Strike A Pose.

Yesterday morning I got off the bus in front of the Sturdy Stone Centre on 3rd Avenue.  I spotted a magpie on one of the nearby trees, so out came the camera in the hope of catching a shot.



Imagine my surprise when instead of flying away before I could take a photo, as birds often do, he actually flew closer to me, landing in one of the planters.  He started to root around for tidbits.



My close presence seemed to make no difference to him.  In fact it was almost as if he decided to let me have a good look.





Even the flash on my camera going off a couple of times didn't bother him in the least.





Soon it was time for both of us to move on.

The breed found in Saskatchewan is the Black-billed Magpie.  They're quite common in many areas of Saskatoon.  As often seems to be the case with birds the ones downtown, like this one, are quite tame.  The ones I see in more suburban areas of Saskatoon seem to be less so. 

The High Ground.

This crew from DJ's Windows & Aerial Access were busy cleaning windows on this 2nd Avenue building last week when I passed by.  Out came the camera.





This member of the crew spotted me on the ground and waved, which I missed.



This is one job you definitely wouldn't catch me doing.  I don't like heights.

The Flip Side.

As a followup to my previous post featuring art on the Drinkle No. 3 building here is the opposite side of the structure.  It features an ad for the Saskatoon Star Phoenix that is hard to miss.



A similar ad is found on an apartment building on 2nd Avenue, seen here from the 23rd Street bus mall.

Colourful Faces From The Past.

This mural is located on the Drinkle Number 3 building, aka Regent Plaza, facing 22nd Street.  It commemorates various early founders of Saskatoon, including J.C. Drinkle, who financed the construction of the building and after whom it is named.

Oops.

This sign currently visible on the billboard at 22nd Street and 3rd Avenue has a grammar error. An apostrophe followed by an s indicates possession, not plurality. Plurality is indicated by just adding s. Taxis is the correct plural of taxi, while taxi's means something that belongs to a taxi, such as in the sentence "The taxi's front window was cracked." If I were paying a bunch of money for a sign I would want whoever designed it to know their grammar.