Home improvements at Tudhope

I was on the look-out last Thursday for activity at the 2nd baseball diamond at Tudhope Park

This is the sequence:

The nest has been here for many years - 10?

The mate was on the next light standard toward "home plate":

The following were taken this Sunday morning :

Quite something to be so near to such a magnificent bird.

WOB

Birds of a Feather

The Osprey seem to be doing well, with chicks in each nest. Here is only 1 bird.

Note the high wire act, and Ontario Hydro One.

If a bird were to be fried, would it become a TV dinner?

Are these cow birds?

Groan - something to mourn/moan about?

(A Sunday cross-word puzzle clue for T Elliott S, perhaps?)

A little bird told me so  -

W O B

Orillia perch Festival

Well the festival was very kind to the fish this year - only a couple of the 65 marked perch were landed, with maybe a few more sightings.

Better luck next time, as one might say. On the other hand I wonder how many marked fish went AWOL?  Like the one I spotted this afternoon on its way to a fish 'n' chips supper -

This was one of 6 osprey we saw today.

So I don't feel too badly signing off    -    Wise Old Bird   !

Light at the end of the tunnel?

OK, it has been a long time:

It can only get better - September in Tudhope Park, Orillia:

The colours have started.

The osprey chick has been crying for food.

Another day: wet, wet, wet

So here is the setting:

willow on the left, "double tree" oak on the right. And just a few minutes before I took this photo the osprey plunged into the water behind the little tree just in front of the flag pole, The water is quite rough/choppy and so I did not see the splash. And the osprey appeared to come up empty footed.

Both of us are getting better - just need to mount a "canon" on the balcony.

W O B

From our balcony

I did not intend to write again until I had Knossos ready.

However, after lunch, this beeg bird flew around and landed in our "double tree", an oak; I have shown the tree before in a blog. (It actually is in the background to this blog on the right hand side, and for the record, the "willow", is on the left side of the blog background, the scene straight out from our balcony.)  I was fairly sure the bird was an osprey and I wanted to show off to Doug so I went and fetched my Pentax - I do not have a bird dog so I had to do this myself - and I waited.

Now around here if you look like a dead former/ex-runner you will attract attention!

                                                                   TV Ontario! (Turkey vulture)
I was in manual with shutter speed and F/ratio set to expose osprey nearly correctly in the presence of a very bright cloudy/overcast sky - which appears thus white.

So back to osprey:

There are lots of fish - still!
And lots of breeding osprey.

Cheers,

W O B

A so-so day

Al saw a fantastic display of aurora during the night. I saw cloud. Al stayed up to watch the sunrise and I slept in until 9am! Holidays or retired or lazy?

That is over - now it is lunch time!

Someday I will do an entry on "Seen from the Kayak" - for Doug who missed going out back in May. Maybe I'll get around to it when Bill arrives end of July.

Yesterday was very pleasant, relaxing, rocking gently on the waves. Had a pleasant chat with one of the home-owners on the Narrows side of Couchiching Point. He knows many of our neighbours here in the condo. I must be on my best behavior ALL time - glad that that is easy even if it isn't so much fun(?).

One Osprey. It wanted so much to dive and catch a bass in the spawning grounds.

OK?
I watched the kingfisher dive but did not shoot until it was in a distant tree:

The rest of the time was spent "wool-gathering" a lovely phrase: