How to help a turtle to cross the road

Long Lake snapping turtle!
I couldn't believe it was real!

 The first thing to know is what kind of turtle it is since you need to be careful with snappers!

Grumpy snapping turtle!

This is a great video (below)! In this, mating and egg-laying season, they are trying to cross to get to the sandy spot where they can dig and lay eggs.

The first thing to know is to send it in the direction it is headed towards.

Tucked in!

There are other tricks to it. Some people keep a window scraper
in the car to push it across. The scraping does much less to the turtle than getting smucked by a car!

Of course, the wee ones you can simply lift, by grabbing either side of the shell. The snappers, however, have long necks and will snap at you!
While they cause some people fear, they are endangered.

This video from the Toronto Zoo shows how

It's important to send it across
in the direction it was headed.
Blanding's turtle

to pick them up.

Painted turtle

Birding trip #2

Swamps and wetlands have many critters about.
Such an important part of an ecosystem.

We went for a drive, and I decided to see what I could photograph. Far across the open spot was a turkey vulture. Big beast.

turkey vulture

Low-flying beast

A lovely, long road

Constance Lake across the swampland

osprey nest - she peeks over it!

He wasn't peeking at all

A crow gives osprey a hard time!

busily catching bugs - Pine siskin?

There were a pair

Flowering dogwood, methinks

Grackles look so fierce!

Another mystery bird: Yellow warbler!

 The consensus is, Yellow warbler!

Mystery bird 1 from Jennifer Jilks on Vimeo.
In the middle of a wetland, on a trip to Dunrobin. This is its song.
I thought a Baltimore Oriole female or Bobolink, but it is a tiny one. It is so hard to figure them out!

Where the current media styles fail

Important morning routines!

People my age are avid consumers of news and information. I love visiting other bloggers to know what they are thinking and feeling.

We like our morning newspaper and coffee.
We don't have kids at home and can bury our heads in our newspaper.

We have time. We have disposable income. We care about politics, healthcare, and where our tax dollars are spent.

What has changed is the amount and type of information 'newspapers' (I use the term loosely) broadcast. Not only that, but news media likes to broadcast YouTube videos, and what is trending on Twitter. Is this news?!

I finally watched a good CTV news story lauding the life of a Lanark County senior:

Mr. Norman Gillies at Lanark Lodge

Where the current media performances fail:

1. I don't normally watch on-line newspaper videos. I read fairly well, and I don't want to sit and wait for the 30 second ad, dedicated to the 18 to 40-somethings, then watch a video about something I can read in a minute. I've checked with the kids. They don't normally watch newspaper videos on-line either!
2. Too many newspaper articles have veered from presenting information (who, what, where, when, why & so what) to waxing eloquently and telling me what I should think about said story.
3. Journalistic standards have deteriorated. Journalists lie, steal information from other media stories, fail to provide any new information, or do 'rip and read'. They don't actually interview the people involved in a story. They read a story to us. Which may be a good thing, that ignorant question, "How do you feel?" Better, what did you think?
4. I don't trust the media any more. Rumours, not information; opinions, not facts. 
5. Journalists with an IQ below the norm. Ignorance is no excuse.
6. Journalists who happily demonstrate their personal biases, by putting down other's choices. Our local CBO radio host, Robyn Bresnahan is the worst. She mocked Dan Hill's music awhile back, then proceeded, last week, to sing onstage with a professional musician in Perth. Shudder.
7. Twitter comments, in 140 characters or less, are not news. Why do I care what some smart-arse man-in-the-street managed to tweet succinctly, rudely, or tongue in cheek? I don't follow people whose identity I cannot establish. I want to trust what they write.
8. Why do I pay to 'read' the Globe on-line (we don't have delivery around here) and then I have to sit through the ubiquitous video ads?
9. Advertorials, or ads juxtaposed with a 'story' about a particular housing development, or new business.
10. Why do they allow anonymous comments in on-line articles? They wouldn't publish a letter to the editor without establishing who wrote it.
11. Shouldn't someone doing a book review have read the book? Just sayin'.

ARTS

And the reading is easy: Globe Books' top 5 summer books. 

Sure, click on the video and an ad pops up. But, then, hubby tells me, some dude speaks about a book we should read that he hasn't read.

Video: And the reading is easy: Globe Books' top 5 summer books

www.theglobeandmail.com

Books editors Jared Bland and Lisan Jutras look on the bright side of summer: books! Here are their top 5 picks

Macro caterpillar: Ctenucha virginica

 It is hard to identify critters. I thought I might be able to figure out which butterflies or moths I expect around here, and match it, but there are few photos of the caterpillars. The butterflies are much more fun to photograph!

Ctenucha virginica - courtesy wiki

I went to BAMONA, and submitted my photo. They confirmed (all volunteers) that it is a Ctenucha virginica.
I had to go to Wiki to find a photo of the adult moth!

When I fished it out of the goldfish pond, it lay there and I thought it dead. Happily, it unfolded and scampered off, after I photographed it.

Shirley goldfish and pals

Goldfish from Jennifer Jilks on Vimeo.

I had the best day ever!

The kids came over today to celebrate Mother's Day. We provided the shish kabob, and sausage, Jean-Luc BBQ'd and they brought salads. After that, we had outdoor play. There is something about a three-year-old and dandelions!
The bugs are bad this year.

Wetland walk

We had an amazingly buggy walk in the woods!

Home time!

Hummingbird moth and lilacs

Snowberry clearwing

Hemaris diffinis

The Snowberry Clearwing is a moth of the order Lepidoptera, family Sphingidae, AKA hummingbird moth, because of its similarity to the bird. It has a long probiscus, which it uses to eat. You can see it, somewhat, in the photo below.