Rondeau Ric

Hit the road Jack, and take the garbage with you Originally uploaded by ricmcarthur . This is for my birding friend BT3. His job entails a lot of traveling; poor fellow has to go places like South Africa on a birding digiscoping trip. One of these days BT3 may find Julie, his long suffering wife, has resorted to this tactic. My apologies to Ray Charles for maligning his song this way.

There was a moment..... Originally uploaded by ricmcarthur . I am always on the look out for owls as I find them fascinating. The only thing better than owl watching is taking photos of them. Early one late winter morning I came out to go to work and out of the corner of my eye (silly expression) I saw this. I immediately grabbed my camera, never leave home without it, and took this pic. If you look at it in large size you will understand my disappointment. Next time…..

Opening soon Originally uploaded by ricmcarthur . Lotus bloom at a neighbours farm. He is 84 and going strong. He has 5 ponds of lotus each about 1/2 acre.

ROLL EM OUT Originally uploaded by ricmcarthur . Remember the old western tv programs about wagon trains? There was always a trail master who would stand up in his stirrups and yell "Roll em out!" This collection of bikes made me think of it. The man has them in differnt alignments and I will go back and gt one in the sun light. Now go for a bike ride.

umbrellas Originally uploaded by .alton . This was such a colourful photo I felt it was worth posting. Taken at the "Splendid China" Theme park, shenzhen, China.

On Rondeau Bay Originally uploaded by ricmcarthur . Near sunset on Rondeau Bay at Rondeau Provincial Park. View large and you can see the sun refracting through his glasses.

Hey, you the guy with the seed? Originally uploaded by ricmcarthur . He hangs around the backyard hoping for a handout.

The yard is coming along nicely. We have more variety this year and the plants are growing taller. From some angles it is hard to see there is a cottage on the lot, and that is the main idea. We have black eyed Suzanne, woodland sun flower, bee balm, flee bane, Canadian anemone and other’s whose names I don’t know. We are trying to obtain other plants that are native to the park and appropriate for the local habitat. Different colours and later blooming times would be good. We have asters that are later in the season but more species are needed.

Prickly Pear Cactus Rondeau Provincial Park is on the northern end of the range for prickly pear cactus. We have several plants on the south side of our cottage. We seldom go along that side and generally neglect any plants along there. Evidentially they thrive on neglect. We have healthy happy blooming cactus all along the flower bed

We had a late evening visitor to one of the water stations we have in the yard. We have a number of skunks who come by; however, this one was earlier than usual. There was enough light to get a reasonable shot. Once he had his fill he wandered through the hedge into the empty, naturalized lot next door. I was waiting to see if anything else was coming to the yard when I saw the skunk walking directly towards me. It was obvious he didn’t see me, sooooo, I backed slowly away from the area in order to prevent any misunderstandings. When I move his head snapped up, he spun his body and lifted his tail. And then, and then………… along came Jones (remember the song) And then he hurried off in the opposite direction. We enjoy all the wild life that comes to the yard, but we are a bit more careful with some visitors than others.

We had house wrens nesting in a small bird house that was put up under the eaves, more as decoration than in any hope it would be used. It was a noisy spring with the male singing from 5:30 a.m. until dark. He would flit all over the yard declaring his territorial rights. We had been keeping an eye on the nest house hoping to see the young fledge. We were busy July 2 volunteering for a Friends of Rondeau event. When we got home the box was empty and the yard was quiet. I was really disappointed, as I was hoping to get a few photos. Monday evening, July 3 I was going to get something from the car when I heard chittering and saw movement in the car port. It is full of furniture and bikes (temporary storage as my sons are moving around) and there were 3 small wrens hopping around on a bike. By the time I went to the house and got Anne they had moved into the yard, which is all wild flowers. The young were scurrying around and waiting for the adults to supplement the food they found. A nic

They say I can fly, but that's a long way down! Originally uploaded by ricmcarthur . This young barn swallow is the last to fledge from this nest. The adults have been trying to get him out. I think he knows a good thing, he sits there and they wait on him. Not as crisp as I would like, however, the light isn't good under the eaves. Oh well.