Hello September

Where do I begin!  The colours are changing, the early morning air is crisp, it's time to start searching for those shades I love so much!  Red, orange, gold, yellow they are showing up everywhere!  In recognition of this annual colourful beginning,  I did a watercolour painting of an autumn leaf.  It measures 6.5 inches X 6.5 inches.  The background was created using the bokeh technique.  I invested approximately three hours in this project while passing time waiting to attend a live indoor theatre production.  

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Indoors was the place to be today!  The red, orange, gold, yellow shades are not new beginnings when it comes to the wildfire conditions in my province of Alberta and our neighbouring province of British Columbia.  These shades on the fire/smoke forecast map have been showing up since the first week of May!  The numbers tell how many fires there are in each of those locations.  The winds have made everything worse yet again and these conditions are forecasted to remain for another little while.  

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Before the wind changed and brought wildfire smoke to our region, I was able to get out and search for some of the beautiful autumn shades.  On this morning, I hiked up on Nose Hill shortly after the sun came up.  The clouds eventually cleared and we were afforded a nice blue sky day.  

This is a Lapland Longspur.  

It shared the trail with me for quite a little while, 

keeping a short distance ahead of me the entire time.

Most of the time spent up here this morning, 

was following the trails through the treed sections 

so I could enjoy the early autumn shades.  

full on autumn while it's still summer

American Kestrel (a small bird of prey)

looking back as I began to descend from the hills

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The day came for my weekly visit to the Inglewood Bird Sanctuary.  The morning glow highlighted the autumn hues.  As each day passes on the way to autumn, fewer and fewer birds will be sighted.  They have already started to migrate south.   

I recognized that distinct sound of a Belted Kingfisher!  Today, I heard it well before I saw it.  Eventually it presented itself on the railing very near the bridge I was standing by.  I was able to capture this photo a split second before a hawk flew towards it and off they both went.  

House Wren (they always look like they are pouting)  

While watching for feathered friends around the corner and down the trail, I heard a coyote howling like there was no tomorrow.  I  quickly raced over to where I heard the howl coming from.  This was the culprit!  

I was able to video him for a few seconds before he shut up and headed off into the bushes.  

The colours were so gorgeous along the trail 

that I spent almost as much time admiring them as I did admiring the birds.