Deer collisions S.E. Ontario: Mississippi Mills on the increase

Our faithful OPP patrol the roads, but they cannot prevent stupidity.

While I have expressed concerns about reckless speeding, illegal and unsafe passing, and people following closely enough to examine the contents of my trunk, another factor, deer collisions, continues to be on the increase in some places.

Habitat loss, hunting season, rutting season, all cause them to be on the move. In the winter they hunker down in winter yards, where they stay close. In  our forest, I can see where they hoof out a bed, digging down to the pine needles under a big tree in shelter.

Truthfully, deer populations in Eastern Ontario are down.

Increase in deer collisions
Collision Repair Magazine
Sudbury and Bancroft, Ontario -- January 10, 2012 -- An increase in wildlife related collisions has affected local collision repair facilities in at least two Northern Ontario areas. At Watts Sutherland Auto Body, in Bancroft, Ontario, owner Craig Watts reports eight new vehicles in his shop suffering from collisions with deer—since last Thursday alone. "We have had more deer hit this year than in the past two years put together," notes Watts.

 The double line tells us it is not safe to pass.

500m to pass a car and tractor

There are other factors that cause collisions.

Mississippi Lake dissects highway 7 twice

Slash and burn – typical rural development

Mississippi Mills has had an increasing number of deer collisions.

What precipitates deer on the move like this?

Crampton Rd., near Carleton Place

The mayor talks about the White Tail Ridge Development. Martin St.
I've seen it. Clear-cutting land for a development, where do the deer go?

Clear cutting for new developments

Levi concerned about Martin St. intersection
Mayor Levi was speaking at the Mississippi Mills police services board meeting on Wednesday, Feb. 8, and his fellow PSB members agreed that the area needs study.
Sgt. Rob Croth of the OPP said that there would be no issue with providing the town with collision-reporting information from that intersection from the Ontario Ministry of Transportation.


Levi's comments came on the heels of information released by the OPP from the last quarter of 2011 that showed that Mississippi Mills was the only area where there was a reported increase in the number of collisions.

Camera Critters #203

Driving at the speed of suicide, taking animals with them

I think we are just finding some who insist on driving faster, driving distracted, and taking stupid chances with potential victims, and the people and animals we love.

Tourists at Niagara-on-the-lake

Snowmobiles go faster and faster. Sledding at the speed of suicide, on machines that are loud and uncontrollable be newbies.
Drivers on our roads disrespect speed limits and other drivers, pass in unsafe conditions.
Distracted drivers? Asleep figuratively or metaphorically at the wheel, or on their phones.

SLow down, people. Somebody out there loves your victim(s). You are not any more important than they are. A life of painful chronic health issues are not anything someone would wish for, you or our loved ones.

Take this case: An OPP officer, nearly at his 30-year retirement mark, slams into the back of a buggy. A beautiful horse and buggy, in Mennonite country, where life take its time and buggies run on the shoulders of the road. The horse is sent 30 metres. The man, in serious condition.

Horse & Buggy – Lanark County

The issue is: OPP do not name, nor charge the OPP officer, until public outrage raises the profile of the case.

buggy statue in Balderson

OPP quick to name civilian in Mount Forest, Ont. horse and buggy accident, but not officer in another

On Jan. 13 in Kenilworth, an 11-year-old boy named Landis Martin was killed after Benjamin Peters’ pickup truck struck the coach from behind. The impact catapulted Landis and his two older brothers from the buggy.
In that case, the OPP identified the 19-year-old driver immediately and police announced they are investigating.

The buggy driver had a dozen fractured vertebrae. Ten of 24 ribs broken. Both lungs punctured and collapsed. His spleen was torn and had to be removed. There was bleeding in his brain. A broken collarbone. He spent a month in hospital — the first two weeks sedated and attached to a breathing machine.

On November 14, 2011...
Driving a Mennonite buggy to pick up students from school, Frey’s injuries were extensive, “life-threatening,” police said.

Perth Fair

There are horses all about southern and central Ontario. Drive safely.

Mother would never believe it!

