The Wind Bites

Posted on December 30, 2018 by Painter Lady

I woke up this morning, intending to drive to Lethbridge to visit my Aunties, but there’s some snow and a great deal of blow! So, I decided to cook a huge feast of a breakfast for two of my adult children and to hang out, cozy, with them. Afterwards, Max needed to get his exercise, so he and I headed out in the car and steered our boat to the river. We just returned and are warming up. It was a dramatically different scene from just yesterday when the sky was blue and the earth revealed the decay that is always so familiar in the autumn. Indeed, apart from a skiff of snow on Christmas Day, everything was brown this year.

I have enjoyed the holiday because it has given me time to walk the river’s edge in daylight and observe the activities at the Bow. I have been watching the male and female Bald Eagles build up the railings on their nest. My photos are taken a great distance away and so I have no real concerns that posting these will tease out the weirdos who exist in the world to hurt and interfere with nature.

Setting geese and ducks to flight while doing a reconnaissance.

Keeping eye on a fly-fishing dude.

I Saw a Heart in the Tree

Male Bald Eagle, delivering new railing material.

Today was such a contrast to the past couple of weeks! I pulled out my camera from under my coat in order to snap a quick photograph of a young raptor before he became aware of Max and I and took flight. I had a chance to really get a good look and, according to information on line, with so much mottling, this is likely a sub-adult of maybe two or three years of age from the same parents that I’ve been watching for about four years. I got a good look at him when he took flight. Interestingly enough, he returned to a tree just a short distance from the nest, so I have a feeling he was, in all of this cold blustery wind, seeking out the warmth of home. Thing is, if Mom and Dad return at some point this afternoon, they’ll be their usual ‘hard ass’ variety of parents and aggressively send him on his way. That sort of makes me sad. I know he’s just wanting a taste of a nice fish or something. Here are my photos…very out of focus, so I wish you had been there.

I’m now seeking permission to include a photograph posted on A Guide To Aging Bald Eagles by a photographer named Ron Dudley who has a very clear photograph of a Bald Eagle, classified as an Intermediate Adult. I think that this is what I saw today. I’d like to begin using the proper vocabulary. So, stay tuned, but in the meantime, my readers might want to go to this website for clarity.

With gratitude to photographer and amazing birder, Ron Dudley, I was given permission to publish this screen shot. As I experienced this Intermediate Adult today, this is what I saw when he/she was closer to me.

Three Days at the Bow

Posted on August 19, 2018 by Painter Lady

For days now, smoke has hung on the air, seeming to press in on me. It is a difficult thing to take pause and contemplate the horrendous impact so many wildfires are having on people and their homes as well as wildlife and its various ecosystems. The yellow cast of grey over every landscape is a constant reminder. An absence of the mountains on my horizon to the west is disorienting. The burning sensation behind my nose and throat brings on headaches and a heavy feeling. It is a difficult time for so many people north and south of the border, east and west. This is a strange and other-worldly experience.

At the river, the mornings are quiet, with far less activity and chatter from the birds. I don’t know if other birder friends have found this, but the Red Winged Blackbirds, usually first to arrive in early spring, seem to have taken their offspring and skipped town. I miss their calls, especially at the pond.

The Bald Eagle couple have been diligently observing the Juvenile as he/she figures out what it means to be strong and determined. Mr. and Mrs. did an amazing job providing for two kids at the nest. I will never know what came of the first fledge.

When I walk the river’s edge early in the morning, the earth is spongy and feels as though it has breathed in moisture somehow, magically, through the night. I no longer look down as I walk because every day for days I observed a snake silently slip into the brush as my foot fell onto the path. I’d rather not see that anymore. Of all of the amazing creatures there are to enjoy, I have not yet learned an appreciation for snakes.

Birds, in training, are practicing skills of flight. For days, the Eastern Kingbirds, Cedar Waxwings and Wrens had taken to the higher canopy. But, since the smoke, they’ve been found in the lower branches, especially in the evenings.

Juvenile and Adult Cedar Waxwings.

American White Pelicans.

Eastern Kingbird.

Osprey against smoke.

Juvenile House Wrens actively chittering for food.

