The Wolf Grove Diary

2012-01-27T23:36:00.001-05:00

Beady Eyes is back!

Flying squirrel on the kitchen windowsill eating the shelled sunflower seeds. Big, fat and getting fatter.

2012-01-27T16:48:00.003-05:00

The Fox Sparrow is still hanging around.

He was here yesterday am and for a couple of hours this morning. I wonder if he'll stay for the winter now?

2012-01-25T10:51:00.002-05:00

A very special bird in Lanark Co. in late January. Fox Sparrow - he's been hanging around, eating the Tree Sparrows' lunch,

since mid-December.

2012-01-24T13:40:00.002-05:00

The Four-Legged Canary In A Coal Mine.

BRRRRRRRRR! Wonder If He's As Sick Of Winter As I?

2012-01-19T08:25:00.000-05:00

It's really sad to see old friends in trouble.

Kodak has applied for bankruptcy protection.

2011-12-22T12:12:00.001-05:00

Male Ruffed Grouse in courtship display.

Grouse Breast Piquante
(From the book 40+ recipes to make food taste as you think it shoud. ISBN 0-9686559-0-4

There are many ways to cook game birds but this recipe certainly produces the most elegant meal and possibly the tastiest as well. The combination of flavours here makes this far and away the finest possible way to present ruffed grouse - with these fine birds the recipe truly sings!
Wild shaggy mane and field mushrooms grow in profusion in our area during the early part of the grouse hunting season, and make an excellent accompaniment to this recipe.
If you can't get grouse, another game bird will do; second best would be guinea fowl and after that, pheasant, pigeon, wild duck or chicken, but this is a pungent recipe that does best with more strongly flavoured game.
Remove the breast meat in fillets and pound the thicker pieces gently with a wooden mallet or cleaver until all pieces are the same thickness.
The skillet to be used for this recipe should be heavy enameled iron or heavy stainless steel; an ordinary iron or steel pan will discolour the white breast meat of grouse or pheasant.
Dredge the fillets lightly with seasoned flour and sauté slowly in a little butter until done. Do not allow surface of fillets to crisp. Arrange in a single layer on a platter and reserve, covered, in 200 degree oven.
In the skillet (with a little more butter if necessary), sauté the onion until soft and translucent. (Our #1 son obtained some of his early working experience as a pearl diver in a Japanese restaurant. Cooks there told him always to slice onions lengthwise. To cut across the grain "offends" the onion. We don't know if they were putting him on, but onions certainly seem sweeter and tastier when slivered this way.)
When the onion is ready, add two tablespoons of balsamic vinegar and one packet of powdered beef stock dissolved in 3/4 cup of hot stock or water. Deglaze pan and reduce sauce by half to thicken (thickening can be hastened with a little more cold butter). Just before serving add one tablespoon of chopped parsley and tarragon and one tablespoon of chopped sour pickles (optional).
Pour sauce over cooked fillets and garnish with fresh parsley. Serve with brown/red rice combo and any of lightly steamed carrot and zucchini slices, snow peas, sautéed mushrooms or squash.
Serves two

2011-12-21T19:31:00.000-05:00

Happy New Year!

At 05:30 EST on Thursday the solstice will arrive. The sun will begin its fresh journey home. Every day will be a little bit longer.

Good news for photographers and old natural pagans.

Happy New Year everyone.

2011-11-26T09:57:00.001-05:00

Mea culpa? No bloody way!

I’m becoming very fed up with the accusation that I and my other humans on this earth are responsible for global warming as a result of increased CO2 emissions that we are responsible for.

It’s a lot of bullpucker.

There is incontrovertible evidence that the theory of global warming by CO2 is wrong and has no scienticic merit.

The eco-terrorists try to frighten us with warnings that melting ice will flood the world and drown us all.

More bullpucker.

But records assure us that sea level from 1790 to 2010 has remained within a 20cm range. Recent evidence indicates that sea level is dropping at a rate of 5mm per year.

They try to frighten us with threats of the disappearance of Arctic ice, the opening of the Northwest Passage and the demise of all our polar bears.

But they conveniently ignore the fact that an RCMP Schooner, The St. Roch, traveled eastbound through the passage in 1940 and westbound a few years later.

So what’s new?

Recent work by scientists overwhelmingly indicates that CO2 plays little or no role in supposed “man-made warming”.

Mea culpa? Not bloody likely.

Don't Eat Me, I Don’t Taste Good

2011-10-31T04:38:00.000-04:00

I recently attended a meeting of our local field naturalist society where the speaker lectured on the strategies some animals (mostly insects) adopt to avoid being eaten by predators.
Research indicates that effective strategies can involve unpalatability, toxicity, the use of warning colours, markings and startling movement. While not a lot of research has yet been done, some of our long-held beliefs are already being exposed as myths.

Adult Monarch Butterfly

One defense is thought to be “mimicry”, where a palatable insect “mimics” the appearance of an unpalatable one. Likely the best known example is of the Viceroy and Monarch butterflies.
Monarch larvae feed on milkweed plants which are toxic and the larvae are said to become distasteful to predatory birds and small animals.
Viceroy butterflies very closely mimic Monarchs and for a long time have been thought to be avoided by predators because of that similarity, even if Viceroy larvae don’t eat milkweed.

It’s a great theory. Trouble is, it quite possibly isn’t correct.

Adult Viceroy Butterfly. Note diagnostic dark bar on hind wing.

Recent research indicates that Viceroys may be unappetizing in their own right and their similarity to Monarchs may be no more than coincidence.

So another myth bites the dust.

The bight colouration of Monarch Butterfly larvae is thought to be a warning - "don't eat me, I don't taste good". But this Stink Bug finds Monarch larvae tasty enough. (A Stink Bug's defence against predators may be the foul odour these guys exude when disturbed.)

More interesting to me is how the predators come to know they should avoid certain insects.
Most lepidopterists and many scientists believe it is a learned behavior - a bird grabs a Monarch butterfly and is repelled by the taste. Ever after, that bird avoids both Monarchs and Viceroy butterflies.
But does it really happen that way? Or is this just another fanciful theory without foundation.

Could the explanation be much deeper and more mysterious? Something like inherent fear?

Why not?

Any farmer will tell you how chickens, hatched in an incubator and raised without other adult birds, will demonstrate abject fear at the sight of a predatory bird on the distant horizon. How do the chickens know that bird is a threat?

What about the innate fear of snakes common to many horses?

Toss a length of garden hose into an enclosure with horses and watch the hose be chopped into small pieces in short order.

From where do the chickens and horses get that inherent fear?

There is so much of the natural world we simply don’t understand.

Another protective phenomenon can be deceptive appearance. The following two images of Viceroy larvae resemble nothing more than bird droppings and would likely be ignored by most hungry birds.

My on line stock photo catalogue now has more than 11,000 images like the ones in this newsletter available for use in advertising, publication and on the internet.

