Southern Ontario Sandhill Cranes

I have several bird books, from a 1947 edition of Peterson's "A Field Guide to the Birds" to a 2006 edition of "Sibley Guide to the Birds". The distribution of a number of bird species has changed significantly in the sixty years between the publishing of these two books. In a few more years, changes will have to be made again.

In 1947 Northern Cardinals and House Finches were rarely seen in Southern Ontario. They are now very common year round residents. Sandhill Cranes were found in the Canadian Prairies and east as far as Michigan. My current Sibley guide indicates they now migrate and breed in northern Ontario as well. They are seen in Southern Ontario as they pass by in the spring and fall.


In the past couple of years, there have been reports of breeding Sandhill Cranes in our region within a thirty minute drive from our home. My husband and I found a pair earlier this month and I returned today to check them out again. We have seen many Sandhill Cranes on Manitoulin Island but it is difficult to approach them so most of my photos have been taken from quite a distance.

This pair stood close to the country road as they were feeding in a farmer's field. I don't know why they were engaging in mating behaviour as nesting season should be over. The eggs need a month to incubate and the young birds or colts do not fledge until they are 65 to 75 days old. I was able to watch these two birds dance together, something I expected to see only if I travelled to Manitoulin Island in April or early May.

The Sandhill Crane does not breed until it is two to seven years old. Mated pairs stay together year round, and migrate as a group with their offspring. If these birds find this area satisfactory for breeding, their numbers will undoubtedly increase each year if their offspring return with them. And the bird guides will be re-written...

Here is a link with more information on Sandhill Cranes.

Twice Frightened!

I like to think I am fairly rational, calm, and not easily frightened. It is important to be alert and observant when out on trails, or anywhere for that matter. I have tried to overcome my two main phobias, those being my fear of snakes and heights, but doubt that will ever happen. I came across a large northern water snake this month and actually took a couple of pictures from a respectful distance as it slithered toward Bass Creek, but looking at the images makes me cringe.

The owner of the camp where we stayed owns an abandoned farm across the road from his lakeside property. He rents it to a farmer and about fifteen cattle graze there in the summer. I have often walked through the fields and have not been bothered by the cows at all. One morning I opened the gate and walked quietly to the back of a field where a pair of Sandhill Cranes were calling noisily. I took a few pictures as they moved away and finally flew over the fence. The cows, who were a good 300 metres away from where I stood, suddenly started moving toward me at a good pace. I took a picture of their approach just before they broke into a full run.

It seemed that I was being charged! There was no way I could out run the herd to the gate and my heart started pounding as I envisioned myself being trampled. I saw a clump of Dogwood bushes which stood a bit taller than myself and hid behind them. The cattle stopped on the other side of the bushes and I listened to their heavy breathing through the branches. After a very long ten minute period, they turned around and walked back to their previous grazing spot. I walked back quietly and slowly keeping an eye open for another hiding spot.

Later that day, I took a golf cart up the dirt road toward a swampy area that is good for birding. In the distance I saw a lone animal walking my direction with a distinct wolf-like gait. I stopped and decided to make a prompt U-turn back to the cottage. Looking at my pictures later, I realized the "wolf" was a particularly aggressive farm dog named Duke. The previous day he had chased me on the golf cart before his owner had called him off. I am fond of dogs, but this one had a menacing eye and snarl that made me think back to the inservices I had attended as a Home Care therapist which dealt with recognizing dangerous canines.

I am sure there is a reason the cows rushed to me and it may be as simple as them thinking I had some tasty corn for them. On the other hand, I was wearing a shirt I had bought the day before at Sheguiandah, the nearby Indian reserve. I did not have enough warm clothes packed and selected a warm red pullover with drawings of primitive hunters on the front and back.

Who knows what goes through an animal's mind?

Have you had a frightening animal encounter, wild or domestic?

Evening and Morning

Lake Manitou, 10:00 PM in the evening

God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night.
And there was evening and there was morning, the first day.
Genesis 1:5

The Jewish day begins at sunset, or somewhere between sunset and the appearance of the first three stars. Depending on your proximity to the earth's poles, this would create quite a variance in the beginning of each new day throughout the year. Manitoulin Island is about a five or six hour drive north of our home as the crow flies and the days were notably longer with twilight lasting to just past 10:00 PM.