Sometimes, when I get home and download my photographs…I see things I hadn’t noticed while snapping. The following two unfocused photographs speak to those surprises.

Yellow Warbler and Cedar Waxwing.

Berries and berry pickers have been in evidence at the river’s edge.

It has been a most amazing experience to watch the progression of life and death and life and death on the river, even through the brutal winter. The wildfires remind us how tenuous life is for all. The leaves, now turning gradually and the plants-gone-to-seed remind us of how quickly everything changes.

This Spring’s Spark Bird

Posted on April 1, 2017 by Painter Lady

Every year, I become more intrigued with the act of watching birds. The book, Birds Art Life by Kyo Maclear put some of that into perspective for me…in fact, when I poured over the pages, it was the first time that I could really connect with why I am so driven to investigate Frank’s Flats; the wildlife, landscape, atmospheric changes and ecosystems.

I think that Maclear proposes that there is a single spark bird that draws the everyday person into the act of bird watching. However, for me, it seems that every year, in springtime, I am renewed to the experience by a particular bird.

This year, that bird is this one, a Merlin. And…I could be wrong in my identification and challenge my readers to look at its markings and confirm with me if I am mistaken or correct. About three years ago, in my neighbourhood park, I noticed a nesting couple and likely heard them first. They have a very particular high pitched call.

Merlin

Adult male (Prairie)

Light blue-gray crown
Pale face with no distinct pattern
Streaked breast
Dark eye with pale eyebrow
Prairie subspecies occurs in Great Plains states and southern Canada

This year, I’ve been close enough to the nesting pair to have received a bit of an annoyed reaction. They are very defensive birds and protective during the nesting period. As I’ve discovered on line, their talons and beaks provide for some very nasty feeding frenzies on pigeons, sparrows, mice and I’m guessing that they could do a mean attack on young children or dogs if they felt challenged.

So, for now, I’ll watch from a distance. They are just beautiful!

Usually, one remains in a sparse deciduous tree or atop a power pole some distance from the nest, while the other stays tucked into the evergreen tree, a nest that was stolen from a mating magpie pair three seasons ago.

Recent photographs have helped me to make some distinctions in the small raptor, however, I’m still learning. I got some good shots of the nesting adult yesterday. I invite any feedback about these or other raptors as I expand my knowledge.

Birds Art Life by Kyo Maclear

Posted on February 17, 2017 by Painter Lady

I was down at Shelf Life books, listening to a wonderful double book launch by German Rodrigues and J. Pablo Ortiz. It was a very unique evening of spanish language literature, celebrating the launch of German Rodriguez’s The Time Between His Eyes (El tiempo entre sus ojos) and J. Pablo Ortiz’s Open Sea (De mar abierto). It was an excellent event and I was happy to reconnect with Pablo and to hang with his partner and my longtime friend, Brian. After the reading, I set about looking for the book, Birds Art Life because I had heard an interview about it and knew that it would affirm my experience of the pond, the discovery of birds and the resulting experience of art-making.

It was a bit of a search, but before I left, a copy of the book fell into my hands.

Very linear in my approach to books, I finished the McCullers title, before snapping up this beautiful object of my obsession.

I rushed through my earlier two reviews, books I’ve read in the past month, so that I could get to this recommendation, Birds Art Life by Kyo Maclear. In this book, I found something kindred to everything I have become in retirement and in the past six years of loving a single ecosystem, a pond environment within the boundaries of the City of Calgary.

I kept putting the book down, and lifting off of the sofa or my bed or the bench out in the back yard, in order to pace and whoot and say, out loud, “YES!” Since reading The Diviners so many years ago, I have not had such physical reactions to what I am reading.

Here is an extract from the book that speaks of my philosophy and experience, very clearly.

I discovered, through the book, that my ‘SPARK’ bird, was a sparrow, more precise, Mr. and Mrs. Sparrow, some eight years ago. Hardly romantic or colourful, strange that my true attraction to birds was discovered looking out from my kitchen window, across at the open vent of my neighbour’s kitchen…several nesting seasons…widowing…lost youngsters…and determination through all sorts of weather conditions. I began to watch. I took out the camera, for the first time, to take photographs of sparrows.

