Rhapsodies of the Wise Old Bird

Thursday, 13 August 2026

July 6th - August 22nd, 2026

170 Shaughnessy St. Sudbury, ON

just west of Paris Street.

She liked this place - she came from away,

and before that from very far away, from a muggy hot region with monsoons, yet only a few hundred kilometers from the Thal Desert.

She loved to walk here.

A part of all that we have met.

And will not cease to explore until, on returning, one sees the place for the very first time:

Karsh and Leacock:

Renowned portrait photographer Yousuf Karsh spent two and a half days in 1941 photographing famous Canadian humorist Stephen Leacock at Leacock's home, Old Brewery Bay, in Orillia, Ontario. Leacock later humorously awarded Karsh the "Non-Existent Gold Medal" for the iconic photo series.

Did this action preempt FIFA?

WOB

Wednesday, 12 August 2026

Local Type:	Partial Solar Eclipse in Orillia, Ontario
Begins:	Wed, Aug 12, 2026 at 12:51 pm
Maximum:	Wed, Aug 12, 2026 at 1:38 pm 0.190 Magnitude
Ends:	Wed, Aug 12, 2026 at 2:24 pm
Duration:	1 hour, 32 minutes

Sunday, 9 August 2026

This was a walk with my daughter back in mid May. I do not recall when she began to be called Wawa and by whom. We did visit Wawa Ontario as early as the summer of 1987 on our way to Quetico. That place lives in our memories as forest fires rage there this summer. I do hope my friends are safe.

The walk began on Vespra Valley and Rail heading toward Josephine. Today I am recalling an incident between a pair of Trumpeters and a family of Wawas.

Two families, 2 outings.

Everything green grass and clean water:

The geese were on the north side of the trail, and the swans on the south.

But then ...

I do not know where the 3rd goose was before it entered the fray.

The action continued off and on and finally(?) off for nearly 60 minutes:

All is well that ends well. There were really 6 goslings.

WOB

Saturday, 8 August 2026

Waiting for Nature

I returned to the boardwalk again yesterday afternoon to see if the mink would return, I thought - as I did yesterday - that I might continue walking in search of butterflies. I did not do that! I was caught by a tern diving amidst a "Hand of Man" background toward Tudhope. So I set up my chair and tripod to face the greenery of Leacock.

Something caught my eye:

Can you see "it"?

That's impressive, Darryl.

And I was not using binoculars or distance glasses.

The camera never lies?

So I am asked if that was luck - I don't think so if I don't name the subject before I go out side. I wait for Nature to fly, swim, or walk her course.

And this morning while looking out for pirates - see an earlier blog from August, 2024 - I saw a woman behaving strangely; a few steps then pause, a motion of her hand, then a few more steps, repeat. Ahead of her was a heron down by the bridge. Will it make a blog? Will the tern make it even with a poor choice of background? Letters in the "Comments" might influence "my lucky encounter" in the next blog!

Wobbily yours,

WOB

Friday, 7 August 2026

Walking with Nature

In Orillia!

Along Atherley:

There were a couple of Monarchs fluttering around - difficult for me to photograph with my off-axis FUJI camera, live screen, and bright sunshine. Had to take off the sunglasses.

Milkweed had been spared but there were not a lot of plants.

Just a few meters back, in the swamp, were the Midland Eastern Painted turtles:

Consider that this area had been baked dry this time last year, and remained so until November, I was so happy to see that 2 or 3 different ages had survived so long. I am about 10 to 15m away from them.

I was only 2m away from this animal yesterday afternoon: