Groundhog Day

February 2nd is Groundhog Day. That means today in places all over North America like in Wiarton, Ontario we expect a woodchuck,

Groundhog - Click for larger

this large furry rodent more commonly called a groundhog, to predict the length of winter. Usually winter looks something like this in Southern Ontario:

Winter at Presqu'ile - Click for larger

Normally in our area a groundhog would be hibernating at least until March. But on this day the legend has it that a groundhog will awake from its winter sleep, poke its head up out of its den and look around.

Groundhog - Click for larger

If it sees its shadow then it goes back to hibernating thus predicting another six weeks of winter. If the groundhog doesn't see a shadow then it will be an early Spring.

Trilliums - Click for larger

In Wiarton this responsibility is given to one woodchuck named Wiarton Willie. This year he predicted that there will be another six weeks of winter. Considering the official start of Spring is at least six weeks off then odds are, he is right.

Scarborough Bluffs Winter - Click for larger

We are the Beaver (Canadian Symbols)

(Note: Pointing your mouse at any image will display a larger view)

On one memorable July 1st/Canada Day many moons ago my traveling partner Ron Erwin and I found ourselves stuck in traffic heading into downtown Kenora, Ontario. It was a hot summer's afternoon and our car didn't have air conditioning and we were getting rather impatient with the slow moving traffic. But then we realized that it wasn't a traffic jam at all but rather a Canada Day parade. Appropriately enough we were bringing up the rear of the parade decked out in Canada's official colours as we had our red canoe tied onto the roof of our white car. What could be more Canadian than that?

The canoe, although a preferred mode of travel for many Canadians, does not have official status as a symbol or emblem of Canada. Some people also think this mighty animal on the left - the moose - is (or should be?) a symbol of Canada. But it isn't. At least not officially. Instead the lowly beaver (above) was given the official emblem status in 1975 because of the important role the beaver's pelt played in the fur trade in the 1600's-1800's.Other official symbols of Canada are the maple tree and the maple leaf. Of course the maple leaf with the official red and white colours make up the Canadian Flag. The Canada Goose? It's NOT an official symbol of Canada either.Over the next few weeks I'll post the official emblems and symbols of Canadian Provinces and Territories. So keep watching this blog.

Happy Birthday Canada!

Earth Hour 2009

<<-Toronto Before Earth Hour - Click for Info

Ron and I spent most of last year's/our first Earth Hour strolling through our residential neighbourhood being impressed by the number of homes that had turned off their lights - the darkness inside being interrupted only occasionally by a flickering candle. We weren't the only ones out for a walk. It seemed a lot of people were. Everyone we met spoke to us as if the new-found darkness somehow made them feel safer, that even passing strangers were friends all at the same party. The favourite conversation topic of course was the darkness and the stars that could be seen in the skies above - a rare sight anytime in Toronto. But we also all wondered at a house that seemed to be making some sort of reverse statement, as not only were their lights on inside the house but there were many strands of lights hung outside lighting up their house like Christmas. Earth Hour of course is about making a statement. No one actually believes that shutting off lights around the world for just one hour once a year is going to stop global warming. Rather participating is a symbolic act - a collective statement that action is needed daily by each of us and our governments. That's why we decided to spend the symbolic event of Earth Hour 2009 taking pictures of a Toronto symbol - the CN Tower.

Normally the CN Tower is lit with coloured lights in the evening and March 28, 2009 was no exception. The pictures shown above left and below were both taken a few minutes before the start of Earth Hour. Note that both the CN Tower and the Rogers Centre are washed in a purplish light. The Rogers Centre (the domed stadium above formerly called the Skydome) and the Royal York Hotel (the lower building in the centre of the cluster of high-rises below) as well as other buildings have their names lit-up on signs at the top of the buildings. Most lights in the individual suites in the various high-rise towers already seemed to be off - perhaps like ours they had been turned off much earlier in the day in anticipation of the event. In fact Toronto Hydro reported that Toronto's average use of electricity was already down by 10% prior to the countdown at 8:30pm.

Toronto Skyline Pre-Earth Hour - click for larger view and more info

When 8:30pm ticked by the exterior lights on the CN tower and the dome shut off as well as various buildings' signs and it became much harder to pick out each building. The majority of the lights that remained on were the ones required for safety - like street lights and the small flashing lights to warn planes about the CN Tower and the crane spotlights on the buildings under construction. Also the camera's slow shutter speed captured the headlights and tail-lights of passing cars on the highways. From a distance it does indeed look like a much darker city and a statement of Toronto's desire to do something about global warming.

Earth Hour in Toronto - click for larger view and more info

In Ontario the power reduction during Earth Hour was reported at more than 6%. In Toronto it was almost twice last year's reduction at 15.1% - enough to power 300,000 homes. That is an impressive statement that we each can do something. And to me it is also a statement of hope - hope that something can be done!

