General Chat

Good morning!
Beautiful day here on the west coast, great weather.
All the makings for a party :)

Deb

Happy Canada day to all.
ann
Glos

Gwyn in Kent - what a wonderful tribute to the fallen soldiers. Thank You.

Now, what a thing to see on Canada Day of all days!

I sure knew that I was living in Canada this morning when we went out. Just backed out of the driveway, went past the neighbours house and what did we see? The biggest black bear I have ever seen!
Hubby figures it was about a 5 year old year old male, boy he was massive.

He was just strolling through the front yards, probably looking for some kind of food.

Our summer is late in coming this year, therefore the berries aren't ready yet for the wildlife to eat.
I'm sure that he will make his way back to the river sooner or later. We back onto the river, so I will be alert when I sit out there this afternoon.

Just thought that you would be interested.

Deb

Wow Deb.... That must have been quite a sight.

You take care if you sit outside !

Gwyn

Don't worry Gwyn.
We will be sitting facing each other that's for sure:)
Wonder if I have a copy of the Three Bears!

At least it wasn't a female. If it was her cubs wouldn't be too far away. The there would be trouble!

Got his big guy on video, from about 15 feet (I was in the van). Just goes to show how used to humans they are becoming. Sad really.

Deb

All we get here in the big city are raccoons -- the equivalent of the urban foxes in England, but our raccoons play with the cats. As does the skunk ...


It was very nice to hear about the memorial tribute on Canada Day in England.

Kathryn we are in the "burbs" outside of downtown Vancouver by about 40 mins.

We get it all: Bears, raccons, cayotes, deer.

My daughter and her friend swear that when they were playing in the river, a couger was on the other side in the bush. Wouldn't surprise me as we are on the base of a mountain.

Deb

Deb - I got the location wrong! - my cousins are in Maple Ridge and Brandon. Got to go but hope to be back tomorrow evening.

Yes ... and I'm an effete central Canadian. ;) No bears in the big city burbs here.

Urban wildlife -- squirrels. We did have a funny skunk event once. We were helping a neighbour plant some perennials from our garden in the urban core into his -- young Chinese-Canadian guy, just bought the house for him and his mum. He dug down into the topsoil, and turned up ... a fish. A quite large, quite fresh fish. Now that was a surprise. We figured out it must have been one of our Vietnamese-Canadian neighbours who'd gone fishing and left the fish on a bucket on the back porch, and skunk came along and thought: Tomorrow's dinner!

My sister's had bear encounters in Algonquin Park though -- slighty scarey ones. My only camping wildlife encounters have been ... yes, raccoons.

Joy, Maple Ridge is about 20 mins away, just over the Pitt Bridge. Not too far at all.
I have a cousin in Maple Ridge too :))

Deb

Would be strange if it's the same cousin! Must fly now, but have a look at this site, Deb, and you'll see a photo of him.

http://juppfamilysociety.org/

Katherine, Lucky that you found the fish, could you imagine the stench if it was left in the heat for a few days :((

Our son and his friend decided to take their dog for a walk one night around midnight (as every teenage boy would!),
Beautiful pure white huskey named Neishka.

Anyway the parents of the friend who were out, arrived home to be welcomed by a beautiful pink dog :)))

The poor thing was sprayed by a skunk.

The boys in their wisdom (they do have brains apparently), washed the smelly dog in anything tomato based that they could find.
Ketchup, tinned tomato's, tomato soup, you name it the dog got it!!

We were just talking about this the other day. I still have to see a skunk here.

Deb