Leonids and the Photographer.

I am sitting beside my computer - if it is the thing in the black box with a red band around the front - and I am sitting more  or less in front of 2 monitors, screens. The one on the left is taking back in time and place to Thursday December 7, 2017 and a trip to Calakmul, complete with some sound recordings on some videos of howler monkeys. The screen on the right has this blog being typed but also behind it the program Corel Paint Shop Pro X8 with this image:

The Leonid Meteor shower is expected to occur this weekend although the moon is a problem for most of the night

Do you recall the shot I took of an Orionid fireball last year?
Was that luck with the Hyades and the Pleiades in the photo? No, I only took photos of Taurus! However, it was still a lucky shot, 1 out of 85 taken on 2 nights. It was the 12th exposure of 27 on the first night. And I did not record any more.

So, looking at the chart above, if you want a meteor shooting through Gemini, look there. And if you want to photograph it, well ...

Ditto for a meteor through Orion further west.

Actually the photographer has been grappling with another problem,"The Mind-Body Problem"
Don't open this link unless or until you have some time to think - a good non-slip exercise for the winter, maybe.

And the ice now extends out from shore some 50+ meters if it matters.

Wise
Old
Bird

Some snow on the ground

Last week I said I would have to wait for snow to fall to see tracks of the mink. Well today the snow began to fall and stay! I don't have anything I especially want to show you - maybe tomorrow I blog some snow.

I thought I would show you the radar picture and our current forecast:

The "pale blue dot" south of Orillia on the radar map is indeed wet.

I also want to include a link to the jet stream and the role it plays.
The diagram is, I think, wrong, however - it shows the jet stream as a uniform/constant width band of a small circle. The real problem is that this idealized situation can no longer contain the energy that has been deposited in the atmosphere in the past 100+ years. It is similar to laying out a garden hose and then turning it on. The hose does not stay still but begins to sway rapidly like the cobra being played to by a flutist (?). So the jet stream begins to sway - deep to the south bringing cold air south but also diverting southerly breezes northward. So one group of people experience a chill and claim that as evidence for no global warming and the other group might prefer warm rains to a snow storm.

2030 is coming very quickly and the time to constrain global temperature rise is very short.Earth Hour 2019 is scheduled for Sat March 30, from 8:30 pm to 9:30 pm

And Earth Day 2019 is on Monday, April 22, 2019
And remember, we may also be among the endangered species!


Wise Old Bird

Mink

I spent nearly an hour with a mink at McGee Cree in March 2017
And I was very much aware of that encounter when I met a mink beside my kayak back on Thursday, October 11. Sorry about the delay in reporting. I actually want to try a technique of referencing that I will use for creating an astronomy page - non sequitur for most people  but I see some logic(?) in it.

So here I am in the kayak when the mink swims pass my bow and scrambles ashore at our "dock":

I think, thought at the time, that the leaves might be nesting material. I have not seen the mink since so will have to wait and observe tracks in the snow and maybe some interesting sights in the Spring.

I didn't want to disturb the animal - thinking of future photographic possibilities - and so I paddled away, nearly 1km, beyond Leacock, when I saw another mink:

We don't have these large blocks of  - dolomite? Anyway, I returned to our condo, slowly, looking to see if the mink was still in the vicinity - yes!

I landed and put the kayak away and then waited patiently(?) Non-invasively, I hope.

I wonder how safe the Kingfisher burrow is - it is less than 200m away, and I have seen the area and would not say I am that alert. Certainly it is not a matter of life or death for me. I have seen a raccoon in the vicinity of the burrow and a brood of Kingfishers afterwards so I do hope there is space for them.


Wise Old Bird - just experimenting after a Tom Wilson recital, Beautiful Scars.

Turtle Rock

Power of suggestion?

The head -

And the tail -

The body is a little more difficult to get in one image:

Note the ferns growing on "Turtle Island":

There are also many kinds of lichen growing on the turtle.

W O B

Schnee von Gestern

This morning there was some snow still on the roof of the gazebo, and on our dock. The snow was gone by this evening. Still, here are 3 impressions from 8AM:

Then we drove over to an alvar to see some snapping turtle egg shells, their nest, and a freshly hatched "hatchling":

The female snapper layed some 30 eggs in several clutches - this one was either the 4th or 5th clutch - in June, near a compost heap some 15m from a stream:

The turtles had been hatching out over the past week and were checked into this stream:

We hope that they will do well.

W O B

It snowed again, again!

And this time I was ready.

The temperature is still above zero and it may be raining - can see Rama, so don't think it is snowing.

W O B

It snowed again!

I tried to capture the snow on camera but it stopped on me. The winds are 24kmh with gusts over 40kmh. The islands between 2.5 and 6km go from view and then return in just a few seconds. Even the whitecaps on the lake rise and disappear like magic.

So back to Sunday's walk and some trees in Tudhope Park.

I was watching the horizon - the Park does have that slippery slope.

Hard to believe the colours, and the range of reds.

Sunburnt at the top?
Leaves powering the return of sugars to the roots?
Green sentries covering the retreat to Winter?

And now we know: they, the snowbirds, don't take it with them:

I hope to see you next Spring,

W O B