4thgen

It is definitely an Eastern Milksnake. The markings on both Fox Snakes and Massasaugas are quite different from the cream background with reddish brown blotches shown in your picture. Also, assuming that this was somewhere fairly close to Barrie, neither of the other two species occur there.

What I don't believe has been mentioned yet is that there are a number of tick species in Ontario. If you still have the tick in your possession, you should try to identify it. Every tick that I've picked up in Ontario has been a Wood Tick of the genus Dermacentor, which is not a carrier of Lyme disease. Best of luck.

As some of you might know, it has been an irruption year for Snowy Owls. The vast majority of those seen in Ontario have been along the shore of Lake Ontario. If you're down and around the Lake, keep your eyes open and you might be lucky enough to see one. Presqu'ile Provincial Park has had as many as five present at one time. As whitespinnerbait has stopped with the bird pictures, I'll post a few. I'll leave the names off in case anyone wants to guess at the species. You can find the answers by checking the properties or maybe I'll just post them in a couple of weeks. All pictures were taken with a Canon a300 with a 75-300mm, except for the last one which was taken with a point and shoot. Ok, so the second to last one is kind of tricky, and the last one just seemed relevant.

Why stop at cormorants? I saw more Osprey last year than the year before! This is irrefutible evidence that Ontario's fishery is going to come crashing down! They're eating MY fish!!! So what if they've been here all along. So what if their original decline was caused by people! Their nests? Don't get me started on those eye sores. Oh my God, I saw more herons last year than ever before as well!! Herons eat fish too! Oh my God! The world is ending!! We need to act right now!! THERE IS NO TIME FOR SCIENCE!!! They're taking my fish!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! My Fish!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! MY FISH!!!!!!!

Everyone seems to have a story about a musky from Lake Ontarion in the Toronto area but it seems nobody ever to thought to take a picture of one. If anybody has one hidden away somewhere, I would love to see it. Until then, I remain sceptical. Fishingitis, pike are everywhere along the waterfront as long as there is a bit of stucture. I haven't been to the area that you're talking about, but it sounds like some other places I know of that produce pike (see avatar.) You will definately be more successful if you downsize a bit. Long cranks in the 5" range are a good start.

I'm surprised that no one has heard of the Toronto Wildlife Centre. Give them a call at (416) 631-0662, they are your best bet by far. Oh, and you've got a Common Grackle there; a very angry one by the looks of it. www.torontowildlifecentre.com

Nice shot of a swamp sparrow!

Nice shot! Good job finding one. We banded about 70 that night. They're so cute but by the end of the night it feels like your hands have been stabbed by thousands of needles.

It seems that I'm not the only OFC member that also subscribes to ONTbirds! Good on ya.

This one seems to be staying in the same area just north of Rice Lake. There was also a flock of ~200 snow buntings nearby with a merlin cutting through them. Didn't see it get one but they were driven out of the area pretty quickly.

Nice shot! I haven't seen a long-eared in ages.. I found this young snowy yesterday though. I'm in southern ON right now.

They've been showing up around Peterborough really commonly for the last couple of weeks. As frozen-fire has mentioned, quite normal. I field calls about them most days at work and sometimes it's hard to convince people that they'll be okay despite the cold.

Back when I first started pier fishing, I couldn't figure out two things: why I always had teeth marks in my egg sinkers, and why I had to reel in a bunch of line after feeling a "hit", before actually feeling the fish. Having spent countless nights out on piers now, I can tell you that 99 out of 100 salmon that are caught on bottom rigs didn't bite. When marshmallows work just as well as ear plugs, styrofoam and cigarette butts, you should know something is up. Although the occasional salmon might bite in the small pools up river, once again 99% of them are lined or flossed. Totally unsporting and not much fun either. I haven't fished for salmon anywhere but a pier in years and I can tell you that lures are quite capable of outfishing flossers. The hits are awesome and you actually get headshaking. Being able to turn a fish when it runs -- priceless.

Oncorhynchus is a salmon genus. Same as the other Pacific salmon. They are different from the others by quite a bit though.

Mothballs didn't work for me last winter when I used them with poison sticks to try to keep a car mouse-free. I'll be following this thread -- hopefully I won't be pulling the whole vent/heating system out again next spring...

You're supposed to kill them but they are so well established already that you are only taking a handful out of a population of millions, probably more. So don't feel bad about letting them go, at this point killing them would just be for the sake of killing and not much else. Might as well get used to them, they're here to stay...

I'm not saying that all titanium bails will open periodically, I'm just saying that this one does. Are you using Quantum reels?

I was talked into buying a high-end Quantum spinning reel last year after being assured that they had made vast improvements since I had owned my last one (~1998). The Shimano reel that my girlfriend bought for half the price is a way better reel. The Quantum reel seemed alright in the store but out on the water it is terrible. It seems as though it is fully designed for form over function. You have to love a titanium bail that opens half the time you set the hook.

The longest carp that I've caught was a 41" by 28" and it was around 30lbs. Carp will hit lures, but very occasionally. I've caught one on a Mepps #5 and one on a Mepps #3, both inside the mouth. I watched the one on the Mepps #3 actually hit it. On another note, I used to solely use 1" white grubs on 1/64th jig heads and 4lb line for sight fishing carp.

I've edited my original post for more clarity. I meant that bass season is open in parts of Ontario, ie. the entire province is not closed.

Bass season closed in Canada? Bass season isn't even closed in parts of Ontario!

I've seen both a pike and musky do this once. The pike was about 50 feet from where I was casting, not many people fish there and I hadn't caught any yet. It went about 10-15ft with its head out of the water before submerging again. The musky was really strange. A friend and I were casting in a large bay that was dead calm and typically holds a couple of fish when we heard a bit of a splash behind the boat. A ~35" musky swam for about five feet along side the boat with part of its head out of the water. It was angled a bit to the side with one eye appearing to look directly at us. I can't say for sure what it was doing, but it really seemed to be looking at us. Strange.

I don't have the other pictures of that one on this computer but I can post a few others from last fall and this spring. There aren't too many because I usually don't have anyone with me to take pictures. This one was without a doubt the biggest of the spring. I don't think I can ever bring myself to fish the Toronto Islands again.

I took a few pictures of some spawning pike earlier in the year with my Pentax W60 and thought they turned out pretty cool. I managed to get really close to a buck-toothed groundhog that I thought was picture worthy. And finally some evidence as to why I'm on this site from yesterday.