It's Been a While

As mentioned in my last post, life has been very busy lately.  I'm struggling to keep my head above water at work with a very large work load.  Don't get me wrong, I'm thankful for work, knowing there are many without right now.  If you know someone in the civil engineering field looking for work in land development consulting industry, feel free to send them my way!

I decided I'd take lunch and head off to Hendrie Valley Marsh for a walk with my camera to relax and see what there was to enjoy on a crisp fall day.  On the way, I stopped along York Boulevard just past the high bridge.  Often on my way into, or heading home from work, I see hawks riding the wind which is forced up by the ridge Yord Boulevard follows.  They face into the wind, and float in a stationary location.  I understand the lift keeping them vertical, but I still haven't figured out why they aren't pushed back.  Unless they are slightly tipped forward?....  There was one red-tailed hawk who must have just tired of that spot and headed out over Coote's Paradise after I got only a couple distant shots.

   

Red-tailed Hawk

I stopped at the ponds just off the Old Valley Inn Road and there was one lone

Double-crested Cormorant perched there.  Many have already gone south for the season.

Double-crested Cormorant

It seemed very nervous with how close I was, constantly moving its head back and forth, but didn`t seem to want to either jump into the water, or try and fly away.  I`m not sure if they can make a direct take-off into

August at the Lodge

I seem to have completely forgotten to post of our second summer trip to the Lodge in Bancroft this August...It's been a busy summer. But again we enjoyed great times up with family, this time Holly's sisters and parents and all us married in brother-in-laws along with the nieces and nephews; 35 of us in all if I count right.  We celebrated a 100th birthday combination of Mom and  Mark that week, some good laughs being had during a short program after a great birthday meal.

As for wildlife and photographing thereof, I had some fun with that too.  Here are a few shots of things around the grounds.

Cabbage Butterfly

I couldn't quite confirm what this one was.... It's either a type of skipper or dash butterfly I think.

Long Dash??

One afternoon, I headed out to a little larger lake a little ways from the Lodge where I had often seen an adult and young common loon.  I was rewarded with a bit of patience as they ended up coming to that end of the lake for a short while.  The adult was bringing small fish to the young one.  It appeared that the adult would catch a fish, bring it near the young one, then let it go a short ways away for the young one to chase and catch itself.  Fun to watch.

Common Loon adult and juvenile - Learning to fish

Double Crested Cormorant

Another trip to Bayfront Park...

The Double Crested Cormorant is common in Hamilton Harbour and Cootes Paradise, though usually quiet shy of people.  It's a large waterbird which is found along large rivers, lakes and shorelines.  The bird sits very low in the water, often with only it's neck above water.  It swims quickly, diving and moving with it's webbed feet and large tail to manouvre to chase and catch fish that tend to be in schools.  The bird's name comes from two white tufts of feathers they get on their crowns when they are breeding.

You can see if you zoom in, the hook at the tip of its beak to capture and get a good hold on the fish.

Double Crested Cormorant

Their feathers are not waterproof as most other waterbird's are.  This is why they sun them selves in that characteristic, wings spread wide pose to catch the sun, and dry out.

Lunch caught

If you download the picture below and then scan across, you'll see a sequence of the cormorant carefully adjusting the fish in its bill while it's madly flopping away, then down the hatch it goes.  Must a strange feeling for a bit while that fish still keeps moving down there in the stomach!  They regurgitate pellets which gets rid of the bones and other parts they can't digest.

A sequence of adjusting the fish to go down head first, then swallow...

Cormorants were affected both by deliberate targeting by fisherman who thought they were threatening their livelihood, and by DDT in 1960s.  They have recovered well.  Compared to the popular loon, they are often ignored because of their plainer, darker colours, and lack of an attractive call - they mostly grunt and squawk.  However, they too were created with amazing abilities to efficiently hunt and catch food underwater, holding their breath for over a minute while diving and swimming hard at the same time.