Recent Posts
Outdoor Ontario

Recent Posts

21
Anything Goes / Re: Old Silver Capital: Silver Mine Tour in Cobalt, Ontario
« Last post by Charline on June 30, 2025, 10:34:23 AM »
Silver capital of the world ... I didn't realize it was that outstanding ... and no gold metal ... at all?  I'm glad to hear that you don't drink.  I'm not into cocktails or hard stuff but I do enjoy a cold beer on a hot day and I like to explore wine, never the same one twice, different producers and different vintage is what makes me curious.  Moreover, I have these small-bowl 80 year-old wine glasses that I half-fill.  Even a full glass will hold less than half as much wine as a modern wine glass.  But as the expression says: there is no safe level of alcohol.  The less the better.  Since you abstain completely it means you are better than me.  But we both knew that already.   

I may head up to the Alvar early on Monday, weather permitting.  There will be no drinking, just birding.  I promise.  The drive up there is very relaxing because there is so little traffic at 5 o'clock in the morning and what little there is, is going the other direction.  Coming back in the afternoon is dreadful ... farm machinery on the HWY, heavy gravel trucks, road demons, construction, ... I'm talking myself out of it,  aren't I?


Although I don't deserve a gold metal, a local retired gentleman who worked in many Ontario gold mines, gifted me with some native gold flakes.
22
Nature / Re: Scape moth and wasp with prey
« Last post by Charline on June 30, 2025, 10:30:38 AM »
That's a cool creature!
23
Nature / Scape moth and wasp with prey
« Last post by Shortsighted on June 29, 2025, 03:44:17 PM »
A Yellow-collared scape moth was sipping nectar from milkweed blooms next to Reesor pond.  A wasp had caught something and was doing what wasp always do.




Yellow-collared scape moth on milkweed


Wasp with larva
24
Ontario Birds / June 29th - Reesor (lower) Pond
« Last post by Shortsighted on June 29, 2025, 03:39:26 PM »
It was not so humid today and therefore I visited Reesor (lower) pond because it is so close.  At first, I saw nothing at all.  Then I noticed Barn swallows careening over the pond.  There were a couple of Mallards on the far NE end of the pond but nothing up close.  At the far north end there was a Pied-billed grebe, which later appeared at half the distance, and later still, it popped up out of the water maybe 150 meters distant, but at that point it was into the sun ... figures.  I could hear the loud call of something at a distance within the tall grass.  May have been a sora, or a morhen.  I noticed a nest some distance off from the observation mound and I believe it was a kingbird nest.  There was an Eastern kingbird perched nearby.  A Gray catbird also showed up.  Also, a Marsh wren and a couple of Yellow warblers and the requisite RWBBs.  It was so nice not to have a soupy humidity.


Nest with at least a couple of chicks




Gray catbird


Pied-billed Grebe
25
Backyard Birding / Re: Cedar Waxwings, Milton @ Mulberry tree
« Last post by Shortsighted on June 29, 2025, 08:07:56 AM »
Looox lyke ah 2-mah.  What happened to the Ontario strawberries?  Everything in the stores is USA.  Are the August blueberries also going to disappear ... to elsewhere?
26
Backyard Birding / Cedar Waxwings, Milton @ Mulberry tree
« Last post by Napper on June 28, 2025, 07:57:33 PM »
Back home to avoid the long weekend mayhem. Yard looked dry roasted.
Yard was still buzzing with activity even though I removed feeder weeks ago.
We have a hybrid Mulberry tree in the back corner of the yard. Waxwings, Cardinals  and Robins all day long.
Image of fruit attached.

Napper:)
taken with ancient phone, camera not here.
27
Anything Goes / Re: The research on plant intelligence
« Last post by Shortsighted on June 28, 2025, 11:39:00 AM »
Cool video, thanks for attaching.   Sir David A. has witnessed everything, hasn't he?  You know, ... climbing to the top in a ruthless single-minded fashion, irrational self-destructive behaviour and the presence of a strange-looking orange growth on the top of the head reminds me of something.  I just can't put my finger on what it is.  I wonder if lichen plays a role? 
28
Anything Goes / Re: The research on plant intelligence
« Last post by Dr. John on June 26, 2025, 03:36:10 PM »
If you want to see really creepy footage of zombified ants, you can watch this segment of a David Attenborough program:


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XuKjBIBBAL8

29
Anything Goes / Re: The research on plant intelligence
« Last post by Shortsighted on June 26, 2025, 02:26:16 PM »
 From the book Entanged Life we get lichen-infested ants committing unconscionable acts under the direction of lichen, using chemical means to influence ant behaviour.  Hordes of zombie ants climbing the vegetation ladder to their demise.  Makes me think of zombie commuters following each other and the insane ritual of travelling to a centralized workplace via the #401 in order to get to work, perhaps accomplish very little, and then endure stop & go traffic all the way home again, ultimately contributing to their own ill-health.  Still, the existence of zombie-ants is quite a revelation.

 Fictional characters have given us disease-tinged insults, such as: "yah scurvy barnacle," or "you poxy traitor," and "you syphilitic scoundrel."  To this we can add, "away with you ... you lichen-infested lunatic."  When can I use that expression today?   I’m really lichen it!
30
Anything Goes / Re: The research on plant intelligence
« Last post by Dr. John on June 24, 2025, 09:56:57 AM »
It makes sense that we favour an engaging narrative over data.  A statistical analysis of which plants were safe to eat was never presented at the evening campfire in our hunter-gatherer days.  It was stories about what happened when so-and-so ate that plant that guided choices.  So we are more willing to believe a fictional narrative than a conclusive and rigorous scientific study.