“Paint me looking really friendly because I’m doing my friendly face.” – Sandro
Well, I gave it my best shot. I also tried to help dispel the myth that Bald Eagles are bald, painting you with a healthy mass of feathers on top of your noggin. Despite the final expression we all know you’re really just a big softie and one of the nicest carnivores soaring the skies of beautiful Banff National Park.
Dave is an irascible little fellow who packs the biggest punch in the park and he did NOT want to have his portrait painted. However, when he found out that Gary and sat down for one he did not want to one-upped by the old grizzly so he suffered through it. That look I captured was right before he ate a set of my paints.
As “aerial insectivores” go, Olive here is one of the goodies. The Olive-sided flycatcher is a plucky little bird that perches in snags and swoops into forest openings to catch insects on the wing (that’s mid-air for us non-biologists). Her fate is closely tied to our friend Jim’s however, a species at risk, which might explain why the two of them and their buddy Anne can often be heard in Banff National Park partying it up on Saturday nights singing “Quick Three Beers”. Swoop on Olive, swoop on.
Ahhhhhh Dennis. With those large soulful eyes, the full pouty lips and your magnificent dewlap you just had to be captured in a portrait painting. Now get back out there and eat up that 60 pounds of plants a day you need to keep feeling and looking your best.
Bears have a reputation for being fearsome brutes who will attack without provocation and eat everything in your cooler. While Sally says the latter part of that is true (though she can’t speak for Grizzly Bears whose temper she just can’t relate to), her preference should you meet on a trail, would be to roll over for a belly rub rather than having to maul you into a blubbery mess. Why thank you Sally.
Despite what you might have heard about mountain goats and sure footing, Sherman here maintains he’s one of the clumsiest ungulates you’re ever likely to come across in the great Canadian Rockies. I suspect that explains the bent horn…
I know what you’re thinking. A snail? Well, Jim may look small but as a permanent resident of Banff National Park, he is found nowhere else on the entire planet! That makes ‘ole Jim a real BIG deal.
In fact, Jim made the national and international headlines just last year for hosting a party in his native hot springs. Check out the stories here. Keep on givin’er Jim!
