TAXING TIMES

  I am not sure where I saw this, but I will pass it along as a public service. Although soon-to-be-again President Trump has promised to cut taxes (at least for the very wealthy), that may not include you and you might have other reasons for wishing to emigrate from the U.S. If so, you might want to attend this tax seminar offered by Moodys on Dec. 14. They will answer the following question.

TRUMPUGEES
  When Trump was elected last time, there was reportedly a surge in Google searches relating to moving to Canada. The immigration law firm, LARLEE ROSENBERG, noticed this and they will assist you with the migration process if you visit, trumpugees.ca. You might want to attend the Moody's webinar first if your motivation relates more to a concern about taxes than Trump. The folks at LAREE ROSENBERG have indicated that there has indeed been a spike in immigration queries:

"How are the inquiries you’re getting today different from Trump’s first win?"
"The volume of requests is much higher. For the first couple of weeks after the election, it was three or four an hour round the clock. Trump has moved much farther right on the political spectrum since 2016, which has broadened the playing field in terms of people looking to escape his second term. We have received inquiries from people on the far left, as well as from Republicans who are still left of Trump. There are U.S.-based companies interested in shoring up their Canadian operations to give their employees an opportunity to work here. That’s mostly in tech—video games and software development companies. And then we’re also hearing from Americans who are already living in Canada and are now worried about what a Trump presidency might mean for their permanent residency applications. We’re calling those people sur place Trumpugees."

   Although I came from the United States to Canada and stayed, I am skeptical about any surge in trumpugees at this time. The Moody's tax seminar will deter some and the weather, others. On the other hand, if mass deportations are ordered in the U.S., there may be a dramatic increase in trumpugees of a different kind.
   It is also the case that are many instances reported in Canada where people are trying illegally to get into the United States, a destination for those who think that it is still preferable to living here. 
   Most Canadians I know have very strong feelings about Trump, (negative ones), but I predict that it will take a much weaker loonie to deter their visits when the "March Break" days appear on the calendar.  For more about this see: "The Trump Slump" which was written when school trips to the U.S. were cancelled and there were calls to boycott U.S. vacations. And, "Trump and Travel" which I did back in 2019. 

Source: The question above was asked by a Maclean's reporter. See, "Can Trumpugees Move to Canada," Courtney Shea, Nov. 28, 2024.

AFAR

 Advanced Facility For Avian Research
   I have been a bit under the weather, but overhead the skies have been clear and the fall weather fine. That combination resulted in a loss in the  production of posts for MM, but I can’t say there has been an increase in the number of complaints from readers. The few who appear to stumble upon something in MM, do so whether I am writing or not and the royalties continue to roll into my offshore accounts.

 

  While high in the clear sky the birds have continued their migration south, there are some birds in London flying continuously, but going nowhere. Their wings are flapping at the Advanced Facility for Avian Research up at Western University. I told you about that place four years ago in “For The Birds” and the information there is still useful. 
    More is provided, and AFAR noticed, in a recent article in the New York Times. It is good that we can read some local news, even if it comes from afar. Online you will find it under, “What Flying in a Wind Tunnel Reveals About Birds,” on Oct 11. It appears in print in the NYT on Oct. 15, with the title, “Some Birds Migrate Thousands of Miles Every Autumn: How Exactly Do They To They Manage It? Scientists Built a Flight Chamber to Find Out.” Emily Anthes is the author. Here is a portion that provides some of the questions for which answers are sought by those up at Western. 

  "It is understandably difficult to monitor the internal workings of a wild bird while it is soaring thousands of feet in the air. So Dr. Guglielmo sends his avian test subjects on simulated journeys. At the Advanced Facility for Avian Research, he and his colleagues use a hypobaric wind tunnel, which functions, in essence, as a treadmill for airborne birds....

   Scientists can send air through the main test chamber at varying speeds, up to about 40 miles per hour. Not all birds take to the tunnel — “about half of them will be good fliers,” Dr. Guglielmo said — but those that do can flap their wings for hours at a time while remaining, conveniently, in one place.

Researchers can adjust not only the wind speed inside the tunnel but also the temperature, humidity and air pressure to simulate different flying conditions and altitudes. They can study the physics of flight, mapping how air flows around the bodies of different birds, or focus on avian physiology: How does a bird’s breathing change at higher altitudes? How does diet affect flight performance?"
For additional information see: AFAR. 

Boundary Layer Wind Tunnel Laboratory
   The hypobaric wind tunnel at Western is not the only wind tunnel at Western. Back in the mid-1960s, UWO was "considered the birthplace of the modern practice of wind engineering."  For more details see this digital heritage plaque.      

Post Script
   It used to be the case that no one knew where the birds went when the weather turned cold. A clue was finally provided by a stork.
See: "The University of the Unusual (2) - The Mystery of Avian Migration."

