The PenOpticon

Enough vitriol and anguish over Terrorism in Toronto for a while. My earlier reaction to that mess is proof that the “listen to your gut” approach to thinking does not always work. On the other hand, the actual disclosure of fact can be so glacial, its no wonder we just make it up, sometimes.  So instead we spent last Sunday at the Carden Alvar and were treated to 58 species of birds and assorted wildlife (had a good view of a very healthy looking coyote).  Common Snipe were zooming back and forth over our heads, sounding like “B” movie UFO’s. Also good looks at Upland Sandpiper.  These would have been admirable choices, but the Bird of the Week “honor” goes to the plucky Eastern Bluebird.  There are about 500 pairs of these gorgeous birds nesting in the Carden Alvar area and their tendency to fence sit (guarding nest boxes from King birds and swallows) made it possible to actually get a few photos.  

The birds are not the only species competing for a piece of the Carden Alvar, though. The area’s thin soils were never much good for crop farming, but they have supported a number of cattle ranches for many decades. Now, some of those ranches have been bought up by aggregate mining companies who want to quarry the limestone that lies just beneath the thin pasture.  But the Carden Alvar is a unique and fragile habitat — where rare Loggerhead Shrike are trying to make a comeback and where many other species make a home.  For this reason the area has been given IBA (Important Bird Area) status and groups such as the Nature Conservancy have bought up several large tracts in order to preserve it. The conflict over Carden Alvar land use has attracted the ire of the Ontario Landowner’s Association, a rural grassroots organization that has been known to set up blockades and stage other direct actions to protect landowners from “government bureaucracy and false environmentalism”. It’s easy for urban “environmentalists” to write off the concerns of groups such as the OLA (so I won’t do that here). Must try to get more fact and less fiction on this issue. As the Dude notes in The Big Lebowski “This case — uh — it has lots of ins, lots of outs, lots of whatevers.”

Time for another Bird of the Week installment! The Black Crowned Night Heron is a cool-looking character decked out in a tasteful black beret and “cape”. You might think the blazing red eye is a tinted contact lens, but you ‘d be wrong. The cool factor is completed by two “white, filamentous plumes” which contrast nicely with the eye and back. This one has can be seen foraging for minnows and bugs in a storm pond at York University, but he’ll winter in the southern U.S.