We live in downtown London (Ontario), right at the fork of the Thames River. Several days ago one of our neighbours wrote that she had seen deer on the lawn of our condo building. This morning when I looked out the window, I saw two deer in the park right across the street.
So grabbed my camera to take some photos. In this first one, unfortunately I had left the flash turned on and it reflected off the bedroom window. I've cropped and adjusted the photo a bit, but it still is not very clear.
By the time I got the flash turned off, the deer were moving back toward the river. I panicked a bit and didn't hold the camera steady for the next photo.
It is exciting to see the deer. The river habitat, even in downtown London, might be able to support them for quite some time. But I really doubt if this is the right place for them.
Ms. Eclectic and I have pre-planned and pre-paid for our funerals and burials, including the grave marker.
In keeping with my moniker, "Godfather of the Ban the Penny Movement", we had a cut-out made at the bottom of a column of hearts and glued a penny there.
The penny is from 1982, the year we were married (thank you Karen L and Nick K and others for providing us with several 1982 pennies!)
My Facebook (and early blogging) friend, Tom Palmer (no relation) posted a link to the animated version of this site, but I much prefer going to the index and perusing the maps year by year.
Some things that impress me from the historical perspective:
Fascinating stuff.
Sadly, it appears the mother duck has given up and abandoned what few eggs she had left. She wasn't there this morning when I checked on her, and there were only maybe two or three eggs left in the planter. As I said in my initial post, when you see how few eggs hatch, with the ducklings surviving to maturity, it becomes clear how powerful natural selection can be.
I just returned from checking on the duck that has nested under a spruce tree along Dundas Street in downtown London, Ontario (for previous postings about the duck and eggs, see the links below).
The two eggs that were on the outer edge of the pot and readily visible have now disappeared. The mother duck has changed position several times. But oddly, on the other side of the tree trunk from where she has been nesting this entire time, there are at least three eggs, uncovered, in a deep hollow.
I wonder if there was another mother duck nesting on the other side of the tree. Given the territoriality I've seen in ducks, that seems unlikely. At the same time, I can't imagine this mom pushed some eggs of her own over there, but maybe...
Anyway, here is a really crappy photo I tried to take of theDuck and Eggs situation. The mother duck is on the left edge of the photo. You can barely make out half of her. The eggs are under a branch on the right side of the trunk.
More updates to follow.
Last week I posted about a duck and her eggs in downtown London. I am happy to report that all seems well so far.
I have walked by the nesting place nearly every day since then, and the mother duck is still alive, quiet, alert, and nesting. One of the eggs that was outside the nest seems to have disappeared, but amazingly one is still there.
Clearly I am not the only one to have noticed her. There is a little plastic container inside the tree, possibly to capture water for her or possibly to hold food someone might have been providing (or who knows? maybe it was there before she began her nesting, but I don't remember having seen it there initially).
Yesterday noon during my walk to McDonald's, I checked on the situation again. I was initially quite concerned when I saw that ALL the other evergreens had been removed from their huge planters (something I don't understand. I liked them). But the shelter tree for the mother duck and her eggs had been left in place. Here's a photo of two of the other planters, showing the trees removed.
So someone on the city works/parks crew is doing their best to leave her undisturbed and protected.
Can you imagine this situation during the depression less than 100 years ago? What are the odds the duck and her eggs would have been left alone then? My guess is they wouldn't have survived there. As our society becomes wealthier, we tend to forgo hunting and foraging for food like this. I guess there's a positive income/wealth elasticity of demand for "Awww....".
The first summer I taught at Herstmonceux Castle (2006), there were three different mother ducks who made nests and laid eggs in the courtyard.
The first batch to hatch included 13 ducklings, 11 of whom survived the summer being well-fed by profs, staff, and students, and somehow avoiding attacks from the jackdaws. The second batch was smaller. I'm not sure if any of them survived, but the first mom and her ducklings were so well-developed, they pretty much fought the second batch into oblivion. The third batch didn't even hatch; the mom laid them in a somewhat open area, and the jackdaws got the eggs.
Every year there is also a duck who lays her eggs in a planter outside the castle tearoom. Some of her ducklings seem to survive much of the time.
