Frequent fliers, etc.

🐣 PHOEBE

 It was unusual,  but there was a phoebe in the front yard, which seems late in the year. Here is an old screenshot of it coming to land on the trailcam. They are lovely little birds. Ours nested twice and produced 8 chicks.

Ottawa, May 2013

Things are winding up. Leaves are falling. We have 8 happy fishies. I cannot grab a photo of them all at the same time! One was stubborn, and escaped capture until the pond settled and I could see it.

The water fountain has been scrubbed and cleaned. Much debris was in the mechanism. It's good to dry and be wrapped for winter. 

It was a lovely day to be working outside.

The sunset was lovely.

Fall, bring it on!

Plane spotting!

 

Community Safety Announcement:

Finally, I am the proud owner of a new crown. 🦷 This is an old photo I remembered I had in the files. 

Narrows Lock Birding – Part 3

I decided to chop this trip into three posts. It didn't last all that long, but serendipity being what it is...  As I was watching the common mergansers in their aerial acrobatics, I noticed a weasel run across the road from one side of the lake to the other. That got my attention. I walked over.

I found a long-tailed weasel, Mustela frenata. It ran across the road as I was standing there. It went back across the road from whence it came. 

As I watched it leave, I turned back to the water, and found there was another one! I had my zoom lens on the tripod, and it was tricky, but rewarding. It wasn't as fast as other critters, and was quite curious and/or tolerant of me.

It ran up and down the rocky shoreline.

I watched it capture a frog in the water. It wasn't too worried about me. You can hear the miserably cold wind on the video. I was standing there holding my camera and tripod, and filming with the videocamera. The sun was so bright I could barely see in the viewfinder. I didn't do too badly, after all. 

weasel from Jennifer Jilks on Vimeo.

It decided that was it, and galloped across the highway.

This was the best I could do, as it ran all along the shoreline, behind the blockhouse, around the lock itself, catching the attention of the geese, who were a bit worried.

This one went back to the other shoreline, and skirting the shoreline I followed it from behind the blockhouse to where I was standing on the concrete locks. The geese were a bit worried. I tracked it along the shoreline, dragging my tripod, my zoom lens with me. I looked back but couldn't see it.

Following it, the geese were paying attention. I lost sight of it. 

Again, serendipity, I leaned over looking for it, and noticed some very large fish in the water. Big fish in Big Rideau from Jennifer Jilks on Vimeo.

We toodled off home, done for the day. It was a lovely couple of hours, away from news in the sun, and we found lots of critters. I like the thin ice warning. 

There is some snow left, although we had 🌧 20mm of rain overnight, and if we go back it likely has further diminished.

Back in Lanark County...

Vultures have been here for a week or so, migrating back for spring. I spotted several.

As we arrived home, I snagged a photo of our three crows.

It was a great drive in the sunshine. Quite healing. 

• Narrows Lock Birding – Part 1
• Narrows Lock Birding – Part 2

Trip to Dominican Republic 6: Wed.

Wed. Nov. 22

I sent email to Grampa, when I could get onto it. It was pretty wonky.

 Breakfast was plantain with garlic. For breakfast. Yummy. Egg on toast. They only had white bread and white rice.
Lots of smokers. Lunch at the beach restaurant. I had an hour massage, $25 US dollars.
Kids had a quiet time.
Back to our pool at our rooms.
 I asked for a messages for Grampa:
 From Izzy: "We all miss you a lot. Hope have fun making snow kittens."
From Josee: "I love you very much!"
Message from Caitlin: "Thank you for lending me mom!
Message from me: Miss you lots. Tired but happy. You'd be not so happy here. Crazy tourists.
Probably you can't see photos, as I don't have the bandwidth to upload them! We will see!
Xoxoxoxo

In the meantime, their Papa was still in Antarctica. Photos were few and far between, but he would text them daily. These he uploaded upon his return. I am making him a book of the photos for Christmas.

Back to warmer climes!
Josee didn't like this statue. She had to sit with her back to it! You can see Momma lower left, in line for fruit. We'd get the girls set up, then eat. Sometimes, it was quite crowded.


Down to the pool we went. What a treat. Josee loves taking photos, even selfies! You can see her freckles growing.


One tourist, at our pool, looked at our girls and said, 'poisson!' He was one of the men who helped us look for Josee's earring stud, which she lost!


You can see the coral reef, in our marked off beach area. Here are the girls, all in a row! These were great photos Caitlin took. I have yet to ID the fishies.



I spotted these new-style face masks. Caitlin wore a shirt which kept off the UV rays.


This is what we saw of Isabelle for most of our time in the DR! I love these little tops, Caitlin ordered them. They keep out UV rays.

Vendors are licenced to sell their wares. They sell cigars, jewelry, carvings and art. They can get irritating as all us tourists, while from various countries, apparently all look alike. They asked me three times each in an afternoon. "Non, gracias." All the vendors are men, with numbered t-shirts. I spotted one man who was #1. I don't know if he was head honcho!

There was a man on the beach selling jewelry, his fly was down and I couldn't figure out how too say 'zipper' Talked to two ladies from Waterloo, who figured it out. The one had taken Spanish lessons. She knew 'down' and what zipper was.

This woman was quite something. There were three of them in her group from Germany, at least they spoke German. She was covered in tattoos, which was fairly common. She went to the beach bar, just behind us where I sat, and brought back three rum and cokes. As she walked towards us I reached out for one and said, danke, she shook her head vociferously: NO! People were either really friendly, and liked a joke, or very standoffish. We had a lot of conversations with Canadians, who were interested in the girls, and engaged them.



My mani-pedi held up really well. I'm glad I had it done prior to leaving. It meant I didn't need to bring nail clippers, my nails were hard and strong with the shellac polish! Sadly, now I'm home I realized I cannot take off the polish with normal nail polish remover. Who knew??!!


Petite poisson!


This is the main pool, the towel bar in the rear.    The other photo is the smokers lobby.


Bugs bunny en Espanol!