I went to Col. Sam Smith Park hoping to photograph migrating warblers but came up empty handed.

I did, however, see quite a sight out in the bay. An amazing performance by a wind surfer.

I was told that training for this sport can be done in a shallow water situation on Lake Simcoe. The gentleman in these photos was clearly an expert performing over deep water and close to a rocky coastline.

MYSTERY BIRD

I will identify it at the end of the post.

Some birds:

MYSTERY BIRD

I have only this time been able to photograph the red eye of the Red-eyed Vireo.

NATURE STORY

Thank-you to Adele Koehnke for this!

Future Botanist

A small boy with green shoes holds a tiny pink flower in his right hand between his thumb and index finger on the TTC bus.  We are all headed west on Shepherd Avenue East on a hot August day.  I sit across from the boy.  I see he likes his tiny pink flower.  He pats it.  He lifts it.  He lowers his mask a little to smell it.  His older brother scowl-growls, “Cover your nose with your mask.”  Little boy obeys big brother.The little boy still studies his flower.  He prods his mom to look.  He offers the flower to his mom.  She pays him no heed.  Mom is engrossed in her phone.  He continues to explore his tiny pink flower.  He examines its centre.  He supports it in a fatherly way.  He studies his flower.   He taps it on the cool bus rail.  He performs experiments.

Oh no.  Big brother grabs the flower.  He throws it to the floor.  The little boy picks it up and he throws it to the floor too.  Gotta be like big brother.  But — when big brother looks away, right away the little boy picks his flower up gently.

I look out the bus window for a few minutes.  Next time I look the little boy has no flower.  He must have dropped it or it fell apart.  He gets off the bus with big brother and mom.

He is gone and so is his flower … somewhere on life’s floor.