Breeding Bird Survey 2006

The marshy stream below Lake Fletcher, stop number 37 on the Breeding Bird Survey





Breeding bird survey stop number 36: I am observed by a fox kit


I usually count about 52 species on the Breeding Bird Survey, but this year I had a meagre 50. Several reliable species were startlingly absent: common loon, rose-breasted grosbeak, and song sparrow. It was a treat, though, to hear a scarlet tanager for the first time in five years. The weather started still and clear, but wind gradually picked up, so strong that noisy trees interfered with my ability to hear and identify birds on five of the last seven stops.

Wildlife sightings, on the other hand, were unusually good (too bad they don't count!). At stop number 36 a curious fox kit came and sat on the opposite shoulder watching me. Cat-sized, it shook its ears at mosquitoes, startled at a passing butterfly, and dashed into the undergrowth every time my camera clicked.

Later I saw my first pine marten dash across the road ahead. It looked like a mink but as big as a cat. I passed a two-point buck bounding into the woods. Not 50 metres beyond, a moose cow stood staring short-sightedly. She was close as the fox kit, but while I scrambled for my camera, she turned and disappeared nonchalantly into the wood, nibbling foliage.

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This time I took my camera along and shot a photo at each of the 50 stop points I visit every year. The gallery on Flickr shows how the scenery changes from 4:54 am at the PetroCanada station in Dwight, to sunrise, to morning mist in the Haliburton Highlands, to some of my favourite scenic stops at Otter Lake, Littlebeaver Lake, and the marshy stream below Lake Fletcher (shown above), to the sideroad leading to my own cottage (if you look closely on the left you can see the Waffle name sign), to the stop near Livingstone Lodge that is usually good for mourning warblers, to the final riverside stop where I observed and heard my first alder flycatcher the first year I did the survey (2000).

I haven't processed the data yet, but once I do, I'll post a full species list.

Toronto Pride 2005

Pride parade, Sunday afternoon


Toronto Pride 2005: gallery includes 26 photos from the dyke march, the pride parade, and miscellaneous.


I attended my first Pride parade in Toronto in 1996. This was my 10th, the third I watched with my daughters, the second with djjo. It seemed somewhat less commercial than the last few. The beer companies and supermarket chains were absent. The sponsors of some of the large, fabulous floats were not readily apparent. One expects, of course, to see IKEA and a few travel agencies (the latter lacking creativity and receiving little notice from the crowd).

Certain aspects of the parade put a lump in my sentimental throat, but not the ones you might think. The Toronto Police Service has had a growing presence recently, and I don't mean security. It's the individual officers walking the parade in uniform (mostly women, it seems), and a couple riding a cruiser with the rainbow flag across the hood. These came close on the heels of the mayor, also on foot, facing the inevitable gantlet of water guns with good-natured endurance.

It also hit me to see this placard: "Two gay moms, two straight dads, six wonderful children, love keeps us together." And I wasn't marching, but I was there in the crowd with my boyfriend and two daughters, being visible.