This and That

It was 14C this morning when Chester and I went for our walk along the Red River.  The sky to the east was a friendly blue and the sky to the west was threatening.  I didn’t think I saw any birds until I looked at one of the pictures I took and I didn’t see any beavers (even in my pictures).

Sky to the East July 11

Sky to the West July 11

Since the sun is coming up in the East (obviously), the sun shining on the dark clouds to the West brighten it up quite a bit.

A rower was going past my big tree just as I took this picture (the water is still very high) and when I looked at the picture, I saw several Canada Geese along the riverbank too.

Tree, Rower and Geese

July 11 Lilies

Back in the yard, we have the last of the lilies and a bunny in hiding.

July 11 Bunny

On Africam today, we have seen Elephants, Giraffes, Hippo, Baboons, Waterbuck, Nyala, Impala and more  Click here to see today’s pictures.

Happy Canada Day

It was 21C when Chester and I walked along the Red River this morning.  I figured that my beaver would show on Canada Day – but he was in hiding somewhere.  I did see the family of older Wood Duck babies though.  Then back at the yard, my lilies and mock orange are putting on a beautiful show of flowers. 

Wood Ducks

Wood Duck

Wood Ducks

Mock Orange

Lilies

Mock Orange

Lilies

Today on Africam, we have seen Elephants, Waterbuck, Nyalas, Warthogs, Mongoose, Egret, Martial Eagle and more.  Click here to see today’s pictures.

Return of the Beaver

It was partly cloudy and 17C when Chester and I took our walk along the Red River this morning.  They say it will get up to 28C this afternoon and 33C tomorrow.  I may have to turn on the air conditioner. 

At first it seemed like Chester and I were the only critters around this morning.  I was almost at the bush area when I saw our beaver swimming past and he turned in towards the same area where his disastrous lodge had been.  Then I took a closer look around and although I couldn’t find him in there, I did find another pile of sticks.  I can’t be sure if that pile had been there earlier or if he has maybe been building right on land all along.  Maybe this pile has nothing to do with him, but he was definitely swimming directly into this area again.  When I get a chance, I will go over some of my older pictures of the area to check them in case this spot is shown in them.

Beaver June 29

Beaver June 29

Beaver Lodge Jun 29

In the Beaver Lodge picture, you can see the remains of the original lodge on the right and the pile of branches on the left that may be his new lodge.   Those branches may have been put there by the river when it was higher, so I really don’t know.

Just as we were about to leave the river to head back, I saw a Mallard Duck with her very young family.  There appear to be 11 babies in this family.

Mallard Ducks Jun 29

Checking out my yard, I see my lilies are starting to open their flowers and my mock orange is also now flowering.

Lily Jun29

Lily Jun29

Mock Orange June 29

On Africam today, we have seen Cape Buffalo, Elephants, Nyalas, Impalas, Zebras, Hippo, Hyaena and much more.  Click here to see today’s pictures.

Moving Furniture

I knew it was going to take me a long time to get the furniture re-arranged in my livingroom and I was right!  I did finally get the hide-a-bed couch moved yesterday morning and I have been spending my time since then cleaning up behind and beside where it used to be.  There was an awful lot of stuff behind and beside it – so this will take me a few days.  I have 3 piles – garbage, recycling and freecycle.  Right now I am doing a lot of shredding, since one of the things I found was an drawer full of old bank statements and pay stubs.  Why I ever kept the pay stubs is beyond me – but I did.  My little shredder heats up quickly, so I can’t do much at a time before having to give it a break.  I am so glad that all my current bank accounts are filed online and I never even receive a paper copy of it and I haven’t kept a pay stub in years now.  This stuff is all over 10 years old!

So – yesterday was groceries and errands along with moving the couch.  We didn’t see a single critter on our walk along the Red River yesterday or on our drive to  Bird’s Hill Park.  Today on our walk, we didn’t see anything either – but I did take one picture (before my batteries died) of the big old tree across the river.  I couldn’t upload it until my batteries were charged.

Big Tree Across the Red River June 24

According to the City of Winnipeg Emergency Preparedness Facebook page, the Red River is now 15.9 feet about winter ice level, which is down from over 19 feet at the peek of the flood, but is over the 13.9 feet that is was at only 2 days ago.  I thought it was looking higher on my side of the river, but hadn’t been checking the levels.  This morning when I took this picture, it was 15.5 feet – so it has risen since then.

The high water must be what ruined the beaver’s home building attempt.  My 2nd picture today would have shown what was left of his lodge and there wasn’t much left of it. 

