Missing you: facetime

Blogpost #4599!



'nuff said!

Hooper continues his war on the roses. I highlighted the full frontal attack on the long-stemmed (photo 1). I placed the broken ones in a smaller vase.


We've had to move the vase. I placed these two roses back in the container, 10 minutes after JB similarly replaced them. He is so funny. Full of beans. We love his antics. He chewed a pencil, the other day. I brought in a stick for him to chew. We have a lot of cat toys, many attached to sticks, which keep them entertained.

Happily, he's not too keen on the goldfish plant! I can tell that we're going to have to bring in the birds feeders once he starts going outside.


We were bird watching and squirrel watching from the front window.


 After our 21 cm of snowfall, we cleaned it up, and enjoyed the sunshine!



And, if I may complain... I managed to give myself a splinter in my index finger moving wood into the TV room. Do they ever hurt! Happily, I didn't break a nail.

Mr. Tree Frog is in the building

My faithful readers know... (this is blogpost #4958) I have a gray tree frog that accidentally came in the house with a plant last fall. He suddenly began singing, and I'm going to raise some mealworms for him!

He is sounding pretty good. The pot lid protects him, I think. Hooper likes to use this plant as a bed. (SIGH)

 You can hear tree frog singing. You can hear Hooper meowing at me. Fake Mews. He'd been fed.

Tree frog from Jennifer Jilks on Vimeo.

Some might find these gross, but they like them. Some people, on Twitter, thought having froggie in the house was gross!


The goldfish like them, too. I keep them in a jar, and pick out a few every night for him.
I checked out the info on this site: raising mealworms. You put them into flour, although there are lots of options. I bought them from the pet store in town. They dig little furrows in the flour in the dark.



Remember our tree frog? This is what they look like, although I haven't seen this one yet.They do change colour.

This is, of course, in the summer!

tree frog from Jennifer Jilks on Vimeo.grey tree frog from Jennifer Jilks on Vimeo.

Miscellaneous photos!

February is here. It's cold. At least it's not raining. It's tricky walking, and there is much ice under a skiff of snow. I've nothing exciting to report on my trailcam videos.

Hubby has a new keyboard, though. He spilled his nutritional immunity booster supplement, laced with syrup, on his keyboard a month ago. The repair shop got a lot of it off some of the innards, but the numbers and ESC keys don't work. He bought a new one. Happy man.

Daisy likes the sunshine.

Josephine and I made this last year! They were supposed to visit this weekend, but we're both fighting a cold, if not flu (I'm feeling dizzy) and thought we'd just take it easy.  There are terrible bouts of flu going around, on both sides of the border.

To date this season, in Canada 28,729 laboratory-confirmed influenza detections have been reported. The Respiratory Virus Detections in Canada Report. The US has been having a hard time: CDC weekly flu report. Child Death Toll Rises To 53 As US Flu Outbreak Worsens.

Daisy hopped into the car when hubby came home from grocery shopping. She and Hooper have been getting along well. She's quite healthy after she bit into the Christmas tree lights and burned her tongue.


That said, Daisy cat does tend to eat too quickly and was about to throw up on the clean stuff drying on the counter. JB yelled, “Don’t throw up on the cutlery!” She threw up in a tupperware container drying beside them. Good girl!


Our TV clicker got ill, quite worn out, and we couldn't read the buttons. We have a new one! Small joys in life... And, yes, we like watching TV!


Hubby is into the recent curling tournie, Scotties Tournament of Hearts 2018. He's got his charts and stats. I putter on my computer, watching the odd exciting moments.



This photo illustrates just how big Canada is, when this dedicated couple travels so far to watch the game! Can you believe it?! I am pretty sure they flew. Tuktoyaktuk has an airport!


Another snowstorm overnight, soon we'll have to go out and shovel. (After JB finishes watching his curling, taped overnight. He konked out at midnight!) Hubby measured 8cm. The poor birds have to doggy dig for seeds!


My paperwhite blossom is a little less than spectacular. Oh, well. I was going to do a whole post on them, but... you'll recall I sent hubby out to buy gravel to prevent Hooper from doggy digging in the pots.