From that kitchen place, my exploring began at a pond environment that I call Frank’s Flats, named after a homeless man who most evenings, watched me gather up litter into a bag a day for several years. He drank six beer in the time it took me to fill a bag with plastics, straws, newspaper flyers and other human garbage. He chatted with me, thanked me and visited at the end of most evenings, as I put my collection into the bin, near his viewing spot.

I think that the first time I really noticed the birds, I was drawn to the red winged black birds because of their determined mating calls.

My experience of the pond has, since discovering birds, coyotes and little field mice, become magical. The lessons I have learned about compassion, care, art and writing, have been many and profound. I am so grateful for the number of stories and discoveries that come my way because I am always looking for the little miracles.

If you are looking for a way to deepen your experience of life and living, pick up this book. It is a treasure and my new favourite! It contains countless references to other writers, thinkers and artists…book titles…and the author’s connections with her own story. I hope that my readers will discover urban nature and hold on to the power of that experience.

Today at the pond…

Larissa Fassler: CIVIC. CENTRE.

Posted on November 18, 2016 by Painter Lady

One of my favourite places to hang out on wintry days is the Esker Foundation. It is either bopping with gaggles of work-shoppers, panel discussions, tours or other such events or it is simply peaceful, quiet and bathed it beautiful light. Yesterday found me relatively ‘on my own’ in the space and I really appreciated the impact of the exhibits.

Most impact-full, for me, was Larissa Fassler’s work. Given my incessant record-keeping and my daily walking-observation-documentation of my pond study, it makes sense that her work speaks to me. I’ve almost finished my second coffee and Max needs to be speed- walked before a day of teaching. So, I’m not going to go into long explanations here, but yesterday I felt that I had collided with a very like-minded artist. It is wonderful to see concepts mirrored back. And, completely by surprise.

Directly from the Esker website…this…

Larissa Fassler’s work begs us to slow down, look around, and consider more deeply the spaces and structures that organize our cities, our lives, and our identities. Fassler’s current artistic practice is premised on a prolonged process of observing and recording: she visits her chosen sites at varying times throughout the day over a period of weeks or months and remarks upon the unremarkable. She records countless everyday encounters and charts minute architectural details, creating a meticulous record of highly complex sites, looking ultimately for the ways in which space influences behaviour – and for traces of protest or disruption.

I will, later, post about Cedric and Jim Bomford’s work, The Traveller. Given my University of Lethbridge residence experience…and gazing out at the High Level Bridge for those four years, I was left breathless once confronted by the powerful construction of space in the ‘guts’ of the gallery. I have much to say about the traveller and was intrigued by the process of a father and son installing such a beast as this, within the context of the Esker Space.

I was grateful to be greeted by Parisa. It has been quite a while. The hospitality shown by the Esker staff is consistent, warm and educational.

Facebook Profile Updates

Posted on July 8, 2016 by Painter Lady

Three days now, I’ve been deactivated on the most popular social media website since sliced bread. I document my father’s music in the hours I might have wasted on early mornings, while drinking my coffee. I listen to Chris de Burgh music on Youtube as background, while reading Al Purdy poetry. His words make me weep at times. I would have posted that on Facebook.

I imagine filling in that small space…I don’t even remember what the prompt was? Say something about yourself…or what you are doing…what came to be known as a status update.

I would probably post a link to this post. As a way of weening myself from the process, I thought to update my status here…what would I say?

July 5, 2016 A dark cloud fell upon me when, from no where, a friend invited me to go chase dark clouds. He parked his car across the street and magically appeared when I needed a friend.

July 6, 2016 My hair was dirty, so I didn’t join my girlfriends for a night of listening to live music. I didn’t paint at Rumble House, again. I read Al Purdy poetry and used a sock as a place-saver.

July 7, 2016 I feel sad that I’m seeing the changes in the pond, all on my own, and that no one else sees exactly what I see. Mr. and Mrs. Sparrow are trying to raise another family in the neighbour’s vent. I relent and put seed in the feeder that I had pulled out of service because of the growing population of voles. But, now, with the children’s incessant cry for sustenance, I give in.

July 10, 2016 What does it mean that I have 13 hits on my blog from Macau SAR China, today? Some times these connections, through writing, just surprise me.

