If I have a blog, I suppose I should update it occasionally

Honest, I keep meaning to update this thing, and never get around to it. What is it that they say about good intentions? Something about a really nifty interstate highway, isn’t it?

So, where should I start? Probably with my niece and nephew. Before they went away to summer camp I took them to the Toronto Island. But I mentioned that in my last post. So I will skip ahead to my mother taking all of us (my brother, my niece and nephew, myself) to Stratford to see The Music Man. Great production by the way and highly recommended to anyone who can get to see it.

It was nice to see that they dressed up for the theatre. I’m sufficiently old fashioned that I expect people to not show up in cut-off jeans and t-shirts with big logos when going to a play. And in going to a Sunday matinée there were a number of young (age 8 or thereabouts) girls in big princess dresses. So cute. It beats some of the other people I’ve seen recently.

Down at the Shaw Festival this year I have seen Getting Married, A Little Night Music, and Wonderful Town. At Stratford, in addition to The Music Man I have seen Hamlet, The Taming of the Shrew and Cabaret. At Soulpepper I watched The Odd Couple, As You Like It, Uncle Vanya and The Way of the World. And Tuesday I got out to the local touring performance of Avenue Q. Some of these productions were much better than others.

If you are offered a chance to see Shrew at Stratford this year, turn it down. I will never again see a play by that director (although the author seemed to be an OK dude). But the best sight was at Avenue Q where I sat behind a small family of a (white) father (about 6’4”), a(n Asian-North American) mother (about 4’6”) and their young (but legal age) son (who was really hot in a Dean Cain / David Usher kind of way). It was hard to hear the song “Everyone’s a Little Bit Racist” over the howls of laughter from the family in front of me. Still, a great show.

D'oh, ray, meme

Because I got tagged by Knatolee...

What was I doing 10 years ago?

I was stuck in a job I didn't like, thinking about getting more education to improve my odds of finding something I would much prefer and that would be better suited to my abilities. My how times have changed.

Five snacks I enjoy:

(1) Chudleigh’s Apple Blossoms
(2) Applebee’s Onion Peels (with the old horseradish dipping sauce)
(3) Hostess Hickory Sticks
(4) Butter Tarts
(5) Nobody’s looking, right? Poutine. Not that any of the above are any better.


Five Things on My To-Do list today:

(1) All alone beweep my outcast state
(2) Trouble deaf heaven with my bootless cries
(3) Curse my fate
(4) Think on thee
(5) Scorn to change my state with kings


Five Things I would do if I were a billionaire:

(1) Travel. I would like to get to Australia and New Zealand. And continental Europe. And much of Canada and the States. After that, since I would have so much money, the rest of the world. I’ve heard good things about Sri Lanka…
(2) Try to find an investment broker who isn’t too interested in absconding with ill-gotten gains.
(3) I would probably move. I like my place, but I could do better, if money were no object. Although I would likely stay in the city.
(4) See a few more plays than I normally do.
(5) First thing on the list, really. But it’s too personal, so I’m not going to tell you. But I do know what it is.

Five jobs I have had:

(1) Sitter on babies
(2) Chemistry laboratory assistant
(3) Waiter / Bartender
(4) Banquet manager
(5) Computer consultant

Five of my bad habits:

(1) I take every fun meme I see
(2) I’m probably far to paranoid and guarded for my own good
(3) Complacency
(4) I can be side-tracked into bad prioritizing, if it means that I’ll have more fun
(5) Excluding my relatives from my life


Five places I have lived:

(1) The Borough of North York
(2) The City of North York
(3) The City of Metropolitan Toronto
(4) The City of Toronto
(5) Wasaga Beach


Five people I would like to get to know better (yes, this means you are tagged!):

(1) I don’t tag people. If you want to fill out this questionnaire, tag yourself.

Five Random Things:

(1) Yesterday morning, a couple on their way to the hospital to deliver their fifth child into the world had to stop on the side of the highway because the baby wouldn’t wait. I didn’t notice until the ambulance arrived. Did I mention that this occurred right under my window?
(2) A little more than a month ago I watched flames envelop a house a few blocks from me, not realizing at the time that I was witnessing the covering up of a double-murder and suicide.
(3) When Heinz chose “57 varieties” as its slogan, it already had more than 60.
(4) The international telephone dialing code for Antarctica is ‘672’.
(5) George W. Bush is the first U.S. president to declare himself exempt from over 750 U.S. laws, sidestepping most of the Bill of Rights including the constitutional requirement that the president follow all laws. Yes, they mentioned it specifically to suppress tyranny. (I guess some of these aren’t truly random.)

One good tern deserves another

Today, I took my niece and nephew to the Toronto Islands. We saw many interesting things – Mourning Cloak, Eastern Tiger Swallowtail, Giant Swallowtail, Monarch, Spring Azure, one of the Ladies (probably American, but I didn’t get a good enough look to rule out Painted) and a couple of other butterflies that were to distant to see.

There were several Blue-gray Gnatcatchers calling from the treetops, Yellow and Common Yellowthroat warblers in the wetter sections, and a beautiful male Baltimore Oriole at lunchtime joined us on the grass. A Brown Thrasher repeated its series of repeated calls from a wide open tree top. Crossing on the ferry we could see Common Tern and a few Canvasback Ducks on the Inner Harbour.