Evening Moon Rise

We experienced a lot of rain, but the evenings were often calm and beautiful with lovely sunsets and great light for taking pictures. Early morning tended to be calm and sunny too before the rain clouds moved in. The birds would start singing a little past 4:00 AM which is enjoyable or annoying, depending on your body clock. Night time was little more than 6 hours long.

Mother Common Merganser taking her young
to the shallows to feed in the early morning

Evening and morning are my favourite times of day. My family used to leave for road trips in the predawn hours and I liked the empty roads and the emerging light of the new day. I have always wanted to travel to the far north in the summer where the sun never sets. But then, I may never go to bed and sleep is a good thing. These near north days were about perfect and I will remember them during the long nights of winter.

Male Yellow Warbler greeting the day with song


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Time, Temperature and Turtles

Blanding's Turtle

Summers used to be long and leisurely but it seems they rush by faster every year. July is almost half over, today being Sandland Brother's birthday.

We had a relaxing time earlier this month on Manitoulin Island with no internet, television, newspapers or radio. Our cabin has always had a clock radio in the past but it was missing this year. I have not experienced this level of media disconnect for a long time. I called home the first couple of days and asked if the world was still around. After that, it didn't seem to matter if it was or not. I started looking at the thermometer and sky to judge the weather rather than depending on a news report. When I reviewed the stack of newspapers on our return home there was nothing missed of any importance or lasting significance.

The weather was unseasonably cool and wet with temperatures around 15C or 60F during the day and much colder at night. On the fifth day the thermometer broke 20C for the first time under sunny skies and children were in bathing suits swimming in the lake (Brrrrrrrrr!!) But the weather did not spoil our vacation and there was an abundance of birds and wildlife to see as well as many fish to catch. I would love to spend an entire summer on this island.

One evening as I explored the road that led to the camp, I came across an unusual turtle crossing the gravel throughfare from the swamp. It's neck was a beautiful yellow and it seemed to be smiling for my camera as I inspected it closely. The Blanding's turtle is considered to be threatened in Ontario and nationally. Its shell is roughly the size and shape of a bike helmet and the turtle lives to an age of 60 to 70+ years. It takes 15 to 18 years to reach maturity.

That sounds very human in development and lifespan...

The females lay their eggs in early summer and the young turtles hatch in late August or September. It is very likely that this was a female turtle looking for an ideal place to lay her eggs. The road was not a safe place crossing point at the speed the turtle moved and I would have picked it up if a car had been coming.

These turtles are now endangered due to habitat loss, road hazards and predation of their nests by racoons and skunks. Humans have degraded their wetlands, created roads and enabled the success of their predators.

These reptiles live out a human lifespan (if they are lucky) at a very slow pace. Taking time to slow the sometimes hectic pace of modern living is important in enjoying our lives in a healthy and fulfilled way. I am still operating at a post vacation turtle pace and have been slow to jump back into blogging. I still want to feel the disconnection from what others think is important for me to hear, to operate on my own body's time schedule, to be able to just sit, enjoying doing nothing in particular.

It won't last long, I am sure of that.

The World Without Us

One of my daughters brought a book home from the library called The World Without Us. Author Alan Weisman discusses "how our planet would respond without the relentless pressure of the human presence." He uses New York City as one example and describes in detail how long it would take for human structures to deteriorate and for the environment to return to a naturalized state.


It would happen surprisingly quickly. Ancient monuments such as the Pyramids in Egypt would last far longer than the Empire State Building. Modern man challenges nature, rerouting rivers, building below the water table, using flimsy materials rather than working in harmony with the earth. New York City's decline would begin as filters clogged and water pumps failed beneath the pavement. The subway tunnels would flood and building foundations would be compromised. It takes constant vigilance and maintenance to keep a city from deteriorating. The book is not apocalyptic but instead reveals the regenerative power of nature.


Manitoulin Island has many abandoned farms. Crumbling barns and houses dot the landscape. Across the road from the camp, such a farm stood, the old house far too dilapidated to enter. I wondered what creatures took shelter within the leaning walls. Farm implements rusted in the fields and cement foundations of buildings that were long gone were visible beneath shrubs and grasses. I was fascinated by these remnants of the past and wondered at the complete abandonment of home and livelihood.


