Road trip to Winnipeg - Day 1

After weeks of planning, my trip to Winnipeg began today at 10:30am from my home in Ottawa. It was an exhilarating but tiring drive, arriving in Sault Ste Marie at 8:40pm this evening, i.e.which is a little more than 11 hours later. The actual driving is about 10 hours. Although it started with a warm sunny morning and afternoon, my trip encountered a heavy rain towards the end of the drive in the evening. Just before the start of the severe rain storm, just after passing through Sudbury, I witnessed an aftermath of a car that went off the highway into a ditch, creating a plume of dirt scattered by the strong wind. It was a very windy day then, anyway. A minivan had stopped to assist the teen girl who was the driving the car, and she was dazed but apparently unhurt. I drove on as it was difficult for me to suddenly stop at highway speed, as my truck was carrying a heavy load. So, this was Day 1.

A condor perched beneath the Navajo Bridge?

Can you imagine sighting a condor perched beneath the Navajo Bridge? But just what is a condor, and where is Navajo Bridge? Google these and you'll find out!

Well, about a month ago (April 16, 2010), my friends and I were on vacation driving around the Grand Canyon area in Arizona, USA. We drove over the Navajo Bridge and decided to stop at the visitor's center by the bridge to enjoy the picturesque scenery and to snap some pictures. The weather was really very sunny with a light cool breeze and a comfortable temperature of around 21 deg C (70 deg F). It was almost 4 pm in the afternoon when a visitor on the bridge came over to me to asked if I had a telephoto lens on my camera, which I didn't have, unfortunately. He said he would like to use it to check out a large black bird perched on a steel beam beneath the bridge, which could very well be a condor. It was quite a distance from us. We all watched it for awhile, and I decided to take some snapshots at it with my low-end automatic camera.

Here are some of my camera shots:

********************************************


A northwest end view of Navajo Bridge. The circle in red indicates where the bird was perched.

********************************************


A zoom-in view of the red circle in the above picture.

********************************************


The condor (in the red circle) as viewed from the northeast side of Navajo Bridge.

********************************************


A zoom-in view of the red circle in the above picture. Note that the condor had a "C1" tag on its left wing.

********************************************

Note that the pictures here are web-optimized, but the original ones are available upon request. FYI, here is a Condor Conservation weblink.

Enjoy!

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Dec. 27, 2014 - Lastest update to my favorite Condor C1:
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

I just discovered that Condor C1 died of suspected lead poisoning in June 19, 2012, according to the condor website http://www.nps.gov/grca/naturescience/condor_updates.htm, which said:

7-year-old female 381/tag C1: Chris Parish of The Peregrine Fund reports "June 19, 2012 - Grand Canyon dispatch relayed information that Condor #381F was reported to have been observed on the previous evening on a beach in South Canyon in rather poor condition. The next morning she was found dead. After a first failed attempt at recovery in the 100 plus degree heat, two TPF biologists were successful in recovering the carcass on Friday 22 June 2012. The carcass was intact and radiographs revealed what appears to be an intact pistol bullet in the area of the ventriculus suggesting ingestion, but we'll let the pathologists determine what they can." Condor Cliffs displays the x-ray image showing the pistol bullet. As posted by The Peregrine Fund biologists, this is likely "not a hunting issue or season- animals are dispatched or put-down all of the time, and this is probably one of those cases."

My once a year entry

Here is my once a year blog entry, though a short one this time.

So, here is a scenery of an icy Highway 60 near Madawaska, on my way to the Algonquin Provincial Park this past Monday.


Google these places and you will see where they are.

Happy Easter! Enjoy!

Hear Thou, Hear Thou!

I am writing this because of a peculiar memory flashback from a long time ago...

The year was 1983, when Michael Jackson's Thriller album was a top-seller and Ronald Reagan was the US President, when Sally Ride became the first American woman in space on the Space Shuttle Challenger, when the Gimli Glider ran out of fuel and landed in Gimli, Manitoba, Canada (made into a movie called Flight 174), when Flashdance and Return of the Jedi were box-office hits, and when Microsoft Word was first released. We were studying for some final exams in school then. My geography teacher (a soft-spoken, well-mannered, Mrs. Leong or Mrs. Lim, I can't remember correctly now) in our reading class began to say, "You will hear God speak if you are willing to listen to Him." I was totally astonished, and so did some classmates of mine, but no one in the class commented anything. Eventually, I had forgotten about it. It did not come back to my mind until a few years ago, and now, it is just an evolving thought in my soul. Just an evolving thought, indeed.

It would seem absolutely irrelevant and probably intolerable in today's classrooms. Freedom of speech, probably not by a responsible teacher? Go figure...

HAPPY NEW YEAR 2009!

Just wishing you all a Happy New Year 2009! Well, I am now back home in Ottawa after a busy time of travelling in the last couple of months. I had a restful but also a wonderful holiday season, including doing a Christmas Eve Carolling with a group of 43 participants at a local hospital. Now I am starting to pick up things from where I left off. As for 2009, I have a number of personal projects to work on, including web and software development projects. It is also time to venture outdoors onto the snow to have some fun x-country skiing too. Meanwhile, here are some interesting pictures from my recent trip to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Enjoy!

Traffic congestion in a suburban shopping area.

A busy junction in a city suburb.

In a food court after lunch hours (mind you, this was not inside a shopping mall!).

A lost roach under the bed.

Travelling

It's been quite awhile since my last post. As some of you may know, I am currently on a 2.5-week trip to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, partly business and partly vacation. With the wonder of technology, I am able to get online often using my tiny Eee-PC900 to do some work, and also to keep in touch with friends back in Ottawa. The integrated webcam on my Eee-PC900 was quite a marvel in itself too!

For the first several days, jetlag and weather were the 2 main obstacles towards my adjusting to the environment here. Coming from a near freezing temperature in Ottawa to a "plus" low-thirties (degree C) in Kuala Lumpur, with at least an 80% humidity, is not really trivial! I have just barely conquered these problems, and now, I am getting ready to fly home in a few days...

TN2008: Thank you for your generous support!

I recently checked my total fund raised for the Tour Nortel 2008 event of May 4, 2008, which totalled to $285, including online and non-online contributions (as charity for CHEO (Children Hospital of Eastern Ontario), Ronald McDonald House and Candlelighters). I wish to thank you all for your generous support, especially, in financial sponsorship, prayers and encouragement. My TN2008 web page is still available for viewing: https://www.cgiottawa.com/ERDS/Donation.aspx?evt=9&i=150645

Unfortunately, however, on that Sunday morning, my event was rained out, so I did not run. It had been raining quite heavily since the night before, and it did not stop until about 9:15 am that morning. By then, the roads were extremely wet, and thus, they were quite treacherous to rollerbladers, especially on roads with moderate to steep slopes -- my route consisted of such slopes on Corkstown Rd, and I believe that they named this road quite descriptively, no doubt!

So, I had a good rest that morning, a restful morning after my busy day helping out at a wonderful wedding event the day before.