There is a new section of the park showcasing the colonisation of early succession species on the newly developing dune. Of course, these things meant absolutely nothing to the kids – they could not have cared less. They told me of their trip to the Grand Canyon where others were astounded to see three California Condors but they were unimpressed. Why did I bother? No, honestly, that’s a question. Why did I bother? Nonetheless, they seemed to enjoy their day.

The terns were far less common than they were even a decade ago. I remember one day about ten years ago when I was biking on the Leslie St. Spit. I was coming back along the eastern side of the loop and must have got too close to the tern colony (even though I was staying on the road). One of the terns which had taken to the air took exception to my presence and continued to harass me. It circled overhead and took a few dives at my head, rapping me soundly with its bill on at least one pass. Good thing I wear a helmet.

Human recreation frequently focuses on shorelines, and our population is increasing. This means that more terns (which are ground nesters) lose their nesting sites or abandon their nests before the chicks can fend for themselves. And it doesn’t help that terns are still hunted (illegally) in South America where they winter. But the Common Tern has come back from near-extinction before. Plume hunters went after egrets and terns to adorn ladies’ hats towards the end of the 19^th century. This hunting is what prompted the original foundation of the Audubon Society. And terns made a comeback. But in the last 40 years, their populations have once again dropped. This time by 71%.

At loggerheads with habitat destruction

Each summer I take a trip up to the Carden Alvar. I’m sure that I’ve spoken of it before. There are a few unique birds that can be found easily in that area and while not quite nowhere else, at least very few other local places. One such bird is the Loggerhead Shrike.

Shrikes are fun little birds. They are one of the few predatory songbirds. They like to kill small birds and rodents and then pin their corpses onto the thorns of certain trees to act as a larder. They are also a threatened species in Canada (threatened in the west and endangered in the east). There are two regular breeding areas for them in Ontario: the Carden Alvar and the Napanee Plain. And the last I heard, the Ontario population numbered about one hundred.

And once again, habitat destruction is playing a major role in its decline. Is this sounding like a familiar theme yet? And in the past forty years their numbers have declined by 71%. Yup, we’ve finally hit the seventies. Seven more species to go.

Off in left field

Last weekend was the May Two Four weekend. Yes, I know that May 24 is part of this weekend, but trust me, last weekend was the celebration of Queen Victoria’s birth. Not that anybody celebrates Queen Victoria anymore.

I went down to Point Pelee for the birding. It wasn’t as spectacular as the previous weekends (I had seen Mississippi Kite and Black Vulture as well as being one day off for seeing the Lark Bunting that showed up) but it was still a good day (It ended with a pair of Laughing Gulls). I managed to see more than 20 species of warbler (good years I’m over 25 and I had one year with 30).

This was also a good year for sparrows, my having seen Clay-colored, White-crowned, White-thoated, Field, Swamp, Song, Lincoln’s, Fox, Sanannah, and hundreds of Chipping (not counting the Juncos and Towhees (which may or may not be sparrows)). You will notice (as if you care) that I mentioned Field Sparrow in that list. I didn’t see very many of them this year, but I’m still seeing them.

Field sparrows are losing their prime breeding habitat. They like early succession grasslands, which implies they colonize in the years after a fire or other major disturbance. Management of fires is a major factor in their declining numbers. And while they also like agricultural fields, their nests tend to get ploughed before the nestlings have fully fledged. It’s unlikely that this species will be threatened with extinction, but its numbers are still declining. In fact, their numbers have dropped by 68% in the past forty years.

But do they make a good pie?

Every summer I drive up to the Carden Alvar. Or, I have done since I’ve had my own car. The alvar is a wonderful little section of Ontario, filled with species that you don’t find elsewhere. And I like going there to see the birds that I don’t see anywhere else in the province. One of which is the Grasshopper Sparrow.

Small and cryptic birds never get seen unless they like to sing. Fortunately, the Grasshopper Sparrow has a unique call, and there is one particular field I know that they always nest in. But other than that one place, I just never see the little suckers.

Most of the sparrows breed in the Canadian Prairies and the American Great Plain (which explains why it would also be found in the alvar, which tends to imitate grasslands. However, increasing agricultural pressures are reducing the numbers of Grasshopper Sparrow. Fields get ploughed before the end of the breeding season; both too frequent burning and over-grazing reduce the necessary cover. Which means that in the past 40 years, these little sparrows have declined by 65%.

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow

Two weeks ago the curbs were thick with crusted snow and the front yards of houses were deep in snow. Then, over the next few days, things started to melt. Grass was seen at the base of trees and on the slopes of south facing hills. Well, not green grass, of course. No, the brown of winter-kill grass. But at least it wasn’t snow.

Then, during the last week, with temperatures in the teens and occasional rain, the snow disappeared. I can look out my window and the only spots of white that I see is a bubble over a set of tennis courts. And as the snow melted away, so did the Snow Buntings. Well, I hope they didn’t melt too, but they have been making their way back to their breeding grounds in the high arctic. Actually, the males should be setting up territories by now, even though they are living through -30° weather and can barely find grass among the snow.

But they have adapted to wide open areas in the cold latitudes. One of the problems with global warming is that it does not occur evenly across the globe but tends to be much more noticeable towards the poles. The breeding grounds of Snow Buntings is being overgrown by woodier plants (scrub willows and the like) and the slightly warmer weather allows more species to thrive… including more predators. Which means that in my lifetime the numbers of Snow Buntings, which I used to see every winter and now only occasionally see, have dropped by 64%.