But what happens if we take a closer look? If we look under the darkened dome of the Rogers Centre we would discover that the stadium was hosting a weekend-long motocross event. Perhaps that fact becomes even more ironic when it is learned that later that night when the races were over about 300 people had to evacuated from the dome and some of its attached venues due to carbon monoxide fumes.

It is good even honourable to shut off our lights and join in statements of solidarity against global warming. But we need to look closer - need to go beyond turning out our lights once a year. Ron and I drove downtown to get these images. Our excuse for not taking transit was all the gear we had to haul and our neighbourhood's lousy bus schedule. But really that is just an excuse. We could perhaps - even should have done better. We have been trying. Since I posted It's Not Easy Being Green! on this blog last year we have continued to try and reduce our carbon footprint. We have reduced our natural gas consumption by 25% over last year's by installing a new high-efficiency furnace and tankless hot-water heater in our home. We've also had most of our windows replaced by new energy efficient ones. No doubt there is still more that we can do without having to sit home in dark rooms - something that won't cost us much but will still let us enjoy our lives - like taking transit more and driving less.

So what's next for you? What are you personally going to do to reduce your carbon footprint and help in the fight against global warming? Let's make every hour a time to do something for the earth.

2008 Photographic Review - second half

As promised in my last post here is the photographic review of the 2nd half of 2008:

(Note if pointing your mouse at an image doesn't display a larger version make sure you are reading this blog at www.ronerwin.com/loris-log)

The first day of Summer 2008 found us on Manitoulin Island, Ontario – the largest freshwater island in the world and part of the Niagara Escarpment. (Left: Bridal Veil Falls - a Niagara Escarpment plunge type waterfall in Kagawong)

Manitoulin, or "The Island" as we like to call it, is special to us for many reasons not the least of which is the fact that I was born and raised there. Many, MANY years have past since I lived on The Island, yet still at any time I could forget myself and call it "Home".

Photography on The Island can be amazing due to its abundant wildlife (such as this Sandhill crane above left and Whitetail deer above right), beautiful flora (such as this striped coralroot orchid below left and this wild columbine below right),

and stunning landscapes (like these images along the Kagawong River below Bridal Veil Falls and a sunset over Bayfield Sound).

Manitoulin's slower pace and lower population also means it's one of the few places left in Ontario were it’s still possible to sit on a backroad and photograph or watch something like this Upland Sandpiper without someone else coming along and scaring it off.Upland Sandpipers and other prairie birds like sharp-tail grouse breed in Manitoulin's Grassland Alvars. As kids my siblings and I would roam these seemingly barren and rocky short-grass prairies near our home in search of wild strawberries. Perhaps that's why we were fond of the 1970's TV show "Little House on the Prairie" – we were prairie kids! Back then we hadn't even heard of the term Alvar, so we didn't know the rare habitat was also home to rare and endangered flora and fauna.
(Click to visit the Nature Conservancy for more info on Ontario's Alvars)

Now whenever Ron and I are on The Island we make a point of searching grasslands near "home" for photo subjects like these native wild chives. But we also always go for a hike in Misery Bay Provincial Nature Reserve to see what wildflowers might be growing along the Pavement Alvar there. In spite of the flower shaking wind this summer's visit would not disappoint photographically.

Ron would get pictures of more chives (note how this clump seems to grow right out of the pavement/limestone bedrock), Indian Paintbrush or Scarlet Cup (in Misery Bay these wildflowers often are more yellow not red), and Lakeside Daisy - a wildflower that is listed as Threatened under the Species At Risk Act (SARA) that is globally rare (only found along the Great Lakes) but that is so common on Manitoulin's Alvar coast that it is called Manitoulin Gold. At Misery Bay we were also lucky enough to spot an ever smiling Blanding's Turtle – not specifically an Alvar species but another North American only species that is listed under SARA as Threatened in Ontario/Quebec but Endangered in Nova Scotia.

In keeping with the Species at Risk theme, on our way home from Manitoulin Island we stopped into Wasaga Beach to see with our own eyes the two pairs of Endangered Piping Plovers that were reported to be nesting there - the first nests in Ontario since the 1970's. Anyone that knows us well knows that we have made a point of photographing Piping Plovers across the country (click to see other images). So we were pretty excited to hear that they had finally returned to nest in our home province. Unfortunately just the night before, a sudden hail storm came up and killed all the week-old chicks from one brood. Incredibly the eggs in the other nest were hatching during the storm – causing one egg to fail to hatch and the Mother and the three hatchlings to flee for cover. But in the end the desperate Mother just stretched out her wings and covered her chicks with her body –taking the force of the hail herself and getting covered in ice. When we arrived the horrified volunteer monitors were still worrying about possible injuries– but the Mother and the three chicks were alive! Ron managed to get some shots of an adult male, but all chicks remained resting far enough within the restricted/fenced off beach area to be out of good photo range –even with long camera lenses. But that’s okay. We were happy just to have seen some Piping Plovers in Ontario at last! (Note only one chick from the two broods would survive the summer to migrate)

The main theme for the rest of the summer was the canoe. We started with a canoe trip into the interior of Algonquin on Lake Opeongo’s north arm where our photo subjects were mostly moose, frogs, water lilies and their habitat.

