STILL Finishing up the last few pages of the Birbs of Saskatchetoon 2022 Sketchbook Volume 2... yesterday's pic of the Surly Big Fat Dummy felt lame without a background... so...
was a little impatient with this... smudging and smearing ink all over. Couldn't be bothered with finer details on the bag - making it look like a flat mess... Kind of just want to be done with this project...
Just filling in a few more pages at the end of the Birbs of Saskatchetoon 2022 Sketchbook - then on with 2023! (I have a lot of catching up to do!)
The Surly Big Fat Dummy
There are a few pages left at the end of the Birbs of Saskatchetoon 2022 Sketchbook Volume Two and no more birbs to add to them. I've been meaning to draw SOMETHING on these pages, instead of just leaving blank... so...
Maybe the rest will be the equipment i used or the bikes I rode around on...?
Will there be a Birbs of Saskatchetoon 2023 Sketchbook... maybe... Might seem like it's a bit late getting started, but better late than never...?
I was out for a very long, hot, dusty ride in the countryside this past Saturday afternoon. Just as I was riding back into town by the QE2 Power Plant, I spotted a BALD EAGLE over the river hovering and diving then taking to flight again, soaring about, terrifying the massive flocks of gulls, being chased about by some crows, hovering and diving again and eventually settled down on a stop in the middle of the river. Then it was joined by a Great Blue Heron!?
It was quite the sight! It cheered me a little after a long and disappointing ride to a number of dried up wetlands devoid of birds or much other life!
While I was busy taking pictures of these from the West Bank of the river trying to get a good angle through the thick brush that borders the river, I noticed a number of small birds flitting about in the bush right next to me… so I took a few pictures of those as well. Some were Cedar Waxwings, but at least one other was one I hadn’t seen before!!
Yellow-Rumped Warbler in the Birbs of Saskatchetoon 2022 Sketchbook (Volume Two!)
These are a few of those pictures that I took that weren't terrible...
Oh, and the Eagle and Heron I was looking at...?
Bald Eagle Hovering before diving.
Eagle being chased around by some ballsy crows.
Great Blue Heron Arrives
Heron... watching the Eagle... watching the Heron...
Just after I left the position where I could see them both, the Eagle took off in the direction of the Heron. Then moments later I saw the Heron flying over where the Eagle had been. Did the Eagle take a run at the Heron...? Did the Heron make the Eagle regret some of it's life choices...? No idea... we'll just have to imagine how that all went down.
This past Saturday I went for a LONG ride in countryside south and west of Saskatoon. I’d plotted out a number of areas to visit that I’d never been to before, but both maps and Google Earth assured me were wetlands. I was hoping to maybe spot some migratory birds heading south. Instead it was a hot and dreary ride and every one of the areas I visited were entirely dried up and there were no birds to be seen at any of them…
Along one dusty summer road a flight to Sharp-Tailed Grouse furiously took to flight at my approach, startling me. As they only flew a short distance ahead, the moment was repeated several times - though during the supplementary bursts into flight I had my camera ready and caught a few in frame… grainy and out of focus, a couple were good enough to clearly identify and use as reference for drawing.
Sharp-Tailed Grouse in the Birbs of Saskatchetoon 2022 Sketchbook (Volume Two!)
No birb in this last picture... just where I left my bike to chase after them.
I went for a quick ride out to The Chappell Marsh the morning of Monday, 5 September 2022 (Labour Day!). The small area that hasn’t completely dried up was just teeming with birds - loads of Canada Geese and assorted shore birds and ducks… and in the middle of it all a big white bird - not Pelican big - it was the same size as the Canada Geese! It was far to busy preening (and/or resting) to lift up it’s head for me to get a proper look - or a decent picture…
Lacking binoculars, I just took lots of pictures and hoped I’d get a better look at it at home.
Snow Goose in the Birbs of Saskatchetoon 2022 Sketchbook (Volume Two!)
So many birds! (Can you spot the Great Blue Heron!?)
Snow Goose! Come on... lift your head up...?!
PRETTY PLEASE!?
Ugh... geese... such divas...
At the same wetland I spotted the Sandhill Cranes, I briefly spotted what I thought was a Hairy Woodpecker at first - black and white, red cap - but then I realized the pattern was different and it had red on the front of its face below the beak. I raced around the brush, trying to get a better look - and a picture! But it was too quick - as soon as I thought I had an angle and zoomed in on the spot - it was gone!
I’d almost completely forgotten about it until I got home and was downloading pictures for the day and found all the pictures of empty branches of dead trees surrounding the marsh and remembered the bird. I asked Amanda if she knew of a woodpecker with red on it’s face below the beak - like a chin or a bib - and off the top of her head she said “Yellow-Bellied Sapsucker”…? I looked it up and, sure enough, that was the bird I’d been looking at.
I am so damned grateful to have her in my life… for so many reasons… not the least of which is how much she knows about birds (far more than she gives herself credit for!)