Yesterday’s photographs…documentation of train graffiti, imagining that the artist would want to know where his art had traveled.

I like that the red-winged black bird made it into this shot…

It’s been wonderful to see the great Cormorants coming through. They are closer to the river…this, a lone female.

Mama Savannah Sparrow watching out for her young sprout…

Youngster…sitting a short distance from Mom…about half her size.

My partner in crime.

A herd of 20 geese, four adults and the rest, progeny, slip into the water as Max and I tippy toe through the goose poo.

Killdeer Protective Behaviour

Posted on May 24, 2016 by Painter Lady

I am so amazed by what I learn on a daily basis because I show up at a single pond every day, no matter the weather. Today I had opportunity to witness this little beauty being protective of her eggs. I keep Max on leash on every walk these days because it is a very precarious time for all of the birds in this ecosystem. Max is very co-operative and sits silently whenever I am observing or snapping photographs. The only time he becomes super alert is when we are close to coyotes and deer. His ears point and he stairs in the direction of the smell/movement.

He sat nicely as I watched this happening. I am so in awe of nature and the strength of tiny creatures in the face of huge predators and insurmountable odds.

I’ll never be in that class of photographers where I am selling my images, but as a matter of respect, if you wish to use them for teaching and explaining, please credit me the documentation. Thanks.

Bird Tails From the Hood #3

Posted on July 8, 2015 by Painter Lady

I didn’t capture any images of the two wee sparrows that feasted well as a result of Mrs. and her dedicated care and concern. I watched them from the kitchen window, though, and knew that they would fledge soon. Sure enough, just two days ago, in late afternoon, Mr. and Mrs. seemed to be having a huge squabble inside the nest. Wings were flying everywhere. When the dust settled, I didn’t hear the little guys at all. I don’t know if the two youngsters had come to some sad demise (a crow has been hanging about lately) or if they had successfully left the nest. I prefer to choose the latter.

Instinctively, the very next morning, yesterday morning, Mr. dominated the nest again, calling out repetitively for the next brood to be started. Sparrows can manage two or three different broods in a summer season. It was/is apparent that he had no time to be messing about.

Yesterday afternoon I watched him clean out the previous nest or nest lining, one piece of grass at a time…sometimes yanking an entire chunk of nest out and onto the ground. This was something I had not observed before.

The Melt

Posted on March 10, 2014 by Painter Lady

For three days, Calgary has enjoyed beautiful temperatures. It has been a long winter…lots of snow and bitter cold. In fact, this has been such a melt that on many intersections throughout the city, the drainage doesn’t seem to be sufficient or blocked, to the detriment to some homes.

Mike Drew of the Calgary Sun captured this image of a residence in Sunnyside.

Photo Credit: Mike Drew, Calgary Sun QMI

In the morning, Max-walking is dangerous, given that this water freezes up and leaves the sidewalks, virtual skating rinks.

Apart from these symptoms of changing weather, there are some beautiful moments in nature. We just got home from our daily walk about Frank’s Flats and it is absolutely breath taking. Lately, I’ve noticed magpies flying with pieces of nesting material dangling haphazardly from their beaks as they instinctively prepare their nests.

I’m a huge fan of Duke Farm’s Live Eagle Cam. It was an awesome thing, this year, to witness the laying of three eggs. The notations from the site are as follows and a still photo I just saved a moment ago. I encourage my birder-readers to follow the progress of this family. What magic to witness male and female trading off places in the nest and sharing the responsibilities for the eggs. The history of Duke Farms can be read here.

And for those who think that watching an eagle on a nest is the same as watching paint dry, be advised that last year, this particular event was caught on live cam…

Update 2/24/2014A 3rd egg was laid on 2/23/2014 in the afternoon. Thanks you viewers for your valuable observations throughout the nesting season.

Update 2/20/2014
A 2nd egg was laid the afternoon of 2/20/2014.

Update 2/18/2014
An egg was laid in the afternoon of 2/17/2014*. Snow in the nest should begin to dissipate as temps rise during the day over the next few days. The cam will remain zoomed close in on the nest bowl to aid in detection of additional eggs.

