Family Day

Family Day is not a official holiday, it was made by a lower group than the government party so most people have to work on this day. Only a few schools consider this day a holiday so most people still have to go to school on this day. The only people that celebrate this day are people in Saskatewhan, Manitoba, Ontario, Arizona and Australia. Anyway, we may be going swimming today.
Goodbye,
Birdman

New Classroom

In a few weeks we will have new classrooms.

New E-mail Address

If any of you are uninformed, I have a new e-mail address. It is swpsnook@hotmail.com its also my new Messenger address. Please pass this on so I can get all my contacts back. Thank you.
Goodbye,
Birdman

Ice Fishing Trip

Me Ice Fishing

Today at 11:00am we checked the weather which was -26 degrees Celsius, so we tried to rent a hut a Belwood Lake but they were all rented, so we dressed warmly and packed all our ice fishing supplies. Then we went to the tackle shop and bought some live minnows and drove to Belwood Lake, the ice was 26 cm thick so we paid and parked by the lake. Apparently nobody had caught anything, but we still went on the lake and drilled 4 holes. Then we started fishing, first I used a small weighted jig tipped with waxies for 40 minutes, starting at 125 cm deep and raising it 12.5 cm every 10 minutes. Then I used the same technique but with the jig tipped with live minnows instead of waxies for 40 minutes. Unfortunately while I was doing this I had helped my dad drill another hole and missed a bite. Everyone was starting to get inpatient so we all switched holes and techniques. Then it got even worse, my fishing rod broke, it got even colder and my brother had to go to the washroom, so we left. We went to Tim Hortons and had a snack and drove around Guelph Lake. A few people were ice fishing there but the rest of the lake looked to be never walked on, so we didn't fish there and went home. Hopefully next time we will have a better time, thank you mom and dad for making this possible.

Goodbye,

Birdman

Ice Fishing Trip Tomorrow

Tomorrow we are going ice fishing at Belwood Lake, my dad said its safe there and it will be about -15 degress Celcius so we can go for sure. This is going to be a family trip, we have all researched ice fishing and we have all our gear. I can't wait!
Goodbye,
Birdman

Ice Fishing Trip Soon

This Saturday we are going to Belwood Lake to ice fish for Panfish. Check my blog tomorrow for more details, I will write about our trip on Saturday.
Goodbye,
Birdman

Koinonia Christian Academy

Sorry I haven't done a blog post in a while, it was because I had a lot of homework lately. Anyway after this Christmas break I have been going to KCA because I was being bullied in my old school. My teacher is Mrs. Collard and I've made 5 friends there; Aaron, Jonathan, Josiah, Max and Wolfgang. My birthday was January 12th and I had a party on January 17th. Unfortunately Aaron couldn't come, but we still had fun. The party started at 1:00pm and everyone arrived on time. First we played hockey for about an hour, Wolfgang and Max were very good. Then we went inside and ate, Max made us laugh! Next we played the Nintendo Wii, we played Wii Sports, we all increased our skill level about 50 points. Then we played Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games. We unlocked high jump and set some world records. We had a lot of fun, then everyone left accept Josiah so we played the Wii again. We unlocked Archery and played floor hockey and Magnetix. It was a lot of fun, then Josiah left at 8.
Thank you guys for the gifts, they are awesome!
Goodbye,
Birdman

New School

New Year's Eve

I am celebrating New Year's Eve by having a sleepover at my friend Zack's house. I will write about it tomorrow. How do you celebrate New Year's Eve and what are your New Year's Resolutions?

