Early for the Party
An early arrival in March of 2009: one of the first Great Blues to finish its long migration north.
Moonrise Swans
Illuminated by the light of the rising full moon, mute swans sleep on black ice halfway across the outer harbour to the Leslie St. Spit.
Waking Nap
Mature pintails nap in the light of early morning reflected by the Queen’s Quay terminal building.
Dive! Dive!
A pintail dives beneath the surface, fishing against the hardened seawall on the city-side.
Happy New Year!
Early January, and a postcard for climate change: a garter snake sunning itself on the boardwalk on an unseasonably warm day.
Shaken, Not Stirred
Like an olive in a martini, a beaver floats in a hole kept open in the ice off of the RCYC’s south island in the winter of 2009.
Chew Baby Chew (audio)
[audio:Chew-baby-chew.mp3] If a beaver chews on branches and there’s nobody to hear, does it make a sound? As it turns out, yes it does (265KB MP3). Note: if the audio player doesn’t appear, click the title (Chew Baby Chew) to view the actual post.
Diving Mallards (video)
Our local mallards have learned a new behaviour: how to dive. Normally a dabbling duck, the extent of their underwater activities usually stops at mooning passersby and picking up what they can reach under the water’s surface. Some local mallards, however, have picked up the ability to completely submerge themselves, just like cormorants. Captured here […]
Jimmy on the Beach II
Very furtive and shy in the wild, the elusive Jimmy Jones is one of the hardest creatures on the Island to photograph.
Minklight
A late-season mink roams the shoreline of Centre Island. When they’re wet, they look positively vicious. When they’re dry, they look remarkably cute.
Leafmaster II
Even in late November, snakes can still be found on the warmer days warming themselves in the low sunlight.
Conversations (audio)
[audio:9870-Conversations.mp3] The lonely call of a Toronto Island coyote on a still November night (919KB MP3). Note: if the audio player doesn’t appear, click the title (Conversations) to view the actual post.
Wile E I and II
A late twilight, and unfortunately distant, encounter with a resident Toronto Island coyote who wasn’t very happy with the human interloper on its turf. These are thoroughly tagged as b-roll shots, it was far too late in the evening for any sort of useable light. Still, it isn’t every day that you kayak past a […]
Late for the Party
An adolescent black-crowned night heron clings to an IYC tree in November, 2009. By this time of year all of the herons are gone, migrating south to sunnier climes. Perfectly able to fly, its a mystery why this fellow hung on so late in the season.
Egret ABCs
Great egrets do the most fantastic then when they catch and swallow a fish — all of their feathers stand on end. In this progression, an egret catches a fish (left), swallows (centre), and totally punks out (right).
Ancient Waiting
Taking a page from the old “Is it live, or is it Memorex?” ads, a large painted turtle leans into the sunset light of a gorgeous August evening.
Up Close and Personal
A tiny painted turtle fills the camera’s entire frame, hovering just inside the minimum focus distance of the lens.
H10 Pretzel
Sadly Trumpeter swans never stay long in our sunny climes, but when they do visit it’s always a small event. Here Trumpeter H10 does its best to turn itself into a pretzel, balancing in the shallows off of the QCYC’s Rapids Queen.
Dynamic Duo
A lovely muskrat couple hoover back zebra mussels as fast as they can, on a “feeding platform” in Snug harbour. In the spring and fall (it’s usually frozen solid in the winter) when the waters clear (in summer the waters warm up and are full of algae and weeds), you can see mounds of zebra […]
