Lost Images - Great Horned Owl Family

I realized I had never posted about the day we saw the one parent and the 2 owlets together one weekend on a walk. Part of the reason was that when I uploaded the images, my external hard drive was off therefore the destination for the images ended up defaulting to My Documents/My Pictures on my Cdrive.

On the way home from work I was thinking about the owl family and wondered how they were, then realized that it seemed to me I'd never really posted anything about the last time we saw them. I looked this evening and was saying to John "it is almost like the folder is gone" then - Doh! I then clicked and recalled the uploading day, how I was supposed to move the folder but of course never did lol! One thing about me is I have a very spatially aware as well as associative memory and I can recall visually how far down on a page I saw a piece of info, etc., and I often can find an album or photo (among my probably thousands of albums and 10s of thousands of photos) within a few minutes, or a word on a page, or paragraph in a book or document that I have already seen, quite easily. I love my memory, it is my strongest asset and I exercise it always. So, I found the album - but still need to move it though ;-)

To get back On Topic however - the owls: Last year, these presumably same owl parents had 2 babies in March. One apparently fell from the nest. We were privileged to see the 1 baby through a resident's scope, after being invited to join a crowd of people on his property, viewing the birds. It was unbelievable to see the baby owl, big yellow eyes looking right at me and seemingly close enough to reach out and touch yet hundreds of feet up in a tree, with the one parent. The Dad owl sat on a tree a bit of a ways away.

This year, we learned there were again 2 owlets. I have seen them a couple times, as well as the parents. There are a few earlier posts about the Great Horns in my blog. This post is about the last time we saw them. Previously in the spring, one owlet again had fallen from the nest but was rescued and placed in a tree. We saw it several times, far from the other owlet and parent. We were told the Dad owl was feeding it.

On this day, the last day we saw them, we spotted both babies with what I think is the Mom owl. I was glad to see both babies and now see them together. The woods where they reside is dense with vegetation now and it is much more difficult to find them. I have not seen them since this day, which was mid May of this year.

Will Miss Our Area

Since finding my own apartment just over 2 years ago, after being separated, and discovering the Whitby waterfront and then the many wonderful Conservation and Wetland areas right in our vicinity, I've grown to really love the area I live in. Originally, I lived in Ajax, after moving there with my children's Dad from Toronto, 20+ years ago. It took quite a while to grow accustomed to not being able to just jump on the TTC and go wherever needed, including work. But, I did grow used to it. I am definitely a city girl, and being most interested in art and reading, I was also an indoor person all my life.

However, with the move to Whitby near the lake front, I slowly began to realize how much I now enjoy walking and hiking, even in winter! I began to learn about birds I never even knew we had in Ontario. I knew animals well, but not birds, and certainly not plants, nor the ecosystem cycles every season, what affects what in our environment - none of that stuff. Though I'm no expert, and this taken up interest is Not my main interest in life - that remains art - I've learned tons. When one walks among nature, it calms the mind, it also brings awareness of how fleeting life can be, how unimportant some of our human worries are. You realize that for instance, birds seem to live on the verge of a constant nervous breakdown just trying to eat and survive, to protect themselves.  It also makes one begin to think about how important humans feel they are when really, Our life could be just as fleeting and beyond our total control.

It is also a great way to try to keep fit and it is very therapeutic. It also does not cost a bloody fortune (well I guess the bit of gas sometimes and any small fee to park) like most consumer oriented leisure activities. The fun is all dependant on oneself :-) Most of the areas my partner, a professional artist, and I enjoy are within 5 to 15 mins away so there is little gas expense and some there is no fee associated with parking.

Recently, I was in the process of making the decision to find a permanent rental closer on the Go line to TO and that was affordable for me (rents for 2 bedrooms are higher than in 1988 lol!), as well as still accessible with a shortish drive to the outdoor areas we love to chillax in. Not sure what part of Durham Region or Durham/Toronto border area we'll end up in but we will miss theWhitby waterfront if we leave that area, which we probably will. Luckily it won't be too far from the areas we love and from family, just a little west :-)

Attacked by Blackbirds and Other Unusual Occurrences

This weekend, among some long put off tasks like completing taxes (for reasons that couldn't be foreseen or helped), we got out on an evening and morning walk at the Halls Rd. area of cranberry Marsh in Whitby. One thing I love about this area is the marsh in the evening light. The other thing that occurs sometimes is the foggy atmosphere, in the right conditions, in the early mornings.

We decided Saturday morning to head out to Lynde Shores instead, for a change. We got part way in and guess what, the mosquitoes have been born lol! We decided to go back to the apartment and get bug spray and for John to change from shorts to jeans.

When we got back and re-parked, we had just headed up the main roadway over the bridge when something whizzed through my hair at the back of my head. Next thing I know, a Red-winged black bird is dive bombing me. It happened several times, even into the chickadee path. It was funny and scary at the same time lol! I recall reading last year in the news about people being attacked while jogging, etc.

In the midst of this, we ran across our first odd sight, a red-winged blackbird with a fan of white on the underneath of its wings as it is flying back and forth. We saw this bird briefly a few weeks back but I failed to get a shot of him. This time, he was hanging around for food, so I got several. Wings closed, it shows as a strip of white.

We walked the long route towards the observation deck and on further to the marsh lookout and then to Lake Ontario shoreline. As we ventured along the path, we came upon what we felt was an unusual sight. A male Ruby Throated Hummingbird just perched still on the open branch of a tree. He stayed there for quite a while. Later on, we saw again another perched on a hydro line. This is Not how I'm used to seeing them. Because of the lighting, which caused him to be in silhouette, I didn't get the world's greatest image but it gets the point across.

There were lots of things to see, namely a family of geese begging for food, a flicker, a nuthatch, a funny blue jay, some yellow warblers, fly catchers, tons of squirrels, loads of chipmunks, a hairy woodpecker, white egrets, cardinals, and sail boats out in the amazing hazy morning light over the lake. There had been lots of rain the night before so lots of opportunity for the cliche water droplets on leaves shots too :-)

1000 on 500px

Lol! fun to watch the moment that my affection # changed from 999 to 1000!

500px is a neat photo site. There are a lot of Amazing photographers' work to view on there. It's fairly clean a site compared to some, where there are tons of groups and contests. I enjoy looking at and uploading images to 500px.

Though, as for selling, I cannot comment since I often don't upload a large enough image, and my camera's megapixels don't allow for large print capabilities either. So, I don't bother to pay for an "Awesome" package and most of my images don't automatically go for sale. Selling isn't my motive when shooting photos. The motive for me is more from a personally fulfilling artistic standpoint only, capturing exciting light and shadow and pattern, and finally for the enjoyment of sharing images I am thrilled I managed to get :-)

My 500px