Saturday, July 31, 2010

Ontario Honour Roll of Trees

Ontario Honour Roll of Trees - Updated!

For the longest time the Ontario Honour Role of trees has been a broken link. The Ontario Forestry Association has updated their site and the honour roll is once again front and center.

Take a look at the Ontario Honour Roll.

Take a look at the Timmins Honour Roll.

The Timmins Honour Roll needs your help to be completed. If you can fill in a blank with a big tree please let me know. Maybe we even have the biggest in Ontario!!

Nighthawks Overhead

The Common Nighthawk (Chordeiles minor) fly overhead while I BBQ.

I was in the back yard cooking supper when I notice a single Nighthawk fly overhead. A little unusual for my neighbourhood.

I watch as another follows then another. I walk out onto the front yard to get a better look at the sky.

I count at least 20 nighthawks flying from north to south. They were all 10 to 20 meters above the ground.

I did not know nighthawks traveled together, I have only ever seen them one or two at a time.

More links and picture of the one I saw last year, click here.

Monday, July 26, 2010

Old Rocks and Really Old Rocks in Timmins

I learned a little bit about some rocks near Timmins last week.

Took my son for a tour to look at the interesting formation.

What is the kid looking at?

This is my understanding :

A crack in the billion year old rock, the Canadian Shield, had magma from the mantle of the earth fill that crack.

That crack was filled and the glacier that was more then a kilometer thick here smoothed out the surface. To me it looks like cement has been poured to fill the gap in the rock.

It is young rock, just 100 million years old, between old rock, maybe billion years old.

I do not remember what he called the formation.

I would never have noticed if it was not pointed out to me. I guess I need to look under foot more often. Usually where I am walking the rock is under a rooted mat of material.