CFUW, Ottawa – Dragon Boat Race Preparations

Posted on June 19, 2013 by Ron

CFUW-Ottawa – Dragonboat Race Preparations

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My wife is a member of this year’s entry into the Ottawa Dragonboat Festival weekend events and Wednesday was their last practice day on the water at the Rideau Canoe Club. Since the weather was beautiful and it is unlikely that I will be able to get very close to the actual boats on the day of the races (June 21 -23rd, 2013), I decided to head down to the docks of the canoe club and enjoy the weather, the activity and opportunity to take some relaxed photos of the CFUW-Ottawa group at their final practice session. (Online donations form)

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After a short discussion and review of some seating arrangements, the group headed off into the open waters of Mooney’s Bay (Location).  No one got wet during this practice session but, on the day of the races, I expect that more than one of the many participating boats will run afoul of bad steering or rough waters. The weather forecast looks good for the morning races but thundershowers are forecast for later in the day so the afternoon racers might encounter some swirling winds and choppy waters. I’m sure that all of the participants hope that they stay dry!

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For today’s preparations, the participants spent an hour on the water working on timing and final tweaking of technique and making sure that instructions from the bow were fully audible and understood.  In the hectic moments of actual race day, with numerous commands from various boats intermingling with plenty of splashing, there is always the possibility of some misunderstandings 🙂 but on this last day of preparations for the CFUW – Ottawa team everyone arrived back at the dock in good spirits.

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Parking a dragon boat can sometimes be a bit tricky, but as video clip shows, it can be done :-).
Parking a dragon boat

About the festival:

Admission for spectators is FREE to the Tim Horton’s Dragon Boat Festival – Ottawa so the beach of Mooney’s Bay is guaranteed to be well-populated with spectators over the three days of the event. For anyone, who might tire of watching the on-water racing, the organizers have plenty of on-land activities to fill in any spaces in the on-water activities.

CFUW and the race day events (FRIDAY images) (SATURDAY images)

Ottawa Dragon Boat Festival Location

Dragon Boat Festival website

Online donations form

CFUW – Ottawa Website

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Awaiting the unwary. Paddlers beware 🙂
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Posted in Canada Explorer, Home and About, Ontario, Ottawa | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Big Rideau Lake, Rideau River System, Ontario

Posted on June 15, 2013 by Ron

Big Rideau Lake, Rideau River System, Ontario

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For a Saturday outing, our travels took us to a summer vacation home which friends own on Big Rideau Lake and then, from there, we headed down to Gananoque where we enjoyed a performance of the fun musical “SUDS” currently playing at the 1000 Islands Theatre before returning to the lake for a tasty BBQ with friends.

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Since the home/cottage is currently on the market (real estate market), it will likely soon become someone else’s spot at which to enjoy this summer’s breezes.

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image Their real estate agent is:RON_3632-Agent-sign

The musical “SUDS” incorporates 47 popular songs from the hit parades of the 50’s and 60’s into one very interesting Laundromat set. I knew about half of the songs from their titles and then remembered a few more when I heard the music. The cast of four did a wonderful job of singing the variety of tunes while moving around the Laundromat with great cat-like agility. The playhouse can be reached via their website at: Thousand Islands Playhouse. Here’s the list of songs that the talented cast combined into their song and dance routines (hum a few quietly) :-):

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After the playhouse, it was back to the waterside to watch the sunset and to enjoy the BBQ.

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Tomorrow is Father’s Day and rain is forecast. Grrr.

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Royal LePage Prowler

Posted on June 14, 2013 by Ron

Today, while I was at a stop light, one of the Royal LePage Prowler vehicles pulled up beside me. Of course, I had to say the obligatory “SMILE” :-).

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Ron’s Reef update

Posted on June 11, 2013 by Ron

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I have been out of town quite a bit since making a number of changes to my 90 gallon saltwater reef over the Christmas period.  While I have been out of town, various family members and friends have taken turns feeding the fish and looking after the tank.  Happily, I can report that the reef is doing well and even the anemone has split into two.