Today, after our walk, I cut the grass and gave Chester a bath.  Giving him a bath was much more exhausting that cutting the grass – LOL.    A few years ago, I bought a dog bath tub that is great to use and has a tie down to keep dogs like Chester in the tub and I can stand to bath him.  But to use the shower attachment, I have to attach the hose onto the fawcet in the sink there and the aerator nozzle has become stuck so I can’t remove that to attach the hose.  Today, I decided I would put him in the tub upstairs, since I now have a hand held shower there.  This means being on my knees to give hm the bath and holding him with one arm (and sometimes 2) to keep him in the tub.  This gives a much better spray than the one downstairs though and it was fairly quick even with all the struggling.   He really needed a bath and its nice to have him feel so clean 

The weather has been wonderful the last couple of days with temperatures in the mid 20′s C.  I finally got my bike out, filled the tires and cleaned it up. 

River Walk June 21

It was 17C under a party sunny sky with a bit of a wind today when Chester and I took our walk.   It seems to have been a birding day – but only 2 different types of birds – and quite a few of one of them. 

First we have one of the little sparrows that makes a buzzing sound – I assume he thinks he’s singing, but it took me awhile to figure out that it was a bird and not a bug making the sound.  I finally found my Manitoba bird books while moving furniture around in my living room – so I now know he is a Clay-Colored Sparrow. 

Clay-Colored Sparrow

Wood Ducks Jun 21

The other birds spotted were Wood Ducks and there were 2 families to watch.

Wood Ducks Jun 21

After I passed the first family, I saw the one all by herself, close to shore.

Wood Duck Jun 21

I think she then called her family to let them know the photographer was there for the family photo, because seconds later, this is what I saw.

Wood Ducks Jun 21

Last picture for today is my first peony to open.

Peony June 21

On Africam today, some of what we have seen are Elephants, Waterbucks, Zebras, Nyalas, Baboons, Jackals, a Civet and we got a good look at the Black Eagle chick as well.  Click here to take a look at these pictures and more.

Whew

I can’t believe that I had a 4 day weekend and I didn’t waste any of the days.  I got lots of stuff done in the yard and I got a start on moving furniture in the house.  The furniture moving and arranging is going to take some time.

Today I got some bags of gravel to fill the hole where the car turns into the parking spot.  It has been getting bigger each year and this year it has never been free of water (which means mud) in it.  Of course, this spot used to be inside the fence so it wasn’t compacted like a driveway or parking spot normally is.  So – I got 3 bags of gravel – about 60 lbs each (I’m guessing) and filled the hole.  This stuff is supposed to compact nicely and should be nice and firm once it dries.

Just as I was leaving the garden place where I got the gravel, I saw a tiny fawn crossing the road.  It was alone and luckily a car coming along stopped for it.  Then I saw the mom already across the road where she was waiting for her baby.  The two of them bounded off into the bush on the other side.  It hadn’t occurred to me to take my camera with me to get gravel – but I sure did have second thoughts about driving out to Birds Hill Park to find more deer instead of putting this gravel down.

But – I got the gravel down.  It will have to dry a bit before it compacts – hope we don’t get any more rain for a few more days.   Then I cut the grass again, since I won’t have another day off work until Saturday.  Thats right – I have to work 5 whole days this week!

I finally sat down to watch a bit of Africam and a beautiful Verreaux’s Giant Eagle Owl is posing nicely at Nkorho for us.  He is just continuing my bird theme from earlier today. 

Verreaux's Giant Eagle Owl

Too Much Snow

When the snow stopped coming down last night, the temperature began to drop.  By morning it was -20C.   I went out early to shovel around the car before leaving for my exercise class.  Luckily for me my wonderful neighbour Andy had cleared behind the cars with his snowblower.  I knew I would have to leave the house early enough to get all the snow off the car – but hadn’t thought about all the ice – since the car was warm when I parked it yesterday and the first snow on it would have melted.  It took me awhile to scrape enough ice off it to be able to drive it.

I went to the exercise class, then went for my usual big breakfast at the Red Top, then came home and walked Chester.  I couldn’t put off shoveling any longer, so then got out the shovel, planning on getting the mound just left by the snowplow behind the car first.  Luckily for me,  Andy beat me to it – so I got the roof rake out to get the roof cleaned up first.   I’m learning – last time I cleaned the steps and sidewalk first and had to re-do them after dumping the snow from the roof on the steps and sidewalk.  Of course the pile of snow was much larger – but it was better than doing it twice.    Most years I only have to use the roof rake once, but this is the 2nd time this year – sure hope its the last.  I hope I’m not too stiff and sore tomorrow.

We had a bit of excitement on Africam today when 4 new male lions spent some time at Nkorho.  Unfortunately, we did not get to see them – but could hear their roars and Karin from the lodge said they were new, possibly from Kruger and were beautiful.  I hope she got some pictures for us and will post them tomorrow.

I didn’t take any pictures today – too busy shoveling to get the camera out – so the picture of the day is a Zebra that I took at the zoo here last summer.

Zebra

October 16th

Here it is – the middle of October and we are getting beautiful weather for this time of year.  It is 10C right now at noon and the sun is shining.  My new neighbours are moving in today 

Welcome to the neighbourhood Jamie and Josh!!!

Here is Josh and his dad moving the couch in.

