Birbs of Saskatchetoon - Double-Crested Cormorant

Double-Crested Cormorants were back over the weekend! 

Usually the first place I spot them is in a long line, precariously perched along a cable that spans the river between the University Bridge and the weir. 

This year I first spotted the on the mid-river sandbar island among the Canada Geese and Pelicans. It has been rather windy this past week...

From the weir where I first spotted them! 

Scrambled down a muddy back a bit closer to the island... not much better.... 

I did spot a pair a little further on - that were closer- but kept diving every time I got my camera ready... 

probably the closest shot I got. 

A few days later, there were loads more all hanging out with the Pelicans. 

Double-Crested Cormorant in the Birbs of Saskatchewan Sketchbook. 

Got some weird reflection off some of the ink... 

Birbs of Saskatchetoon - American White Pelican

American White Pelicans are an established feature on the river by the weir in downtown Saskatoon all summer long. They can be sometimes be seen on other parts of the river, but you can almost always see them fishing by the weir. 

People around here get really excited around here about when the pelicans are going to return. The Meewasin Valley Authority organizes a contest every year letting people guess the day and hour they will return. There are volunteers from the Nature Society - and often people milling about with cameras for a few weeks in April waiting to capture pictures of the first Pelicans to return to the river by the weir. 

On Tuesday my mother reported to me by text having seen two Pelicans by the weir... I was a little suspicious of this claim. She didn't say if she'd walked down there or if it was while driving by (I'm guessing the latter). Has she seem a couple of big gulls? Was it just snow or ice? Or whitecaps on the river (it WAS a VERY windy day!). When I went out for a ride in the afternoon, I rolled past the weir for a look. 

No pelicans. 

If they HAD been there, I missed them... 

Wednesday, because I'd had an appointment within a few blocks of the weir, I popped by for a look. 

No Pelicans. 

Yes, that is snow. 

On April 20th. 

On Thursday I rolled past again. Most of the snow had melted and I avoided the dirt trails right down by the river because I figured they'd be pretty muddy. There was nothing at the weir, but from the weir... 

I spotted a white dot at the northern tip of the mid river sand-bar-turned-island just south (upstream) of the weir... 

I rode back up the Meewasin Trail and scrambled down the muddy bank to see if I could get a better look.

 Not much better... But with the binoculars, it was pretty clear it was an American White Pelican! 

Then while I was standing there, straining to get a better look at this one pelican huddled on the mid-river island... 

some movement caught my eye and I noted A WHOLE FREAKING FLOCK of fifteen or sixteen of them flew overhead!? 

They wheeled about a few times...

and I thought they might have landed by the weir!?  So I scrambled back up the muddy bank and rushed back to the weir... 

To find only one.... ONE!? 

I also just missed getting my camera out in time to catch it diving for food. It slowly floated down the weir to the other side of the river. 

She probably got better pictures than me... 

When I got to the other side, I noted a second pelican had joined the one on the island. 

There they are. 

It was still pretty windy and brisk - there had been a snowstorm the day before! So the two were huddled up against the wind. 

across the way I noticed a few other watchers - including a guy with a giant camera on a tripod! 

So... Pelicans.... 

American Whitle Pelican in the Birbs of Sasktachetoon Sketchbook. 

Birbs of Saskatchetoon - Western Meadowlark

 Went out for a ride on Monday afternoon, looking for birbs and buds (crocuses). I saw a lot of the usual suspects: gulls, a downy woodpecker, pigeons, crows, and geese (SO MANY GEESE!). Then after I rolled across the Chief Mistawasis Bridge and started rolling back down the other side of the river, I started hearing - and then SPOTTING Western Meadowlarks!

Can you see it? Zoom in. That little dot in the distance atop a tree? Yeah, that's a meadowlark chirping away!

Luckily I remembered to bring out the "BIG GUNZ" so I was able to make out a bit of detail - general shape, yellowish... yep, meadowlark... Too bad I dont' have a CAMERA that can zoom in this much. 

Maybe 200m down the road, i heard and spotted another across the road! (little dot on the bale of hay!) 

There was one around here, but it flew off before I could even got my camera out.  

As did the next one I saw...

The final one I spotted was in a tree right by the side of the road. It DIDN'T just fly off as I approached - at least, not right away. 

I got these couple shots that... well... weren't awful - at least they're not wee dots in the distance. More importantly, it stuck around long enough for me to dig out the binoculars and stuck around long enough for me to get a REALLY GOOD LOOK! I've only ever really seen meadowlarks as dots on distant posts or in trees. Never really carried binoculars with me before this year. So, it was really quite exciting to have a good look at this one! 

Western Meadowlark in the Birbs of Saskatchetoon Sketchbook 

I’m not sure I have the patience for watercolour. Or I’m too much of a slob… Sometimes I think I just need to lean into it and MAKE A MESS… Thinking it will look like Ralph Steadman… but instead, it just ends up looking like… well…  a muddy MESS. Added colours to this too soon and stuff bled into spaces that it really shouldn’t have… ugh.. 

Amanda's Birthday Art Project

 Every April (well... MOST Aprils) the kids and I usually do a little art project and make some sort of drawing or paintings for Amanda's birthday. 