Yellow-bellied Sapsucker in the Birbs of Saskatchetoon 2022 Sketchbook (Volume Two!)
This is where I first spotted it... but by the time I had my camera out and focused... it flew off..
...over to here.. I SWEAR it was RIGHT THERE when I took the pic...
But then I saw it darting waaaaay off past my bike in the OTHER direction... So I chased after it.. and, by "chase", I mean "WALK"! I didn't want to scare it off again!!
I swear it's RIGHT THERE... in the tree BEHIND the one that the camera really decided it needed to focus on...
Bah!
Saw the birb. Figured out what it was. Added to the book, moving on!
This past Saturday, 3 September 2022, I went out for a long bike ride south of town on the east side of the river looking for Sandhill Cranes. I was riding into a 30Km/hr, gusting to 50Km/hr wind and it was +33°C, but I’d heard they were passing through and didn’t want to miss them! I’ve often seen them in Chief Whitecap park or the fields to the east and on the sandbars in the river along the west side of the park. Just as I got to the off-leash area of the park I was devastated to see a MASSIVE FLOCK of them lifting off in the distance and flying off to the west, across the river! By the time I made it around the bypass trail to the river there were only four left flying off in the distance - too far to see properly or take pictures of. I saw immediately the cause of their departure - a half-dozen or so idiots tearing up and down the river on jet skis… ugh…
I carried on to the east and south again hoping to see some having out in the fields. Nothing.
I got far enough south I bumped into the north edge of CFD Dundurn and turned back along the dirt road bordering the base.
I turned north to check out a small wetland I’d only been to once before. Thankfully there was SOME water left in the wetland (SO MANY have just COMPLETELY dried up over the last two years!!!). There were piles of little shore birds - loads of Killdeers and at least two other species that I’m still not sure about.
Clear across on the other side there were specs that I figured were probably geese chilling (I’m not sure if you can call it “chilling” in the mid-plus-thirties…?) on the “beach” (land left bare by receding waterline!) I didn’t have binoculars as I’ve fallen out of the habit of bringing them along (I found I hadn’t been using them and just taking pictures with the zoom-camera), but now at least four or five times have wished I had brought them.
I took a number of pictures of the shore birds and the birds across the way… it wasn’t until I actually got home and looked at the pictures I’d taken that I realized there HAD been a pair of Sandhill Cranes among them!!! Yay!!!
Sandhill Cranes in the Birbs of Saskatchetoon 2022 Sketchbook (Volume TWO!)
From the bypass trail around the fenced off-leash area - can you see the flock!?
Let me blow that up for you...
It's that grey-ish smudge just above the horizon in the middle of the picture...
I took a few pics with the zoom on the camera...
And... the zoom on that camera IS pretty good... buuuut...
When I got back to the river, I thought I saw shapes that might be four more at the far end of a sand bar a bit further to the south, so I rushed ahead to the next break in the trees where I might be able to get a better look!
Got there just in time to spot them flying off in the distance... can you see them...?
There they are...
Here are some of the clowns that were scaring them off..
Ugh... SO MANY of these out on the river this past weekend...
A few hours later at that last little wetland I stopped at before heading home...
Lots of little shore birds in the foreground and dots on the shore opposite I figured were probably geese, but I zoomed in to take pics, just in case...
Yep... Geese... but wait..
What else is there walking among them...!?
Yippee! A Pair of Sandhill Cranes!!!
So I did get to see a couple... sort of...
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As I mentioned, I didn't have binoculars WITH me and was just zooming in on the area where I figured things were (because the view screen isn't all that great - and nearly impossible to make out anything in bright daylight - other than the largest shapes!)
Just kind of have to point it in the general direction and hope for the best...
Sometimes I get LUCKY!!!
Last Saturday, 27 August 2022, a week after spotting the Grey Partridge and Hummingbird. I went out for a long ride on a damp and gloomy afternoon. I thought for sure I was going to get rained upon, but somehow I managed to dodge it entirely. On my way back into town I spotted a distant shape out on the river and new, instantly, that it was Heron Day!
I spot a Heron almost exactly ONCE every year. I call it Heron Day.
Saturday was Heron Day.
Great Blue Heron in the Birbs of Saskatchetoon 2022 Sketchbook.
From where I spotted it under the Gordie Howe Bridge.
These are zoomed in a bit, what I saw was much smaller, but even from that distance, the silhouette was unmistakable!
I was north of it, so it was backlit by the sun (what little was peaking through the cloud), so I raced across the river and rode south on Spadina hoping it would stay there long enough for me to find a decent spot to get a better lit picture from.
From the parking lot just north of the QE2 Power Plant.
It was still quite distant, being out in the middle of the river, but the lighting was a bit better!
Usually I see them stalking along the banks of the river..
Looked like it was having a "bad feather day"...
probably still soaked from the downpours earlier in the day...
or, y'know, from fishing underwater for food...!?
