Tuesday 4 January 2022

Narrows Locks: birds

Last night I looked out back and saw You Two. This is where I haven't cut the grass, and left it to grow where the spring bulbs are planted. Here they were in April! 


They are happy for any food, and are often seen eating the dead weeds. They fill their bellies with anything organic to get through the winter.



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Ontario is now in a stage 2 lockdown. Virtual school from Wednesday, Jan. 5th until, at least Jan. 17th. They are suggesting it might be 2 - 4 weeks shut down.  It'll be hard on the elementary kids. They are the ones less likely to be double vaxxed, as well. The high school kids can more easily flip to virtual school, but I'm not sure about the younger ones. The poor teachers have a day and a half to flip. Our public school kids were to go back the 3rd. It pleases no one, a day late and a dollar short, but it is done. 

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 Monday afternoon we took a drive. We thought we'd get out of the house. The car needed to get going in this cold weather. Sitting in the garage doesn't do it any good. 

As we drove, I spotted two hawks of one flavour or another. We didn't stop, a I was sure they'd take off anyway. This is one we had in the front yard! I found this old photo of a hawk on the feeder. I'd forgotten about it. It's amazing how they don't visit on a bird count day!

Narrows Lock was a nice choice. Here we came around the corner to see the Big Rideau Lake. 


There were a pair of Canada geese, a pair of swans, and one mallard.

JB pulled the car over for me. The one swan came over – maybe thinking I had food?  He was murping all the time. 


He decided to get up onto the ice.  He pulled himself up out of the water, but changed his mind.


All I had was my camera with the big zoom lens. The camera needs cleaning, but I've no way of getting that done. You can hear him murp at the end of the video. swan from Jennifer Jilks on Vimeo.
 


After awhile, they all came headed back this way, and suddenly there was another mallard, just as we were about to leave. Three pairs of birds!

The ice looked cold but the texture was so pretty.

9 comments:

Tom said...

...I love the bottoms up!

Linda said...

We go for the odd drive as well, gets us out a bit. The latest restrictions don't really affect us to much, but so many families are being hard hit.

Anvilcloud said...

The Narrows looks like a fine spot in winter as in other seasons. Wish it was a little closer to us. We've been there twice, once was for a half-decent sunset.

Nancy J said...

Lockdowns are hard on everyone, parents who work at essential businesses have to struggle to find someone to look after the little ones, older students, the question? Can they be OK home alone? Parents who cannot work and have no pay coming in? Meantime the geese serenely live their days in relative safety, they are always beautiful, no matter if it is heads up or down.

eileeninmd said...

Hello,
Pretty swan images, love the views of the lake.
Cool capture of the hawk!
Take care, have a great day!

DeniseinVA said...

Cute to see the deer. Sorry to hear about your stage 2 lockdown. That’s tough on everyone. A beautiful hawk and gorgeous views across the Big Rideau Lake. Nice to see the swans and geese. I can honestly say I have never seen a bottoms-up pose from a swan before. Too cute! Fun to see the swan going into the lake. They don’t feel the cold do they says I with a smile? Not sure if I have wished you a happy new year yet, but just in case, Happy New Year Jenn :)

Red said...

Deer eat high quality food during the winter. Moose will eat all the garbage. Moose will eat the dead leaves on the ground from the fall. Deer are fairly fussy and choose the good stuff to eat.

Jenn Jilks said...

Well, Red, the deer will fill their bellies with twigs in winter, they've studied them. They munch on the dead and dry weeds, too. Anything for a bellyful!

Jeanie said...

I love seeing the swan to acrobatics! I give her a 10! And I'm glad the deer are at least finding something to eat. It's a long winter. What a splendid drive!