. And... she's... not wrong... 

Anyway, as we arrived Amanda said she saw a Yellow Warbler in a bush! She'd been saying she thought she saw one or heard one for a few weeks it feels like, and we stopped and had a good look and sure enough there was a faint yellow smudge of colour deep inside a bush. 

Try as I might to get a better angle, it remained noting more than a yellow smudge.. AND it kept moving around so I could never really get a good look at it. Then it flew out of the bush and across the roads off to some distant trees... but, in that moment, I caught a glimpse of it AND I actually, by sheer luck, happened to capture it in my little camera. 

Since then I've seen a few more. Once when I was riding again with Amanda a few days later. Also another time when I was on my own, but had the good camera with me... it's a little more cumbersome and doesn't just fit in my pocket... and can't be whipped out quite so quickly... but it DOES take MUCH BETTER pictures.... so... 

Chappel Marsh. Can you see the Yellow Warbler? It's in there somewhere... maybe...? 

Shooting across the road. Sometimes I just track a birds movement and click as many pictures as I can, hoping for the best. Most of the time it totally doesn't work... But this time IT DID!!!

A few days later... another yellow smudge deep within a tree... 

Oh, there it is again... 

I was originally going to paint it like this, because it seemed every time I saw one, I couldn't really see it... 

Hey! I got a picture of it's head! Yay! 

These two are the pictures Amanda managed to get with the good camera that same day... 

Not sure why I didn't get a picture of it in the same location with my little camera... maybe I'd given up and was trying to take a picture of something else entirely...?

A few days later I was out for a ride on my own and took the good camera and heard a Warbler and looked around and saw a dash of yellow way up in a tree beside the pathway. 

It was kind enough to stay still long enough for me to zoom in and get a few pictures... 

Fine... I'll just carry the good camera around now.. 

Seems it was a bit gusty up there in the tree. 

Seriously, half the pictures I take are of birds showing me their butts... Or are contorted into soem weird bird yoga mess of feather while it tried to preen itself... most just get edited out... Sometimes I think I could do a whole series of illustrations of birds in NON-SANDARD-BIRD-BOOK-ILLUSTRATION-POSES. Y'know, like they are MOST of the time I'm trying to look at them and spot the key identifying features... 

Oooh, getting a bit windy up their. 

hang on to your toupee! 

I honestly don't remember it being this windy that day..!? 

Talk about having a bad feather day! 

Also saw Barn Swallows and a Song Sparrow out at the Chappell Marsh that day. Hopefully finish those up tomorrow.