Darcy

This photograph of the beautiful eyes of my cat Darcy was taken 10 years ago.  I had to say goodbye to that lovely face yesterday.  We were together for seventeen precious years.  In the last few years he was diagnosed with kidney disease and I realized that in these last few days it had reached a stage whereby his quality of life was diminishing rapidly.

I am always worried about the timing of euthanasia being too early or too late.  I would rather err on the side of too early.  I know Darcy could have lived another few weeks but I could see a change in his expression and his body was losing weight rapidly and weakness was setting in.  

A few words about this handsome cat...

Darcy came into my home as a kitten rescued from the outdoors along with his two sisters.  The sisters were adopted out but Darcy was not, so he became my cat.  

He was a fellow of strong emotions - he loved and he hated.  

His big love was for one of my other cats - a beautiful, gentle tabby named Sweet-Young and he cuddled with her every chance he got.  You could almost see the love in his eyes.

His "play-fighting" mate was Cricket and they had "fierce" wrestling matches (that he usually lost to the smaller Cricket)!  He also would cuddle up to her on occasion as shown in a photo below.  

His hatred was saved for Willow and I don't know where it came from but it necessitated a constant separation of the two.  It was his only fault. :-) 

I would like to try to show the beauty of Darcy in these few photos.  

Darcy with Cricket

Those amazing eyes again!

This is my last photograph of Darcy, taken nine days ago.

Fire Rainbow

On June 10, 2018 near South Lancaster, Ontario in a conservation area called Cooper Marsh, my cousin Blain and I were treated to a rare and very beautiful atmospheric phenomenon called a fire rainbow.

After researching it on the Internet we learned that certain conditions need to be met for the formation of fire rainbows. 

These conditions are as follows:  the sun must be more than 58° above the horizon; cirrus clouds need to be present; and the hexagonal ice crystals in those clouds must be shaped like thick plates with their faces parallel to the ground.

Here is a picture that Blain took of me photographing the amazing sight!

The following shots are a selection of many that I took that day.  

(Note: colours have not been adjusted but the images have been slightly darkened to compensate for over-exposure).

I have made two other blog postings of atmospheric phenomena (iridescent clouds and ice halos).  They can be found by clicking on the following links:

Iridescent Clouds

Ice Halos

To Everything, Tern, Tern, Tern ...

The Common Tern

Rather than write about these amazing, sleek birds,

 I will simply show you their aerobatics in the following images:

Leucism in Animals

I've come across some interesting creatures while out with my camera!  

In the process I have learned of a term called "leucism".  Wikipedia describes it as follows: "Leucism is a condition in which there is partial loss of pigmentation in an animal resulting in white, pale, or patchy coloration of the skin, hair, feathers, scales or cuticle, but not the eyes.  Unlike albinism, it is caused by a reduction in multiple types of pigment, not just melanin."

More about leucistic birds can be learned at this site:

http://www.sibleyguides.com/2011/08/abnormal-coloration-in-birds-melanin-reduction/

Here are my photos of birds (with a couple of mammals thrown in at the end).

American Robin

Canada Goose

Slate-coloured Junco

Gray Squirrel

Raccoon

Some interesting photographs!

I was looking over many of my photos recently and came across some that I thought I would share here.  They illustrate interesting phenomena and are not photo-shopped!

A few years back I was visiting Toronto for a four day stay and went to a particular park each day to see what I could find to photograph.  The weather turned extremely hot and humid. I was struck by the beautiful evergreens in the park and photographed a tree on my first and last days there.  I was astonished to see the change in the needles that the humidity created!

Another interesting shot was of a Focolvert Duck which is remarkable in that it constructs a very large conical shaped nest (as seen below) and, as an evolutionary co-development, the eggs of this duck are "square" shaped to prevent them from rolling down the sides of the nest and into the pond.

Now this next one was very disturbing!  I found a Red Squirrel the other day that was very excited about the sap dripping down a branch.  It got so excited in fact that it LOST ITS HEAD!

Well ... you may have guessed by now that this is an April Fools' Day posting!

To end on a sweet note, check out the following:

I call this picture

" Two little birds sitting in a tree, k--i--s--s--i--n--g!"

Leonard Cohen - one year later

Leonard Cohen died one year ago today. 

On Saturday I visited his grave site to place a small metal plaque reading "love" and was glad to see that a tombstone has now been erected for him (separate from the family one which I photographed for an earlier post).

A plaque was also laid at the foot of his grave.

Last night a tribute concert took place here in Montreal at the Bell Centre - the same venue where I saw him in 2012.  It has received excellent reviews and was organized by Cohen's son Adam.  

It was a star-studded event and will be broadcast on CBC radio 2 at 8 p.m. tonight and a televised version will be broadcast on CBC TV on January 3, 2018 at 8 p.m. (click here for details and more information).

A cautionary tale about gardens and baby voles

Last week I decided to go to the Botanical Gardens here in Montreal to hopefully photograph the last remaining butterflies of the summer.

I had just arrived and was noticing that many of the flower beds had been turned over and the annuals had been uprooted and removed.  My hopes of finding butterflies started to fade and I thought I might find a few caterpillars instead.  

I was glancing over the cool, wet earth (it had rained considerably the day before) and suddenly noticed something very small that was moving.  It was the size of a fat caterpillar but it was pink and I thought it might be some rare species.  Then I saw to my horror that it was a newborn vole.  It was completely hairless and was wriggling and squirming.  I looked around the flower bed for others and found another one that was a few feet away and saw, on closer examination, that it was bleeding. 

Now I searched frantically for more but never found any.  I took some tissues from my pocket and scooped them up to try to warm them and dry them off.  Then I called the SPCA.  The staff member at first thought that I should leave them there for the mother to find them but the whole area was denuded of cover (vegetation) and I imagined she had fled when the first spading of the earth began.  I had no way of knowing whether she would or could return (she could also have been injured) and the little ones would have died slowly of starvation and/or exposure.

The only action I felt I could take was to transport them in a tissue lined box (which I always carry in my backpack) to the SPCA for humane euthanasia.  These tiny creatures clung to each other throughout the trip and I was so saddened that I couldn't offer them anything better.

Here is a photograph from the Internet (royalty free) of a newborn vole which looks exactly like those I found.

I urge all gardeners to consider that voles can have a litter this late in the year and to take great care when removing plants.  Unfortunately voles make above-ground nests so they are very vulnerable.