Nature Sketching 4: Colonel Samuel Smith Park

Last Saturday was the fourth of the nature sketching classes and this time it was at Colonel Samuel Smith Park.  One of the fun things with this class has been to go to different places in Toronto.  Some I've been to before and some its the first time.  I walked through the edge of the park last summer when I walked part of the waterfront trail into Toronto and then again in December when I went out with some friends for a photography day.

Saturday rained most of the morning but the Humber College student building was near where we were going to be so the class was scheduled to go ahead.  I arrived wearing my rain pants and jacket for hiking but should have had my hat and sunglasses.  Again, it was a lot of gesture sketches trying to capture birds in nature except the owl and the kestrel.  There was a bird festival in progress and one of the places had birds on exhibit.  The owl had been hit by a car and had a badly broken wing.  I'm not sure why the Kestrel couldn't be released.  I was surprised at the size of the nostril on the edge of the Kestrels beak.  

 

After walking around for a bit we went into the student building and our naturalist had feathers for us to try sketching.  That was fun and I had time to try two of them. 

When we went into the building, I took off my rain gear not having seen any additional rain.  When it was time to leave it was pouring so I put it back on but was delayed leaving and by the time I went outside, the rain had stopped so when I got to the car, I took the rain gear off again.  It has come in handy for walking on the wet days we've been having this spring.  I'm pleased to say its reasonably well waterproof.  I don't think either has leaked despite getting quite wet.  The pants do need a wash to get some dirt off the back from when I slipped in an ice cave in January.

The next class is on June 1st and hopefully, we will have good weather.  The forecast looks promising.