Belted Kingfisher and A Phildelphia Vireo of The Vermilon River. A Post To WBW.

Belted Kingfisher.

 With the dry weather, I was able to actually enter one of the East Track Wetlands without sinking up to my knees, or even deeper. Paying attention to the trail, I caught movement in my eye and managed to capture these shots of a Belted Kingfisher. I think it's a male as the band doesn't run all the way around his chest.
The photos of the Philadelphia Vireo were taken earlier along the feeder creek to the East Track Wetland. Both the Kingfisher and the Philadelphia Vireo are firsts for me, made even more exciting by the photos. This year has been an incredible year for new sightings. Thanks to NWO Birds for help with the Vireo which is very close to a Tennessee Warbler.

A Post to WBW @ http://pineriverreview.blogspot.com/

I had not intended to answer some of the replies to my Tuesday post quite so soon. But let me try the easier ones and at the risk of losing some friends  To Grace: Virtual doesn't appeal to all the senses that the forest does, and virtual is an inertia of body, mind and soul ( no religion intended).The xbox war games, with their easy virtual kill illustrate this; just try looking at them and then ask any combat vet from any war what they think of them. Besides virtual leads to that 21st century disease called " fat-assism or spectatorism". To Kay: I think I have been in almost all Canadian major cities, and probably most of the secondary cities, and if I can't get out on the water or in a forest within an hour, then I'm not trying. Even New York has central park. The point I'm making is that I want our government to spend money to get people out to the forest, to both fight ignorance and "fat assism" mentioned above. To Ladyfi: the population of Sweden is 9.3 Million people in a land mass of 174,000 square miles. The population of Canada is about 3.9 million in a land mass of 32 million square miles, or 20 times that of Sweden with almost one half the population. The bulk of the population lives along the Can/U.S. border. Our heritage is the forest, I'm emphasizing that the forest is a stewardship, not an ownership. To Stewart & Airja: I listen to Radio Australia in the early A.M. My impression is that Australia is suffering desperately from global warming and the excesses of mining, which your Labour Government is trying to reverse with at least a carbon tax. Nor do I get the impression and correct me if I'm wrong that the Australia population, apart from their own suffering, is terribly committed to green and all that it involves, with involve being the operative word. Be aware I'm not convinced that a majority of Canadians , although the number is growing, are committed to a green approach either. To Louise: It's great that you can see hope in local iniative, but I don't see much hope in that most of  the land is gone, except for the parks and they're going because of republican fiscal constraint, which is a crock by the way, and the climate etc is all secondary to a dying economy based on cheap energy and extreme comsumption, and a firm committment to reward the rich and corporations with tax deals. Gee do I sound like a Democrat?

Side View.

Profile.

Belted Kingfisher.

Philadelphia Vireo.