May started with our third Random Ravioli night! This one was for pals
Jonathan & Stacy Adams and their daughter Renee at their house. It
was a superb evening and Yolanda experienced laminating pasta using a
mix-master attachment, which was noisy, but effective.
Skagit Bird Count May 4-6
This was the second bird count for Bob. He took Gr@y along, but would not next time, as the rough gravel road in to the campsite was a slow shaky go. Tenting makes more sense in backroad areas. The count went great and Bob met some of the folks who would be at the Manning Park bird count in June. Once again, though, Bob experienced bird count by audio rather than visual identification. So, in preparation for Manning Park in June, Bob created a database of likely Manning Park bird sounds and we started practicing audio i.d. on our car drives in May to Grasslands and elsewhere.
Between the Skagit Bird Count and our Grasslands trip we mostly gardened and spent time with family and pals. One afternoon we went to the Young’s 60+ foot, two-mast sailing boat Minstrel Boy to swab the decks!
The plan at the time was for us to join the Youngs to sail to the Marquesas (French Polynesia). We eventually figured out in July that we could not go, due in part to their timeline, partly as we weren’t sure what “crew” was, and in part as we weren’t sure what to do once we arrived in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. More importantly, we had no experience on a large vessel in open waters other than being passengers on a ferry boat. As we were to have been “crew” for the Youngs, we wished to be better boaters and better sailors, so signed up for a Power Squadron course to take place in June and Mon/Wed evening sailing lessons through July.
In the evenings in early May Bob refined and practiced our x-Canada bike-trip talk for the May 16th meeting of the Saanich Probus Club. The talk went well and we left right after their hosted lunch to catch the 3pm sailing off the Island en route to Grasslands National Park.
Grasslands May 16-29
The second half of May we did a road trip to the East and West parts of Grasslands National Park – a dark-sky reserve. We met up with pals the Reids in Lethbridge and they joined us for the days in the West Block.
We participated in a few of the interpretive activities: ‘smores by the cowboy fire, walk to the prairie dog colonies and cowboy coffee morning and stories. Together with the Reids we went for a grasslands walk and Yolanda found a seashell fossil – but put it back on the ground. We all managed to get ticks in our clothing, but happily not in our skin.
One evening we drove up to find burrowing owl, as they occupy empty prairie dog holes. We saw two, mating and then the female ducked into the hole and the male hopped off behind a mound. That night we again watched the Milky Way and saw details on the planets using Dave’s spotting scope. The next day we drove to a reservoir and saw several new-to-us bird species, including an Baltimore Oriole.
The East Block was a different landscape, with a canyon badlands and cliff-top walks. We saw and videotaped a bittern barking – what a sight and sound! It was similar to a bellows filling with air and then expelling, and the bittern’s whole body folded and puffed as it barked to another some distance away.
From the East Block, Bob carried on to Last Mountain Lake and he attended the Saskatoon Bird Count, his third count.
On his way home he stayed in Elk Island Park. Yolanda flew to Victoria from Regina to work on the garden (weeding mostly) and spend time with her mother, her father, and little Francis and his little brother Luca.