Goodbye,

Birdman

Technical Difficulties

If any of you have a blogger page and know how to fix the problems with signing in? Please, leave any suggestins in the comments.
Goodbye,
Birdman

Christmas Day

Today is Christmas, here is how my day went. This morning I woke up at 8:00am then I woke up the rest of my family. We went downstairs and Jesse and I opened our presents, at 10:30am all the presents under the tree were opened so mom and dad surprised us with the best presents, Jesse got a mini snowmobile and I got a video camera. We had a big family breakfast then at 1:00pm we went to Aunt Lori's and Uncle Bruce's house. We had a great party, then we had another big family meal and partied until late. Then we drove back home and its 11:00pm. How did your Christmas Day go?
Goodbye,
Birdman

Christmas Eve

Today is Christmas Eve, Christmas is a celebration of Jesus. It took place from December 25-January 7. That's how the 12 days of Christmas came to be known. It started when Mary and Joseph were engaged, the Lord gave Mary a child without Joseph knowing she had a baby this way. Joseph didn't want to get married anymore but that night he had a dream. The dream was about a angel telling him that the Lord gave Mary the child spiritually and told him to name the child Jesus, meaning God saves. Mary was about to have the child so God told them to go to Bethlehem to have the baby. They did, but they could not find a place for the baby to be born so they went to a stable. Meanwhile 3 wise men saw the Christmas Star, they knew this meant Jesus was born so they went around Bethlehem asking people where Jesus was born. King Herod heard about this so he sent people out to kill him. The 3 wise men realized the Christmas Star would guide them to where Jesus was born so they followed it and found him. The first wise man gave Jesus, Gold. The second wise man gave Jesus, Frankincense. The third wise man gave Jesus Mirth. Then Joseph had a dream about another angel telling him to get out of Bethlehem because King Herod sent people out to kill the child. They did and that's the true meaning of Christmas.
Goodbye,
Birdman

Hike At Homer Watson Park

Today at 9:00am my dad and I did some Erinn's then we went to Homer Watson Park. We arrived there at 11:00am we started walking in the trail I heard a very quiet bro. I heard it continually until I heard chickadees, nuthatches, woodpeckers and other forest birds. Then the bro started to get louder and finally my dad heard it. Everything went quiet for about ten minutes then all the birds started singing again. This was obviously a male Snowy Owl, I was very excited because I have never seen or heard a Snowy Owl before. Now I can finally say I've seen or heard all the owls in southern Ontario, even the rarest ones! This day will be very remember able for me! Have you seen all the local owls in your area? If no, I hope you do sometime. If your a intermediate birder like me you'll know how great it feels to accomplish this. To find out what level of a birder you are go on the Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology (http://birds.cornell.edu/), go on All About Birds and take the Bird Brain Challenge. I will be posting pictures again once the temperature rises to at least 0 degrees Celsius or 32 degrees Fahrenheit in Kitchener.
Goodbye,
Birdman

New Winter Birds!

Some of you who live in southern Ontario may have seen Common Goldeneyes and Snow Buntings recently. If you have seen these birds or any other birds please make an account on eBird (http://ebird.org.) It is a website where you report your observations and helps orthinologists study birds. These birds have arrived a little late due to the recent fierce storms in southern Ontario, also they had to take a different route due to the storms in New York and other northern states. Anyway, some of you may have neve heard of these birds so here is a few facts about them. Goldeneyes nest in tree cavities near water. They winter in small flocks by water. Best indentified by bill and head. The Common Goldeneye or Bucephala clangula has a length of 18.5 inches. It has a wingspan of 26 inches and a weight of 1.9 pounds. Flies with deep wingbeats. The Snow Bunting

Hanukkah Begins

Today Hanukkah begins, Hanukkah is a Jewish ceremony which is eight days. It all started when Jews were on a journey to see a great lord, they went in a temple and only had canvas olive oil for one day. They needed this for something important, although it lasted for eight days, therefore Hanukkah is eight days long. For more information about this, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/hanukkah/.

