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Took the dog down for a walk down by Woodbine Beach, hoping to see some waterfowl. Instead I caught a group of people who were obviously practicing for a Dragonboat race. Took several pics, of which this was my favourite:

Dragonboat Practice

I predict that you are going to see many more pictures of the Mallard Ducklings that are calling the pond in Woodbine Park their home. There are clearly two small flocks of ducklings, each with its own mother protectively looking after them.

This was my favourite shot from the day, with a group of five ducklings heading one way while mother Mallard looks on. The white thing reflected in the water is the pond’s fountain.

Mallard Ducklings and Mother Mallard

Had a chance to walk the dog down by Woodbine Park again today, and finally got a good look at the Mallard ducklings that I have only seen from a distance before, occasionally peeking out from the bulrushes. The mother Mallard was keeping a close eye on her little flock, which included making sure a seagull didn’t get too close.

Here are the pics:

Mallard Ducklings 1

Our dog YoBob is back from the cottage as the girls head to Camp Couchiching for the rest of the month, so he needed a walk. A good excuse for me to head to Woodbine Park, where I took pictures of the various fauna I saw down there on what was a hot day.

Here’s my favourite, of a Monarch Butterfly on an Echinacea Flower:

Monarch Butterfly on an Echinacea Flower

Here’s the rest:

I had to do an errand downtown, and since I had the time I went to the Royal Ontario Museum, where I knew that they had just opened a new Ancient Rome/Byzantium gallery space. I had thought it was to be in a whole new gallery space, and was somewhat disappointed to find that they were filling in a space which previously had been set aside for temporary exhibitions. Still, in addition to items they had on display before the renovations, they also had the chance to show other things which had been in storage.

I took my camera along and took many pictures — especially of the Roman-Egyptian items as well as the new display on Nubian/Meroë culture — but was struck by the scene of a number of artists who were sketching the Imperial Roman marble busts in the middle of the new gallery. They sketched, and I shot pictures. Here’s my favourite of the bunch:

Artists Sketching Roman Marble Busts at the ROM

There’s been a lot of dragonflies up here, but so far none have let me get close enough to take a decent picture of it.

Then Annie found this one, dead, down on the island. It must have been freshly dead since it still had lots of colour. Don’t know what killed it, though “old age” seemed the likely culprit, as its wings were certainly chewed up from use.

We put it up on the mantelpiece where I took some shots.

Dead Midland Clubtail Dragonfly (I think)

I think it is a Midland Clubtail Dragonfly (Gomphus fraternus), though there are so many similar-looking Clubtails it is hard for me to be sure.

Discovered that I had not brought along my camera battery re-charger, so was being very sparing of the pictures I took today, as my battery indicator was low when I shot this.

Arrived yesterday, chiefly because I couldn’t miss this event: the Junior Regatta at the Ojibway Club, where Annie and Vanessa would compete in various water-based competitions. Annie had been practicing her dives, and Vanessa was all keen on tackling some canoeing events with a friend her age from another island.

Vanessa was keen to show me this year’s regatta poster, as we were both featured on it. I finally got to see it when we were there: it was taken at last year’s regatta, during the canoe tug-of-war. Vanessa’s on the dock, chearing on her team, and there I am in my bright red shirt, holding my camera and laughing at the scene. Here’s a scan I stitched together of the full poster:

Junior Regatta 2011 Poster: Vanessa Can Be Seen to the Left, and I am in a Red Shirt, Holding a Camera, on the Right

I’m pretty much a weekend visitor to this region — especially this summer — but after several years there were several other parents there I knew and had the chance to chat to. Am beginning to feel like part of the larger community here. At the conclusion of the competitions I also got corralled into handing out the ribbons for the third place winners of the various events.

Vanessa came away with a second place win for the canoe crab race (where the canoe-ists use their hands rather than their paddles) and did the marathon canoe race with her friend Ana. They didn’t place but I was proud that she tried her best. Annie only won a “Participant” ribbon for her efforts, but she had lots of fun, which is the whole point. As a treat I bought Vanessa a cool-looking “OJIB” t-shirt, and Annie a neon-pink “I ♥ PauB” (Pointe au Baril) baseball cap.

A fun day was had by all. And to prove it, here are the pictures:

Here’s a link to the pics I shot at last year’s event.

During the Junior Regatta at the Ojibway Club, Annie spotted this fellow in the water by the docks. Managed to snap a few quick shots before this Northern Water Snake dived into deeper waters:

Am heading up to the cottage tomorrow and staying for the weekend, so tonight was my one and only chance to see any of the Streetfest portion of the local Jazz Festival. The “jazz” festival is increasingly a misnomer, since the majority of the bands playing are Blues, Latin or something other than Jazz, but the music is fun, free and good, so what’s there to complain about? Unfortunately one of my favourite bands from last year — Big Rude Jake — was not making a return appearance. Oh well. 🙁

The day had been the hottest so far this summer, hitting a peak at 37C, and with the humidity feeling much hotter. By the time the bands started up things had started to cool down, but it was still hotter than most people would like. So the energy of some of the bands was a bit “muted”. Diablo de Puente was particularly sedate compared to what I had seen them do last year. (Postscript: apparently the people from a local fitness place brought them cold, wet towels for cooling down, and the energy of the band picked up considerably afterwards).

This was the first time I have taken my f/2 200mm telephoto (and my trusty Olympus E-510) to the festival, and I wanted to see how it would perform in the relatively low light conditions you get after the sun goes down/the music starts up. On the whole, am happy with what I came away with, and the “Supersonic Wave Drive” makes for fast and smooth focusing when needed.

I managed to make it down to Wineva Avenue before heading back, so what you see here is only about half of the extent of the Streetfest festival. In terms of the acts there were several welcome returns by the like of the Dr. Draw, The David Rotundo Band, Fathead, and the Downtown Dixieland Band, but it was good to see a lot of fresh blood as well, including the likes of Dr. Nick and The Roller Coasters, Sambacana, K.C. Roberts and The Live Revolution, and Suzana da Camara.

Here’s a selection of photos I took while roaming Streetfest:

Saw a honeybee buzzing around some flowers, and even though I didn’t have my macro lens on my camera, I thought I would give things a tree with my f2 200mm telephoto from about a meter-and-half away to see what I could get.

It turned out much better than I expected, and here’s the best pic from the lot I shot:

Honeybee Close-up