Beautiful weekend. Now that the weather is cooler I finally got my wife and some friends to hike the barrier beach at Rondeau. It's a long strip of sand separating Lake Erie and Rondeau Bay. Took over five hours to the end and back.
Lake Erie to the left, Rondeau Bay to the right
The first bit was through dense forest
Rondeau Bay
Lake Erie
Turkey vultures waiting for us
Almost to the end, and the first people we encountered since we left the trail through the forest at the beginning
They arrived by boat
A stand of cottonwoods at the very end, near Erieau
This dark cloud hung around all day
Erieau, just across the water
A fishing boat coming into Erieau
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@flar. Nice variety. Some I've never seen. And you weren't kidding about being the best time of the year. And come to think of it, I have seen many cicada shells around.
Went to the beach for an hour on Wednesday. It was overcast the whole day, which was a day after rain the whole day. At least this meant the lifting of the fire ban.
When we got back from the beach, this cicada happened to be dead on the steps to the deck. So, given we were allowed fires again, I put its carcass in the fire.
And the rock painting community I essentially created has taken it to a new level. Now someone has curated a collection along two trails. I saw a couple of mine I laid elsewhere a few weeks ago. Then after that hour of the beach was up, I noticed my Canada one was gone. It was overcast on a Wednesday. I saw only two kids come from that direction and it was right when we were leaving. I didn't see them holding anything. I suspect it was an adult that took the rock. And, more dickheads being dickheads burying beer cans.
Quote:
Originally Posted by flar
@megadude
This is the best time of year to see insects
The green one in your photos is a katydid, one of my favourites. There are several types in Ontario, all look completely different. A few I've spotted:
Black legged meadow katydid
Greater angle-wing katydid
Fork tailed bush katydid from a few days ago
I'm surprised you haven't seen many cicadas before. Our trees are full of them, and we find their skins all over and even some dead ones
When they emerge from the ground, they molt and leave these skeletons
This may be two different species, the smaller one could be a swamp cicada and the bigger one is probably the most common type, the dog day cicada
Here's a cicada killer, a giant bee that stings the cicada, carries it down from the tree, lays eggs in the body and buries it. This was in my backyard a few years ago
Last edited by megadude; Aug 25, 2025 at 11:03 AM.
Much better than the prior two days. Was at Balm Beach and this level of activity is fine. Lots of people but not what I’d call too many. And parking was easily available. Going in the middle of the day on a weekend would be a no-go for me.
Last year I mentioned how I was wandering around in the water and one of the neighbours asked what I was doing. I said I was looking for clay as I hadn’t seen any for 6 years. One minute later I stepped on clay. This time on Friday I was walking in the water and said to my sister if you feel dense material or see light grey, check if it’s clay. 30 seconds later some young people shouted to their family that they found some clay. They hit the jackpot and harvested a metric ton of it. They said their grandma has a kiln and when they were kids they used to make all kinds of things from it. It’s the first time I’ve seen clay this year.
And after we got permission to do fires again, had to make up for some lost time. I had this no longer fashionable jacket buried deep in my closet, complete with neck grease on the white collar (discovered oxy clean far too late and lost several white shirts over the years to neck grease). So, like I do for all my obsolete clothes, in the fire it went.
Also saw a lone bat sleeping at the entry way to The Brick store in Midland.
18C in Moncton and "smoke" at 8 AM, going up to 26C this afternoon with a 60% chance of showers.
It is very hazy out, and the smell of smoke is intense. It woke me up around 6 AM, and I was so alarmed I put on my bathrobe and did an inspection of the property.
Hundreds of people apparently called 911, assuming there was a forest fire bearing down on the city.
Apparently the smoke is coming from a large fire in Annapolis County NS, about 200 km to our south. A weather advisory has been issued about the smoke. This is our first real taste of what most of the country has been going through this summer. Even the Irishtown fire on the outskirts of Moncton wasn't really noticeable to most city residents because of the prevailing winds. This is bad though........
Started cheating with the rocks by transferring printed logos onto the rock using Mod Podge and sticking on rub on transfer stickers as well. I should start selling the team logo rocks outside the arena and stadium.
Yesterday decided to explore 6 beaches pretty close to each other. It’s interesting how beaches 200 or even 100 metres apart can be completely different. Some are full of rocks while just up the coast will be some devoid of rocks and are pure sand. The rock beaches were super shallow while the sandy beaches were one to two feet deep as soon as you stepped in the water. Some had foam or soup broth on the shoreline while some were pristine at the shore.
The first rock beach was not for swimming but it made for good exploring. Several pockets of grey gold aka clay. Plenty of flat rocks for crayfish to hide under. And found a couple dozen mussels or clams or whatever. They were spread out but still contained to one general area. So I’m wondering if someone just tossed the remnants of their dinner into the water or if these are natural to this spot. I’ve never seen these before. The vast majority were closed though.
I thought pretty much everywhere had gotten rain recently and we were past the forest fire stage. Hopefully won’t be around for too long.
Quote:
Originally Posted by MonctonRad
18C in Moncton and "smoke" at 8 AM, going up to 26C this afternoon with a 60% chance of showers.
It is very hazy out, and the smell of smoke is intense. It woke me up around 6 AM, and I was so alarmed I put on my bathrobe and did an inspection of the property.
Hundreds of people apparently called 911, assuming there was a forest fire bearing down on the city.
Apparently the smoke is coming from a large fire in Annapolis County NS, about 200 km to our south. A weather advisory has been issued about the smoke. This is our first real taste of what most of the country has been going through this summer. Even the Irishtown fire on the outskirts of Moncton wasn't really noticeable to most city residents because of the prevailing winds. This is bad though........
Still very dry in the Maritimes. Showers only. We got about 10 mm of rain in Moncton last weekend, but nothing since, The lawns are still brown. They may get 25 mm or so in coastal NS today, but we are only expecting 5-10 mm here, with nothing more forecast until next weekend.
This is the Annapolis County fire responsible for the intense smoke we've been experiencing in Moncton today:
This picture was taken in St, Martins NB. Keep in mind that the fire is on the OTHER SIDE of the Bay of Fundy (60 km wide), and you have to cross North Mountain, the breadth of the Annapolis Valley and South Mountain before you get anywhere near the fire.
That means you are seeing flames from about 100 km away!!!.
There has been ash falling in northern NS from this fire, at a distance of about 150 km.
150-200mm of rain has fallen on the region in the last 2 weeks
the laks have shot up river are flowing like mad its nice chnage this weekend i look forward to some 30c weather
Odd weather today. Constant stream of different clouds and formations. There was a water spout alert issued for Lake Ontario. I didnt see any, personally.
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