There were several possible insights from those experiences:
It was these memories that affected me when Ms. Eclectic and I saw these two eggs under an evergreen in a huge planter in downtown London last week.
I was saddened by the fact that the eggs had been abandoned, but knowing how few eggs and ducklings survive, it seemed part of the order of nature.
Last night I walked past the same planter and the eggs were still there. That puzzled me. I had expected that some animal or some hungry person would have taken them.
So I investigated further (albeit from a distance). Sure enough, very well-camouflaged inside the evergreen is a mother duck. I'm guessing she laid so many eggs she can't incubate them all, so these were pushed out of her nest. But that's just a guess. Anyway, here's a photo of her that I tried to take with my smartphone (it is cropped; I didn't really get this close).
You can just about make out her head and body in the photo. Nesting mother ducks really know how to lie still and blend in with their surroundings.
Let's suppose she is able to hatch a bunch or even several of these eggs. What will happen to the ducklings? That looks like a fairly hefty drop to the sidewalk in the first photo. Will the ducklings survive, or will Londoners have to pull a Spokane here and catch them as they fall?
And if/when the ducklings survive until they reach the sidewalk, it's a several-block walk to the river from their nest. Will Londoners stop traffic for them? And even if that happens, will they survive attacks from crows, hawks, racoons, etc.? Updates to follow.
I am on Facebook quite a bit. I love having been able to stay connected (and get reconnected) with childhood friends, former co-workers and colleagues, and with current and former students. I also love getting to know current acquaintances better, especially friends from the theatre and music.
But I think I'm an outlier (according to this piece in the NYTimes). I note three things from that article and graph:
These results make sense for younger people. They see people at work everyday; there is less need to FB-friend them, too, to maintain contact with them. But when they change jobs, that's when FB-friending becomes important, sort of like summer camp: you enjoyed being with many of them, and you don't want to lose touch with them. FB is a great way to stay in contact.
Wait 'til other "under-90"s join FB and begin to dominate it.
Some time ago, Jack sent me this message and link. It's a short-term memory test having to do with pictures of people -- when and whether you saw each picture.
I did okay (which is reassuring), but then I didn't wait between the parts nearly as long as they say you should, so maybe my results aren't valid. This is a hard test. Try to remember which photos you have seen in which part of the test. Good luck....
Short Term Memory Test
You'll be shown 12 photos in the first part,
You'll be shown another 12 photos in the second part,
You'll be shown 48 photos in the third part and asked if you saw them in the first part,
the second part - or never saw them at all.
When you have finished the third part, your results will be given to you.
Click here to begin.....
My scores were reported like this:
Recognition score
( if you saw it )
Your score: 100% Average score: 92%
This is a measure of your ability to remember the photos you've seen, regardless of the part in which you saw them. From all 24 photos shown in Parts 1 & 2, you recognised: 24 photo(s).
Temporal memory score
( when you saw it )
Your score: 79% Average score: 68%
This is a measure of how often you recognised a photo and matched it to the correct part, instead of just remembering which ones you'd seen. From all the photos you recognised, you matched: 19 photo(s) to the correct part.
In preparation for the World Figure Skating Championships, to be held in London in March, the City of London has spent hundreds of thousands of dollars to dress up and clean up the city, including yet another logo. Meanwhile, the buildings directly across the street from the venue are dilapidated, in danger of collapsing, empty, run-down, etc. I can't see how spending so much to re-beautify a walkway near Market Lane or to design a new logo can have much of a positive impact on the city's image when this is the sight that will greet people from out of town every day:
From the far left:
I don't know what the city can or should do about this situation. My small-gubmnt preference is that the city do nothing (and cancel the order for the new logo). But even ignoring that preference, given the local bureaucrats' goal of promoting the city, here are two bits they must consider:
The point I'm trying to make is that putting a dress or a tux on a pig doesn't change the fact that people will recognize it as a pig the minute they look at it.
I live downtown, about a block and a half from the scene in the above photo. I know parts of downtown can be unpleasant in places and at times. But increasingly there is a regentrification taking place as new, high-end condos are being built. I'm hoping this trend continues.
At the same time, I am sure there are many things I don't understand about why that half block of buildings looks so blighted, so I don't want to go too far out on a limb here. But with those obvious conditions, it's hard to see how beautifying a walkway will help the city's image very much.
