a view with the falcons

Falconwatch is winding down. I've been one of several volunteers keeping an eye on the new family of peregrine falcons in downtown Hamilton (see this post) This is the building where they like to spend much of their time. It has been a favourite for several of the falcons over the years. It's hard to see, but Ossie (dad) is sitting on his favourite perch, what we call the 'squiggle', and up on the far left on the roof by the cell phone tower thingies are the two youngsters

below are some screen shots from the webcam

Lily (Mom)

Barton (Daughter)

Both of the girls, McMaster and Barton, are strong fliers and there was no crashing into glass windows, or falling off perches or dive bombing into traffic. Thank goodness, because no-one really wants to do a rescue. As soon as the chicks have mastered catching their own food, they will start flying higher and farther away to find their own home. Originally, I thought I'd volunteer for maybe one two-hour shift a week. But the first week I did three days and after that, I was hooked and covering four days for sometimes four hours at a time. Some days nothing happened as the girls rested and other days I didn't want to leave when my shift was over and hung around with the others, just in case some exciting flying or talon touching happened.

I had a chance to go up to the 24th floor of the Stelco Tower, where the falconwatch co-ordinator sits for an in-the-sky view of the birds.

After Stelco went under several years ago, the top floor where the offices were were emptied and have stayed so ever since.

The views out over the city are spectacular 

(although, it is true that Hamilton is not the most beautiful of cities)

looking north (above) and south-east (below)

and east down below at Gore Park

sharing with Our World Tuesday

and image-in-ing for Wordless Wednesday

falcons

This is where I've been spending many of my afternoons and evenings the past couple of weeks. In a parking lot, in downtown Hamilton.

Volunteering my time to look up, mostly towards the Sheraton Hotel, because that is where we have a family of peregrine falcons. That ledge under the 'N' has been a nesting site for about 20 years now, though this year there is a new pair of parents - Lily aged 5-ish and Ossie aged 3-ish. We think because of his age this may be Ossie's first time as a father. He's doing a great job. They have two young ones named McMaster and Barton (following a tradition of naming the chicks after local landmarks). There are cameras positioned so everyone can get a glimpse of the family... until the chicks are ready to attempt to fly, at least. Which they did this week.

If you look closely up at the top left corner of the Sheraton you can see what looks like two birds









but, actually it is only one falcon (in this case McMaster) and what we have begun to call 'the iron falcon'. From a distance, it fools everybody!

Next door at the top of the Standard Life Building, on a pole contraption that is used for the window washers, sits Barton.

They don't fly too far away at first and are still being fed by the parents. At one point a stupid pigeon flew right up to McMaster. We could hear some squawking, but she didn't really pay much attention to the pigeon. Eventually Mom caught sight of it near her baby and chased it away. I guess Mom wasn't ready to catch dinner and baby hasn't yet made the connection between a live bird and food!
Also keeping watch (but with a high powered scope as well as binoculars) inside the Stelco Tower is the falconwatch co-ordinator. I hope to get to go up and see the view that she sees next week. But she can't see everything, which is why we are on the ground. 
Because, also sticking close to the chicks are the parents, one of whom is sitting at the corner of the Stelco Tower right below where she is. This is my first year volunteering, but already, especially when the light is right, it is getting easier for me to spot them. 
Here's hoping for safe flights and no dangerous crashes or falls onto the traffic below. We have a rescue box handy, but none of us really wants to have to use it.
something for Saturday's Critters
and Our World Tuesday

lost and found

While walking through the Vondelpark one morning 

I found this interesting looking fence surrounding a tree. it was decorated with cut out birds and the ubiquitous XXX symbol - the three St Andrew's Crosses of the Amsterdam Coat of Arms - and a website for vindhek.com






nearby was this large sign as an explanation

the fence surrounding the tree was a 'find fence' or a lost and found fence.  the sign says something along the lines of "find a lost object, add a found one".  if you find something that someone has dropped, you can hook it onto the fence.  if you've lost something, this might be a great place to look for it after you've done a thorough pocket and ground search.  what a great idea. honesty and trust, and so friendly!
but I wondered about the flags for 18 different languages (English, Chinese, Swedish, Italian, German, Greek, Norwegian, Japanese, Danish, Turkish, Frisian, Moroccan, Surinamese, French, Hungarian, Spanish, Russian, Finnish). I think the idea is to make the fence an interactive experience where you upload a photo onto some social media site and link back to vindhek.

anyway, as you can see there weren't too many objects on the fence on this particular weekend, 
several keys, though! 

