Rondeau Ric

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.