Just drop me a line.

Links to some of my butterfly and insect pages:

Link to Monarch Butterfly photos.

Link to Viceroy Butterfly photos.

Link to Monarch Butterfly life cycle photos.

Link to photos of extinct and extirpated butterflies.

Link to selection of butterfly photo galleries.

Link to 32 other selected insect groups.

Ottawa Duck Club 2011 Statistics

2011-10-30T18:35:00.004-04:00

Had a look at the late summer edition of The Nest Box, newsletter of the Ottawa Duck Club. Main activity of the club is the installation of nest boxes for ducks (Wood Ducks and Hooded Mergansers mostly). They keep stats on 61 boxes (about one-third of the boxes they have in place).

This year the boxes held an average of 10.4 eggs, close to the nine-year average of 10.8. 377 Wood Duck eggs were laid and 265 hatched (71%). 299 Merganser eggs were laid and 191 hatched (64%). If the other boxes did as well, that would be almost 2,000 eggs per year.

There has been a steady increase in the number of Merganser eggs laid each year. It is not known if this is at the expense of the Wood Ducks.

The volunteer club operates in the wildlife sanctuary on the military training ground and rifle range just west of Ottawa. Website is at http://www.ottawaduckclub.com

A Mennonite Church on Sunday Morning.

2011-09-23T04:42:00.000-04:00

A new series of photos from Waterloo Co., Ontario. (link)

Summer is for bugs

2011-08-01T02:21:00.000-04:00

Summer is for bugs

What’s A Freetard?

2011-07-01T06:47:00.000-04:00

A freetard is someone who wants to use your photos without paying for the right to do so. Usually for some commercial reason.

Often it’s a business or publication that “has no budget for photography”. (Bet the business owner or editor gets paid!) Even more often it’s a “contest” where you’re promised “exposure”. That’s exposure almost as illegal and worth about as much to you as the other kind.

We have those photo contests in our own community all the time. One is underway now - if you win you get to see your photo in a commercial calendar for next year. That’s advertising, used to promote a business - where the use of photos should be paid for at handsome rates, because the firm/store/organization is using your photo to produce revenue.

Then there’re the columns in our local papers who have a policy - “we don’t pay for pictures”. They’re stuffed end to end with costly advertisements.

Another culprit is the good cause. Many of us like to support causes close to our hearts. But one must wonder why such causes demand “all reproduction rights, in perpetuity, in any and all media now known or to be developed in future”.

Wonder they don’t want your first-born as well.

When you encounter them, know these scams and thefts for what they are. Decline to participate. Your reward for doing that? How much is your self-respect worth to you?

Melancholy lady

2011-06-19T10:17:00.000-04:00

Pretty girls should always be happy . . .

More pictures.

Birds Are Vicious!

2011-06-02T16:00:00.000-04:00

Folks (especially many “birders”, as distinct from bird watchers) often have a warm, glowing, anthropomorphic view of birds. Much of it is just plain silliness, based on what people would like to think the natural world is.

Truth is, birds are vicious. Beautiful, yes. “Cute” sometimes. Aggressive. Often selfish. Always territorial. Fight to the death.

Like one of the male robins who has taken over much of our rural property in the Wolf Grove.

He’s discovered a rival who lives in one of our living room windows. For days now, he’s spent most of the daylight hours fighting that rival. Trying to drive him off, or worse.

The rival, of course, is his own reflection. (No one ever said male robins with surging hormones were smart.)

Out of concern for his well being, I’ve taped a white kitchen towel over the inside of the particular window frame where his enemy lives. That seems to have reduced the reflectance factor enough so the bird has decided he’s won the battle.

He came back a few times after I put up the towel. Fluttered about a bit - “where are you now, you so-and-so?”

He seems now to have gone about his other duties of driving competitors away.

There are many other bird images in my online stock photo catalogue. Image researchers searching for images can be assured of prompt, accurate service at any time.

There are some 10,000 other images there, keyword searchable and organized into 29 gallery collections for ready reference.

BEETLES

2011-04-28T10:31:00.001-04:00

There are more named species of beetles in this world than any other group - described beetles make up about a quarter of all described animal groups.

In the book Insects: Their Natural History and Diversity, ISBN-13:978-1-55297-900-6, prof Stephen Marshall tells us beetles are found almost everywhere in the world and range in size from 0.25 mm up to 20 cm, a range equal to that between the tiniest shrew and the largest whale.

Beetles can be mightily destructive (Emerald Ash Borer), great cleaner-uppers (Carrion Beetles) or just simply beautiful as they go about the business of living, growing and reproducing.

My keyword searchable website inclues includes 33 galleries of beetle photos, all available in high resolution for educational, editorial, corporate and advertising uses.

When you need images of beetles, please have a look. If you are a photo researcher and wouild like to be able to download 600 pixel files for review and comping, without charge, just let me know by email. I'll be pleased provide that access.

I saw the first butterfly in the Ottawa district!

2011-04-12T12:37:00.000-04:00

An Eastern Comma at about 11 am on April 8. (About a month later than usual.) There'll be more. Soon.

Prothonotary Warbler feeding on mosquito larvae

2011-04-12T10:04:00.000-04:00

Photo © John T. Fowler and may not be downloaded or reproduced without permission. Photo prints available for sale.

This little lady is moving out.

2011-04-05T16:51:00.001-04:00

Tonite!

Leave home for a weekend to watch some baseball, you never know who'll move in while you're away.

(Just wait 'til Bonnie gets home and sees this.)

The wrong side of the zoo fence

2011-04-05T04:06:00.000-04:00

If you ever wanted to know what it's like to be on the wrong side of the fence in a zoo, just go to a Blue Jay opener and sit in the nosebleed section. My buddy Bob said you gotta do it once - the atmosphere is to "experience". He was right on both counts (especially the "once"). We were three rows down from the very top at the Skydome or whatever they call it now. Great view, 'specially of the drunks and fights. Even of the two jerks who decided to hurl full cans of beer down on the heads of the folks below. Security was conspicuous by it's absence, as the saying has it. I don't think any kids got hit. Anyway, we won the blowout 13-3 and I've now done it. Twice. First time and last time.

Summer is somewhere

2011-03-29T20:37:00.005-04:00

The Chicadees are singing love songs.

2011-03-29T19:47:00.000-04:00

Can spring be far?

Another sign of spring

2011-03-24T16:51:00.002-04:00

Beautiful big Red-tailed Hawk down the road yesterday.

How photographers (and other creatives) get ripped off.