Anyone who is a home owner knows the cost and time involved in keeping a place up. The forces of water, ice, light, wind and of small things like insects are cumulative and break down man made things quickly. The author discusses the plague of plastic on the planet, particularly in our oceans. But even plastic will break down eventually.

Our lives are fleeting and our possessions become valueless in a blink of an eye when compared to the timelessness of creation.

Something to think about...and an interesting book to read.

Friday Flowers: Collecting Butterflies

Canadian Tiger Swallowtail on Sweet Clover- Waterloo Region

Sandland brother was a collector of snakes, rocks, especially the fossils from our gravel driveway, bugs and butterflies. We lived in the north part of Metropolitan Toronto in the mid to late 1960's just as suburban sprawl was creeping northward from the city core. From our home one could see farmers' fields which have since been paved over as the city has spread many miles north, east and west. A couple of blocks from our house a large hydro right-of-way provided a place where we played and picnicked during our endless summer holidays. Nathan had a butterfly net and would pursue flying insects, catching them and killing them in a jar before mounting them for his collection.

Great Spangled Fritillary near Bird's Foot Trefoil- Manitoulin Island

Last summer I re-read Gene Stratton-Porter's book A Girl of the Limberlost. Elnora Comstock pays for her education by collecting rare moths in Indiana's Limberlost Swamp and selling their mounted bodies to collectors. Somehow the killing of butterflies and moths for collections has lost its appeal in this day of increased environmental awareness. But our society has depleted the habitat of many butterflies and instead of killing them, we have killed their food source with pesticides and pavement.

Cabbage White on Bird Vetch in Waterloo Region

In this digital age we can collect butterflies with our cameras. Our city has implemented a partial ban on pesticides and city parks and schoolyards are no longer sprayed for weeds. I am once again seeing butterflies as I remember seeing them as a child in North York's hydro fields.

White Admiral on Joe Pye Weed- Manitoulin Island

I have been trying to capture some butterfly pictures and have found them even more flitting than warblers who at least tend to flit in one tree, not all over a meadow. I have some lovely mental images that passed faster than the shutter of the camera. Last week I watched a Swallowtail butterfly and a Ruby Throated Hummingbird feeding at the same group of flowers.
Our wildflowers have had a great growing season this year. Sweet Clover, Bird Vetch and Common Milkweed flowers are favoured by many insects including butterflies. And several garden flowers including Purple Coneflower attract them near our homes.

Monarch Butterfly on Milkweed- Manitoulin Island

I took a number of butterfly pictures and then struggled to identify them. I find most butterfly guides confusing with plates of similar looking wings. Someone recommended a field guide called The Butterflies of Canada so I ordered one that I received this week. I am very pleased with it and it is organized by region and habitat which is very helpful.

Monarch Butterfly Caterpillar on Milkweed- Manitoulin Island

The images in this post are of butterflies I have seen this month near flowers. Wet gravel also attracts them, but I will save those pictures for another time. We have a lot of wet gravel around lately with almost daily rains so it pays to look on the path for butterflies as you walk along.

Sandland Brother arrived in Canada yesterday from the United Arab Emirates. I see him on average about every other year or so. I wonder what he is collecting now?

More Sandhill Cranes

Last year I wrote about the Sandhill Cranes on Manitoulin Island in this post. This year they were around in great numbers again and we saw and heard them frequently in the fields around the camp. I saw a pair of young birds for the first time as they walked down the gravel road ahead of me one evening. An adult bird was off to the side keeping an eye on them.

Watchful adult a short distance away from the young birds below

With all the rain we have had this summer, the vegetation in the fields is much higher and it was hard to see the birds unless they were in a freshly mowed hayfield. There were many deer about in the open this year, even in the mid-afternoon. We saw a group of cranes and deer in a field close to the road. I have yet to see a Sandhill Crane in the water.

Juvenile Sandhill Cranes

We don't have many large birds like these (other than Great Blue Herons and the rarely seen Great Egrets) in Ontario. Manitoulin Island is a nesting place for many birds we see only in the winter or during migration in southern Ontario. The Mergansers and other diving ducks, Bald Eagles, and Cranes raise their young in this relatively safe and quiet place. And other birds such as Cardinals and House Finches never venture this far north.

I wonder what I would find another 360 km further north from the island in the James Bay Frontier?