Update 1/14/2014
Soft grasses are being deposited in the nest bowl to act as cushioning and insulation, these signs are usually a prelude to egg laying behavior.

So, today…teaching grade one…while I was tempted to make art around St. Patrick’s Day, our Lenten Journey, the Stations of the Cross or Penguins!!! I ended up following my own muse, the nesting birds. And the children did NOT disappoint.

Where’s our teacher? Are you our teacher? Yeah! We get to paint!

Off with the coats there, buddies! On with the shoes!

Who is the engine? Who is the caboose? The caboose isn’t here! Oh, no! Pick a caboose, will you and take this attendance down, please.

Announcements. O’ Canada. Prayer.

I saw a magpie carrying a great big branch while it was flying the other day!

IT WAS BUILDING A NEST!

It’s so warm and the snow is melting.

IT’S GOING TO LAY A EGG!

A nest is like a bowl…do you remember what horizontal means?

WIDE!! (I notice, with this response, that the grade ones have been measuring things…they have a whole new vocabulary!)

Do you remember what vertical means? You’re right! Up and down!

Today you may choose to build a nest on vertical sky OR horizontal sky…whatever you wish. Remember that the nest will fall out if there are not enough branches. I’ll show you a bowl shape in some branches. (I demonstrate a BIG drawing on a vertical piece and then on a horizontal piece of blue construction paper). Three branches will work…or four…or five. The nest (to repeat) looks like a bowl.

Grab your chalk…you can do your sketch now. As I’m stirring up some earth tones of paint at the paint center I ask the children if they remember the THREE steps to painting…

DIP! STROKE!

Oops! We forgot a step!

WIPE!!

Yes…please wipe your extra paint off of your brushes.

The students use the paint station with finesse, two hands on buckets…walking…taking turns. Let’s use the darkest brown for the inside of the nest. It will show that it is deep and dark…a good place to sleep. OF COURSE WE CAN PAINT LEAVES! I quickly mix up five different greens. Trading off begins and the paintings are set aside to dry.

We go to the reading corner to share in the rhyming poem, Five Little Penguins…yes, readers, you’ve got it…same as the Five Little Monkeys! We talk about visits to the Calgary Zoo.

After recess and recess snacks, we add our nesting materials into the mix…talk about birds collecting strings and grass…and talk about how penguins nest. We talk about how the Dad sits on the egg while Mama goes to eat fish…and how Mama sits on the egg while Dad goes to eat fish. We cut and paste and then add in the birds. BEAUTIFUL! Let’s set them aside so that the glue can dry. Hailey says out loud, as she’s placing her nest gently on the corner, “I love mine.” I think to myself, “This is what’s really important.”

Printing…letter w! Here we go!

Winter Provides a Blank Canvas

Posted on January 7, 2014 by Painter Lady

I was writing about slowing down…observing…wee things.

I posted this photograph.

Lots has happened since those two mice made tracks in the fresh snow.

A rabbit enters into the picture.

Either a crow or a magpie seeks out mouse activity at the location.

More mice.

I often think about the patterns, light and colour in nature. No need to go tripping into the mountains to see the remarkable possibilities or to experience the narratives. They surround us.

Alex Mulvenna gave me, as a gift, Andy Goldsworthy and David Craig’s book, Arch. The year she left my class, I had been telling the students how much I would dream to own an Andy Goldsworthy coffee table book. The gift is a treasure to this day. Alex is now a woman.

Photograph borrowed from Writes of Way http://writesofway.com/2009/12/16/striding-around-the-arches/

Looking back, I remember the poetry assignment that I shared with my students every year in language arts. Our school edges on a ridge and below, stretches the Bow River and an exquisite valley…Fish Creek Park links with a wildlife corridor that stretches all the way to the mountains. We are very blessed.

Some time around May, every year, I assigned the students haiku poetry, but the hitch was to base their poetry on natural sculpture that they had constructed in the river valley. I spoke to them about the sculpture’s fragility and that it must incorporate the potential for falling victim to the wind, rain, collapse…that purely natural elements to the location needed to be employed. The project, designed to overlap Easter vacations, seemed, from my end at least, to be consistently successful. I also asked that the students archive their project.

I continue to have two of these projects out in my studio. I cherish them. I cherished all of them.