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I am super happy to see that the Yellow Tang continues to regain its health. When I obtained this Tang, it was suffering from lateral line disease and had a broken bone in its dorsal fin. It was wonderful to be able to watch the cleaner shrimp and blood red shrimps work on the bone until they were able to take it our of the Tang’s fin. Certainly happy that I was able to retrieve it from a likely shortened life. It’s fins will likely never get back to looking normal but it still is quite capable of holding its own in getting to the dinner table each time that I add a bit of food.

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Ottawa Valley Aquarium Society (OVAS) Annual BBQ 2013

Posted on June 9, 2013 by Ron

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I arrived back in town just long enough to catch a few winks of sleep, cut the lawn and head out again. This time, I wasn’t traveling far since for the second year in a row, the annual OVAS BBQ was being held at the band shell of Andrew Hadyn Park. The weather continued the pattern that I had been enjoying for the five straight days of breeding bird surveys in Northern Ontario – nice, bright sunshine, warm temperatures and dry weather. Others were just happy that the many days of rainy wet weather that Ottawa had endured in the previous week had come to an end for at least the one day of the BBQ.

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About 50 members and their families showed up for the event and enjoyed the weather, the food and the stories that were being told.  For the children, there was a betta bowl aquascaping event as well as the fun of trying to catch minnows and tadpoles in the waters around the bandstand. Face painting, blowing bubbles and a bit of kite flying was an added bonus. Continue reading →

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Breeding Bird Surveys

Posted on June 8, 2013 by Ron

June 4th, 2013 – Once again, I’m out in Northern Ontario along with my birding friend Gerhard Bruins conducting breeding bird surveys to add to the databases of Environment Canada and the Canadian Wildlife Service. Four days of early mornings, plenty of black flies and mosquitoes, and a few nights sleeping in tents. We would prefer to tent but this year the Ontario government has decided not to open a couple of the Provincial camp sites that we normally use. Happily Ivanhoe Lake wasn’t one of the closed sites since it is the one that we drive to on our first day (900 km from Ottawa to Ivanhoe). (iPad photos used for quick uploading enroute. Nikon photos will be added later.)

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An added bonus at Ivanhoe Lake Provincial Park was a flock of Bonaparte’s Gulls that were scouring the water ripples along the beaches for food items. This individual bird seemed to have the process and the location down pat.

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June 6th – three surveys completed and one to go. So far plenty of birds have been dutifully recorded by Gerhard based on sightings and songs. Added to the feathered counts, we have sighted numerous rabbits, a few fox, a wolf, a lynx, plenty of bears and tonight our first bull moose. Today we are back in Wawa, where water, water everywhere seems to have been the theme since last Fall and local lakes and rivers continue to be at high water and flood levels and the waterfalls are putting on quite a show.

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June 7, 2013 – Another beautiful day to be outside. Although the temperature was only +4C when we left the motel in Wawa at 4:30AM, the temperature has now climbed into the mid teens with no clouds in the sky and only a light breeze.

June 8, 2013: Safely back home after 3000+km of driving and many, many hours checking for birds at the 200 observation locations that constitute our data gathering points on four separate routes.

 – – – – – – – – – Northern Ontario BBS 2013 posts completed – – – – – – – – –

The following links relate to this June 2013 Breeding Bird Survey:

Day 1 – Ottawa to Ivanhoe Lake Provincial Park

Day 2 – Singe Lake Route

Day 3 – The Shoals Route

Day 4 – Little Tukanee Lake Route

Day 5 – Goldie Lake Route

Posted in Bird Survey Outings, Canada Explorer, Ontario | 4 Comments

Sault Ste. Marie – a bit of birding

Posted on June 7, 2013 by Ron

Sault Ste. Marie – a bit of birding

We had spent 4 days identifying bird songs and counting birds as part of  a Breeding Bird Survey and were now homeward bound. We were tired.  A series of early morning rises will do that to you sometimes. Under the circumstances, stopping in Sault Ste. Marie seemed to make more sense than pushing on to Sudbury so, here we were in Sault Ste Marie with plenty of daylight left to explore. The front desk staff at our motel gave us directions to the waterfront walkway and directions for access to islands in the river and off we went, camera and binoculars in hand.