2011-03-21T13:16:00.001-04:00

Offir Gutelzon wrote:

Hi,

Help us at picscout to invite as many possible, creativepro, communication workers, bloggers, graphic designers and other people who interact with images on a daily basis,

invite them to register to a free webinar "how to Avoid the Confusion! Learn When and How To Safely Use Online Images"

they can register here

https://www3.gotomeeting.com/register/565782910

Thanks

-Offir

Avoid the Confusion! Learn When and How To Safely Use Online Images...

www3.gotomeeting.com

on Wednesday, March 23, 2011 11:00 AM Hear from a photographer who saw his likeness used thousands of times around the world, without attribution or compensation, after posting a set of self-portraits on Flickr, and learn about other recent examples.

Sugar Snow

2011-03-21T11:43:00.000-04:00

When I was a boy living in Quebec's Eastern Townships I used to work nights boiling maple sap for a local farmer. In late March and early April we'd get some pretty heavy falls of snow - large, wet, sticky flakes about the size of a half-dollar, which were in common use back then.

We called it "sugar snow". The maples seemed to like it, the sap seemed to run faster and sweeter.

It's coming down now, with a vengeance. We're gonna get 10 cm they say. Yuck!

Keeping the ol' chrome dome warm

2011-03-20T13:56:00.000-04:00

Few days ago my slumbercap arrived. It's great! Getting a better night's sleep (with lots of fresh air) than for a long time.

Got it from a nice lady who makes these things as a home business:

http://www.slumbercap.com/about.html

Summer WILL come . . .

2011-03-05T08:50:00.000-05:00

I have faith

YUMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM!

2011-02-27T17:22:00.000-05:00

Dinner in the raw.

Check your furnace for wood ducks

2011-02-24T13:06:00.000-05:00

Where I live spring doesn't arrive until May. But some of nature's creatures are as anxious for it's arrival as I.

1. That includes Wood Ducks.

Woodies are hole-nesters. They'll use nest boxes, but prefer hollow trees. Sometimes they'll confuse other structures for hollow trees.

You may be surprised to learn that one such place can be your furnace. It is important that you do watch there, 'cause it's a very dry, dusty place, unhealthy for a duck.

A prospective mother wood duck can be quite creative when searching for a new home. She wants a deep, dark hole, where she and her nest can be protected from marauding crows, blackbirds, raccoons and other predators looking for an easy lunch.

Chimneys can be quite attractive. At least, mine seems to be. On two occasions I've had to retrieve these ducks from my furnace and release them back to the wilds.

I live in the Wolf Grove of Lanark County in eastern Ontario. It's a large, rough area of limestone ridges, dense mixed forest, streams and many beaver ponds on the very southern fringe of the Canadian Shield.

Lots of dead trees. Great wood duck nesting country.

I found the first wood duck in my furnace quite by accident. In my passive-solar efficient house I no longer need to use the wood furnace for heat by early spring. But on a couple of occasions a couple of days apart I heard metallic noises from the furnace room. I put it down to my two cats, who liked to clamber around on the air ducts in search of adventure.

Then, a day or so later, I was passing the furnace door and heard the sound again. I knew both cats were outside and couldn't imagine what the sound might be. Soon I heard it again, coming from inside the firebox.

On opening the door I found one very dry and dusty mother wood duck. How long she had been there I have no idea, but I had no difficulty catching her and releasing her outside. She seemed strong enough, able to fly well, and headed directly down my long driveway and into the woods.

I passed the experience off as unusual and thought no more about it. For a couple of years.

Then, one late March morning, I heard that metallic noise again. I knew it wasn't cats, because my allergist had some time earlier directed me to find other good homes for them.

"Surely not another wood duck," I thought and headed for the firebox door.

Wrong again.

There was a second would-be-mother-wood-duck, equally dusty and disoriented, but certainly not as dry as the first one.

This one was able to get out of the firebox, and we had an energetic game of tag through a large cloud of wood ashes before I finally pinned her in a corner of the wood pile with the aid of my butterfly net.

She also flew strongly down the driveway and out of sight into the woods.

I've often wondered if it was the same bird. I even thought of applying for a federal bird-banding licence, just in case she came back again. In the end, I decided a screen over the chimney was simpler, and I haven't had any wood ducks in my furnace since.

But if you use a wood furnace and don't have your chimney screened, I suggest you watch your furnace for wood ducks as spring approaches.

The maternal instinct leads us all into some strange adventures - even for wood ducks.

- 30 -

Images and stock pictures of waterfowl and other wildlife are available at the on-line catalogue

here.

Keeping your head down uh, warm

2011-02-24T12:16:00.000-05:00

We like to sleep with a window open - the fresh air is nice. But when you're as old as I am, there isn't a lot of hair on top and the ol' bean can get pretty cool before morning when the temperature hits 20 below.

So - I'm buying a nightcap (actually, it's called a slumbercap, made by a lady who, like I, is a cancer survivor).

Can't wait to get it.

Here's a link to her website (her name is Ruth Klampert, btway.) The slumbercap is her only product.

http://www.slumbercap.com/about.html

I did a good bit of research to find this person and her product. Would you believe I couldn't find anything like it in Canada!

When it's cold as this . . .

2011-02-23T13:16:00.000-05:00

it's nice to look at orchid photos from last summer.

Another couple of signs

2011-02-21T10:47:00.002-05:00

Haven't seen a black squirrel for weeks. This morning there are three out back, trying to decide who's going to do what to whom. Yesterday I heard a Chicadee singing a love song. First one this year. Can't wait.

Time to think warm thoughts

2011-02-19T19:35:00.000-05:00

Horrible, bitter cold day here with a vicious strong north wind blowing trees down and roofs away. Think about the woodcock - they'll be back soon.

Spring Is In The Air Today

2011-02-18T10:20:00.001-05:00

It won't be long before the boiling begins in Lanark Co., Maple Syrup Capital Of Ontario. The pipelines are washed and connected, the pumps are tested, the reverse osmosis is ready and the separators are cleaned and ready for sap.

To see the story of making maple syrup, click here.

Spring soon?

2011-02-17T12:01:00.001-05:00

Spring is sprung, the grass is riz. I wonder where the boidies is?

Actually, not a lotta grass rizzed yet. But great flocks of ugly starlings feeding along the roadside. And the Blue Jays are singing love songs in the back yard. Not the Chicadees or Cardinal so far, but 'twon't be long.

Whoo! Hoo!

View from the office window - He's a beauty

2011-02-01T14:35:00.002-05:00

Very nice young male grouse under the feeder outside the kitchen window this morning. How does one expect to get any work done with visitors like this?

Is ESP Real?

2011-01-12T09:44:00.010-05:00

Professor Emeritus of Psychology Daryl Bem of Cornell University has released results of a study that indicates Extra Sensory Perception (ESP) may exist. The results have met with a little support and a whole lot of denial.

As have many others, I, in my lifetime, have experienced events that cannot be explained in ordinary terms. One experience was so dramatic that, after many years, the back of my neck still tingles when I tell the story.

Baz (the name I'll use for this story) was a neighbour and close friend. We shared hobbies and interests, and I was almost part of his family. He always had a natural, effective power of communication - he often seemed able to anticipate my actions and even my very thoughts.

