Rondeau Ric

What wind Originally uploaded by ricmcarthur This tufted titmouse seems to be coping with the high winds. Hope everyone had an enjoyable Christmas.

The Neighboroughs Originally uploaded by ricmcarthur Another cottage at Rondeau. They keep thier feeders going in the winter. I like the chalet bird house.

Village saved... Originally uploaded by ricmcarthur Murphy the Magnificent Mouse saved the day. Calico Casey had dozed off and Catzilla struck. Murphy mangled Catzilla and sent her high tailing. All is peaceful for another year.

CATZILLA ATTACKS Originally uploaded by ricmcarthur Showing signs of the battle with Calico Casey, Catzilla rampages through the heart of the village. Reinforcements have been called in.

Calico Casey hired by villagers. Originally uploaded by ricmcarthur Catzilla has defenitely be seen and the villagers have arranged for Calico Casy to patrol the outskirts of the village. Will this help, or will Callico Casey be found napping on the job?

Skiers Found! Originally uploaded by ricmcarthur The missing skiers were found at the bottom of the ski hill. They report that a large black fur covered animal chased them down the hill. Officials believe Catzilla has returned.

Skiers missing Originally uploaded by ricmcarthur Citizens fear Catzilla may have returned. Further up dates as they occur.

I bring you FIRE! Originally uploaded by ricmcarthur As part of a phragmities eradication project, the biomass was burned off after the reed was killed. Phragmities is a highly invasive plant that takes over marshes. Cutting or digging it up encourages it to spread. I got 800 shots of the burn. I promise I will only post a few.

The length of Rondeau Originally uploaded by ricmcarthur Rondeau is a sand spit sticking about 10 miles out into Lake Erie. This is a view looking north to the narrow end of the Park. You can see the sloughs that built the Park. Basically sand bars grew big enough to become dry land, grasses started then bushes then trees.. Lake Erie to the right the bay and marsh to the left.

The length of Rondeau Originally uploaded by ricmcarthur Rondeau is a sand spit sticking about 10 miles out into Lake Erie. This is a view looking north to the narrow end of the Park. You can see the sloughs that built the Park. Basically sand bars grew big enough to become dry land, grasses started then bushes then trees.. Lake Erie to the right the bay and marsh to the left.

i went flying yesteday Originally uploaded by ricmcarthur There was an areial survey of Rondeau Provincial Park yesterday to check on the extent of phragmities growth. It is an exotic that doesn't belong here and it pushes out the cat tails. This is looking east over Erieau to Rondeau. Lake Erie is on the right. I had the opportunity to go along and took about 3200 photos. I will be posting more later.

Colour spill aisle 9 Originally uploaded by ricmcarthur I'd really like to trake a big bag of leaves to a paint store and spread them out in an aisle for this shot.

Many times when I am troubled or confused, I find comfort in sitting in my back yard and having a vodka and cranberry along with a quiet conversation with Jesus. This happened to me again after a particularly difficult day. I said "Jesus, why do I work so hard?"And I heard the reply: "Men find many ways to demonstrate the love they have for their family. You work hard to have a peaceful, beautiful place for your friends and family to gather." I said: "I thought that money was the root of all evil."And the reply was: "No, the LOVE of money is the root of all evil. Money is a tool; it can be used for good or bad".I was starting to feel better, but I still had that one burning question, so I asked it. "Jesus," I said, "what is the meaning of life? Why am I here?" He replied: "That is a question many men ask. The answer is in your heart and is different for everyone. I would love to chat with you some more, Senor, but for n

ET phone home Originally uploaded by ricmcarthur Maggie, the warbling cat climbed into the sleeve of Anne's house coat. She's not a kitten anymore and became stuck at the end. She was really irritated that she couldn't swat Cassey who was laughing at her. Cats CAN laugh. Reminded me of ET, phone home.

Rapunzel, Rapunzel, let down your hair, Originally uploaded by ricmcarthur I know I have a wierd mind but when I saw this I thought of the fairy tale. The stark tree with the vine streaming down (up?). seemed to be golden hair, and my hare brin was off and running.

Hey Ralph, you got peanuts over there? Originally uploaded by ricmcarthur A group of evening grossbeaks came through our yard last weekend. It was a fist time yard bird. The light was poor but they are so colourful I decided to post the photo anyway.

Dressed for Halloween Originally uploaded by ricmcarthur This red winged black bird dressed up as a Rose breasted Gross beak for Halloween. He wanted me to check his make up. Pretty good job ,eh?

Some days you have a good selection of birds, other times they are awesome. The day started with a beautiful sunrise over Lake Erie while I was having my coffee. There was a report on he internet of a white faced ibis near Point Pelee on the weekend. As we live about 45 miles away and it was a geougeousl fall day we decide to head off and see what we could find. Driving along the road that hugs the north coast of Lake Erie , Anne spotted what she thought was a bald eagle. After pulling over and taking a look we realized it was a golden eagle, this was only the second time we had seen one. It stayed fairly low so we had excellent looks at the bird. A bald eagle appeared and started harassing the golden; they were flipping on their backs and presenting their talons. This is something we had only seen on TV before. After a few minutes a second bald eagle showed up. At one point we had 2 bald and a golden in the same field of view. We continued down to Hillma

TRAP SHOOTING HALL OF FAME Originally uploaded by ricmcarthur I understand that Dick Cheney was a charter member. I didn't know his hunting friends name was Trap

The wind was up an the wind surfers and para surfers were out in big numbers at Rondeau Provincial Park. The were flying across the bay at incredible speeds and doing high jumps. This is Oct 21st people, isn't it a bit chilly?