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Breeding Bird Surveys (2013) – Day 5

Posted on June 7, 2013 by Ron

Breeding Bird Surveys (2013) – Day 5 – June 7, 2013

Today’s survey route is pretty straightforward with a start point at the junction of Hwy #17 and the road to Dubreuilville. Although there is traffic to contend with, there are generally places with sufficient space to pull off the highway with good visibility in both directions. The day started with a nice sunrise over misty waters and clear skies continued for most of the day. Unlike the two previous days there were no clouds on the horizon, so the sunrise, although still pleasant, lacked the brilliance of the previous two days.

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Around every twist in the road there is apt to be some surprise when we are conducting these surveys. Sometimes it is a black bear or two or a large moose. On previous days, it was a half dozen bears at various locations. Today’s excitement was a medium-sized moose enjoying breakfast in a roadside marsh. The previous evening, a large bull moose had turned around and headed back into the woods as we approached. Moose are big animals and a constant hazard to drivers especially when one is driving at night or in the early morning hours as we often are.

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This was the last of our four survey routes in this area for 2013 and for all four days the weather had been perfect in all directions.  Only the black flies were a bit of a nuisance in some locations on some of the routes.

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When I speak of black flies as being a bit of a nuisance in some locations, this short video which I posted on my Flickr account provides some idea of what I’m talking about ! 🙂

Black flies attack car mirrors

Our only disappointment today was the lack of Bald Eagles at the Dubreuilville dump.  This year, when we arrived, the dump still had plenty of Starlings and Herring Gulls in the area but fewer Ravens than on previous visits and no Bald Eagles were in sight. Probably just bad timing on our part. Oh well, time to be homeward bound.

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– – – – – – – – – Northern Ontario BBS 2013 posts completed – – – – – – – – –

The following links relate to this June 2013 Breeding Bird Survey:

Day 1 – Ottawa to Ivanhoe Lake Provincial Park

Day 2 – Singe Lake Route

Day 3 – The Shoals Route

Day 4 – Little Tukanee Lake Route

Day 5 – Goldie Lake Route

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Wawa Points of Interest (2013)

Posted on June 6, 2013 by Ron

Wawa Points of Interest (2013)

We were in the Wawa area once again on the final leg of a four day Breeding Bird Survey that Gerhard and I undertake for Environment Canada. Compared to the dry conditions of a year earlier, Wawa was now trying to cope with the high water levels caused by late Fall rains, heavy winter snowfalls, and a late Spring.

Last year we had spent the night at the Northern Lights Motel as an alternative to staying at Opanango Provincial Park. This year, staying at this motel was not an option since they were still in the process of recovering from a huge flood and highway washout that occurred in October 2012. The photos below were taken June 2013. Continue reading →

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Wawa, Ontario – Tourist Points of Interest – Mackenzie/Bethune Cemetery

Posted on June 6, 2013 by Ron

Wawa, Ontario – Tourist Points of Interest – Mackenzie/Bethune Cemetery

Access to the MacKenzie/Bethune Cemetery location is from a small pull-off a short distance above the bridge at Silver Falls. The trail through the woods is rather steep but also fairly short so not too difficult to reach the cemetery.  While we were visiting the cemetery our attention was drawn to the sound of many American Redstarts in the nearby bushes. These quick little birds were darting from location to location in the dim light of the underbrush and, although they occasionally came into the open, I and my camera were not quick enough to record their delightful colours.

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