Jr. Forster's & a Duck

The players:  A family of Forster's Terns (one adult and three juveniles) and a female Canvasback Duck.

The Setting:   A very peaceful afternoon at a prairie slough. 

The Story:  It is quiet.....quiet except for a very noisy, whiny Forster's Tern juvenile, very put out about having to feed itself.

Oh, it picked and pecked at things in the water,

...but mostly Junior begged and fussed.  The two other young terns slept with head tucked under wings.  Perhaps they were tuckered out from their own extended begging antics.

Young Tern:  "Feed me, Feed me, I Am Hungry"

Parent Tern, humming tunelessly to itself, patiently says:  "No darling, you must try to find your own food.

Duck: "Please be quiet.  I'm trying to enjoy the day"

YT:  "Can I have something to eat; give me something to eat, I'm starving, feed me"

PT:  "No, sweetheart, you must learn to feed yourself...see that nice piece of pond scum right there...it is so yummy....try it".

Duck, muttering not quite to itself:   "Give the kid something, anything"  (I am sure a loud duck sigh could be heard).

YT:  "I Need FOOD!!!  Why won't you feed me?"

PT, randomly to all in the area:  "Isn't he just so cute and clever?"

Duck, not seeing the adorableness of the young tern:   "I can't stand this anymore.  I'm outta here.  Honestly!".

Of course, it was me, loitering from a distance, that made the duck waddle off, but still, I like to blame it on the noisy young tern as that is usually my own reaction when my space has been invaded by whiny children.

Just A Few Snow Geese

Just a few...thousand...Snow Geese 

Whooping Cranes

This past Sunday, I met my birding buddy & friend, Guy Wapple at Muskiki Lake for some Whooping Crane (Grus americana) viewing.

We were fortunate in that 4 of the reported 16-17 Whoopers were relatively close to the road into the area.  This is all private land; the farmers are indulgent of birders coming to look.  We stay on the road and try not to bother these fantastically beautiful and very endangered birds.

 
In total, we counted 16 adults and 1 juvenile.  The rest of the flock were farther away grazing around a small slough - good viewing with scope or bins, but too far for my camera lens.  Sad that there was only one young bird in this group.

These Whoopers are part of the only wild, self-sustaining flock that summers & breeds in Wood Buffalo National Park, which spans the Northern Alberta and North West Territories border.  Muskiki Lake is in South-Central Saskatchewan, about an hour's drive east of Saskatoon.  Depending on the weather, these birds might stay around the area for another week or so.  They will winter at Aransas NWR in Texas.

 
This day we were thrilled to watch the big white birds walk and graze; a few hopped and danced a little bit.  We also heard the 'whoops' and watched them in flight.  

Saskatchewan Birding at its Finest.

Souris River Valley

This is one of my favourite local drives - along the Souris River, east of Roche Percee, SK.  

More Prairie Fall

I'm not talkative this morning, so I'll just post some photos from Sunday.  It was such a pretty day.

Mountain Bluebirds frolicking about at an old corral

Aspen

Moose Mountain Creek

Gooseberry Lake

There's a juvenile Black-crowned Night-Heron  standing in the water

Here's another one, intently hunting near Moose Mountain Dam

Profile

Trails at Cypress Hills

Early morning on the Woodland Trail.

Western Canada Violet  (Viola rugulosa Greene).  I see some Wild Raspberries (Rubus idaeus) in there too.  Like Wild Strawberries, these Wild Raspberries are tiny and sweet.  I ate a few....quite a few...

Fireweed (Epilobium angustifolium) and Goldenrod (Solidago spp)

Wild Bergamot (Monarda fistulosa)

Bearberry (Arctostaphylos uva-ursi) or Kinnikinik, as the Plains Cree call it.  Not many berries on these yet.

The Cypress Hills, being significantly higher elevation than the short grass prairie below, has cooler summer temperatures and receives more precipitation.  The region was also not covered by any of the glaciation periods.  It's a habitat akin to that found farther south in Montana and unique in Saskatchewan.

Cow Parsnip (Heracleum lanatum) completely fills the low spots in the forest.   House Wrens seem to like this stuff.  Every patch I walked by was busy with these cute little wrens foraging about for things to feed their chicks.

Yep, a very pretty place

Wildflower information from Wildflowers Across The Prairies, authors F.R. Vance, J.R. Jowsey, J.S. McLean

http://www.amazon.ca/Wildflowers-Across-Prairies-Jowsey-Vance/dp/1550547038



Where My Soul Lives

My beloved Prairies

I went to The Cypress Hills last week.  To get there, I drive across Southern Saskatchewan.  I live near the eastern border of the province.  Cypress Hills is at the western border.

Much of the prairie is gone in my area now.  Plowed up for farmland. 

But farther west....it's almost all natural prairie.  Mile after mile after mile. 

And it is pure, spiritual beauty to me.

Every tiny particle of what I am rejuvenates out here.

And at night.....there's no light pollution.  You can see every possible star in the Milky Way and beyond.  It's amazingly beautiful.

A Huntin' American Badger

I just returned home from the shake-down RV trip of 2011.  Of course the weather didn't co-operate.  It rained - a lot.  Well, it could have been worse, I got snowed on last year's trip....

Anyway, I went to the Cypress Hills and area, which is way over on the west side of the province.  This is possibly my favourite place in Saskatchewan, and maybe pretty well anywhere.  More about this in another post.

I found this beautiful badger hunting ground squirrels early last Sunday morning as I was dawdling along birding the roadside and sloughs.  I was travelling from my overnighting place at Shaunavon*** to Maple Creek where I was meeting my friend Dorothy for lunch.  By the way, this lovely morning was the only sunny one I had during the 3-4 day trip.

My photos aren't as good as they should be considering the animal was reasonably close; however, I was trying not to make any quick movements or sudden noises.  So I was awkwardly draped across the passenger seat, shooting out that window - then my cell phone rang (no one ever calls me; I never have the damn thing on, but I thought maybe Dorothy might need to get hold of me re where to meet, etc.  It was herself on the phone).  Nicely, Badge was intent on grabbing some breakfast, so it didn't run off while I was talking.

American Badger  Taxidea taxus

***Shaunavon is home of Hayley Wickenheiser - best female hockey player in the world - yes, really and the first female to play professional hockey in a position other than as goalie.  I knew that, Wikipedia confirms it. 

Ho-Hum.  I love travelling around my province.  Almost every town of any size has a sign saying home of a hockey player (male or female), a football player, a rodeo cowboy, some other type of athlete or a country singer.  I think it is neat when communities proudly display the achievements of their daughters and sons.

Actually, here's a list of 'Famous People' from Shaunavon, courtesy of Wikipedia

• Dwain Lingenfelter - former deputy premier of Saskatchewan, current leader of the Saskatchewan New Democratic Party
• Wade Regehr - neurobiology professor
• Arnold Tremere - Executive Director Government Official (Canadian International Grains Institute)
• Rhett Warrener - NHL Player, Calgary Flames
• Hayley Wickenheiser - member of Canada's women's hockey team
• Braydon Coburn - NHL Player, Philadelphia Flyers
• Ann Eriksson - author and biologist

Click on the pix for bigger and clearer, if you want to.  I also did a post in the winter about an American Badger I found alongside a snowy road
http://stilllifewithbirder.blogspot.com/2010/12/american-badger.html