Last year it was birds. 

Another year it was Horses from Greek Myth. 

(apparently I didn't post what we got up to here very often...) 

This year, kids suggested fantastical/mythical beasties... 

Keiran and I worked on ours in the afternoon, together at the kitchen table. 

We took up a lot of space. 

Finnegan was preparing for a D&D game in the afternoon, so he did his later in the evening (luckily Amanda had to stay at work until quite late...) 

Keiran Brown, Gem Collector - 30cm x 30 cm - ink and watercolour on paper 

The story here is that Amanda, in a moment of self-awareness, came home from a Yoga Workshop and told us she realized she was a crap detector and not a gem collector - but she really wanted to be a GEM COLLECTOR. For, REASONS, she had always been a very critical person... and... that's who she is... but she's tried really, REALLY hard to learn to NOT just open her mouth and point out EVERYTHING WRONG with... whatever is before her. It's been a struggle. 

I thought maybe there was a subtle little double entendre going on here - perhaps Keiran was suggesting that Amanda was was still, in fact, a DRAGON, and going about "collecting gems" in totally the wrong way... But Keiran assured me the thought never entered their mind and they just thought DRAGONS ARE COOL AND COLLECT SHINY THINGS! 

Tim Brown - Great Horned Owlbear - 30cm x 30 cm - ink and watercolour on paper 

Finnegan Brown - Merlin-Lynx-Griffon - 30cm x 30 cm - ink and watercolour on paper 

Finnegan wanted to do a different take on a standard classic fantasy griffon and instead of an eagle head and lion body, he wanted to do more local animals and so made his griffon referencing a Merlin's head and wings and a Lynx's body - both critters found around Saskatchewan - we've even had Merlins nesting in our neighbours tree for a few years. 

I'll be sneaking these out after Amanda goes to sleep... not sure if I should replace some existing art work or just leave them on the dining room table for her to discover in the morning. The problem with the former, is Amanda might not even notice them!? Probably just leave them on the table... She can decide where to hang them later. 

(She totally doesn't read this blog, so I feel pretty safe posting stuff here before she's even seen them!) 

Birbs of Saskatchetoon - American Robin

After nearly two weeks of others reporting their first spotting of returning American Robins (and a whole week after I HEARD my first Robin), I finally spotted one in my backyard this past Friday, as I was going to get my bike out for a ride!

American Robin in my back yard. 

Preliminary sketch.

American Robin in the Birbs of Saskatchetoon Sketchbook.

American Robin,  20cmx20cm (8'x8"), Ink and Watercolour on Paper

Painting From the Masters - Mignola's Hellboy

 Just kind of playing around here - trying out a number of different things….

I LOOOOOOOOOOVE Mike Mignola’s art. Occasionally I do like “painting from the masters”… and I have this gouache set I picked up ages ago and have been wanting to try out (because I also LOVE Elaine Will’s gouache paintings!) … AND I always wondered what inking someone else’s pencils would be like… AND I’ve been wondering if pre-cut 8x10 Strathmore 500 series watercolour paper would go through our laser printer…. Sooooooo…. 

Mignola posts LOADS of pencil sketches on Instagram, so I screen shotted a few and tried printing them out on pre-cut Stratmore 500 Series 8x10 sheets (which worked… but I probably should have edited them first cranking the contrast and black point so there was no grey in the background…) and then I tried painting it with the gouache paints… So it was kind of a paint-by-numbers from the masters, in a sense… tracing, yes, in the same sense that all inkers are “tracers”… (Ha-ha! My favourite bit of Chasing Amy - which is 25 years old this year!?  WTF!?)

I kind of like how it turned out. I mean, how could it not, tho. I’m tracing Mike Mignola’s art!? 

No, it is not for sale. 

No, I do not do commissions based on other people's IP. 

Birbs of Saskatchetoon - Bald Eagle.

 As I mentioned on my Bike Blog, Keiran and I had a pretty exciting moment this past weekend when we spotted a Bald Eagle along the river while out for a bike ride. There are lots of pictures on the bike blog with a brief description of the events. 

I didn't immediately recognize it as a bold eagle because it didn't have the iconic white head they are known for! It was very mottled and pretty scruffy-looking! I'm pretty sure what we were looking at was a juvenile/immature Bald Eagle... 

Bald Eagle in my Birbs of Saskatchetoon Sketchbook. 

A number of people have reported to me that they've seen American Robins returning. I've HEARD them, but haven't actually SEEN any... I've also heard Meadowlarks this past week, but have yet to see one of those... 

Birbs of Saskatchetoon - Dark-Eyed Junco

Hardly even had to work for this one. Got out of bed this morning. Went to the bathroom. As I was washing my hands I saw some movement out of the corner of my eye, through the window next to me and looked to see who it was - expecting a sparrow or chickadee, as I often see out that window - and spotted someone entirely new! 

Dark-Eyed Junco in the Birbs of Saskatchewan Sketchbook. 

The Junco was rummaging around in my neighbours rain gutter/eavestrough. After a moment a second one appeared in a nearby tree. They chattered at each other for a moment and then the one in the tree flew off, and the one in the gutter flew into the tree. 