I imagine that there would be many lost mittens, scarves, keys etc., in the winter as people constantly put their hands in and out of their pockets.  I wonder if any euros have been pinned to the fence??

oh, and as an aside, during my research once I got home, I discovered that the birds were special to Amsterdam - they are finches. in Utrecht the birds are robins, and in Amersfoort they are swallows. the birds also adorn the benches in the park. 

Apart from linking with Lesley's signs, signs
I am also linking with a new meme I discovered by Restless Jo for Jo's Monday Walk. Lots of new-to-me-blogs to discover from her meme, so pop on over to see what it's all about.

Cabot Head

It is a long, winding drive from the highway to see some of the light houses of the Bruce Peninsula, and on this occasion the single track road was, while not treacherous, at least a bit nerve-wracking as far too many people drove way too fast. I was glad my friend suggested this day trip (and equally glad she was driving!) as I might not have bothered.

This postcard shows Wingfield Basin, on the Georgian Bay side of the peninsula. That cluster of white buildings with the red roofs on the bottom right shows the "Cabot Head Lightstation and Visitor Centre, surrounded by Wingfield Basin Provincial Nature Reserve and backed by the limestone cliffs of the Niagara Escarpment".

These photos show the lighthouse as it is now at 107 years old.

the lighthouse isn't as tall as you might expect, mostly because it is already 80' above the water on a cliff.

below is a postcard showing the original range light and tower that was demolished around 1970 when a government mandated automated airport type light was installed. A steel tower then replaced the (always precarious in a lighthouse) wooden tower. In the mid 1980s, the light station was completely restored by the Friends of Cabot Head and is now run as a museum and interpretive centre. It is located in a relatively isolated area so was built quite a few years later than many of the other light houses. 

"This unique lighthouse was established in 1896 to guide ships rounding Cabot Head on the often turbulent waters of Georgian Bay. Today it is maintained as a museum by the Friends of Cabot Head"

A separate residence was built in 1958 where a manager now lives. But, you too, could become a volunteer light house keeper giving tours and doing minor maintenance and living at the house for a week from mid-May to mid-October. Apparently there is always a waiting list. You might first want to check out this map here and read about more about the lighthouse and the volunteer program here 

PostcardFriendshipFriday

a day out

On the weekend, I took a little day trip. To Richmond Hill. It is not the most exciting or touristy of places to go but it was Doors Open and I had a list of places that seemed interesting to see. I was a little disappointed, not least because it took so damn long to get there. It is about 50 miles (or 80 kilometres) from where I live and should take an hour. It took 1 hour 45 minutes, due to traffic. And yes, I did think about abandoning the trip and returning home, but it was almost as bad on the westbound lanes of the 401, so I carried on. Besides, I had too much gas in my car because on Monday I was getting my new car and was not going to send this one to the dealership to be forwarded to the scrapyard with anything more than 1/8 of tank of gas.

My list of places that had opened their doors to the public would take me through most of the town, but in the end, I had to seriously edit it because of the time... and traffic. Who knew it would be like rush hour at noon on a Saturday. Some of my choices were not worth the effort it took to get there. I bookended the day with two churches (and an almost hidden cemetery which was a bonus). The experience between the two could not have been more different. The first was a Hindu Temple (Vishnu Madir) which I was quite excited about seeing.

It was also a Museum of Hindu Civilization so I thought there would be lots to learn. This might have been the case if anyone had taken the initiative to talk to us. After taking off our shoes, we were free to wander through the museum and the temple on our own, but no pictures were allowed (and sadly, there were no photos included in their brochure).

I shouldn't be so harsh, it was quite informative with a brief history of Jainism and Hinduism and a timeline which included Christianity and Islam. The temple itself was huge with many sculptures on the wall of the various gods and stories of the gods. It was as might be expected and very colourful. There were examples of prayer alters to see and a film on the very basics of the religion. It just might have felt more welcoming had some of the people who were volunteering offered some explanations or to answer questions. Instead, they seemed more interested in talking with each other.

The last church we visited was a Coptic Orthodox. It was also huge and there is an expansion in the works.

Volunteers took you on a guided tour, explaining as much as possible from the baptismal font (it looks like a single person hot tub for full immersion) to the sanctuary and the mosaics and tapestries (which were white because Easter was last weekend, then they will change to red). A parishioner's large collection of crosses was on display. There was a brief account of Jesus' time in Egypt, and an explanation of the Coptic language (like Latin it is a dead language, but some services are in Coptic, Arabic and English with the priest deciding according to the demographic of the parishioners attending at the service). And there were brightly painted frescoes on the ceiling which I always find inspirational.

