Updates, critters

I think I've calmed down some from our big meeting Tuesday. I had a massage yesterday, and came home a little more relaxed. I only managed to sleep in until 4:45 this morning. Ah well. 

There was a buzz about, as we geared up for this meeting. There were about 90 people there, and with about 3285 households in DNE Township (Statcan, 2021), that is a huge attendance for such a meeting. We don't feel alone anymore. We don't expect anything to happen for a couple of months. I am encouraged by my faithful readers' comments, yet Patio Postcards 's story about her horse makes me sad. My friend, whose family worked at the palace with the Queen's horses, suggested that one of Ian Millar's internationally acclaimed horses is worth $1 million and a foal around $50K. His daughter, Amy Millar, spoke to the difficulties of working near the gunfire.

I was amazed, too, to see so many 'neighbours' we'd never met! Most of whom were wearing masks. Our homes are scattered, but a lot of us are united in opposing this gun club. A lot of people depend of happy tourists for their income here in cottage country. Guests aren't happy hearing gun fire. 

😷Josephine has recovered from COVID. We skipped Thanksgiving for safety. It's heartwarming to get a photo and text from a grandie, asking me to help ID a snake she found! Ain't technology grand?! A northern red belly. I've caught a few here. Dorah brought one into the house once (2016). She tended to do that, bring her friends in to play!

When our young people have a love of nature, you know they are on the right track. They respect wetlands, and ecosystems. 

🍁 We continue to embrace the season. Saying goodbye to our summer critters as they prepare for winter is poignant. Maybe not so much for the hornets.

🐝  Hornets 2022

The hornet nest bears watching, but they have slowed down quite a bit. Soon they'll regroup, the old ones dying off and the new ones hibernating under the ground. I've complained about the crazy invasive lady beetles, but look what they did. What else but these aggressive biting bugs would have the nerve to land on the opening of the hornet's nest?!

This is a photo from Aug. 6th, when I first noticed it. 

🦌A rainy, cloudy day Wednesday, I've had some critters on trailcams. I think this is a deer, and a rabbit on the driveway. One posts one's successful trailcam captures, but the failures are a hoot.

 

mysteries from Jennifer Jilks on Vimeo.

I enjoy the porcupine waddling by!

 

porcupine from Jennifer Jilks on Vimeo.

Chad coyote is almost just a blur!

coyote from Jennifer Jilks on Vimeo.

And our young buck...

young buck from Jennifer Jilks on Vimeo.

We've rain on the way. I'm glad I did some outdoor chores yesterday. Slowly the garden is being put to bed. I guess today is a day for indoor chores. Dang. 😜 

backyard tails, lawns, and health risks

We love our backyard visitors. We know we have grubs. Our lawn isn't that important to us. There are many who spend hours pruning their lawns for dandelions.

Gardeners cross-border shop for illegal pesticides

CBC has done a good piece on this. Our Federal government regulates toxic chemicals used in these products. Ontario further regulates products, as do 5 other provinces.  David Suzuki has done a report. Read the full Suzuki Foundation report  (PDF)  

For more information on what's banned...

Class 9 pesticides are banned for cosmetic purposes because they may pose an unnecessary risk to human health, particularly children’s health.

Grubex is banned in Ontario, yet people are smuggling it across the border.
In a Lowes store in the US, There is a $5000 fine in Ogdensburg for decanting pesticides. (This is the closest border crossing to Ottawa.) People are doing it. They find empty pesticide containers in the ditches.

Sure enough, out in the parking lot of the very same Lowes, William Mallette of Brockville, Ont., was just finishing a bi-weekly shopping trip to the U.S. Mallette admitted to buying banned chemicals for his yard. He uses herbicides to kill weeds around the border of his lawn, applying them at night when no one can see him.

CBC Ottawa radio did a report this morning. One guy tried to bring a truck full of Grubex across the border only to be turned back. He wasn't fined, but returned it to the store. It is simply shocking. These products cause cancer. 

Ottawans are heading to NY State to buy pesticides that are banned here, but legal there. An organic farmer with a part-time job at a garden centre in Ogdensburg blows the whistle on @ottawamorning  pic.twitter.com/HIIL2emyg6

— Hallie Cotnam (@HallieCBC) May 24, 2018

 Hubby was in the store looking for something for our apple trees. Another gentleman was told a product he was trying to buy was banned. He asked, "Well, where else can I buy it?" The clerk suggested a nursery. Professionals can still use these products, as they know how to properly handle them.

