Friday 25 September 2020

Knock, knock . who's there?

 Not what I intended but for all the Leif Penguin fans - where is Henrietta?



Easy?



I guess no problem,


Soooo where is she here?



Have a great weekend - wob

Sunday 13 September 2020

Birds of a Feather - Part 2 - The Eyes have it!

 The Sandhill cranes sometimes were quite noisy. I do not know what this was all about. It ended after just a few seconds and did not appear to disturb the others. Adults have the red heads, the juveniles, not. (And in the case of WOB, he nolonger has a red thatch,)






On another occasion an adult appeared to be auditioning for crane equivalent of Swan Lake:










Adult and juvenile.












A wonderful experience - W O B !

Birds of a Feather - Part 1-

 Orillia is a friendly place with people who are connected like various strands of a cob web. When, in this case, a bird is spotted, the whole web vibrates with excitement. And all the birders congregate just as the spider might do for a fly in its web.

So it was on Friday.







There were several groups 20 - between 10 and 30 - maybe 180 to 200 birds visible and maybe a couple of groups unseen?




Just a couple of examples.

Vicki and I are in our car, windows down and some of the birds are right beside us, even coming toward us as though oblivious of our presence.






And the day was sunny and mild - what a show!


WOB


Thursday 10 September 2020

Short-term Memory

 It must have been end of February 1976 when I flew North from Nairobi to Frankfurt: I looked out  the window, over the wing and saw Comet West rising before the Sun. Richard West had discovered it the previous year. That meant that on the previous day or so I had flown in over the Serengeti National Park  and probably over the  Ngorongoro Crater (caldera)  with the herds of Zebra and the Oxpecker.

So, a few days ago when I drove over the "rim" and saw the vast herd of animals I came to a stop and crept back to take some photos mindless of the pride of lions hidden in the long grass. 




I wondered and marveled at the astronomical connections:



 



 No troubles spotting Pegasus and Perseus?








I was reminded of the phrase "horse sense", maybe it was "horse cents"? - Because horses never bet on humans? Here were a dozen or so horses in a confined space living peacefully together, apparently oblivious to race, creed, colour, gender.


Maybe humans could learn something from animals - just a thought!



And the lions sparred me but my wife spared me! Maybe even speared me?


WOB