Tag: maps

Timing is Everything…

November 24, 2011
Work Posts

Unfortunately mine wasn’t so good this week. I managed to time my trip to Nova Scotia this week with their first snow storm of the season. We were able to land okay but the highway conditions from Halifax to Bridgewater were poor. Passed numerous vehicles and watched vehicles slide off the road into the ditch. Many areas of the province set snowfall records for the day. Halifax received 34 cm.

I was heading to Kejimkujik National Park, near Caledonia,NS , but only got as far as Bridgewater due to the storm.

By Thursday morning the storm had cleared out and the sun was shining. Kejimkujik got about 23 cm of snow on the ground. They were forecasting plus 10 deg C this weekend, so this will all disappear.

Joussard Alberta

November 11, 2011
Work Posts

I was out in Alberta to meet with a consultant doing an ESA on one of our new monitoring sites near Joussard, AB. Joussard is about 30 km east of High Prairie and 80 km west of Slave Lake. It was a flight from Toronto to Calgary to meet up with a colleague and then a Dash-8 to Grande Prairie. From there is was another 3 hour drive.

The weather wasn’t cooperating with us. It snowed the first night in High Prairie, by morning it was slush and ice mix. Then it rained throughout the day, even hailing at one point. Would have preferred some sub-zero temperatures and snow. In the end the job got done. Looking north along Range Road 132 towards Lesser Slave Lake.

Mount Brydges Area

October 25, 2011
Work Posts

This week I was down in the London area for a couple of days. I was doing a site audit of our site near Mount Brydges. It is located at the Longwoods Road Conservation Area.

Found this old tractor growing out of the ground.

Huntsville Area

October 18, 2011
Work Posts

I was up in the Huntsville area for a couple of days for work this week. We have a site near Sprucedale, ON.

Most of the leaves had already turned and fallen off. This is Buck Lake along the Ravenscliffe Rd out of Huntsville.

Some mailboxes at the corner of Stisted Rd and Concession 4.

Kinghurst Forest Nature Reserve

September 28, 2011
Work Posts

I was up in the Owen Sound area on Tuesday and Wednesday this week. The forecast earlier in the week didn’t look promising, but I managed to miss the rain on Tuesday morning and was back home before the rain started on Wednesday. Our site is located at the Kinghurst Forest Nature Reserve located near Chatsworth, Ontario.

Almost every step you take results in a frog jumping out of the way. The operator was telling me that in the spring, there were snapping turtles all over the place laying their eggs, only to have the raccoons come and dig them up.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

At the end of the day I was able to take a walk around some of the property.

The Kinghurst Reserve has been designated as a provincially signific Life Science Area of Natural and Scientific Interest (ANSI).

There is a section of forest where many of the trees are 250-300 years old, and tower over 100 feet in height.

There are many woodland ponds, open bogs and swamp forests.

Some early fall colours.

Some hard work by an overly ambitious beaver.

Some of the swamp forest.

An old well that still works.

Moss on rock.

There are still many apple trees from the time it was an active farm.

Harrison Lake is located across from the reserve.

Back on the Road

September 23, 2011
Work Posts

I was back on the road this week, down in Frelighsburg, Quebec.

Our site is located at an Agriculture Canada Research Sub-station located about 5km from the Vermont border.

The monitoring site. Environment Canada has been in the news a lot these days with the looming program and job cuts, it’s always better to fly under the radar.

One of the many butterflies around the site.

I’ll be back down there in a couple of weeks to finish an installation with some American colleagues who are doing a co-located study.

Tanabe in the News

September 5, 2011
Rainwater

Typhoon Talas dumped record amounts of rain on Sunday in western and central Japan. The excess rain caused landslides in Tanabe, Wakayama Prefecture.

Location of Tanabe.

Day 17: A Long Drive

September 1, 2011
Disney2011

It is time to head home, we are doing a long day in the car on Thursday which will allow us to get home at a decent time on Friday and pick up Chloe. We left Tybee Island around 8:30 AM and headed for Fairmont, West Virginia. I started the morning with a walk down to the beach to catch the sunrise.

Some of the South Carolina Department of Corrections Litter Crews, just as we were pulling out of the rest stop, they were pulling in.

The girls have been great in the car this trip, not too much complaining or fighting.

Going through Virginia along Interstate 77.

The Big Walker Mountain Tunnel (1288m) entrance.

We pulled into the hotel around 8:00 PM. Traffic was good all the way and the weather wasn’t getting any cooler as we traveled north. I have finally caught up with the blog posts. Hope you have enjoyed it. Once I get home, I’ll add some of the video we took.

WV_fairmont-23525

 

Chalk River Site Visit

July 7, 2011
Work Posts

I did a short trip up to our Chalk River, Ontario site this week to fix some equipment. The site is located on the AECL property, security is tight, no cameras are allowed on site. I headed up on Wednesday to overnight in Pembroke and then on to the site Thursday morning. On the way back to Toronto Thursday, the van I was driving broke down in Northwood, ON. It turned out to be the main grounding cable broke/corroded off the terminal, so it wouldn’t allow me to restart the engine after stopping to gas up. A mechanic from Cloyne was able to diagnose the problem and get the van started using a some of vise grips, it allowed me to get to their garage where the grounding cable was replaced.

Chalk River map

Blackflies, Mosquitos, and Lady’s Slipper

June 22, 2011
Work Posts

From Saskatoon, it was on to Prince Albert and then up to Pinehouse Lake the following day. After a brief stop in Pinehouse Lake to meet with the local conservation officer, it was into the bush.

Pinehouse Lake map

When we got out of the vehicle, the blackflies descended around us. As we moved into the bush they were joined by the mosquitos. They actually weren’t that bad, I didn’t have to use my bug jacket, as long as you were moving it was okay. But once we got to where we were going, it was time for the bug juice. Here is one of the trees we marked.

Tree marking

On the way out we spotted some Pink Lady’s Slipper (Cypripedium acaule).

Lady's Slipper

Lady's Slipper

Further along we came across a Spruce Grouse (Falcipennis canadensis).

Spruce Grouse

We had lucked out with the weather and bugs, not so much with the roads, due to all the rain they had received the gravel roads weren’t so good. The last 100 km is gravel/dirt roads and it took over 90 minutes. It was back to Beauval for the night.