The Squamidian Report – Aug. 18 / 12

 

Issue #534

 

Including:

The Ontarion

 

Hi All,

 

Well now, that meteor shower early this week sure was a disappointment. We were supposed to have clear dark skies, and while they were technically clear, they weren’t very dark. There was a high light haze that blocked all but the brightest of the stars from my view. On a clear dark night here I can see the Milky Way and star clusters and nebula and all sorts of neat stuff. I can see the Andromeda Galaxy without even using binoculars. But, it was not that clear dark deep viewing condition that is best for meteors. I sat out in the back yard for a while on two nights and saw only a couple of dozen meteors. I did see the international space station both nights as well as countless other satellites but was never quite able to see a really good shower show. The haze was from the smoke of forest fires burning south of the border so I guess there wasn’t much I or anyone else could do about it.

 

And then we had lots of forest fire smoke haze…

 

You might remember last week I mentioned that the coast got hit by some pretty wild thunderstorms. There had been too many lightning strikes over the mountains to count, the lightshow had been spectacular. Well, the accompanying rains had doused most of the fires that the lightning has started. However, some strikes managed to smolder for over a week until we were into some very hot (by west coast standards) and dry, windy weather. These conditions fanned a smoldering strike into life and it erupted into a full-blown forest fire on Wednesday. That fire is just 14 kilometers north of HERE in the Culliton Cr area. That puts it just a few miles due east of Warren, up over the high ridges behind his place, and just beyond Brohm Ridge from out prospective.

 

They dropped a ground crew into the rather steep, inaccessible area to do what ever it is they do, and to build a helicopter pad so some equipment could be brought in. This area is so rugged and steep that there is simply no overland way of getting there. On Wednesday evening the smoke  plume reached right across the valley and over the mountain range to the west giving a fairly nice sunset. By Thursday morning the smoke seemed to be gone with just some light white smoke curling over Brohm Ridge toward Squamish. The still, cool night had let the fire die down, I guess. The forecast had been for another day of hot outflow winds but the winds were from the southwest, blowing inland until early afternoon. That was good in that it turned the fire back on itself. Then in mid afternoon the wind shifted and blew hot from inland. The fire again erupted, it looked like a big bomb had gone off. By early evening there were 5 helicopters and 2 big 4-engine water bombers working the area. (The wind info is speculation on my part based on observation, it is hard to get any real info around here).

 

The fire had spread, growing to almost 50 acres. The water bombers must have gotten the upper hand because by Friday morning there was only a bit of wispy smoke rising and there wasn’t any more flare-ups visible. And that’s where we stand right now, it appears to be pretty well over with, I hope.

 

I took some pictures of the fire from my back deck, looking north over Brohm.

http://www.thedougsite.net/Pictures/House/BrohmFire.html

 

doug

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THE ONTARION REPORT

 

Hello Everyone!

 

Well, Doug has his bears and we’ve now got our Coyote’s! YUP, right in our back yard almost! Last Friday one of my neighbours told me she had been informed by another person that they had seen a coyote in the Hydro Right of Way behind our house. We kind of laughed it off and said that it’d be gone before anyone really noticed it.

 

Last night, there was a knock on our door and when I answered the door, the lady that used to be the crossing guard at our corner and also lives in our area was standing there quite excited. I said “What’s wrong Nancy?” and she nervously said: “I think since you have a little dog, you should be aware that there’s a coyote in the Hydro Right of Way just behind your house”! She went on to say she had just started down the path in the right of way from the street beside my house and she spotted a large coyote slowly creeping out of the scrub bush area in the middle of the right of way. He appeared to be stalking something and she stopped and watched him for a couple of minutes and noticed he was sneaking up on my next-door neighbour’s white cat, perched on the fence behind our house! She said something spooked the cat and it jumped into its owner’s yard and the coyote turned and ran back in to the bushy area in the middle of the field. Now this is one of the grown up areas of the right of way. The “trees” in this area are about 8 to 10 feet high with smaller bushes filling in the ground cover and lower parts of the trees so you can’t see into the middle of that area. It’s a perfect place for the coyote to hide and live. I guess he’s discovered a good supply of domestic pets in the form of loose cats to keep him in food for a while. As long as people let their cats roam loose, we’ll likely have the coyote for a neighbour too!

 

After Nancy told me about the coyote, I said I’d call the police and report its location. I figured they’d be interested enough to send an officer around to check it out. I guess I was wrong! The dispatcher told me she had to check with her Sgt and would call me back in a few minutes. She called back and said that the Sgt told her to tell me to call the Humane Society “after hours” number and report the animal to them. I asked if they would respond if the coyote attacked and bit a kid playing on the pathway and she said: “I guess, then we would send someone out”! I said to her that if a wild and dangerous animal lurking in the middle of a heavily populated subdivision wasn’t of concern to the police what does it take to get them to respond? She said, she’d be concerned too but that was her Sgt’s decision. She then gave me the night number for the Humane Society and another Animal Control company that is a private business that removes nuisance wild animals at a cost! I said: “So, your Sgt expects me to foot the bill to remove a dangerous animal from the city that his organization is paid by tax payers to protect?” She said, that’s all I can tell you, that’s what he told me to pass on to you! SO, I called the Humane Society and they told me that they don’t respond to wild animal calls and that I should call that same private company that the police gave me the number for! I called that number to maybe just ask for advice if nothing else and got a recording for a list of the pest animals they do remove if paid to do so by the requesting caller! Then the recording told me to call back and press 1 to talk to someone to make an appointment for them to respond at my expense to check out the problem!

 

There ended the lesson! To hell with it I say! Let the animal attack someone walking the city pathway and then I’ll be on the horn to the RECORD paper to let them know how well the Regional Police handled the situation when I called them for help in the first place! Not to mention our illustrious Humane Society and their helpful response as well!

I figured it was only natural that the organization paid for by my taxes and that carry 40 caliber coyote removers was the correct one to call for assistance with a dangerous animal problem but I guess I was wrong! Next time I’ll just have to say it was chasing a kid! Maybe then it’ll get their attention!

 

That’s it for this week!

Thanks for tuning in and I’ll look forward to talking to you all again next week in The Ontarion Report!

Bye for now …. Greg

PS: Something To Think About>

Wouldn’t you at least think the Humane Society would come out and post warning signs at either entrance to the Hydro Right of Way? Hell, I would think they should!

 

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Have a good one..

the doug

http://www.thedougsite.net

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