Moose Jaw to Okotoks, via Alberta Birds of Prey Centre

Surprise along the highway this morning: it's been pretty hot most of this trip so far, and I certainly did not expect to see this.

Quite a bit of the white stuff on both sides of the TransCanada and it's the last week of June.

I guess I should say that the pictures above were shot while still in Saskatchewan, so seeing potash shouldn't be unexpected.  ... but you knew that all along, right?

I took a detour to the Alberta Birds of Prey Centre where they collect damaged raptors, nurse them back to health, then release the 'restored' birds back to Nature if they can.  If not, they provide the birds with food and lodging until the end.  They are a dedicated bunch of workers and volunteers and I've managed to visit the Centre three or four times in the last ten years or so.  They have expanded nicely and house a few dozens of birds on display to visitors.

Some birds are trained to certain routines that force them to 'work' [exercise] for their food.  I was only there for 3/4 of an hour, but managed to see today's predator flying for his meal.

In the meantime, here's a little owl that I think has blue eyes...

This next bird is fairly rare, it's a Harlans Hawk, a subset of the Red Tailed Hawk which is pictured right after. I gather the white on the forehead is a major distinguishing feature of this rare raptor.

This next bird is a Harris Hawk, and they must be accident-prone because there were quite a few of these handsome birds at the Centre.

As always, I ask before taking pictures and this owl just fluffed up his chest and struck this pose.  I'm not sure if he felt self important, or just wanted to scare me away by his size.

Speaking of size, you can see bigger pictures by clicking on them.

So today's star was brought out to the flying field to strut his stuff and earn his supper.

What a beauty!

Bald Eagles are very successful predators: they have exceptionally acute eyesight and hunt by sight only.  They don't use their sense of smell to find food, just their incredible eyesight.

I'd feel pretty vulnerable if I saw this coming at me...

This particular bird weighs about 7 pounds, and yet, he's very quick but graceful in flight.

I left the flying area and went to the area where the Bald Eagle was being returned to; there was talk about needing volunteers to help out with the cool-down process...

In the meantime, this royal looking Golden Eagle was looking forward to seeing his bud back.

The staff mentioned that they had more volunteers than they needed as this little boy showed his sister the finer points of the cool-down technique, under the watchful eye of the Golden Eagle in the lower left corner...

The Eagle seemed to like the water spray and didn't seem to get excited at all. Maybe he's just become accustomed to the heavy rains that have plagued the local area since the beginning of the month.

I'm sure the birds enjoy the cool-down, but I'm not so sure I can read their expressions quite right.  This guy is now making sure that his bud, the Golden Eagle, gets humiliated too...

Obviously, there wasn't enough conditioner in the spray, this is going to be a very bad hair day!

Don't just stand there: get the brush and hair-dryer! Now! Please...

Of course, raptors have staff, and these guys are all looking for the brush and hair-dryer under the leadership of the Duck at the back.  What a comedy!

Meanwhile, back at the cashier's desk, this little accountant was trying to charm you to part with any last piece of change in your purse or wallet, for a very good cause.

Little kids and big kids too: everyone had a great time.

All this to see and shoot, and I still arrived in Okotoks and the Powers branch of the clan in good time to celebrate Colleen and Nick's 16th anniversary.

I may less regular about daily entries, but I'll try to have family pictures and stories to share.  

The boys will grow while you're not looking and Eric has almost caught up to Jacob...

Brandon to Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan via Riding Mountain NP

Breakfast was supposed to be warm after June 15th, at least that's what the brochure said.  Maybe they meant next year?  At any rate, the breakfast room was being used as a picture and poster storage area during the renovations underway; maybe it's a Comfort Inn thing to justify the ever increasing prices, but I won't go there...

The new look included smallish high tables with backless stools; not necessarily a place to linger with a third coffee. Interestingly enough, a simple good morning brought a fairly long conversation with the Scot staff member, then a couple who walked in for breakfast.  The husband recommended that I go to Riding Mountain National Park to look around and see the huge Buffalo enclosure.  Why not?  It's only an hour's drive north...

It was kind of a long hour and there was no-one at the Parks gate to give information or collect the daily use fee, so I just drove into the Park.

Imagine my surprise when I faced the scene below; do you see what I saw? No, not the storm clouds towards the East, where I just came from.

