Summer Solstice Eve

Marylake ~ King City ~ Ontario

Marylake Shrine

A great grassland trail

Two or three times recently, I've walked the western half of the Oak Ridges Corrider Park Trail, in north Richmond Hill, Ontario, and found dozens of Bobolinks. It's great to see so many, given that they are a threatened species, due to habitat loss. The western part of trail that I have been walking runs between Yonge Street and Bathurst Street, about a kilometre south of the King Road, or a kilometre north of the Jefferson Sideroad. The east entrance is at the pedestrian traffic lights, on Yonge Street, at Bond Lake, while the west entrance is on the south side of the Bathurst Glen Golf Club clubhouse, about a hundred metres in off Bathurst Steet. In addition to Bobolinks, I've found Savannah and Song Sparrows, Brown Thrasher, House Wren, Tree Swallow, Baltimore Oriole, Indigo Bunting, Eastern Kingbird, Rose-breasted Grosbeak, and Great Blue Heron. This is an easy-walking trail and very satisfying for people looking for the birds. You don't even need binoculars to get a good look at the Bobolinks. You can also easily hear their unique burbling, gurgling, trilling song. BtheB

Bobolink

Savannah Sparrow

Midland Painted Turtle

Western trailhead of the Oak Ridges Corrider Park

Madame La Pew has given birth

I took this picture of Madame La Pew (as my wife has named her) this morning as she headed back to the safety of her den, under our garden shed. She usually makes her appearances between dusk and dawn, thus our paths don't often cross. Today she was lingering well after sunrise and was eating everything in sight. The reason for her increased hunger is the presence, we think, of a half dozen or so new baby skunks in her den. We had watched her getting bigger and bigger or the last several weeks and suddenly one night, a week or so ago, around midnight, there was an unmistakable gas attack outside the open bedroom windows.
We shut the windows immediately and decided the moment had arrived and the smell was a by-product of giving birth. We've been through this in other years and in a month or so, mum will appear one evening with the whole clan, in tow, and lead the juveniles on a jaunt around the neighbourhood. She will give them all the slip along the way and come home alone. Her children will have been given the heave-ho and they will have to find their own way in the world, henceforth. Linda and I were thrilled to watch one of these departures, a few years ago, when seven skunks, in a tight pack undulated across the backyard like a black and white patchwork quilt. There was no sound ... just a rippling, mirage-like huddle of skunks floating across the grass, in dusk's half-light.
Please comment if you wish. BtheB

You know you're in the country when...

One of my sisters has just made the move from the oil boomtown of Calgary to a small rural setting in Prince Edward Island. She is surrounded by boxes in a lovely old house near Vernon River and has the following to say, in her first email from the red isle:"You know you're back in the country when you are up to your knees in red mud and actually wearing the Wellies you bought in Ireland because you thought you were cool. You know you are back in the country when the man in front of you in line at the Tim's window is on a tractor, and you are definitely in the country when you open your old-fashioned mailbox and a bird flies out and you discover mail is crammed against two large birds' nests. Sounds very bucolic, to me, and I would switch for it immediately, to keep from being anywhere near the insanity of the G20 in Toronto. Best wishes, sis'.
BtheB

Photographic Reminders

One of my daughters is moving soon, to another part of the country. She wanted to have some photos of the place where she has been teaching for the last few years, as reminders of the wonderful natural setting in which she had so many pleasant walks. The place is the King Campus of Seneca College. Here are a few of many pictures I have passed on to her. They include, Eaton Hall Conference Centre, one of two Ospreys nesting at Seneca, a spawning carp, another unidentified fish in the dragonfly pond, an Eastern Kingbird, and the bones and firepit of a replica sweat lodge. I'm sure she'll miss this place.

BtheB

Wine recommendation of the week

This is yours truly tasting some wine in my vineyard (LOL). Actually I'm on the back porch and it's a KWV Chenin Blanc 2009 from South Africa. It describes itself as : "...an off-dry white wine, fresh and fruity with tropical and apple flavours." It tastes very nice, I must say. The best part? It's $7.95 for 750 ml. at the liquor store - an incredible value. This is my new, summer, white house wine. This is one to keep well-chilled. If your glass sits too long, you'll need to refill it often, to keep it at the perfectly cool temperature. Just don't tell anyone it was me who encouraged you to keep topping it up. Thanks to my friend, Pieter, for putting me on to this delightful sipper.
Cheers, BtheB

Bears in the Mulmur Triangle

My friend, Pieter Thoenes, reports that his daughter, son-in-law and granddaughter came across a Black Bear and her cub, in the middle of the intersection of 15th Sideroad and 4th Line E., in Mulmer Township this past Saturday. The two healthy-looking critters ran off behind someone's house nearby. I was greatly surprised by this. I knew that Black Bears were now reaching further south into southern Ontario each year, but hadn't realized they had made a right turn at Barrie and were now to be seen in the beautiful Mulmur Hills. Mulmer Township lies pretty much inside a triangle of land delineated by the towns of Alliston, Shelburne and Creemore. The sighting was about 5 kms. from the Bruce Trail, at Horning's Mills, so heads up and keep yours wits about you if you're hiking up that way.

