I must confess that I have mixed feelings about the time of year in which we currently find ourselves.
Fall is probably the prettiest of the seasons, although the beauty is tempered somewhat by what’s lurking right around the corner.
However, I do try to push my foreboding over winter to the back of the brain closet as much as possible and enjoy the season to the best of my ability.
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Worrisome drop in grain prices
Prices had been softening for most of the previous month, but heading into the Labour Day long weekend, the price drops were startling.
One way I do that is an annual trip south of Saskatoon along the South Saskatchewan River right around Thanksgiving to watch for sandhill cranes.
Canada geese, while a beautiful creature in their own right, have lost their novelty status for many of us now that some of them have decided to spend all year on the Prairies.
Sandhill cranes, on the other hand, are an experience limited to a certain time of the year.
For the last few autumns, my wife and I have made a point of heading out of town to a popular network of hiking trails in early October to witness these stately birds.
In past years, we were able to catch sight of a few of them in the air and most of the time we were lucky enough to have at least one or two fly directly overhead.
This year, we decided to walk a little further along the river than we usually go, and voila, we hit the jackpot.
We could hear them long before we turned a corner in the trail to find a river sandbar covered in cranes as they made their unique sound that is more of a click than the Canada goose’s honk.
As we stood along the shore, more birds started coming in for a landing while others prepared for takeoff. It was kind of like being at a busy airport for sandhill cranes.
We couldn’t quite believe our good fortune as we stood in awe.
Even when it was time to head back to the car, the birds continued to arrive and depart, and they were visible for much of our return hike. Just when we thought we had left them behind for good, more would come flying overhead.
It was quite a morning, with a bracing chill in the air and the leaves beginning their annual changing of the colour guard.
It was truly a Sunday morning walk to remember.