These Lady Slipper orchids were growing and blooming just beside the dusty road! After I first spotted them, I saw them on both sides of the road by the hundreds with their 'dandelion yellow' lips in full view.  Unfortunately, a kilometre or so later, all that remained were yellow dandelions.  Good thing I had the lucky spotting of that first one since the tall grasses did a pretty good job of hiding them.  It would have been so easy to just think they were dandelions...

Again, I was lucky.  This tree fell across the road earlier in the morning since the chainsaw cuts were still very fresh.  With all the water around, I didn't feel very comfortable driving with two wheels in the soft grass, but no harm done. I encountered another smaller branch further on and it too had fresh cuts.  What was less comfortable was the huge branch overhead that was just leaning on another tree's branch: the wrong breeze could have set it loose and it would have completely blocked the road. I didn't cherish a 20 km return along the same road to get out of there.

Things like this were all the more note-worthy since they mentioned that someone had been killed in yesterday's rain when a tree fell on a tent.  Convertible tops are made of the same material... Maybe that's why people buy cars with solid tops?

After no further adventures, I arrived at the buffalo enclosure.  By enclosure, they mean a huge tract of land where the buffalo roam, and the road just goes through the property. Makes sense: install a few Texas gates, fence off the entire thousands upon thousands of acres, and build a road through a small portion where tourists can see these behemoths in situ.  This is one of the few natural grasslands still left in the province.

I must have arrived during lunch time since they were all head-down, munching grass.  I gather they must do that a lot considering a large male can weight a ton!

They're not all that exciting to watch, so I thought I'd give the grandkids a small puzzle: Where's the baby?

I turned in at a 'viewing area' where there wasn't a single of any kind in the huge fields.  I did manage to find these little swallows tending nests under the roof of the watching platform. This chap was obviously having a bad hair day...

The swallows certainly didn't have trouble finding mud to build their nests this year.

Here's another question for the grandkids: What's this next picture all about?

Just to let you know, the car survived the dirt road day and the top stayed put due to dust, and muggy hot air. 

So by mid-afternoon, I took more dirt roads to join the Yellow-head highway, and eventually headed south to reach the TransCanada to get to Moose Jaw.

I've gained two hours on this trip so far, but I don't feel rested at all.  It has been fun though.

By the way, this new computer seems to correct spelling mistakes all on its own at times, resulting in strange words in strange places.  I get bleary eyed reading this over and over, and we all know that an alert mind reads what it expects to find, not always what is actually there.  At any rate, that's my excuse for the word salad, so 'suck it up', as Joan might say... <grin grin>

Dryden Ontario to Brandon Manitoba

The skies were threatening from the very start this morning, and they did dump their load every now and again; not exactly what a very wet western Ontario or a soggy Manitoba wants.  It does make a nice backdrop for one of the smokestacks in Dryden.

Across the road from the motel, the chain link fence was decorated with fish for the Dryden Centennial, a few years back.  Neat!

Nearing the Manitoba border, I took a short detour and a long walk on a road less travelled.  Here's a quick view of a fairly small portion of this small boat marina, taken from the volunteer firemen's pier.

There was quite a breeze that was creating art out of pond scum, suds, and other not so nice floaters.

I finally shot a few Lupines that seemed to be growing wild in this area.

Walking a little farther, I discovered a road that looked interesting so I went back so I could drive along.  The headwaters of the marina area was this little river that meandered through a mixture of woodlands, rocky mountains, well hills then, and some fairly flat areas.  This part of the road used to re-join the TransCanada, but it's now blocked off and by the hunger of the horse-flies, nobody walks in that area at all.

Here's a beaver lodge that isn't really damming anything.

And this is a little fresh beaver damage...

I did mention that this road is less travelled... I guess someone used it to practice their road painting skills a while back.

I always wondered why there is usually a crack down the centre of the highway, it's there so plants can have a foothold and grow.

There were some pretty impressive rocky mountain sites along the road.

As well as little flowering surprises along the way.

The sky had been pouring its heart out earlier, and it looked like it wanted to start over, a good time to get back in the car. I don't know which was more appreciated: the air conditioning or the lack of horseflies.