Chimney Swifts & Bobolink

It was good to see a few Chimney Swifts flittering over the house on several evenings this past week. I also spotted my first Bobolink of the year, in an abandoned cow pasture, a couple of days ago. Both sightings were heartening because: 1. Chimney Swifts are a threatened species in Ontario, due to reduced food supply (pesticides) and reduced nesting spots (chimneys); and 2. Bobolinks are in rapid decline in both South and North American due primarily to habitat loss (upland grass fields). Both of these birds are special to see and hear. The Chimney Swift, because of its shape, is nicknamed the Flying Cigar. The Bobolink's burbling song reminds me of being a kid and spinning the station-selector dial on old radios which created a musical mish-mash of sounds that resembled the Bobolink, in full voice. Here's hoping these birds don't become extirpated in Ontario - in my lifetime, anyway.
BtheB

10,027 bird species - 1240 facing extinction

The International Union for the Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN) has just published its 2010 Red List update which shows that 1,240 of the world's 10,027 species are on the brink of extinction. That's 1/8 of the world's bird species that are now facing the imminent extinction possibility. The IUCN Red List is the world's most comprehensive inventory of the global conservation status of plant and animal species. The most recent bird species to be declared extinct is the Alaotra Grebe from Madagascar. It's hard enough bringing these dire facts to the attention of the world, but it's especially so with disasters like the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. And which is more important? They are equally important, of course, optics notwithstanding. Instead of embracing biodiversity, perhaps we need to take a holistic approach and embrace bio-unity. A good start, if you're interested (and you should be), is the IUCN website: http://www.iucn.org/.

BP - O' the woes

Here's a 1999 advertisement from British Petroleum, the irony of which speaks for itself. Thanks to my friend, Susan Beharriell, for passing along this omen from the past.

BtheB

If not a bird, a dragonfly

"Deep in the sun-searched growths the dragonfly

Hangs like a blue thread loosened from the sky..."

--Dante Gabriel Rossetti

I went out this afternoon to take some photographs of birds, but it was in the heat of the day and none wanted to pose for me. I took this dragonfly's picture instead. My Oxford dictionary describes the dragonfly as: "...having a long slender body, two large transparent wings that are spread while resting...". This seems an understatement for such a strikingly, exotic-looking creature, don't you think? The Common Whitetail dragonfly is a common North American species and the one above is an adult male. He loves to eat mosquitos. Bless him.

BtheB

Bathtime in the backyard

Now the summer came to pass

And flowers through the grass

Joyously sprang,

While all the tribes of birds sang.

~~Walther von der Vogelweide

First hummingbird picture with new camera

Here it is: my first picture of a hummingbird, with my new camera. Come to think of it, it's probably my first picture of a hummingbird with any camera. It's a male, although I didn't get it at the right angle to show his iridescent red throat (next time). It's not a very interesting picture. About all I can say is that this little guy is showing perfect posture. Oh well, there's always tomorrow.
BtheB

Cygnets take to the water

Don Flucker of Ladner, B.C. has been keeping me supplied with pictures of the swans at his place on the Fraser River. This photo shows mom with her six cygnets getting their feet wet. Great photo, eh?
BtheB

May 15 ~ hummingbirds return

It was exactly one month and one day ago, in this space, that I announced I had put up, and filled up, my eight hummingbird feeders. I suggested that what with global warming, several lovely days in early April, and some flowers already blooming, that the hummers might come back early this year. Last year they returned on May 9. This year I saw my first hummingbird at 2.45 p.m. on May 15. So much for my witless speculation. The birds obviously know better than me. They must have heard the reports of snow in King City, on Mother's Day. Anway, it's great to have them back. Now, to get some great pictures.
BtheB

No story - just a photo

I was checking out a local abandoned heronry yesterday (hope springs eternal) and shot this photo of the hardwood swamp that once held as many as 40 Great Blue Heron nests. I thought it made a nice picture. Imagine floating in a canoe...listening to spring bird songs...soaking up a few rays...
BtheB

More Don Flucker photos

Here are two more swan photos from Don Flucker, in Ladner, B.C. Don's resident Mute Swan pair has laid eight eggs and six have hatched so far. The bottom photo shows two of the cygnets fresh from shell.

BtheB

Blue Heron from B.C.

My friend, Don Flucker, from Ladner, British Columbia, photographed this Great Blue Heron near his floating home recently, in the Fraser River delta. It's a remarkable picture in that it shows almost every primary, sercondary and tertial feather in its spectacular wingspan. Some people describe the Great Blue Heron as having a prehistoric look and there's certainly a hint of that here. I suspect Don caught this GBH at the moment of lift-off, but there's also a suggestion that milady has been caught at her bath or during a fan dance: presuming of course that this lovely creature is a female. It's as if Don had asked this bird to "Show us your feathers" and it responded with a perfectly-posed plumage portrait. Thanks for passing this shot along, Don, and well done.
BtheB

Super sturgeon not an hoax

I posted this fish photo and blogged about it on April 28. It was supposed to have been caught in Lake of the Woods, Ontario, but I wondered if it was an hoax, because of it huge size. My friend Don Flucker, of Ladner, B.C., in the Fraser River Delta, has emailed me to say this 11' sturgeon is the real deal, but it's not from Ontario. It was hooked upstream from Don, in the Fraser River, by a guy, named Cyril Paquin, who was fishing for sturgeon for the very first time! Talk about beginner's luck. This is the 2nd biggest fish on record for the Fraser. Thanks, Don.
BtheB

Usual suspects showing up

Last week it was White-throated Sparrows. This week it's White-crowned Sparrows in the backyard (see photo above). I also have Chipping Sparrows and a tan-coloured version of the White-throated sparrow. A few streets away, in the centre of the village, my friend Gerry Binsfeld has a Carolina Wren in his backyard. That bird is not one of the usual suspects. It is a rare, year-round resident in Ontario, just barely making it to the north shores of Lake Erie and Lake Ontario during the spring migration.
BtheB