2022 Rides - Week Eight

 Again this week started with a dip in to the deep cold.

Monday was a Stat Holiday here in Saskatchewan - Family Day - so I just stayed home and played games wtih my family. 

Tuesday... well... 

I did a quick library run and walked to meet Keiran who was coming home late from a practice at school.. 

Wednesday was more of the same... but I had an appointment, so I went out to that and then did a loop up to the Circle Drive Bridge and then did a few errands along 8th street and Broadway... 

Heading downtown to the appointment... at least it was pretty. 

Lone Common Goldeneye out on the water - lots of fog hanging low over the water. 

So much fog coming off the water. 

SO MUCH FOG.

The brown on the ice in the foreground is sand and gravel flung off of the tires of motor vehicles crossing the bridge. (the picture was taken from the bike/pedestrian bridge slung underneath the freeway part of the bridge) 

fog at midday = ColdAF

Cold

The thing that made the trip out in the cold all worth it was on my way home I got to an intersection and there was a MASSIVE flock of Bohemian Waxwings - that I was finally able to see up close!

They filled trees on all four corners of the intersection and were constantly flitting back and forth betweeen them! 

It was CrAxY how many of them there were. 

And it felt like I was right in the middle of all of them!? 

Kind of amazing I didn't get pooped on! 

Thursday I was out again... still cold, but not quite as cold... 

I spotted TWO coyotes in a field north of Innovation Place (north of the university). That's downtown Saskatoon in the background. 

Further along, I spotted this Chickadee up close and was trying to take pictures of it and it kept flying at me - it seemed like it might have been trying to land on the camera!? I know they DO sometimes land on hands - and will take seeds from them (I've seen lots of pictures of this, but never seen it in person - let alone had one land on MY had) so I stuck out my hand... 

AND IT LANDED ON IT!?

Its kind of ridiculous how THRILLED I was by this... but there it is. 

I felt a little bad about NOT having seeds in my had, as that was clearly what it was looking for!? I will have to start carrying a small packed of seeds in my pocket for just such an occasion!? 

If THAT weren't enough... as I was getting to the end of the ride, in a spot I don't really often see birds... I spotted a bird! It was on a branch at the top of a bush! I slowed a bit to have a look.  

Initially thought it was a sparrow but then noted it was RATHER REDDISH on the head! It took a moment, but I realized I was looking at a House Finch! (actually, I initially thought it was a Purple Finch, but smarter people than me kindly pointed out my error), So I stopped and quickly got off a few snaps before it chirped out a singsongy little tune and flew off!

It was the perfect ending to a rather lovely ride...

Friday was my birthday... and it was a big one... the big five-oh.. at one point I'd had this daft notion that I might go out and ride a half-century to celebrate my first half-century... But in the end I was feeling lazy and just stayed home, for the most part, and played games... 

The only riding I did was to run out with Amanda and pick up some food for supper. 

On Saturday, Amanda was doing a weekend-long, online yoga workshop, so I took Keiran to tap dance class.

Part way there we heard, and the spotted a Raven gronking away atop a power pole. 

After dropping Keiran off I took a ride over to Montgomery - an older neighbourhood nearby. It was build after world war two for returning veterans. It's quite different from most neighbourhoods in the city - especially from that era. 

Lots of tree-lined streets (that isn't all that different) 

with NO SIDEWALKS to speak of! (That IS different!) 

The streets are all named after Canadian battles, commanders or equipment - Caen city in France which was one of the Canadians D-Day objectives... but didn't get captured until some time after! Currie was the commander of the Canadian Corps at the end of the Great War - the first Canadian commander (the previous commanders of the Canadian Corps had been British) 

Ortona - another city captured by Canadians in WW2 - this one in Italy. Lancaster is named after a bomber that was manufactured in great numbers in factories in Canada during WW2.

There are a LOT of big trees in the neighbourhood. Which one would think would mean lots of birds. 

I did HEAR a lot of birds - but it seemed they were all in peoples back yards - probably where they keep feeders. 

I did spot a rather large flock of Bohemian Waxwings here, again. 

Not easy to spot, but there was a whole like of evergreen trees that were just filled with them! 

Thats it for this week.