Back on the TransCanada, it didn't take long to cross over into Manitoba where the roads are better, four lanes, and run at 100kph.

There was also a fairly stiff head wind that was pushing trucks and motorhomes around a bit.  I suddenly came up to a RV trailer that was lying on its side, blocking the TransCanada westward lanes!

I gather everyone was OK since there were two fellows directing traffic to go around the trailer, off the road shoulder somewhat and into the grass.  I made it through easily enough, but not without some wheel-spin since the grass is so wet after days of rain.  I'm sure I was maybe the 6th to go through and equally sure that the grass would not support many more cars or trucks without turning into a quagmire.

I think what happened was that the small SUV that was hauling this 25' camping trailer tried to stop and the trailer jack-knifed and flipped on its side, thus lifting the SUV off the ground!  When I came upon the scene, the SUV was right-side up, but the rear wheels were right off the ground, still hitched to the trailer.

After the ring road around Winnipeg, I took highway 2, also a road less travelled.  Here are two views from the same spot: rails looking West, into the storm that awaits me, the other, rails going East, into fluffy white clouds and sunshine.

It seems that the old traditional grain elevators are being replaced by these soul-less mixing and storage silos.

This must be the one that was replaced.

Rain showers from a not very pleasant looking cloud.

This metal-clad elevator at Elm Creek is still in use.  This area had a torrential rain yesterday and you can see where they just laid white stone to solidify the mud; there were about a dozen streets in this village that just had the same stone laid down quickly.  People walking had to chose the centre of the road or the very muddy roadside: very messy!

And to end the show, this little butterfly was on the parking lot pavement.  I recently learned from a birding friend that butterflies often land on pavement to get the heat and find things to eat.  Works for me: he stayed relatively still, prodding the pavement for food.  Enjoy!

Hearst to Dryden

The drive from Hearst to Dryden has its moments, but is mainly boring.  I'll just add a few things about yesterday.

First of all, I forgot to mention spotting two Sandhill Cranes by the side of the road near North Bay.  I also didn't make any pictures of the many lupines that were in the road ditches, usually near houses...

At supper last night, I spoke with an Ottawa chap who was finishing the achievement of a life-long dream: he drove from Ottawa to Seatle and was on his way back to Ottawa: I think he said 1800 kms in 16 days on a motorcycle.  He did sport a weird tan: just the part not covered by his padded helmet.  I should have asked to make a picture.  Turns out he also went to Ottawa U and we have some mutual acquaintances.  Even stranger, he worked in the federal government and knew of my Dad!  Small world sometimes.

As I looked out this morning, the noisy passenger touring train was gone, I could even hear the air conditioning! Yea!  There was another train, the one full of wood that you just see pulling out.  The rent-me container makes me wonder how many of these things are just paid automatically and never really serve a useful purpose... but I digress.

This might be a better shot to give you an idea of the size of that gantry that picks up long poles like they were toothpicks.

The day on the road started with the spotting of another sandhill crane foraging along the highway; quite impressive.  I had hoped to see and possibly shoot some Bald Eagles today, but didn't spot a single one!  Maybe it's not quite the right season, since we did see many when we drove through in late summer a few years back.

I did manage to see three black bears, and signs of beaver damage.  Unfortunately, there were no moose at the crossings, so I couldn't shoot them either.

Towards mid-afternoon I pulled off at a look-out that overlooked Ignace, a mere blip in the middle of nowhere on the Trans-Canada.

One good thing about today was the presence of puffy white clouds that graced the sky almost all day.  I'm sure they have a more proper name, but puffy white will have to do for now.

In case you couldn't see where all the action is, even after clicking on the picture to see it larger, here's a close-up. I agree, it isn't much...  ... pretty wild neighbourhood though.

Of course, there can be a few losers, in this case, a few blobs of dried meat in assorted colours.  I'm sure these critters will get their revenge by sticking on tightly when I get around to washing the car.  Mind you, they're getting some help from the 30ºC baking all day.

For those interested, gas in Ottawa was about $1.26 when I left, in North Bay it was $1.17, in Thunder Bay [at the head of Lake Superior] it was $1.39, and here in Dryden it's $1.43.  At this rate it will be over $2 when I get to Alberta where they get the stuff...  Jeezz

Oh well, you don't travel to save money, and so far it's working.