Not only did I manage to find the patience to keep impatience all summer, I've kept them going indoors all winter!

Mom would be so proud of me! She adored this flower. She ordered 4 flats, some as Thank Yous for friends who helped look after her in her few weeks of palliative care. I duly planted hers, and gave away the others to her neighbours who had brought mail, done her banking, fetched the newspaper for Dad.

She set her 5 window boxes around her frog pond.

Mine are so pretty. The warmth of the sun has massaged the plant, and our passive solar heating, a lovely bay window, warms us up in the heat of the afternoon.

 Mind you, I think I brought some friends in. Can you SPOT her? (Excuse the pun!)

A 20-spot lady beetle

here is a closer look!

I dug out my handy bug catcher and for the last few days I've been catching them and setting them free!

  

It rather makes me feel like spring, indoors!

I took a close-up video, they are fascinating as they trot along. They are easy to capture. The moment I touch them they just DROP, abandon ship and let go, and plummet into the bug catcher underneath.

Are they ever hard to video with the macro-lens! This is through the plastic of the bug catcher. I KNOW I'm not fast enough to grab them on the fly, so-to-speak.

In the meantime, looking out my window, we watch the deer grab a bite here and there! I know my lilacs could use a trim!

What is she looking at?

Her buddy!

Family Day at my house

He's listening, cocks an ear!

Family Day was February 20th in Ontario.

A holiday in several provinces for several reasons: BC (in 2013), Alberta (1990), Manitoba, Saskatchewan,
PEI, Ontario.

In the US it was President's Day. For me, it was a day to rest, sit in the sunshine, and anticipate the snow and rain for Tuesday night!

The frog was chilly, at 6 C. in the shade in the morning. A sunny day, the cats sat with me as the sun warmed us up.
Buster listened to my every word.

Finally he deigned to look at me when I called his name!

By afternoon, Ms. Froggy read 15 in the sunshine!

 

Felix was showing off.

He knew I had cat treats
as he is a wanderer...

In the backyard,
a mourning dove sits having a nap.

Snapping Turtles on the Road to Extinction

This is so sad. More evidence of man's inhumanity towards nature.

Snapping turtles are a species of special concern. The Ministry of Natural Resources permits anyone with a small game or fishing licence to kill up to two turtles a day.

Quebec and Nova Scotia have passed bans on hunting them. It is time Ontario did the same.

I am shocked.

They cross busy roads

roads, people who speed,
kill many turtles

What is killing them, other than those with a licence, is

• habitat loss, pollution, road mortality, legal and illegal hunting. 

They should live 100 years and weigh up to 16 kg., the average is 36 cm (14").

Mother of all turtles – biggest I've ever seen!
Sunning her cold-blood on a rock in the early morning

My favourite one was Patch, who lived in our frog pond. He was eaten by a predator, I think Butch, our raccoon.

These critters live in Ontario's wetlands, but 70% of southern Ontario's wetlands have been lost.

These photos are a result of a July 20, 2009 canoe ride. It never moved a muscle.

Looking at their fat tissue samples, researchers found that 75% of examined turtles had PCBs in their bodies, with another 14% having mercury.

If humans are catching them and eating them, they are at risk.

These critters are amazing. I've seen them all over in my Daycations across Ontario. From their little triangular noses peeking out at me from the lake, they check you out and take off.

She wasn't thrilled with us trying to coax her on her way

I nearly stepped on one, it was under the end of the dock where I was walking, and carrying a baby on my hip, and it just swam away from us.


They have never gone after me in the water, only on land, like this one who resented us interfering with her being on the road.

Breeding
In addition, they are very slow to mature. It takes 10 -  15 years! Females begin breeding around age 17, laying 34 eggs per year. They figure that the survival rate is 1:1400.

Predators

• humans, humans, humans...
• scavengers like raccoons and striped skunks who will eat the eggs, and loonie-sized hatchlings.