Next we headed to Lake Superior Provincial Park. After a few nights of car camping at Agawa Bay and day tripping in our canoe and/or doing hikes,

we decided to canoe into the Park's interior further up the coast of Lake Superior and do some remote camping in Warp Bay and Gargantua Harbour.

Although it was by all accounts a wet summer in Ontario, for our trips it seemed to be mostly sunny or would only lightly rain or mist on us. On all our trips the downpours seem to wait for the days we would be paddling back out into civilization or already at our car. Lake Superior is such a big lake that is usually rough. Even when it is flat it is still usually moving in soft swells up and down like it is breathing. But for several days in a row during the summer of 2008, the Lake was the flattest we had ever seen it. That didn't necessarily make being in a canoe any easier as sometimes such a thick fog would roll in that you couldn't see the islands off shore.We would spend the last week of July with all the comforts of home in a cabin on Rock Lake near Killarney Provincial Park, Ontario.

But even there we would grab our canoe and head off up the lake exploring rivers and portaging into other lakes. It was a nice change from camping in that we didn’t have to crawl into a tent on our hands and knees to go to bed!

At the beginning of August we beached our canoe and headed back to native prairie – this time tall grass prairie at the Ojibway Prairie Complex in Windsor. There we walked along a trail through Big Bluestem grass that eerily enough was taller than me.

Also in Windsor we photographed along the Detroit River looking north towards the City of Detroit Michigan. Yes believe it or not Alaska isn't the only state that can look south and see Canada!

On route to Windsor we stopped to car camp at Long Point Provincial Park on Lake Erie. Port Rowan and the Park are part of the Long Point World Biosphere Reserve. Unfortunately thunder storms and huge swarms of ankle biting flies kept us from spending much time on the beach or on the park's trails.

Driving home from Windsor we were enticed off the 401 first by the thunderstorms brewing over an ethanol plant in Chatam (noted by Ron: tripods probably make good lightening rods!), and by the subsequent torrential rain that caused our vehicle to hydroplane – unsettling at anytime let alone in heavy traffic. So we went south of the 401 and ended up getting a room in a cheep little motel – one that seemed clean enough until my bare toe bumped into a dead lizard on the floor under the bed’s edge! Needless to say the room and the sheets were carefully examined for any other surprises. We were rather startled by this find – a strange reaction from people that spend the summer mostly in a tent and aren't normally frightened by little critters. In the past we've been sniffed in bed by raccoons, had mice run over our pillows, bats fly within arms length above us while we were sleeping under the stars, and have even pulled a couple dozen Daddy long-legs out of our sleeping bags after getting that creepy crawly feeling in the middle of the night. Each time we just noticed, dealt with it and went back to sleep. But for some reason we were so unnerved by this dead lizard that I wouldn't even try to identify it and Ron didn’t take any pictures. Instead I made Ron dispose of it while I somehow tried to sterilize my foot. Needless to say we spent a rather sleepless night. However that made it easier to get up early to take a few photographs at dawn down in Port Stanley before it started to rain again.We wrapped up the summer’s travels with another canoe trip back into the interior of Algonquin.

This time we paddled and portaged our way into Lake Manitou finding a lovely campsite on a sandy beach. Bliss! One of us had just commented on how quiet it was when our illusions of tranquil seclusion were shattered – a group of 11 noisy teenagers and their 2 young guides (exceeding the park’s rule on group size by 4) parked their five canoes at the end of the beach and set up camp right beside us. By dawn we had learned more about their lives than we cared to know. Why do some people become hard of hearing once it gets dark? So we loaded our canoe, moved on and found ourselves another campsite. This campsite’s smaller sandy beach proved less tempting for others to try and share. We spent a few sunny days and one hailstorm there. See Ron’s blog posting Twenty Minutes for his views on the light after the storm.

In the fall we did some shooting closer to home – right here in Toronto at the Chinese Lantern Festival at Ontario Place.

Some of those pictures might look like we were out of the country – like the ones of the Eiffel Tower, but it too was part of the display along Toronto’s Lake Ontario shoreline.

Ron also turned his camera toward a couple of WWII vets and took their portraits. See his blog posting HDR Images - Pushing the Limits to see one of these portraits in HDR.