Like most people in our working class district of west-end Montreal, we lived in rented one-level "flats", stacked one above the other in piles of three or four. Typically, Baz's flat was long and narrow with a single hallway.

At one end of the hallway was the kitchen and rear entrance. Along the rest of the hallway were bedrooms, with a living room at the far end and a small bedroom adjacent. In a bunk set in that small bedroom slept two of Baz's young boys.

Baz's wife Marie had a younger sister, Anne. She suffered from rheumatic fever; usually fatal in those days. Anne lived in east-end Montreal and was frequently in hospital for treatment.

One evening during one of Anne's stays in hospital I was keeping Baz company while Marie visited with her sister - a visit that meant more than an hour's travel each way on Montreal's ancient street car transit system (none of us could afford automobiles at that time).

Anne was very sick, so we didn't expect Marie home before at least midnight or one a.m.

The house was silent. The kids were long asleep; this was before the introduction of television.

Baz and I were drinking tea and working quietly on the kitchen table with a set of plans for a new racing boat he hoped to build in the spring.

Near midnight we were startled by the loud noise of something falling and glass breaking at the front of the house.

Baz looked up, a question in his eyes. Without speaking he rose from his chair and went directly to the boys' bedroom at the end of the hallway. A careful search showed nothing out of place. Both children slept soundly. Nothing had fallen.

Baz backed from the door, stood quietly for a moment looking at me without speaking. I watched carefully.

He started back toward the kitchen, then stopped and turned his head to glance into the darkened, empty living room.

Reaching only his hand around the door frame into the room, he flipped on the overhead light. Then stood there, motionless, for the longest time.

He didn't look back at me. But in a quiet voice commanded "come here and look at this."

I did, stopped beside him, and looked into the room.

Across the room Anne's photograph lay on the floor. It had fallen from the wall. The frame was twisted, the glass shattered.

Anne's face looked quietly up at us, the gentle, warm face we knew so well.

Baz made no move to pick up the photograph. I said nothing.

Then in the kitchen, the telephone rang. Baz looked at me.

"I'll get it?" It was a question.

He nodded.

I went to the phone, lifted the receiver. It was Marie.

"John?"

"Yes."

"It's Marie."

A pause.

"Please put Baz on. Anne is gone. She died just a few minutes ago."

**********************************************************************************
Another Mysterious Story

Professor Bem's Report

Objects that appear to be faces

2010-11-02T02:41:00.010-04:00

Chrysalises of predatory Harvester Butterflies.

YUCKO!

2010-10-31T10:32:00.002-04:00

Woke up to a big dump of wet, heavy, sticky snow this morning. Grrrrrrrrrrr.

Don't mess with me.

2010-10-24T13:45:00.002-04:00

Black Bear territorial markings on trunk of White Birch tree.

I am so not ready for this!

2010-10-23T23:24:00.002-04:00

Even tho' I kinda look forward to winter when there are fewer distractions to keep me from my image editing pleasures, I can get along without even the lightest snowfall in October.

Another View

2010-10-21T11:53:00.003-04:00

Saints Peter and Paul Ukranian Catholic Church, Gravelbourg, Saskatchewan. 2010

BRrrrrrrrrrr - and lottsa Juncos

2010-10-19T06:40:00.002-04:00

The frost is on the punkin this morning here in Lanark Co. -2C. But some good news as well.

Large flock of Juncos back of the house yesterday, cleaning up the scratch grain I threw out there, hoping to see a White-Crowned Sparrow this fall. No sparrow but there must have been 30/40 Juncos which is really a lot, and early.

I do hope they stick around. Not too likely, however.

New Portrait/Wedding photo service for NCRegion

2010-10-09T09:07:00.013-04:00

My new business is now up and running.

(The studio is still a-building, looking at early November for that opening.) Please have a look:

The Almonte Photographer

An interesting structure.

2010-10-04T16:54:00.007-04:00

Saints Peter and Paul Ukranian Catholic Church, Gravelbourg, Saskatchewan. September, 2010

Northern Leopard Frogs very abundant now

2010-09-03T09:12:00.002-04:00

A Co-operation of Thieves

2010-08-30T02:25:00.019-04:00

Then this ebony bird beguiling my sad fancy into smiling,
By the grave and stern decorum of the countenance it wore.
"Though thy crest be shorn and shaven, thou," I said, "art sure no craven,
Ghastly grim and ancient raven wandering from the Nightly shore -
Tell me what thy lordly name is on the Night's Plutonian shore!"
Quoth the Raven, "Nevermore."

From The Raven, by Edgar Allan Poe

Photo courtesy of Allen Russell

Early on a bitter morning in winter I sit in the window of a room high up in the Yellowknife Inn, coffee in hand, taking in the scene below. Stark and frigid, and the paleness of the low Arctic sun offers no comfort to the scene.

From a house down the road appears a person, huddled in a dark parka, bearing a bowl. From a kennel in the yard emerges a sled dog, large and furry. The bowl placed on the ground, the person returns inside. Dog begins breakfast.

Now from down the way emerge two large black ravens to land on the ground some little distance from dog. Dog eyes them warily, begins eating faster.

Does he know what is about to occur?

One raven approaches the bowl. Dog lunges to the end of a heavy chain. Raven lifts as a feather, carefully just out of dog’s reach.

Raven two dashes to the bowl, gulps a beak of food.

Dog lunges. Raven two lifts.

Raven one darts to the bowl, gulps a beak of food.

Dog lunges. Raven lifts.

Raven two dashes to the bowl.

The scenario continues. Ravens eat. Dog lunges.

The telephone rings. The meeting is beginning.

I wonder to this day if the final sharing of the food was equitable.

Allen Russell photographs what he knows best, "Life in the American West".

Down By The Riverside

2010-08-27T09:51:00.003-04:00

The Gentians Bloom

Home Sweet Home

2010-08-25T08:10:00.002-04:00

Still Growing Strong

2010-08-23T15:49:00.005-04:00

Day 5 - growing larger.

Then, there's another hiding down in the bushes . . .

The biggest puffball mushroom in the world

2010-08-21T16:43:00.002-04:00

That's what I'm gonna have in a few days - right outside the kitchen window. It's only three days old now.

New Photo Print Show Opens Friday

2010-08-04T09:25:00.002-04:00

170 dead frogs per mile

2010-07-11T20:14:00.012-04:00

We had a good shower here Friday evening - a guarantee to bring the frogs out. Saturday morning my wife and I went for a power walk. I counted 19 dead frogs in 200 yards along the gravel road in front of our home.

They were of a size - small - and all seemed to be young Green Frogs (Rana clamitans melanota). Precise identification was difficult, given the poor condition of the remains.