My wife, Anne had an email from a local birder that a north wheatear had been seen near the dock at Shrewsbury , Ontario . That is about 20 minutes from our place, just across Rondeau Bay . She called me and arranged to meet me there after work. I got to the dock around 4:30 pm and saw group of birders, the binoculars and spotting scopes were a give away, looking across the road. When I got out and went over the bird was sitting on a concrete block, in the sun light, basically posing. I watched it and took photos for about 20 minutes before it flew to a more inaccessible area. The wheatear is a very rare bird in our area. It is occasionally seen on the Labrador coast and Baffin island .

You said the water was warm Originally uploaded by ricmcarthur A puddle formed on the sidewalk while we were power washing the siding. We had a large number of sparrows, juncos and red breasted nuthatches coming in for a splash. Their look made me think of the old line " Come on innn , the wwwattttters fffine." Photo by Anne McArthur

At 3.39 a.m. there was a crashing noise from the dining area, closely followed by a second rattling crash. To paraphrase The Night Before Christmas – “there arose such a clatter, I sprang from my bed to see what was the matter.” The screen had been knocked out of the dining rooms’ window frame and a knick-knack was lying on the floor. As I reached the window a small masked face was staring at me. A young raccoon was clinging to the window sill, intent on getting in. I yelled at the little home invader and closed the window. We have had trouble with this one before, knocking down and breaking feeders and trying to get into the garbage can that holds the seeds and peanuts. It got to the point that we now keep the metal cans in the house, which probably displeased our night time visitor and caused the attempted break in. I returned to bed only to hear a new assault. He was clawing at the patio screen door. I turned on the outside light, opened the door and yelled at him.

Hey buddy, can you spare a finger Originally uploaded by ricmcarthur AT a banding demonstration at Hawk Cliff in Ontario. This Harris Hawk is used for falconry and education programs. Looked like he could remove a finger rather easily.

A couple Originally uploaded by ricmcarthur Another sculpture from the Royal Botanical Gardens in Hamilton, Ontario. Not quite life sized but close.

Not enough for a baseball team Originally uploaded by ricmcarthur Migrating blue jays found this puddle and were enjoying a bath. Some of the jays looked embarrassed over the enthusiasm showed by the bathers

Stare down Originally uploaded by ricmcarthur Just like the old west, a stand off at high noon. This pond isn't big enough for the two of us.

He's eating my flowers Originally uploaded by ricmcarthur Found this bug on a plant in the yard a few days ago. He seems to like semi circles. He is smaller than you little finger nail.

I've got my eye on you Originally uploaded by ricmcarthur As part of the banding demonstration, the bander put a sharp shined hawk into the hands of this young fellow. The sharpie fixates on its prey and the head stays still and the body pivots around the head. By quickly putting the bird into the boys hands, the hawk fixated on him. After a few moments the bander quickly pushed up on the boys hands and the hawk flew away.

Into the wild blue yonder Originally uploaded by ricmcarthur We were at a hawk watch on the weekend and they were banding and releasing the birds. The weather was delightfully rotten with strong north-west winds and a slight overcast. The wind pushes the hawks against the north shore of Lake Erie and funnels them along the shore as the head for Detroit Michigan. They gather on the Canadian side, gather altitude and then “kettle” and stream across the Detroit River. They released kestrels, sharpies, coopers, red tailed and a harrier. This is the northern harrier some times called a marsh hawk. Evidently some of you couldn't see the photo linked from flickr. so I'm adding it again. Ric

Out regional fair had a human canon ball this year. He put on a good show, checking the landing net, staging his entry into the canon, and of course he flew through the air with the greatest of ease……… no that’s the trapeze guy. My camera will only capture 3 frames a second, with large gaps in between, so you I will have to leave you in suspense as to where he landed.

One day old Originally uploaded by ricmcarthur We were at the Western Fair (state fair for my American friends). We don't bother with the rides but there is a lot to see. We went in to see a sheep shearing demonstration, which was excellent, when we saw this lamb that had been born earlier in the day. The mother hovered over it looking exhausted.

Anne and I have only seen two other American bitterns and that was when we had spooked them up out of a marsh. Not the same seeing them fly away. We were out on the pontoon boat on the weekend and this fine fellow posed for us, not once but twice. I took photos as we went past him and again on the way back to the dock.

Last weekend we took a day trip to Toronto, Ontario to experience a buskerfest. We didn't have an opportunity to see all the acts but the ones we did catch were first class. Several unicycle/acrobat/jugglers, yo-yo people, fire eaters, contortionists and much more. One boothe was doing balloon creatures. $3-5 for smaller ones. I have no idea how much this dragon would cost.

We recently went to the Wins of Paradise, a butterfly conservancy near Guelph, Ontario and we had a great time. Blue Morpho landed on Annes back. There was a good variety, the butterflies were cooperative and the staff were knowledgeable and friendly. Close up of an Owl butterfly. I found this facility to be better than the one at Niagara Falls. It is privately run and it is obvious they try harder. The chrysalis are easy to view and you can see the progress towards hatching out. I don't normally promote any facility, other than Rondeau Provincial Park, but I am making an exception. It is worth the trip. Go enjoy yourself. Take a camera!