Birbs of Saskatchetoon - Swainson's Hawk

 One week ago, on Wednesday, 20 July 2022, I was out for another ride up to the Northeast Swale (via the Chief Mistawasis Bridge), and stopped at the little wetland east of the bridge where I have spotted SO MANY of the birds I've seen this year. I was taking some pictures of American Coot babies when I was startled by a loud SCREECH Just above me - looking up I spotted a hawk on the power pole just above me! I'm not sure if it had just flown up or I had just not noticed it before? 

Swainson's Hawk in the Birbs of Saskatchetoon 2022 Sketchbook - Volume Two! 

When I went to take a picture it flew off. 

It was a really windy day.

So it didn't get very far with flying. 

And, as it stayed rather still in the air, I actually got a few decent shots of it flying!

I think it got bored or tired of trying to make any sort of headway into that wind, so it landed on the very next pole and I was able to walk over and click a few more pictures! 

and with this... I am ALL CAUGHT UP!! 

I do have some other projects I want to work on to keep me busy between bird sightings. I expect they will be fewer and far between now that the migration rush is all over. I expect I'll see a few new ones as they head back south in the fall. There are a few other hawks that summer here that I haven't seen - or at least positively IDed. 

Oh, these were the baby Coots I was taking pictures of when the Hawk started screeching! Maybe they're not so much babies anymore... more like adolescents, learning sarcasm and refusing to eat anything nutritious... 

Birbs of Saskatchetoon - Baltimore Oriole

I don't know what it is, but I get unreasonably excited whenever I see a Baltimore Oriole... Maybe it's because I don't every see them all that often...? Maybe it's the bright colours - one of the brightest birds I see around here...? I don't know. 

On Friday 15 July I rode out to Costco and teetering back through the Silverwood off-leash dog park with a wildly overloaded bike, I saw a flash of orangish-yellow and black dart across my path. I stopped and watched a Baltimore Oriole dart a few times between some conifers deep within the adjacent golf course and berry bushes on the river bank. Never really stopped in a place long enough for me to get a good picture of it... but it was clear what I was watching... 

Baltimore Oriole in the Birbs of Saskatchetoon 2022 Sketchbook - Volume Two! 

My bike... 

The trees on the golf course that they were flying to and from

Teh river bank - which had a number of berry bushes that the birds were flying to. 

There's one!

Ooooh! Two of them!? 

Oooh! you can ALMOST make this one out! 

I mean, those colours!? 

While I was skulking around there trying to get a picture of the Orioles that were being very uncooperative and shy - and landing deep within the bush... I did manage to get pictures of a couple of other birds that were a bit more coperative... or just young and too stupid to know better... 

A juvenile American Robin

and a Clay-Coloured Sparrow! (which also might be a young one...?)

ONE MORE (Swainson's Hawk) and I'm all caught up!!

Birbs of Saskatchetoon - American Kestrel

 A few weeks back on Friday, 10 July 2022, I was just heading out of town to the Southwest and spotted the silhouette of a small raptor flying about - flapping furiously in the strong wind. I thought it was a Merlin, at first, and stopped and took a bunch of pictures. When I got home and LOOKED at the pictures, I realized IT WAS NO MERLIN!!! 

American Kestrel in the Birbs of Saskatchetoon 2022 Sketchbook - Volume Two

Now that I have access to a better (better than what I had!) camera, I usually grab that first and click off a bunch of quick pics first - in case it flys away. The viewfinder isn't really great for making out details - but good enough to make sure the subject is in screen, then I click off a bunch in rapid succession - hoping at least one or two will be in focus. So, if a bird flies off before I even get the binoculars out, I often don't know FOR SURE what I was even looking at until I get home and look at the blown up pictures.

I'm not sure I've even seen an American Kestrel before. If I did, I probably mistook it for a Merlin - as I did on this day. 

As soon as I saw the pictures, I knew what I'd been looking at, because I've been following the Cornell Lab Bird Cams on Instagram - and one of the bird box cams has been in a nest of American Kestrels 

Oooh! There's a bird! Take a pic!