I'd run off to grab my little camera and phone and took a PILE of photos, hoping one or two might turn out... or at least I'd get some reference photos for my neighbours roof and rain gutter in which I could situate a fabricated Junco based on other reference photos... Most were crap. but a few were good enough that I was able to put together my illustration without too much referencing of other pics... 

Up on the roof. My little camera REALLY LOVES to focus on BRANCHES!?

Picture I mostly based my illustration on. 

I'm sad I didn't get a picture of the TWO of them! 

Over into the tree. 

More in the tree. 

Spent a LOT of time, just shifting about that tree. 

Watching... Waiting... 

My mother and sister have both reported seeing Robins yesterday and today, respectively - my sister even sending me a picture she took! 

the other day while out for a ride, I HEARD meadowlarks, but couldn't see them for the life of me... Usually I see them out of town - on fenceposts or up on power poles, but this was alone a free way and there was nothing of the sort. I guess there were light posts, but I looked long and hard at all of those and saw nothing... 

Birbs of Saskatchetoon - Ring-Billed and California Gulls

 Bright, sunny days and warmer weather over the first weekend of April meant I could spend some time gazing at gulls with the big binoculars. I’m fairly certain I identified two different (but very similar) species of  gulls… 

Ring-Billed Gull and California Gull.

I decided to put both on the same page. Largely just because where it ended up positioned in the sketchbook. 

The next open page was opposite the group shot of gulls I did last week. Had there been a two page spread I could have drawn the two across I probably would have done that - and the text would have gone across both pages. As it was, if I'd done them on separate pages I would have likely ended up repeating text... I don't know... I did what I did and it's in the book and that's that. 

I guess this is the downside of painting things into a bound sketchbook. Can't pull it all out and reorganize and ditch certain pages... Ah, well.. 

While I was fooling around with preliminary sketches (I know it's hard to believe I do preliminary sketches when the "good version" looks so... not great...). This one made me laugh. Of course now I'm going to have the Beach Boys stuck in my head all day singing California [Gulls].... 

Portraits of Amanda (and others)

 I've been wanting to do more figurative/portrait work. I've done a few of Amandax over the last month or so - mostly while sitting and watching Netflix.... 

Most of these are in a tiny 6"x6" watercolour sketchbook. I find it really too small for what I like doing... but I started it, I'll be damned if I just not FINISH filling the sketchbook. I'd actually started it a little over a year ago, in March, 50 days before Amanda's 50th birthday. I thought I'd do a drawing of her each day until she turned 50. I thought I'd try and do a drawing of her doing different things, but as it turned out - while working from home during a pandemic, there WEREN'T a lot of different things she was doing - stand at workstation doing work most of the day, then sit and watch Netflix in the evening... It lasted three days. I missed day four and, as with most things, once I miss ONE DAY, I just lose all momentum and interest in a project. 

26 February 2022... watching... SOMETHING...?!

4 March 2022 - This was at her At-Home-Work-Station... not sure if she was working from home that day or just decided to do MORE work when she got home from work...? I do recall it was later in the day.

18 March 2022 - Watching Bad Vegan on Netflix. The week before we'd watched the Tinder Swindler. She's not picking her nose. I'm not sure WHAT she was doing - self-facial-massage, perhaps? 

Not sure what day, but we were watching Lucifer with Finnegan. We're still watching it. I think this was during the first season. There are SIX. WE thought we'd give it one season to see if it was any good. Of course one season in and we felt like we needed to see it through - to see if it got any better!? I don't HATE the series... but I don't LOVE it either. It often seems like tired mish-mash of tropes and plots from so many other series we've already seen... Yet we keep watching it... 

Watching Brigerton Season Two. Didn't like this season as much as I'd liked the first. I really loved the new characters and some of the plot threads, but overall the season kind of fell flat for me. Kind of felt like a two hour movie that was padded out to fill out an 8 episode season!? 

28 March 2022 - this one was done in a different, slightly larger (8"x8") sketchbook while we were at an appointment on Monday. 

Watching Netflix again... probably Lucifer...? 

1 April 2022 - Amanda attending an online yoga teacher training thingie that she started Friday evening and did all weekend. 

Also did a quick drawing of Finnegan one day doing his school work... also in a different Sketchbook. 

Below are some of the other drawing in the small sketchbook of Amanda... 

2 March 2021 - I don't think she was watching a yoga video... I think it was a work-related zoom seminar or similar...? She just decided to do some yoga while watching it... because she COULD!? 

3 March 2021 - Amanda at her standing, at home work station. computer monitor stacked up on sheafs of printer paper to get it to the right height! 

 4 March 2021 -  The beginning of the sketching while watching Netflix, apparently. we were watching She-Ra and the Princess of Power. The whole family ended up watching the entire series. Mostly. 

June 2021 - Last summer Keiran and Amanda binge-watched the entire series of Glee! I watched a lot, but not all of it. Keiran LOVED it. It was fun. It had it's moments. I got a little tired of it after a few seasons.. 

I really need to try drawing Amanda from the OTHER side... and... maybe some MORE people!?