Goodbye,

Birdman

Solstice

As some of you may know, today is Solstice. Solstice is also the first day of winter. It happens twice a year, once on the first day of summer and once on the first day of winter. In summer it would be a northern solstice, this means the sun reaches its highest arch and the sun is the most high on that day also this is the longest day of the year. In winter it would be a southern solstice, this means the sun reaches its lowest arch and the sun is at its lowest, also its the shortest day of the year. That's about all I learned from research, so I'll move on to a different subject. The bird of the day or in this case the bird of the weekend is the Bald Eagle or Haliaeetus leucocephalus. The fierce aspect of the grand North American raptor, so clearly on display here as it swoops in on an icebound fish, makes this bird a fitting choice for our national symbol. After spending many decades on the endangered species list, it has made a welcome comback in the lower 48 states in the past 20 years. It has always been abundant in Alaska, where this photo was taken. Bald Eagles acquire their adult white-headed plumage after four years. Arthur Morris, USA
Goodbye,
Birdman

Carnival Glory Cruise Liner Trip (Part 8)

On Friday, December 5, 2008 the cruise ship docked at Freeport, Bahamas. We spent about an hour there trying to get a good deal on a tour, but eventually we did. He was an excellent tour guide, he took us wherever we wanted to go and for only $80.00. Of course we gave him a 25 percent tip! First we went to a nature center but it was closed so we went to a park. Dad and I spotted so many birds and butterflies that we couldn't identify. Then we went to the beach with Mom and Jesse, it was beautiful! Unfortunately it can't show you a picture of it because I deleted my photos from my camera as I thought I was done with them and it filled up my memory card. Anyway, we didn't stay in the beautiful paradise long because the under toe was very, very strong and could pull us in 4 feet of water within seconds in just one wave. Next he brought us to a dolphin conservation, where they were free to swim back out to sea although they didn't because they were feed. That was the end of the tour and there is my cruise trip in eight posts! Hope you enjoyed how I told you it!

Birdman

P.S. I will try to get those beach pictures from Freeport.

Carnival Glory Cruise Liner Trip (Part 7)

On Thursday, December 4, 2008 I went to a late night and early morning party for kids on the cruise. It started at 10:30pm and went to 3:30am, I came in early when the normal kids program was going on and they were watching the end of Fried Worms. A few kids left and then we began the party. It started by dancing games then we did face painting. There was two teams, with two designs they were Team Red and Team Blue. After we were done, we played capture the flag and Team Blue won 2 0. Then we went to play video games, I played the wii for a while then I went back to my stateroom.

Goodbye,

Birdman

Carnival Glory Cruise Liner Trip (Part 6)

Drabber adult Violet-crowned Hummingbird sitting on nest

On Wednesday, December 3, 2008 the cruise ship docked at Isla Ronda, Honduras; a island off the cost of Honduras that Hondurans claimed. We got of the boat and met with the Pirates, Birds and Monkeys group of the Caribbean as with booked a spot for it. They took us on a tour bus to there conservation area. Lets just say it wasn't a pleasant ride! After it was over, our tour guide let us have a washroom break, then we began our tour. First she brought us to a special, endangered tree that had roots that could spread 3-5 miles! Then she brought us to a plant, if you touched it's leaves they would close up and open again a few minutes later. Next she brought us past a cacti garden and in an artificial cave. She teached us about pirates that used to live in Isla Ronda. Then we had to cross a bridge to interact with the birds and monkeys. First we did the birds, all of us had fun, there was lots of parrots that had probably been rescued as though some of them had damaged beaks, faces and feet. We could only hold the healthiest ones which were the Military Macaw and the Scarlet Macaw. Everyone got to hold them and they tasted my hair when I was. See my profile picture for them. Then we went to hold the monkeys, as we walked there I noticed some of the parrots had followed the group and the White Rats that lived in Honduras had no ears or tail and appeared to be large rats. Most people were a little scared of holding the monkeys because they can make you feel uncomfortable the way they sit on your shoulder. After that we went to the beach, although everyone else went in the pool. We had lots of fun although I forgot to bring a towel. Then it started raining so we went back to cruise ship. Of course the rest of the day we relaxed.

Goodbye,

Birdman