Most years we have good numbers of these guys - the adults are calling now, July 11, in the beaver pond behind the house

Some years they almost disappear from the pond. There are many ideas why this happens, including pollution and acid rain. I believe it's a function of how many otters we have living in the pond. Following a year when I see evidence of an otter family in the pond, the Green Frogs seem to be very scarce indeed.

These are colourful, large animals, second in size only to the Bullfrogs around here.

I have some fine stock photos of Green Frogs (and other species) available in my on line photo catalogue.

John T. Fowler

How Quickly They Grow!

2010-06-24T19:00:00.031-04:00

Day 1. Freshly hatched American Robins.

I discovered this year, by chance, a robin’s nest, just at eye level, in a lilac bush at the edge of my lawn.

The nest was quite exposed (not a very smart robin?) I was able, then, to catch the development of the young birds and photograph them without disturbing them in any way - other than a little psychological trauma to mother robin.

Day 3. Growing already.

I photographed the nest only briefly every other day to keep disturbance to a minimum, and kept careful watch over it all the time, to protect it from the marauding red squirrels who like nothing better than a feast of young songbird nestlings.

Day 5. Looking like robins already.

There was one close call but I happened to be nearby when the parent birds put up a ruckus to wake the dead, so I was able to drive the squirrel off (little gratitude received, btway.)

Day 7.

The rate of growth of the young birds was nothing short of phenomenal!
On the tenth day after hatching they were fully fledged and left the nest.
I was very happy to be able to photograph this development (using my new 300mm Nikon telephoto part of the time to keep a good distance from the nest).

Day 9. Not much room in the Inn now.

Day 11. Hello world. Are you ready?

A full set of the images are now available for downloading from my on line stock picture catalogue.

Spring Flowers in Abundance

2010-05-20T08:21:00.011-04:00

I'm really enjoying the spring flower profusion this year, both because of the early spring weather and the pleasure of using my new top-of-the-line Nikon SLR. Here are a few examples:

Wild Strawberry

Starflower

Bleeding Heart

Barren Strawberry

These images, and many other wildflower photos, are available for viewing and downloading at my on line stock photo catalogue.

Back Of The House Photos

2010-05-19T09:16:00.001-04:00

The wildflowers are enjoying our early spring and bloom in profusion. It seems the "early" part is over now, though and things are slowing down to a more normal rate of progression.

The Starflowers are especially abundant.

Ad infinitum

2010-04-14T00:56:00.023-04:00

"So nat'ralists observe, a flea
Hath smaller fleas that on him prey,
And these have smaller fleas that bite 'em,
And so proceed ad infinitum."
Jonathan Swift

About parasites, saprophytes, epiphytes
and other living things.

This newsletter is to introduce some of my favourite images of interesting animals and plants, and the ways they succeed in the natural world. All these images and more, of course, are available from my on-line image catalogue (click here), where 600 pixel files can be downloaded at no charge for review and comping, where 50 meg files can be purchased with payment via Paypal, or ordered for delivery with payment later via invoice.

I hope you enjoy looking at and learning a little about these interesting natural phenomena.

An ichneuman wasp, Trogus pennator, emerging from the chrysalis of a Black Swallowtail Butterfly, Papilio polyxenes. An adult wasp deposited an egg on the butterfly larva. The wasp egg hatched after the butterfly larva pupated, then consumed the butterfly larva, reached maturity and changed to an adult wasp to emerge from the chrysalis shell. Note emergence hole at upper left.

Indian Pipe, Monotropa Uniflora - the Ghost Plant. A parasitic herbaceous perrenial without chlorophyll, hosted by certain fungi that are mycorrhizal with trees, meaning it ultimately gets its energy from photosynthetic trees.

Earthworms and millipedes are detritivores.

Saprophyte is a botanical term now considered obsolete. Plants that were once known as saprophytes, such as non-photosynthetic orchids, are now known to be parasites on fungi.

Saprophages or detritivores obtain nutrients by consuming detritus and are important to many ecosystems. Saprophages include earthworms, millipedes, wood lice and other small animals.

This large African Millipede, Archispirostreptus gigus, is infested with mites (not identified).

This House Centipede, Scutigera coleoptrata, is neither parasite nor detritivore, but an insectivore. It kills and eats arthopods - insects and spiders.

A dragonfly, Sympetrum sp., very heavily parasitised with water mites. a common affliction of dragonflies. One wonders how an animal in such condition can survive.

A heavily parasitised Sphingid Moth (Hawkmoth) larva and, below, an inchworm (Geometrid moth) Phigulea titea.

The larvae of many flies, beetles and mites live on and in the foliage of many plants and trees, sometimes between the very surface layers of leaves like this Burr Oak.

I very much enjoy photographing interesting things in the natural world and will be working diligently to add to my image files now that a new growing season is upon us. If there is something special you need, or have been trying to find without success, please let me know via email. I'll try my best to find it or shoot it for you at regular stock photo rates.

Thank you for taking time to read this newsletter. Please be assured that any request for imagery will receive my best efforts to help you find what you need.

PS. For a visual index of my complete on line catalogue, organized into 28 gallery collections by subject matter,
click here.

Spring is Getting Closer!

2010-03-07T14:45:00.006-05:00

The surest sign of approaching spring in Lanark County where I live is the great clouds of steam rising from the sugar shacks.

They started a few days ago.

The sap is running, the tapping is done and the golden amber first-run syrup (the best of the crop) is coming out of the evaporators.

This is a highly mechanized, stainless steel industry now. Far from the old days of large iron stoves containing great piles of flaming wood.

I’ll be following the process this spring at my neighbour’s operation, the Fortune Farm. I’ll be documenting the process step by step, and will be posting fresh images to my website here regularly.

Please check in here from time to time?

Now On Facebook

2010-03-04T09:40:00.002-05:00

I've started a page on Facebook - devoted mostly to promoting my commercial/corporate photography. You can see it here.

Is That A Taser In Your Pocket Or Are You Just Glad To See Me?

2010-02-23T17:43:00.004-05:00

If it's a taser you'd better take it out, because static electricity could give you a shock.

That's what the Winnipeg police are warning - if you should find the missing taser part thay lost. (Police tend to lose things from time to time - it's happened before they say.)

The lost cartridge can't be fired, but if you put it in your pocket, lookout!

50,000V. Yikes!

Happy New Year! Again!

2010-02-18T06:57:00.004-05:00

Baseball spring training begins today. First official workout Monday.

Click here.

2010-02-06T09:36:00.001-05:00

Wild Turkeys At The Kitchen Window

2010-02-03T10:12:00.014-05:00

200f/4 Nikkor Macro

Click Here for My On Line Stock Photo Catalogue

A Promise Of Spring

2010-01-30T08:02:00.010-05:00

Every year about this time I notice a dramatic lengthening in the day, morning and evening both, and then announce my joy at the promise that brings.

Today is such a day. Reading my paper in bed and watching the dawn break over a crystal clear sky, here was well more than two hours of bright light on the snow before the first rays of the sun appeared at 8 am.

