Immigration JournalThe story of two people who emigrated from the UK to Ontario, Canada July 2006.Home | Profile | Archives | Friends
 From devastation to joy in one dayThis morning we discovered the robins nest on the ground. It seems that something had attacked the nest in the night, killed the mother and two of the babies. There were feathers and blood everywhere and it was very sad.Hubby put the nest back under the deck where it had been, but the two remaining babies looked badly shaken and were not making a sound. Dad is around and keeps bringing them worms, the trouble was he seems to have no idea where they are. He was calling for them, but they were in such a bad state they were not replying. He was just wandering round the garden with worms hanging out of his beak. Later in the afternoon the chicks seemed to have picked up a little and were calling out, but dad has not been around, and of course mum is dead, so we hope that they survive and dad looks after them. Just when things were looking bleak, at about three this afternoon Ronnie the raccoon turned up with her babies, the first time we had seen them. She has five of them. No wonder she was coming round early in the evening to feed. Here are some pics, aren't they just adorable.    When they had spend half an hour eating and playing in the tree, they all flaked out.  Even mum 
Baby robins are growing fastToday we noticed that the baby robins were hanging out of their nest panting. It has been very hot today (31C) so I suppose they are very hot all huddled in there together.Here is their progress so far. May 22nd - Mums lays four eggs  June 7th - Day after hatching  June 10th - a little bigger  June 12th - today they are looking more like birds   Won't be long before they are flying! We also have several baby grackles around being fed by their parents. They sit there all helpless and as soon as mum gets near them they start fluttering their wings as if to say "feed me, feed me". Summery weekend of scenery and animalsYesterday it was such a lovely day and not too hot so we decided to drive up to Bon Echo Provincial Park. It is not too far from us so an easy drive on almost deserted roads.We got to the park and after paying $8 for a day pass we drove round to one trail, but unfortunately it was closed and the other trail close by led to a canoe-launching place. We hung around and took some pics and then drove back along the track to another area of the park.  This area was where everyone was camping and was busier than the other area, although we still could not believe that on a beautiful weekend day there were only a few people wandering around. We walked along a few trails and followed the lakeshore. The lake is quite large and is overlooked by high cliffs and is quite pretty. We still thought Algonquin was much better and will go back there soon.  After spending a few hours there we drove back and in the evening sat outside in the lovely evening warmth. I sat talking to some of our squirrels – well it would be rude to ignore them and managed to get a chipmunk to take several peanuts straight out of my fingers. I also had an incredibly tiny and tame chickadee sitting on my hand for ages whist it tucked into the nut feast I held. The robin chicks are growing and starting to get feather pins through.   They will be a week old on Monday and apparently stay in the nest for a couple of weeks, so they must grow very quickly. No camera when we needed oneYesterday we drove to Kingston via a back route down country lanes and came across four of the most adorable fox cubs you could ever see. They were playing at the side of the grass verge and when we stopped to look at them, they stopped playing and just sat looking up at us.They were so cute and fluffy with black front legs and paws and they sat there posing for us. Unfortunately we did not have a camera on us so could not take a photo. We have been back twice to see if we could see then, but no - we missed our chance! However, I have managed to get a picture of our robin chicks who are now three days old.  I also got this rather funny pic of one of our squirrels relaxing in the sun – you have to understand that it is very hard work sitting eating all day!  Ronnie has a sex changeWell, not quite, but the Raccoon we call Ronnie who comes around early each evening to raid the bird feeders has turned out to be a female. You might be wondering how we got close enough to know this. Well the other night as she climbed the tree I noticed that she had very full teats, so she must be a female with young.We seem to have lots of animals and birds with young at the moment: squirrels, rabbits and raccoons. Talking of babies, our mother robin nesting under our deck now has four chicks. The eggs hatched successfully and I will take a photo soon to post here. They are just little bags of skin and bones at the moment. The weather here has been very warm lately, but we have been suffering with smog coming over from the US. So although it has been in the high 20’s the sun has not been getting through too often and the sky is very murky. Rained al day yesterday and forecast today too. <- Last Page :: Next Page -> |