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Thanks for the hot beverages! I enjoyed it when coming home from my 'duck walk' today. Went out with a young friend who is an outdoor educator - we were looking for harlequin ducks that had been sighted in our area - and found a pair! So exotic looking. We also saw some beautiful long tailed ducks (more common) and mergansers. It was a great (albeit chilly in the damp wind!) two hours.

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Carolla, this is on L. Ontario? I've never seen such ducks on L. Simcoe or at least Kempenfelt Bay. Tons of mallards, mergansers and cormorants...and the damned geese...
 
Yes @BetteTheRed - along the shore of Lake Ontario, and at mouth of the Credit River. Also saw some scaups & golden-eyes which are interesting too. And as you say the requisite flocks of noisy mallards, gulls & Canada Geese. Quite a few trumpeter swans & mute swans. We were also searching today for a snowy owl which is also in the area. Where? Hanging around the yacht club - LOL. On the docks there are many many rather substantial white posts which supply hydro etc to the boats when docked. Apparently the owl has been seen snuggled up against the posts at various times - good camouflage! But there were workers on the docks today, so likely that had spooked it. Will keep looking! Do you know about e-bird website? it has maps of 'hot spots' for bird sightings, lists of rare birds sighted etc. with good links to info.
 
I'm off today.

Thinking it is due the scuzzy weather (icy), and the new lockdown, ....and the confusion around same.

The pictures are good, interesting that there are sites to find sights.
 
Carolla said:
Yes @BetteTheRed - along the shore of Lake Ontario, and at mouth of the Credit River. Also saw some scaups & golden-eyes which are interesting too. And as you say the requisite flocks of noisy mallards, gulls & Canada Geese. Quite a few trumpeter swans & mute swans. We were also searching today for a snowy owl which is also in the area. Where? Hanging around the yacht club - LOL. On the docks there are many many rather substantial white posts which supply hydro etc to the boats when docked. Apparently the owl has been seen snuggled up against the posts at various times - good camouflage! But there were workers on the docks today, so likely that had spooked it. Will keep looking! Do you know about e-bird website? it has maps of 'hot spots' for bird sightings, lists of rare birds sighted etc. with good links to info.
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Now, does L. Ontario ever freeze over? I think that makes a huge difference to what water birds you see. Some of what you would see, I might only see before or after freeze-up (which happens later, and lasts for less time, than historically). Thanks for e-bird site!
 
We are listening to the rain falling on the roof. It sounds like a solid rain. Apparently this winter we're getting a more typical winter for this area it got up to 12 degrees here today, and I did some sewing, so no complaints here.

Here's a picture for @Pinga I took it in the summer. It's at a lovely provincial park near Qualicum Beach, BC. 20200705123220_IMG_7877.jpg

And a second picture I took from the back of our site

20201018_105058.jpg
 
BetteTheRed said:
Now, does L. Ontario ever freeze over? I think that makes a huge difference to what water birds you see. Some of what you would see, I might only see before or after freeze-up (which happens later, and lasts for less time, than historically). Thanks for e-bird site!
Click to expand...

we lived backing into Lake Ontario the last eight years. I recall one winter about five years ago where it frozen completely over. As I recall all the Great Lakes mostly froze that winter. It resulted in way less snow falling. No lake evaporation to give snow. Most winters , that we were there, it frozen out several hundred yards but not all the way. Occasionally the storms would be so severe that waves would crash up huge chunks of ice
 
Lastpointe said:
we lived backing into Lake Ontario the last eight years. I recall one winter about five years ago where it frozen completely over. As I recall all the Great Lakes mostly froze that winter. It resulted in way less snow falling. No lake evaporation to give snow. Most winters , that we were there, it frozen out several hundred yards but not all the way. Occasionally the storms would be so severe that waves would crash up huge chunks of ice
Click to expand...

Unstable environment? The domain is insane ... kust look about at the collective irrationality!

Make-believe ... try to fit in unnoticed!

If you don't believe in the soul exists ... can it possibly support insanity? Thus out there concepts like stuff (material and immaterial) beyond the box.

May resemble relativistic subtle forces ... if you can relate!
 
Good morning! As we ponder frozen lakes, waterfowl, birds of the air, and other natural sights and phenomena, let us join in spirit at the coffee cart, where warming drinks await.

C(_)/ c(_) c\_/ c[_]
 
hump day GIF
 
Lastpointe said:
we lived backing into Lake Ontario the last eight years. I recall one winter about five years ago where it frozen completely over. As I recall all the Great Lakes mostly froze that winter. It resulted in way less snow falling. No lake evaporation to give snow. Most winters , that we were there, it frozen out several hundred yards but not all the way. Occasionally the storms would be so severe that waves would crash up huge chunks of ice
Click to expand...
Yes - there is so much variability in the ice along the lake shore in past years. This year it's been SO mild this far, that there is barely any, even in the quieter lagoons & bays. There's a skim along parts of the river - but surely not 'skateable' yet! Not that I skate any more LOL. The city is a bit of heat sink too I think, so that's a factor.
 
I'm too late for a morning coffee but will happily claim a calming hot chocolate to sip this evening. I feel a need for something comforting. Today I learned that the area of the UK that was my childhood home has the highest rate of Covid infection in the nation. Put that together with my current province having the highest infection rate in Canada and I'm left feeling a bit somber.
 
A
n interesting tidbit from Berliner Tagesspiegel. I am not sure what you call a subway if it is outside on stilts? Anyway, this one was built in 1900 and instead of tearing down the house, it got a tunnel to go through it. The man remembering living there as a child, said they could see the people driving by, they were so close, you could shake their hands. He says they tram(?) saved their lives, because his father had internalized the times the trains came by and when they were sleeping during the war, he noticed when the trains didn’t come and alarmed everybody to go to the bunkers, because they stopped the trains earlier before they announced a bombing alarm. In 1943, the house was hit and it wasn’t rebuilt after the war.
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photo source Museum Schöneberg
 
Good morning, world! The coffee cart is up and running. Let us gather round and discuss the day's events and plans, hopes and anxieties, memories and visions.

C(_)/ c(_) c\_/ c[_]
 
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