Remarkable!

Just to keep things in perspective, however, the current temperature is -35C (15 below) and there's enough breeze to produce a wind chill of of about -40.

Spring will be a while yet. Put some more wood in the furnace and start the oatmeal cooking!

CHECK YOUR FURNACE FOR WOOD DUCKS

2010-01-19T11:40:00.013-05:00

It won’t be long before we begin watching for the return of our summer birds.

Robins, redwings, bluebirds. And ducks.

You may be surprised to learn that an important place to watch for wood ducks in spring is in your furnace.

It is also important that you do watch there, ‘cause it’s a very dry, dusty place, unhealthy for a duck.

Wood ducks are hole-nesters. Which means they nest in holes in old dead trees - and in the many nesting boxes that sportsmen’s clubs and naturalist associations erect for the ducks to use. Surprisingly, these nesting spots don’t have to be close to water.

A prospective mother wood duck can be quite creative when searching for a new home. She wants a deep, dark hole, where she and her nest can be protected from marauding crows, blackbirds, raccoons and other predators looking for an easy lunch.

Chimneys can be quite attractive to female wood ducks. At least, mine seems to be.

On two occasions I’ve had to retrieve these ducks from my furnace and release them back to the wilds.

I live in the Wolf Grove of Lanark County in eastern Ontario. It’s a large, rough area of limestone ridges, dense mixed forest and many beaver ponds. Ideal wood duck nesting country.

I found the first wood duck in my furnace quite by accident. In our passive-solar efficient house we no longer need to use the wood furnace for heat by early spring. But on a couple of occasions a couple of days apart I heard metallic noises from the furnace room. I put it down to my two cats, who liked to clamber around on the air ducts in search of adventure.

Then, one morning, I was passing the furnace door and heard the sound again. I knew both cats were outside and couldn’t imagine what the sound might be. Soon I heard it again, coming from inside the firebox.

On opening the door I found one very dry and dusty female wood duck. How long she had been there I have no idea, but I had no difficulty catching her and releasing her outside. She seemed strong enough, able to fly well, and headed directly down my long driveway and into the woods.

I passed the experience off as unusual and thought no more about it. For a couple of years.

Then, one late March morning, I heard that metallic noise again. I knew it wasn’t cats, because my allergist had some time earlier directed me to find other good homes for them.

“Surely not another wood duck,” I thought and headed for the firebox door.

Wrong again. There was a second would-be-mother wood duck, equally dusty and disoriented, but certainly not as dry as the first one. This one was able to get out of the firebox, and we had an energetic game of tag through a large cloud of wood ashes before I finally pinned her in a corner of the wood pile by using my butterfly net.

She also flew strongly down the driveway and out of sight into the woods.

I’ve often wondered if it was the same bird. I even thought of applying for a federal bird-banding licence, just in case she came back again. In the end, I decided a screen over the chimney was simpler, and I haven’t had any wood ducks in my furnace since.

But if you use a wood furnace and don’t have your chimney screened, I suggest you watch your furnace for wood ducks as spring arrives.

The maternal instinct leads us all into some strange adventures - even for wood ducks.

- 30 -

Santa Was Good To Us

2009-12-28T07:35:00.008-05:00

Another great Christmas behind us - nice pressies, wonderful family gatherings (they get better every year!), a couple of nice photographs of a gorgeous, beautiful young lady with fabulous hair.

Meet Madison.

Can't wait 'till she's a little older and a lot less shy!

Happy New Year!

2009-12-20T07:33:00.004-05:00

To those folks living in the Northern Hemisphere, I offer my very best wishes for a happy and prosperous new year.

If you find a tiny little bit of new energy in your spirit and a fresh spring in your step, it's because tommorow will mark the winter solstice.

The sun begins its return! The new year begins!

G#@***#!!! Life is not fair. (#1)

2009-12-14T07:38:00.006-05:00

I've used Gillette products - razors, shaving cream - for many years. Gillette promised me comfort and a close, smooth shave.

Not to mention lots of pretty girls who'd lovingly caress my smooth skin day and night.

I have to admit the promise was kept. The girls are nice. 'specially the full-time one now in my life. And she really appreciates when I take time to shave.

Gillette always seemd to work for me, even when, 20 years ago at age 58, I bought a shiny new English sports car. It didn't seem to make much change to my social life. (It's under cover now for the winter, just waiting for spring.)

But Gillette was keeping its promise.

So Tiger went with the Gillette promise. Certainly seemed to work for him. He got lots of pretty girls. Gillette must have been pleased. Until everyone found out.

Now they don't want anything to do with him. Seems to me they should be really proud their products work so well.

Ah well. Who ever said life was fair?

ALL CARRION FEEDING BIRDS USE SCENT TO FIND FOOD?

2009-12-13T23:57:00.015-05:00

Recently friends of mine found the carcass of a large, healthy, fresh-killed female white-tailed deer that had been pulled down by wolves/coyotes on their property, just before the first heavy snowfall of the winter.

This is never a pretty sight.

Anthropomorphists live in some fairyland of "noble beasts" without terror and savagery.

The reality is that cowardly canine predators run the terrified deer to the point of exhaustion, drag it down from behind and begin eating the deer alive.

One wonders how long it takes for a deer to die from blood loss?

We wanted to see if we could get a photographic record of the killer(s), so we set up my automatic, infra-red camera over the scene and left it for a couple of days.

That was more than a week ago. The only visitors to the carcass over that time have been a Bald Eagle, a Red-tailed Hawk and a bunch of Ravens and Crows. (BTWay, did you know that a flock of Crows is called a "murder"?)

Which brings us to the point of this story. How did those scavengers find that fresh carcass, deep in a hemlock/pine forest? I doubt they could have seen it from the air.

Which leaves scent as the only other possibility. And leaves us with a new understanding of how our natural world really works.

I knew that Turkey Vultures locate decaying food by scent from an earlier experience.

I'd once collected a couple of road-killed raccoons from just down the road, and carried them out of sight into the woods well down the trail behind my home. I hid them well, deep under the dense early-summer foliage of some mature beech and oak trees. They were completely hidden from overhead view.

Couple of days later I was enjoying an early evening stroll and was more than a little surprised to startle three vultures feeding on the raccoon carcasses.

By that time the coons were pretty "ripe" and probably could have been scented from high in the sky.

But the deer carcass was fresh, not more than two or three days old, and the weather was cool, freezing at night and close to freezing during the day.

There couldn't have been much scent for the birds to pick up.

So, one assumes, the scenting power of scavenging birds must be quite acute.

The camera is still in position and we'll be monitoring activites as long as we can. That may not be as long as we'd like, however, because the weatherman is predicing -15 to -20 overnight in a day or so and the camera may not like those conditions.

