Drought, butterflies and flowers

I've changed my header. Southern Ontario, as well as many areas, are in a drought. It doesn't look good.

July 9th, lush and green. 

Aug. 7th, half the rainfall of normal for July, we are drying up. 

The wetland is quite dry, as well.

Life in summer, Cinnamon and I reading on the back deck. 

Easter comma butterfly:

The flowers and the butterflies are wonderful. I have watered about twice a week, not wanting to drain the well. Also, not wanting to lose our beautiful flowers. 

stargazer lily

Fires and fire bans

We're down precipitation by 25 - 50%, depending where you are in southern Ontario. I know this is not a new tale for many countries. I try to prepare for it. 

The was a fire on the nearby lake, lit by renters setting off fireworks. Finally, our township has a partial, Level 2, fire ban. Not enough, to my mind.  One can still make small fires. No higher than 30". Seriously. 

The smoke from Canadian wildfires has been awful. You can see the unusual colour of the sunrise. 

I remember being in Muskoka, on the lake, and renters would set off fireworks for 2 weeks every night. 

The other problem was bonfires. July, 2010, Bala, there was a fire ban, but I snapped a photo of this bonfire in Bala Bay. The property owner asked me to remove the photo from my blogpost. He knew he'd been stupid. 

Then, on our little lake, loud parties with 6' bonfires. They'd drive around in the wee hours, drunk, on their ATVs on our little road. 

I had an interesting read the other day: "Short term renters are messing up cottage country"

After reading that, we really believe that if you cannot afford a $6000/month mortgage, maybe it's a risk you shouldn't take. One guy charges $1500 PER NIGHT, for a cottage that sleeps 16. What else will people do but party? 

"In Simcoe County, Muskoka, Kawartha Lakes and beyond, town councils, residents and hosts are clashing over how to regulate short-term rentals and how to enforce the rules."

These are guests who don't understand septic systems, do not respect the water, and people who don't respect neighbours.  

Short term renters

 

The deer don't like the traffic noise. We've a doe who wanders around munching. You can see her running, as a loud vehicle motors on by.

  

Living in a town established in 1816, the roads were created in the horse and buggy era. Trucks have to cross the line.

I got the zoomies: On the lawn tractor!

 

  e-scooters in town, they scare me. Zipping in and out of traffic. It is nerve wracking, to say the least, for drivers.

 

Gerrymandering... in a nutshell

I've written about this before, as I wanted to understand it.  The US Mid-terms, Electoral System and Gerrymandering

Canadian cartoonist, Michael de Adder sums it up:

‪@deadder.bsky.social‬
substack.com/@deadder

The hawk tale!

Merlin told me it was a Broad-shouldered hawk. iPhoto told me is is Broad-winged, as well. My friend, professional photographer, assures me it is a broad-winged hawk. He writes for outdoors magazine, and he has a pair nesting near. 

On Aug. 3rd it landed on the branch, and stared into #75's nest box. Hide, #75! I just saw squirrel the other day, too. I think! It has flown by a couple of times. It's been more frequent.  

8:30 a.m.

Birdie came back, surprisingly. Around 9:45.

Not to be outdone, I took photos, then leaned my camcorder on top of the zoom camera. You can see the white feathers.

It was tricky, just leaning on the camera with the camcorder, but I did it. It was screeching something in hawk-speak. 

However, there are two hawks! 

 

Tuesday, Aug. 5th no sign in the morning. I really didn't appreciate that 5:30 a.m. wakeup cry the other day. It is a piercing sound. They were flying further away, and one flew over once in the afternoon. They do migrate, we'll enjoy them while we can.

They form large groups, called kettles, since they swirl up in the sky as they move around. They fly to South America for winter. It is a chilly 12 ℃ this morning. I can feel the change.

That said, I've evidence of the bobcat, doe, turkeys, driveway fox, Booboo bear, barred owl, and fisher. More on those later! 

No sign of the hawk Aug. 9th., 10th, 11th.

Heard it Aug. 14th.

Perth Wildlife Preserve Part 3

No, we weren't done yet! I usually put too many photos in my posts. I thought I'd show some restraint, and curate them better! 

We toodled along the easy trail to the lookout. We did fairly well, and decided to go on the back leg of the trail. Grampa braved the rough path. He'd brought his walking stick, which was excellent.

The issue with walking mid day, is that you don't see nocturnal critters or critters that come out at dusk and dawn. That doesn't mean they aren't there! I do like the signage. It teaches respect for the unseen critters.

These photos of the flying squirrel are from our time living in Bala. They loved visiting the feeders in the night, and they were fun to watch.

More signage. This is all about the rat snakes. I know they are at-risk, and it is excellent to show how you can host them. What you need is a hibernaculum for them. They hibernate underground, usually under rock piles. We have a lot of those in Lanark County.

I told Joe there was a snake in the hole. He peeked.

"Made you look!" We needed a laugh. 

Aster and Jordan love snakes. Here is the rat snake ambassador at the local park in 2017. They both held it. They are gentle snakes, and eat birds, rodents and all, and can get to 6' long. 

It's hard to believe Jordan is going to Queens University in September. Aster heads to gr. 10.

Murphys Point Park 2017

These huge vines are wild grapes, winding themselves around the evergreens! Not snakes!

The paths vary, as good habitat does. There were more mosquitoes on the grassy bits, but under the pine trees, you could smell the sap. 

I was travelling with a fun guy!

The birds weren't plentiful. Most have mated, nested, and fledged their offspring. There were the usual chickadees, blue jays, woodpeckers, etc., that I could hear. I found one wee feather on the trail.

There was information about shrikes. I've seen one here at home once, maybe twice. The last one was February, 2025. It was cold, and food scarce.

 

There were dozens of wee green, leopard frogs sitting on the path, hopping out of my way as I marched along.

Peering through the forest trail, I could see the parking lot. We made it, a 3.5 km trip! 

⛺ ⛺ ⛺ ⛺ ⛺ ⛺ ⛺ ⛺ ⛺ ⛺ ⛺ ⛺

Yesterday I mentioned our Ottawa family. Today, an update on our Vancouver kids, Jesse took Cluny and Bryony camping somewhere in B.C.!

A Crumbly Acres update: we spotted miniFred on Sunday, Aug. 4th. This morning, she is out on the lower deck. They don't hang out together. 

Plane crash in Ottawa

🛩UPDATE Aug. 15: Plane crash 'dead zone' leaves neighbours with environmental worries

• About 100L of fuel was spilled,
• Fire retardant firefighters use,
• Plane owners are responsible for the environmental clean up, 
• Home owners have to go through home insurance for damages after a power surge to garage doors motors, furnace motors, freezers, hot tubs, central vacs. (Some estimate $5000 worth per home.)

🔥This was the situation near us in Smiths Falls. A fire resulted in well contamination in 2016. The fire retardant tainted wells, people had to move out. 

 🛩 🛩 🛩 🛩 🛩 🛩 🛩 🛩 🛩 🛩 🛩 🛩

And in Ottawa...

They are to be lauded those who run towards danger. Watching for news bulletins, this was a sad result. 

CGUXN

CBC News 
The news article has interview with witnesses,
and videos of the crane lifting the plane out of the trees.

One of the owners of the plane, Stéphane Tessier, was declared dead. So sad. He worked in Ottawa.

The plane lost a significant amount of oil before going down, TSB earlier told CBC.