Then we found a park that seemed to be a favourite for wedding photographs (I hoped I didn't get in the way, but there were at least four couples getting their photos taken!)


















however, it did seem a little early for the best of the flowers.....
except for these






















...and yes, I did get my new car today. More on that later.

Chantry Island Lighthouse

In anticipation of this week's stamp theme of lighthouses, I thought I would share something about the Chantry Island Lighthouse.

I have hundreds dozens of photos. Every time I see it with the light shining on the white limestone, I have to take more photos. Just in case. One of them will be the perfect shot and then I will stop. But it is located about a mile off the shore at Southampton on Lake Huron.

And it is always windy (at least when I have been there, it is. I have been told that some days the lake is like glass, but I find that hard to believe)

Anyway, I need to practice with my zoom lens











Six of these Imperial Towers were commissioned by the government and built by John Brown between 1855-59.
All are pretty much identical with an 80' conical tower with a small cottage for the keeper

and all are strategically located on Lake Huron. This particular area is home to at least 50 known shipwrecks.

The lens in the lighthouse was a Fresnel, imported from France, this one in the Bruce County Museum
and the first fuel used was sperm whale oil and later colza oil, coal oil, kerosene, acetylene and electricity until the current solar power. No wonder there were so many fires. It was a dangerous job. And you were on your own.


The lighthouse has been operating ever since it was built but it was automated in the 1950s,  and eventually with no caretaker the abandoned buildings fell into disrepair.  But by the late 1990s, a group of local lighthouse enthusiasts (now known as the Southampton Marine Heritage Society, but at the time was Supporters of Chantry Island) worked tirelessly at restoring the house. You can read more here if you are interested.

Now there are tours run by volunteers and you can climb the steep and narrow 115 steps to the top of the tower and also wander through the restored cottage and see it as it might have been furnished in the 1900s. Since the island is also a bird sanctuary you cannot wander freely, but, the noise and smell from the various cormorants, egrets, herons, gulls can be a little overwhelming, even from a distance!

a view of the restored privy

some of the thousands of cormorants

and at left, some egrets

and, far off in the distance....

the Bruce Nuclear Power Plant

where I play tourist, part one

A few weeks ago, a friend of mine got in touch and floated the idea of us going on holiday together. When you don't work in a job that requires you to take vacation time you sometimes forget to actually make plans. It would be nice to have someone to have dinner with. To share the experience with and compare stories when we wandered off on our own. So, with a little back and forth and sharing of ideas, we had a booking. A Mediterranean cruise! It took about 2 days. We have never travelled together, so this could be quite the experience. My friend, X, is very good at the research; I am much more free spirited and will just wander and see what happens. Neither of us is particularly interested in seeing the tourist sights, preferring to soak up the local culture (as much as one can in a few hours), but it may be hard to avoid.

So on Friday, I decided I would practice playing tourist. And what better place to practice than Niagara Falls?

Anyway, I wanted to check in on the World's Tallest Flower. The first one bloomed late last Friday night and by Sunday morning the top had fallen over and it had closed up again.. It's younger brother, Clive, has been having quite the growth spurt and has been moved to the front. It is interesting to see the new growth and the decay.

When I was there last week, it was too foggy and dull to bother taking photos, but this time, it was sunny and warm and perfect. (perfect as it was still very early in the season and so not very busy.) I tried to pretend it was my first viewing... it all fell apart when I started giving directions to people. And when I laughed at the people who were amazed to see a rainbow.













But, for you, with a good blog post in mind, I took photos of the Falls. Many, many photos. I even went to the tackiest of spots, Clifton Hill, and took photos. I have never seen so many hotels and themed restaurants in such a small area. The 'fun spots' does not bear thinking about - every kind of thrill seems to scream out at you. It was loud and bright and I bet you are thinking it would have been neat to see at night when everything was all lit up. Yes, it might, but I was not going to hang about that long.

But I did gets lots of pictures of signs. And I found some cheap postcards for Postcrossing.

I did not go up the Skylon Tower or this SkyWheel ferris wheel, though really, it was a perfect clear day for views. Had I really been on holiday, I am sure I would have been tempted.

After wandering down this hill of thrills, I found a lovely quiet park, with a huge green space and perfect views

I had lunch at a restaurant with views...

as you can see, it really was not busy.

part two to follow.....