How To Care For a Lawn

It is important to understand how to take care of lawns in 2018. People have to leave them longer to let the roots grow strong. This helps them fight the grubs. If you have grubs, you can use a biologic nematodes, which kills them in the fall.

How to get rid of grubs in lawn naturally

1. Let your lawn grow longer than 10cm/ 4"...
2. Check for grubs. ...
3. Use beneficial nematodes to get rid of any type of grub. ...
4. Seed and fertilize your lawn in the fall. ...
5. Don't overwater.

These are the critters we see on our lawn. The bees love the dandelions. I cannot imagine putting chemicals on it.

We see many beautiful wildflowers on the lawn over the spring.

Birds of prey and snake today

Hubby arrived home from dispatching Meals on Wheels. He said he thought I'd like to go look at the mailbox, I'd probably be interested.
You'll like my jury-rigged mailbox attachment – March, 2016. It was the best I could do at the time.
I inspected the box interior. It turns out, there were two spider cocoons, full of little babies. What hubby spotted were the ants dragging away the spider babies. Cycle of Life. Sigh.

Mailbox news from Jennifer Jilks on Vimeo.

In the morning, I'd taken a walk down to the meadow. There was nothing on the trailcams, but quite the fooferaw, on behalf of the robins. Something was irritating them. It wasn't until after lunch that I figured it out. The tree canopy provides both protection and cover for predator and prey.

  

I sat down to lunch looked out the back door, and spotted our regular hawk. I last spotted it Tuesday, July 19th, right there on the post beside the driveway. I drove up beside it, and it was quite bold.
You'll see in the video that the brave little robins were dive bombing it, trying to encourage it to leave the territory!



After lunch, Daisy and I went walking in the FRONT yard. An Osprey! Seriously! They eat fish and eels. Apparently, they are now hunting snakes. It's partner flew right over my head with a snake, straight as an arrow toward the nest, while this one just sat. It was eyeing Daisy, but didn't seem too interested. Thankfully. The nest is about 2.5 km away. This one took off west toward the lake.




Cedar waxwing, it was in the tree beside the Osprey. Thankfully, the osprey doesn't go for fur or feathers.

Daisy and I went into the back yard. There, on a little violet leaf, a redbelly snake. The photo is an archived one, I didn't touch the snake, as it was quite happy in the violets, curled up into a ball.


Northern redbelly snake from Jennifer Jilks on Vimeo.
Hawk from Jennifer Jilks on Vimeo.

FLowers and such

Red-wing molted -finally got a photo
–it looks sunburned!

Aren't they pretty?

Grecian windflower
- one of my favourite bulbs

smiling face

Bambi doesn't seem to like these!
Whew!

Fairy circle with Bird of Play

Happy girl in the sunshine

Bleeding heart in bloom!

Red belly snake

She's a moving target!

How many cats can you count?!

Trillium are about to bloom!

Snakes in Ontario

I don't mind snakes. I can't say I brake for them, as they look like a stick!

I must say I've ridden my bike past a few roadkill snakes. Pretty gross.

I have a couple of resources to help me identify snakes, frogs, especially tree frogs, trees, snapping turtles, beavers, painted turtles, ducks and geese, and the other wonders of the rural scene in cottage country.

Lots of snakes about recently. I stepped on one the other day. I don't know how. I screamed like a girl!

Walking across the lawn, which must be an acre in size, I stepped on the middle of something that curled up around my foot on both sides. I guess I was swatting the deer flies, and not watching where I was going. [We've had the odd case of Lyme Disease around here, too. The bugs are bad.]

Rattler range

A garter snake, it was, poor thing. I picked it up and it was alive, took it to the brush. What a surprise!

I haven't any rattle snake photos. They simply aren't around here, fortunately, although I like them letting me know I'm disturbing them. Thanks for the photo by Bruce Clark.

Rattle snakes in Ontario exist more in Central Ontario, around Georgian Bay. As a child, spending summers in Muskoka, I recall them blasting to put roads through the rock cuts. It disturbed the rattlers, and while we saw the odd one before, they began to move out. With habitat loss, and people randomly killing them, their range has radically shrunk.

There are four populations: Bruce Peninsula, SE in the Georgian Bay range, Ojibway and the Wainfleet range.
For more info on Massasauga rattlers:

• New Interactive Quiz
• Identification Guide
• Photo Gallery

ALSO in Ontario: Eastern Milk, Norther Water, Eastern Hognose, Fox, and so on.

Northern Redbelly

Eastern Garter snake

rat snake
They are such hams!

garter snake

rat snake

water snake

water snake

Rattle Snake - courtesy Bruce Clark
Eastern massassagua rattler