Amherst Island Birding Ethics 7

lots of birders on the ferry

We've often visited Wolfe Island to spot some owls,  Topsy Farm said they had over 20 snowy owls on Amherst Island, nearby. Now, normally, ethical birders do not give away the location of owls, but this is fairly common knowledge. Sadly, birders on Amherst Isl. can be thoughtless and reckless, this is what I have heard from residents and fellow birders. Unlike Wolfe Isl., there are no businesses in winter, other than Topsy Farm. There are just residents, farmers, and construction workers (Wind Farm Construction) for the wind farm.

Birding ethics

The Migratory Convention Bird Act (1994), an agreement across North America, says we're not to kill, harass, or bother the birds in any way. This covers owl baiting, and handling critters. Sadly, there are those who hunt down owls, trespassing, and interfering with their feeding habits.

Ferry across to Amherst Isl.

This is what we can attest to on Friday, Jan. 26th. We got onto the ferry, and took off to Amherst Isl., the guy working on the ferry boat told us that the owls have been on the ice in the morning. On the ferry we met two birders.
This pair had driven down from Ottawa, to photograph owls. We chatted.

Later on, I was furious. We passed them a couple of times. The 2nd time, we stopped to chat as they asked us if we'd seen any. We had not. They'd spotted two, they told us they'd seen the first one by a particular house, and had walked into the field to find a rabbit warren (trespassing). Prime hunting for the owl. They obviously chased the owl off, as they are conscious of photographers. Next, they were going to walk on owl road. I saw two cars parked, and obviously there were people walking along this road looking for birds. Scientists know that studying something changes it. Even if they were collecting data for eBird, they are changing the behaviour of the birds.

Even in educated groups, people are stupid. Imagine large groups on owl road, an area replanted by the landowners to encourage the birds. I had a research question: how many are visiting each weekend?

How many tour leaders are visiting these locations?

RED are weekends

I did some research from Ontario Field Ornithologists   eBird reports, as well as MeetUps.com, as well as other birding tour guides.

For January I managed to determine that there were 67 reports. Islanders report up to 100 birders on a weekend. This is the tip of the iceberg.

I think that this area should be regulated. Someone needs to collect some data and figure out who is going there. Some sort of sign-in.

Code of Ethics - Ontario Field Ornithologists 

And this, specifically, for Owl Woods:

Amherst Island - Owl Woods - New Rules (2010)
"These days, it is not uncommon to have well over 100 people visit the Woods on
a weekend day. "

• The reserve is open only from sunrise to one hour before sunset.
• Do not spend more then two hours in the reserve per day.
• Absolutely no dogs are allowed.
• Keep a minimum distance of five metres from owls. 
•  Be silent; speak in whispers. 
•  Do not linger in front of an owl more than a couple of minutes. 
•  If you cause an owl to fly, do not pursue it. 
•  Do not bait owls with rodents. 
•  No flash photography allowed. 
•  No sound devices allowed. 
•  Do not remove branches or vegetation. 
•  Stay on the existing trails. 
• Persons entering roped-off areas will be prosecuted. 
•  Report harassment of owls to 1-877-TIPS-MNR (847-7667).

Many organize tours:

Org. Tours	Fees	Acronym	Group
✔	$40- 75	AWA	Always An Adventure
✔		OFO	Ontario Field Ornithologists		Caps at 20
✔	$500	FL	Fred Lemire
✔			Prince Edward Point Bird Observatory
data submission		eBird	eBird Sightings on Amherst
✔	$40 - 70	EOB	Eastern Ontario Birding		Caps at 12
		Proj. Snow	Project Snowstorm		transmitters
✔	$279		Toronto Nature Lovers		9

 Ontario Field Ornithologists 

Ontario Field Ornithologists are collecting data
They don't appear to charge for the trips

Eastern Ontario Birding 

-posts trip reports:

Friday, December 29: *Owls on Amherst Island Trip Report (6 participants)
Saturday, January 20: Wolfe Island & Kingston Trip Report
Sunday, January 21: *Amherst Island & Kingston Trip Report
Sunday, February 4: *Amherst Island Trip Report , another trip planned.

Protect Amherst Isl - protesting the wind farm

Amherst Isl. Nature Reserve 7b

They are trying to protect this area, but it is hard with unethical naturalists and birders. You cannot go on this property unless you are or are with a member of the reserve. That makes good sense to me.
Amherst Island is a prime area during migration seasons.