It would be hard to pick a favourite amongst our photographic journeys. For 2008 I might choose our trip by train to the historic old City of Quebec - maybe because it is the most recent in my memory. Or, maybe it is a favourite because the snow and cold, the City's festive lights and old-world charm made it seem like the perfect place to spend Christmas. (check out Ron’s blog posting Christmas in Quebec)

2008 Photographic Review - first half

It seems my blog postings were few and far between in 2008. But we were out there - mostly touring our home province of Ontario. Ron of course continued to create beautiful images. This posting is a small photo sample of the first half of the year.

(Note point your mouse at any image to see a larger view - no clicking necessary!)

The winter of 2007/2008 was long and with plenty of snow even right here in Toronto. We did get out of the city and up to Algonquin where we found a few winter birds (click to view more) like this red-breasted nuthatch, (right) willing to pose in spite of the frigid -29C temperatures not including the face numbing wind. Because of the cold, our photo subjects were limited by what we found on short walks along packed trails near plowed roads. Why you ask? Because when we started off on our trip our vehicle broke down (needed an expensive head gasket replacement) so we rented a car and continued. But when we transferred our cross-country ski gear from van (without heat) to rental car (with heat and very little room), some necessary ski items failed to complete the exchange. But that's okay as we consoled and warmed ourselves later with a glass of brandy in front of a fire in Grenada (that's the name of the cabin we stayed in at the Adventure Lodge just outside Algonquin's east gates).

But after winter would come spring - for its first taste check out my blog posting Harbingers of Spring

(Don't forget! Point mouse at images for info & larger view)

As spring advanced Ron would get up close and personal with the endangered Black Rat Snake (left) in Murphy's Point Provincial Park, (we would even join the Park's Adopt-a-Snake program),
a Snapping Turtle (right) trying to cross a road in Killarney Provincial Park and Water Snakes sunning themselves in Frontenac Provincial Park (left). Doesn't the water snake on the left look like it's laughing at him? Possibly it did find Ron lying on a boardwalk in a swamp face-to-face with a three foot long snake (right) amusing,
especially since other water snakes would come up between the boards and slither along the boardwalk beside Ron as if he wasn't there. Maybe they were curious or perhaps they wanted to be photographed too! I remained standing but I did make sure that all backpacks lying on the boardwalk were closed to ensure we didn't take home any stowaways.

Spring means growth, birth and renewal and we witnessed our share of that. While in Killarney we would watch a scraggly thin Mother raccoon scrounging for food in the swamp, under rocks, and in the outhouse garbage cans. She even glared at us accusingly as if we should share our food with her. It was obvious from her physique that she had many babies hidden somewhere waiting to be suckled.

In Killbear Provincial Park we almost stumbled over newborn Whitetail deer fawns and their Mother. Actually we almost ran over them as we drove the dirt road into the Park's picnic grounds. It appeared as though they had just been born right there on the side of the road - their fur still damp after perhaps being licked clean by their Mother. The wobbly legged twins froze when they saw us to avoid attracting attention to themselves – one laid down flat the other remained frozen in a standing position. The Mother moved further into the woods probably watching from the cover of the trees. Ron quickly took a few pictures of the newborns and then we moved on so as not to stress them or their Mother. Less than an hour later the three of them had all disappeared into the woods - no doubt with the twins' wobbly legs getting stronger with each step.

Also in Killbear we found a Midland Painted Turtle laying eggs in a hole she dug in the side of another dirt road (see above 2 left images and my video at the bottom of this post), and still another Whitetail doe (above right) lying in the woods with her bulging belly having spasms as if she too was about to give birth. We watched the doe quietly for a short time and she even moved closer to us to graze while still eyeing us. Rather than stress her, we moved on so did not witness the miracle of her giving birth.

But spring was not only about photographing wildlife and wildflowers. We of course got up before dawn so Ron could capture landscapes such as this Dock on Desert Lake in Eastern Ontario (left), these rapids on the Oxtongue River in Muskoka (right), and the Bay of Quinte Skyway Bridge near Picton, Ontario (below).

Spring also found us shooting other subjects such as the old Canary restaurant in Toronto's Distillery District (below left and see Ron's blog posting for more info) and Mennonite country in the Waterloo Region (below 2 right images - point mouse at for larger view)

As spring became summer we continued our tours around Ontario, but one theme seemed consistent between the seasons - BUGS! Or as Ron quipped, "There will be blood!"
Thankfully Killarney’s black fly swarms were unusual and the bug of choice for the rest of the spring and summer became the mosquito. But you’ll have to check this blog again next week to read about the rest of 2008’s adventures and see the photographic review.


So until next week – but meanwhile here’s a very short video I created of that turtle laying her eggs.

More to come!

Joyeux Noel!

Bonne Vacances / Happy Holidays!