White-tail Reasoning

2009-12-10T02:48:00.002-05:00

Hunters of white-tail deer often tell tales of the "intelligence" of these animals, and of the many calculated, effective, reasoning ways they have of outsmarting hunters.

In a long lifetime of careful observance of wild birds and animals, I have seen many examples of white-tail trickery.

But nothing, by white-tail or other animal, that began to compare with the actions of one wily doe a couple of years back.

It was a glorious early November day. Bright, sunny, crisp, hardly a breath of wind.

I was working my way quietly along a large granite hogback ridge high in the Wolf Grove of Lanark County, Ontario. The Grove is a very large, rough area blanketed by mixed forest and networked with beaver ponds on the edge of the Canadian Shield.

Below the ridge a narrow, deep beaver pond stretched a mile or more.

To the west across the pond I could hear several hounds. They were on a trail, no doubt that of a white-tail. As I listened the sound alternately faded and swelled. The hounds were coming my way.

On a large, comfortable log with excellent open view of the pond and surrounding area I settled, my back to a birch tree, ready to observe whatever might happen.

Slowly the hounds drew closer. White-tails may be hunted with hounds in this part of Ontario, and good deer hounds move slowly with lots of noise.

These were good hounds.

After some time I was beginning to chill when a slight motion well up the pond to my right caught my attention. A white-tail doe had stepped quietly to the water's edge and paused to look behind her.

The dogs were still far away. Surely too far for her to be moving ahead of them.

For a few moments she stood, still as the granite ridge itself. Then she stepped carefully into the water and began swimming quietly down the pond toward me. She had no suspicion of my presence.

Looking back occasionally, she swam ever so slowly down the centre of the pond. Just below me near the far bank was a small island, a few willow shrubs and a few strands of sedge grass poking above a foot of water.

To this submerged islet the doe swam. Once there, she settled down quickly, lying in the water, shoulders and only a little of her back showing.

For a while she was motionless, both ears sharply cocked to hear the dogs. They were closer now, their voices quite loud.

The doe didn't move, all attention focused on the sounds of those dogs.

Within perhaps 100 yards of the pond's edge the dogs turned to the north, angling away from us. Parallel to the water they went, then across the beaver dam far up the pond, then back behind me to the east.

It was obvious by now the dogs were on the trail of a different deer. This was confirmed by the trail having gone along the pond and over the dam; a favourite escape route of the white-tails in this area.

Before long the sounds of the hound pack faded in the distance. Again the November quiet settled in. But the doe made no move to leave.

Instead, she confidently groomed herself, licking the hair over shoulders and back as would a large dog, then nibbling disinterestedly at the willows.

I was well chilled by now, and badly in need of a stretch. But my experience with wild things reminded me of the patience of wild things. She might be there for some time. But that water was cold, barely above freezing.

She had to be becoming cool herself, in spite of the heavy winter-ready coat. Surely she would make a move soon.

I determined to wait her out. This was much too interesting an experience to spoil with a casual move.

After what seemed an eternity, the doe did move.

Slowly rising to her feet, she stepped from the shallows into deeper water. Swimming back to the far shore from whence she had come, she stepped out onto dry land and, shaking herself for all the world like a big Labrador Retriever, disappeared in a great cloud of spray. Then she slowly walked out of sight back into the hemlocks, still without any awareness of my watching.

Back, no doubt, to the comfortable bed she had vacated earlier with an ounce of prevention.

I'm now ready to believe almost any story of whitetail reasoning.

PREPARE FOR CLIMATE CHANGE!

2009-12-02T16:56:00.002-05:00

Buy a new parka and fur hat. You'll need them soon.

The Global Warming Scam is Exposed

2009-11-24T10:10:00.004-05:00

Most of my working (and retired) life, I've worked with scientists. In the early days I had the highest respect for these folks - honest, dedicated, responsible.

For a while now, however, I've been much disappointed, because of what I knew in my heart was a great scam - global warming.

It just is not true.

Now, at last, it has been exposed for what it is - the greatest scandal in modern science. The lies, deceit, conspiracy and collusion are nicely exposed by a couple of hackers who broke into the University of East Englia Climate Research Unit records. The foul mess they turned up is well summed up by journalist James Delingpole:

http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/jamesdelingpole/100017393/climategate-the-final-nail-in-the-coffin-of-anthropogenic-global-warming/

Now there are three regularly

2009-11-22T17:09:00.004-05:00

A very large, brilliant male Pileated Woodpecker showed up at the feeder the other day. He's a beauty!

The resident male is some put out. Really fun to see the territorial dance - I wonder why such big woodpeckers choose to do the important display work on the ground?

Lest We Forget

2009-11-11T06:43:00.003-05:00

On this 11th day of the 11th month, I'm reminded that I never knew my paternal grandfather. He died in France in 1918. When I was going through the formative teen-age years I didn't have a father around to help me figure out the world. He was busy in Belgium and Germany. Now he rests in a military grave at Ste-Anne de Bellevue.

That's why, at today's 11th hour, I'll pause to remember those things - and of the cousins I have at the bottom of the sea near Murmansk or invalided here at home. And I'll be grateful for people like Churchill and Bush along with the Canadian, British and American fighting men who had the courage to stand up to the evil in this world and protect our way of life for the cowards and apologists who leave others to do their dirty work for them.

When The Wood Is In

2009-10-27T07:54:00.012-04:00

This is called sweat equity.

A woodpile is a thing of beauty and security and should be stacked loosely enough for a mouse to enter but not a cat.

Prints of this image are available for sale.

Nature Conservancy of Canada Shows Large Aquisition In The Wolf Grove

2009-10-24T01:21:00.008-04:00

Yesterday the NCC showed off its latest property, the 255-acre (91-hectare) Martha Webber conservation area, introduced itself to a meeting of neighbours, outlined plans for the property and explained the NCC's conservation planning process.

The property is the largest single landholding within the provincially significant Wolf Grove Wetlands Complex. The area will now be protected in perpetuity as part of the 4,188 acres (1,695 hectares) of land the NCC has protected in Eastern Ontario.

The NCC website will be found here.

Attack Of The Killer Fungus

2009-08-21T05:23:00.009-04:00

Its growing! Growing!! GROWING!!!

The puffball is larger every day. Bigger than your head already and still growing.

It's the attack of the killer mushroom!

Close the windows! Lock the doors! Get the shotgun!

Run! Run! Run!

She Brought Him For Breakfast!

2009-08-18T11:23:00.010-04:00

The female Pileated Woodpecker brought the young male to the suet feeder this morning - the second time, but this time I got a pretty good picture.

He's already figured out how to get food from the feeder, but he'd rather mom do it.

They are impressive birds, for sure.

Autumn's Coming

2009-08-13T17:11:00.006-04:00

YIKES!

The first puffball mushroom of the season is up in the back yard!

That means the end of summer is in sight. And today (August 13) is only the SECOND day of our summer. 32C and sunny.