Report reveals Ontario snapping turtles in peril; Demands end to hunt

February 21, 2012

Prehistoric turtles face triple threat from hunting, road kill and toxins

Toronto — The David Suzuki Foundation, Ontario Nature and the The Kawartha Turtle Trauma Centre (KTTC)  released a new report today documenting the plight of Ontario's imperilled snapping turtles, prehistoric creatures that have been around for 40 million years but are being pushed to the brink of extinction. The Road to Extinction: A Call to End the Snapping Turtle Hunt highlights a controversial provincial policy that allows snappers to be hunted, despite being listed as a species at risk, and identifies eight hotspots where thousands of turtles are being run over and killed by cars each year.

Ontario is deadly for snappers.

1. County of Haliburton and northern City of Kawartha Lakes; 
2. Highway 7 from Norwood to Maberly; 
3. Highway 69/400 from Port Severn to Sudbury; 
4. Greater Golden Horseshoe; 
5. Highway 60, especially through Algonquin Provincial Park; 
6. Essex County, especially Pelee Island; 
7. Highway 17 west of Sudbury; 
8. Presqu'ile Provincial Park.

The four categories, or classes, of "at risk" are:
EXTIRPATED - a native species that no longer exists in the wild in Ontario, but still exists elsewhere 
ENDANGERED - a native species facing extinction or extirpation

THREATENED - a native species at risk of becoming endangered in Ontario
SPECIAL CONCERN - a native species that is sensitive to human activities or natural events which may cause it to become endangered or threatened

See the algae – they primarily stay in the water

It seems to me that the wildlife are the hunters and poachers.

MNR Enforcement News - $4,000 Fine for Illegal 

Sale of Protected Turtles...

A Cornwall man has been fined $4,000 for selling and offering to sell native species on the Internet. Stephen Shillingford was convicted on eight charges related to illegally selling and offering to sell specially protected and game wildlife under the Fish and Wildlife Conservation Act. On June 25, he met with and sold common snapping and western painted turtles to a plainclothes conservation officer.

Bronchitis, sunshine, dear friends

JB & Sadie do red squirrel patrol!

It's been glorious weather.
With the sun's rays warming the earth, nighttime temperatures of -10 C. rise to more tolerable 5+ or so. The snow is melting where the heat shines under the trees.

Under the pine trees are circles of brown pine needles, where cats and deer sit in the sun.

Wildlife is busy, seeking warmth and food.
Most of us are conquering winter colds, anticipating March melts, syrup season, and the promise of spring.
Not me.
Despite wetland walks, and snowshoeing tracking my forest friends, I contracted a cold. In the old days, teaching, I was exposed to every germ going. JK kids shared Chicken Pox, kids with whooping cough, sent to school, shared, too. We had flu bugs that kept 30% of the school population home during its peak!

Warmth of the sun melts the snow

After a night of coughing, prefaced by three days of same, I decided it was time for the emergency department.

I popped out of bed at 6:41 a.m., got ready to go, and woke hubby to tell him. He INSISTED on coming along, which is what I counsel all my clients, but I knew it was only bronchitis or somesuch. That said, he brewed us a coffee, not good to have a caffeine fit in the ER waiting room early in the morning.

Off we went, and made it in for 7:17 a.m., first ones in after the 7 a.m. shift change, which I have found works best. We were the first registered and sitting in the waiting room. There were 3 more patients after me. I got to sit there with my Typhoid Mary face mask, which I gladly put on even before they asked. I believe in keeping germs to myself.

No money was exchanged. I gave them my OHIP card and my blue hospital card. This is a great country. God bless Tommy Douglas and his notion of medicare.

I have visited our ER before, most times I visit when I cannot see my GP. Sunday morning was one of those mornings.
It was very quiet. Delightfully so.


 No blood and bleeding-down-the-arm contractors, as it was Sunday! (I'm not good with blood!)

I was home free by 8:24, with a prescription being prepared.

Hubby took off to get my drugs. Hooray for antibiotics.

In the afternoon, I sat on the front deck in the sunshine doing a crossword puzzle. The clean, cold air was soothing. Spring is coming.

Love the white-tailed deer!

Snapping photos of our deer in the back yard, I appreciated the changing of the seasons and the cycle of life.

They blend in so well