 

moving day

 

I got a couple of pictures of Chester one sunny day – October 9th.

 

Chester Oct 9th

 

I drove out to Lockport along the Red River on the 15th to see if there were any pelicans or geese hanging around the dam – but only found this one seagull – so I took his picture.

 

Seagull Oct 15

 

Then I went to Rona to get some furnace filters and found my geese.

 

Goose Oct 15

 

 

Geese Oct 15

 

You can see more of the pictures I’ve taken this months at my facebook page.

The rains have started in Africa and on the Africam cams we expect to see the leaves come out on the trees and the grasses start growing and turning green.  Along with this come the babies 

Take a look at today’s pictures to see what we’ve seen so far today.

July 31st

What happened to July??  After today, it will be gone for another year and it hardly seems to have stayed for 31 day.  We had a bit cooler weather yesterday – but its hotter already today.

I had Thursday off work this week – vacation day – and I took my annual trip to the zoo.  I got lots of pictures, especially of one of the new Asian Lions – a male named Xerexes.  The female, Kaya is apparently a slow eater and had not come out yet at the time I was there.  At first Xerexes was pawing at the door wanting to go back inside, but after awhile he  started walking around and he gave me some awesome roars.  I wished I had my glasses with me, so I could have seen to change the setting on my camera to video to capture it – but instead, I snapped tons of pictures of him.

Xerexes

I have all the pictures on my facebook page and you do not have to have a facebook account to see them.

Click here to see all my pictures from the zoo trip.  

Apparently we lost our Grizzly Bear over the winter as he did not wake up after hibernation.  He was a pretty old guy, so it was not unexpected.  The bear enclosures are now under construction, so the Black Bears have been moved out temporarily.  When they return, it will be to a newly renovated area.

Dakota has finished her 4 Cartrophen Vet injections, but the results are less than satisfying.  She seems a bit better – although she doesn’t walk any better, she does not seem to be in pain at this time.  The vet pointed out a few things that I had kind of noticed, but didn’t realize what they meant.  One of these things was the way he holds her tail.  She used to always have her tail up above her back, but now holds it much lower.  She still wags it frequently though, so I wasn’t concerned.  Now, I know that because she isn’t walking normally, her back is a little out of joint and putting her tail up hurts her back.   The vet gave me some physical therapy exercises to do with her, which may help her mobility some too.   I knew going into this that there was no guarantee that the Cartrophen Vet would work – but it was worth a try and even a little better is better than it was for her.

Our walks along the Red River have not resulted in any pictures for some time now.  Of course there is the river – but, as you know, I am looking for critter shots     Chester, of course is enjoying his longer walks, while Dakota is pretty tired with her short and slow walk around the block these days.  Chester gets to go for several blocks and chases shadows every step of the way.  One of the common shadows these days is from dragon flies.  In an effort to reduce the spraying for mosquitoes, the city has released millions of dragon flies and they are everywhere.  They are obviously eating millions of mosquitoes but occasionally, the city still has to spray some areas.

To get you some critters pictures, I have taken some at Africam – where the sightings were great last night and this morning.

Impalas at EP

Duiker at NK

lions at NK

hippo at EP

warthogs at NK

The picture of the lions was taken from a video by Morris and you can see the video here.
The lions were following herd of cape buffalo that had just gone by and here is a video showing the nervous buffalo.

For more pictures from today click here.

The house next door is moving along.  Apparently the delay had been the windows and now they are in, the work is progressing again.  Since most of the work is now going on indoors, there isn’t a lot of change on the outside, but here is the front, side and back currently.

front

side

back

Thats it for today 

July 3rd

Another hot humid day here today.  We had a morning thunderstorm, which really helped with the humidity and I can hear thunder again now, so I guess another one is coming.  There is a humidex warning, which apparently isn’t good.  I am keeping Chester in the house against his will because he is always running around and that wouldn’t be good in these conditions.  Luckily, we have our air conditioner to keep us cool in the house, but I had planned on getting the grass cut again today.  Its too hot and humid now and by tonight the mosquitoes will be really nasty or it will be raining.

I took a couple more pictures of the house next door today.

front of house next door July 3

back roof showing some shingles have been installed

A lone Mallard Duck posed for us as Chester and I walked along the Red River this morning.

Mallard Duck July 3

Then, since I took so many scenery pictures on my vacation, I decided I should take a general picture of the mighty Red River today.

Red River looking north

The view is certainly not like the beautiful mountains – but this is kind of an oasis in the middle of our city here.  I’m really glad this is within walking distance from my home.

It has been busy at the waterholes at Africam again today, with visits from a hippo, a herd of Kudu, Wildebeest, Baboons, Giraffe, Jackal and more.

Our friend Morris has made up a video with the critters visiting in just in a couple of hours at both waterholes this afternoon for us to see. Click here see see it and while there, please give it a thumbs up and maybe a digg. Thanks Morris!

Tomorrow, my vacation is officially over as I go back to work.