What a dreadful July it was - and almost half of August.

The Times They Are A_Changin

2009-08-13T12:19:00.002-04:00

I'm surprised how early the "summer birds" leave for the south. All the summer Grosbeaks left over the weeked. Not a sign of any left.

The "winter birds" have started to return. The Chicadees pulled out early in May - obviously to move into the depths of the Grove to nest. This morning there are at least two of them back at the feeders. No Purple Finches or Goldfinches yet.

ALSO - a Black-And-White Warbler is hanging around. I doubt he'll go to a feeder, even the suet feeder, but he does seem to like company.

We're learning lots of new things by keeping that suet feeder filled all summer.

And, BTWay, the female Pileated Woodpecker also showed up yesterday. There's been no sign of either of them for a good many weeks - obviously off into the Grove for nesting. There was a report in the local papers a while back about an adult Pileated coming to a feeder with a young offspring. No such luck here. But hope springs eternal.

Holes and Skunks and Many Wasps

2009-08-07T02:32:00.011-04:00

Yesterday our English Setter was very interested in a patch of bare ground in the centre of the lawn. Looked like the fresh den of some animal - about 6" in diameter.

It turned out to be a hole a foor or so deep that had obviously been dug by a skunk. It was full of wasps (as yet unidentified, but likely yellowjackets). The excavated soil still had a few wasp larvae laying around and the wasp colony seemed intent on protecting the few larvae that were left.

We've always had skunks digging up the lawn in summer and I've been reluctant to trap them. Wheeew!!

But rabies is always a concern, of course - as well as the dog. She loves to chase rabbits. And skunks don't chase very well.

How Quickly They Grow!

2009-08-06T17:51:00.004-04:00

The young Rose-Breasted Grosbeaks are already in a moult and showing adult colours.

I think they first came to our feeders about three weeks ago. If they were, say, two weeks in the nest, that'd make them now not more than five or six weeks of age. But today there was a young male at the suet feeder that was easily 50% moulted to adult colours.

White underbelly, half the red bib in, most of the brown dorsal feathers now in sharp black-and-white. Hard to believe they mature that quickly.

I'll be too busy to shoot until next week, but I'll try to get some new photos then.

Like a trip on the African Queen

2009-07-12T03:48:00.034-04:00

Our back yard, just out the kitchen window, is noisier than the sound effects from that wonderful 1951 movie. There’s a buncha newly-fledged Rose-Breasted Grosbeaks whose screaming and begging would rival the SFX and Bogie for the Oscar.

We had no idea such raucus racket could come from such tiny creatures.

We figure there’s 15 or 20 of them, cause we have at least five families nesting here with an average production of probably 3.5 per. That’s 'cause we decided to leave the suet feeder up this summer rather than bring it in as we usually do - as a result the colourful birds have stayed with us rather than move off into the Grove to raise their young.

These guys scream from dawn to dark. To wake the dead. Usually a male feeds them, probably when he can’t stand the racket any longer. Mom, like moms everywhere, can ignore. Likely figure it’s time the young started earning their own living. Which ain’t too difficult, considering we’re spending twenty bucks a week on Walmart suet to help.

We wonder if they may have some difficulty when it’s time to leave for the south and they truly hafta have better survival skills than needed around here. At least they’ll have good fat reserves.

Combine grosbeak screams with shrieking jays, moaning doves, rattle-chattering Wood Frogs, the hyena laugh of three adult Pileated Woodpeckers (they come several times daily to the feeder) and the haunting songs of the Hermit Thrush, Virio, Oriole, Crested Flycatcher - you’d have a sound track to embellish the scariest jungle movie.

Not to mention the Sapsucker pounding on the eaves of our steel roof. Or the Barred Owl that, from time to time, does his "who, who, who-whoooo are you?" about 2 am just yards from the bedroom window.

Friends like to come by for sundowners on our screened porch because it’s so peaceful and quiet.

Yeah, right.

We love that peace and quiet!

Can Animals Count?

2009-07-02T16:01:00.060-04:00

River Otter

Can Animals Count?

Most naturalists and outdoors people will tell you that animals and birds can't count past one.

That may be true, when the animals are counting people. Nature photographers well know that, if two people enter a blind and one leaves shortly after, most birds and animals relax in the belief that the people have departed.

BUT - when it comes to keeping tabs on offspring, at least some animals can count to at least five. A recent experience with otters proved that very dramatically.

I live in the Wolf Grove of Lanark County in eastern Ontario. It's a very large, wild area of rolling granite and limestone ridges, heavily wooded in mixed forest and interlaced with beaver dams of all sizes.

The Wolf Grove Stream flows through this forest a few hundred yards behind my house. On a pleasant summer or autumn evening I find great pleasure in a quiet walk up the stream valley to enjoy the sunset and whatever adventure usually awaits.

One such evening a year or so ago I stepped quietly to the top of the bank below the largest beaver dam on the stream. In the small pool there a family of six otters were busy fishing.

They spotted me instantly.

With a sharp bark, mother otter led her brood in a sharp dash up over the beaver dam and out of sight in the depths of the headpond.

Unfortunately, one of the young otters was left behind. He had probably been foraging along the bottom and missed mom's warning.

Panic city! Where the heck did everybody go?

The young otter searched in growing desperation, high and low throughout the pool, stopping frequently to eye me carefully and snap out a suspicious "woof!"

Meantime, well up the headpond, mom and her brood surfaced, and continued their hurried escape. Some 150 yards later, everyone stopped swimming, to mill about in obvious confusion as to what to do next.

I was fascinated. What would happen next?

All my life as an outdoorsman and nature observer I had been told that animals can't count.

Would the otter band return for the sibling? Did they even realize he was missing? (I had already assumed a male gender for the little guy, and was even beginning to think of him in terms of the name "Oscar.")

Suddenly, mother otter began swimming back toward me. My binoculars showed that four other small heads stayed behind, quiet as could be, almost motionless in the glass-calm surface of the beaver pond.

Close to the dam now, mom slowed her swimming. She watched me carefully, and I stood as quietly and still as possible.

I expected her to submerge, and approach under water.

But no. Slowly, ever so cautiously, she drew closer until she was almost at the edge of the dam. Then a short dash and she was out of the water, poised at the top edge.

Oscar hadn't noticed her. Yet.

He was busy, still searching for the others, keeping one watchful eye in my direction.

I don't speak otter.

But I'm sure I know what mom had to say, in a couple of well-chosen words.

So did Oscar.

In a flash he was up over the face of the dam, in the water above and gone.

Mom paused for an instant to contemplate me before leading Oscar up the pond to where the others still waited. Perhaps she was trying to communicate something, maybe about the challenge of safely raising inattentive youngsters to adulthood?

Maybe about arithmetic?

- 30 -

Collections of stock pictures of wild animals, birds, insects, Canadian scenes and people will be found here.