Oh! It landed on a wire... dammit, it's probably backlit and I won't be able to see any details... let's see if we can sneak past it to the other side where it will be better lit!

Hey! Look at that! It stayed (I'm guessing it put up with me because it was SO WINDY it seemed it was really struggling in flight!). Now if it would just stay there while I zoom in... 

Boom! 

Better birb pics! 

Moved to the post.

I've seen more since then.

Including these ones I saw this past weekend

Birbs of Saskatchetoon - Peregrine Falcon

 Tuesday, 14 June 2022 I was riding through downtown on the Meewassin trail and just as I passed under the broadway Bridge, heard an unfamiliar "Screeeee!" I looked up to see a bird of prey soaring about near the Renaissance Tower. It landed at the top of the apartment/condo building (24 stories up - until recently the tallest building in Saskatoon!). It stuck around long enough for me to get out the binoculars and camera and have a look and take a few pictures...

Peregrin Falcon in the Birbs of Saskatchetoon 2022 Sketchbook - Volume Two 

This is the Renaissance Towers. They were built in the early 80s and the shorter of the two is a hotel that was originally called the Renaissance Hotel. It was later the Ramada Renaissance. Now it's just called "Delta by Mariot Saskatoon" (or something boring like that...?). The taller tower, where I saw the falcon, is an apartment/condominium building and has kept the Renaissance name. Until recently it was the tallest building in Saskatoon. The funny thing is, the new tallest building has fewer floors - 18 to the Renaissance's 24!? Taller ceilings, I guess...? 

(this was not taken the day I saw the falcon, I took it yesterday because of the crazy clouds! Just wanted to include it here so you can see how high up this bird was - and maybe why it's so out of focus!) 

There it is... waaaaaay up there! 

Probably didn't NEED to include THIS MANY similar shots... ah, well... It's quicker than having to decide which ones to cut... 

Birbs of Saskatchetoon - Redhead

On Saturday, 11 June 2022, I went for a long bike ride up to the Chief Mistawasis Bridge and then east through the Swale. At that first little wetland off McOrmond Drive, just east of the bridge, where I've spotted SO MANY new species this year, I spotted ANOTHER new one! 

Redhead in the Birbs of Saskatchetoon 2022 Sketchbook - Volume Two! 

Here are a few of the pictures I took...

Birbs of Saskatchetoon - Cedar Waxwings

The fair-weather cousins of the Bohemian Waxwings we often see around here in the winter. The Cedar Waxwings summer here and head to much warmer climes for the winter! 

Ryan spotted a few high above us on the day we were walking around the Woodlawn Cemetary in June (when I saw the Red-Breasted Nuthatch), but I didn't get a clear enough look to add it to my list. It didn't matter a few days later on the 13th I spotted a few of them near a marsh, while on a ride south of town. I've seen a few more since (including a bunch I got pictures of yesterday!)

Cedar Waxwing in the Birbs of Saskatchetoon 2022 Sketchbook - Volume Two! 

This is the first one I saw this year. 

There was a second one with it, but it was slightly lower in the tree and obscured by branches...  

I took a LOT of pictures, as I usually do, in hopes that one or two out of the dozens I take actually turn out to be in focus and stuff. 

But so many of these turned out and I just couldn't choose.. 

So... photo dump... 

Sorry....

It is a pretty magnificent creature, though, isn't it...?

and it was so considerate to strike so many fabulous poses. 

This bird was a true professional and a delight to work with. 

The rest are a few of yesterday's pics... 

Also taken South of Saskatoon, not far from where I saw the first one. I have seen them elsewhere... but never close enough or still enough to bother getting out my camera. 

Not that these are all THAT still... 

but there was enough of them around...

and they were all quite close... 

So when one flew off... 

There was another quite nearby that I could take a picture of. 

Almost caught up. Five more to go... Maybe six...?