On Squirrels

    I can't say I chose squirrels as a subject because it is a slow news day. There is plenty of news about the current American election, the results of which are likely to be slowly reported over the next few months[in a few months you will applaud my prescience]. Squirrels are better subjects, however,  and I would rather focus on them than the larger Republican rodents to the south of us.

  It is fall and the squirrels are very active in our back yard. The falling leaves and the current "Indian summer" reminded me of my high school days when I used to go hunting for squirrels back in Maryland. So here are some thoughts quickly gathered so I can go outside and take advantage of the few warm days we have left.

The Colour of Squirrels

 

Black or Gray

   I think I remember correctly that most of the squirrels back in Maryland tended to be gray. The majority in the back yard right now are black, but the relations between them and the gray ones seem to be better than the relations between variously-coloured people, both here and in the U.S. 

   Apparently black squirrels were rather rare in the area where I grew up, an area just across the Chesapeake Bay from Washington, D.C.  That city now has a majority Black population and some black squirrels, thanks to Canadians. 

   The answer to the question, "Where did Washington's black squirrels come from?" is answered in the Washington Post. Here it is, in a nutshell:

"The first batch of black squirrels — eight in number — was sent to the National Zoo in 1902 by Thomas W. Gibson, Ontario’s superintendent for parks. Smithsonian secretary Samuel P. Langley, in his report to Congress that year, wrote that the squirrels were accepted “in exchange,” and, indeed, checking Canadian records, Answer Man discovered that Rondeau park received an unspecified number of gray squirrels from the Smithsonian. (They are “doing nicely,” reported park caretaker Isaac Gardiner.) 

The black squirrel and the gray squirrel are the same species of squirrel: Sciurus carolinensis, a.k.a. the Eastern gray squirrel, the only difference being a color variation. The black squirrels evince a “melanistic color phase,” the recessive gene for black coloration coming to the fore. 

The Canadian squirrels were released in the northwestern part of the zoo, “where they were very much at home,” according to the 1923 Proceedings of the Biological Society of Washington. “They have since been constantly in the Park, especially from the vicinity of the great flight cage to the Klingle Valley, and they have spread northward to Cleveland Park and nearly to Chevy Chase.”

The entire article is found on April 1, 2011 in the Washington Post in a piece by John Kelly: "Where Did D.C.'s Black Squirrels Come From: Blame Canada." It was not an April Fool's joke and the subject of squirrels typically occupies a week of columns in the Washington Post every spring.  During that week in 2011, Kelly mentions that the National Museum of Natural History at the Smithsonian has over 30,000 squirrel species. 

 

White

   You will likely know that there are even some white squirrels since there are some nearby in Exeter. You can learn more about them at Experience Exeter.  They are not only found in Ontario, but also in Olney, Illinois.  They are mentioned by Teale in Wandering Through Winter, (p.219). That town also uses them in municipal advertising and you can read about them here: White Squirrels of Olney. 

Red

   About them I will say little, except to say that they are in peril over in the U.K. where they are threatened by the gray ones. Have a look at the Red Squirrel Survival Trust. 

   Little additional needs to be added about squirrel colouring since a fellow who passed through London a while back, covered the subject. You will even learn that just as black squirrels were sent from Ontario to Washington, additional black critters were shipped from London to Kent State in Ohio. 

  The fellow mentioned is Ric Wallace, who describes himself as an ARTographer. He now lives in White Rock, B.C., but his London website is still alive and well and there is a whole subject devoted to Squirrel Stuff - and there is additional material on Victoria Park. Who would have thought? You can even buy squirrel memorabilia from him.

The Eating of Squirrels

   I mentioned that I went squirrel hunting, largely for 'sport', but  those killed were usually eaten. You very likely think that both the hunting and the eating of squirrels are primitive endeavours, but they both persist. You can hunt for them in Ontario and learn how to cook them in various YouTube videos. The most difficult parts of the exercise involve getting a hunting license and gun. Over in England it is popular to hunt the gray ones to help protect the red ones and a fellow in Old Darby, Leicestershire sells around 150 squirrel pies a week.

  In Paul Theroux's Deep South, the subject of eating squirrels comes up and the answer to the question he raised, "How Do You Cook Them?" is answered on p.353:

“Squirrel for breakfast -- smother-fried,” she said. “Gut the front shoulders and back legs and rib cage. You can cook the head too. Roll all of them in flour and shove them in a  skillet. Squirrel cooks real fast. Then put water into the skillet with the browned squirrel. The flour turns into gravy. Cover it, let it simmer awhile. It’s delicious first thing in the morning.” He is speaking with Pat and this is in Arkansas. There are other mentions of squirrel eating in the book."

 

   Apart from the new book, pictured above, see this fine piece by Mike Sula: "Chicken of the Trees," in the Chicago Reader, Aug.16, 2012. 

   This might be a subject you want to re-visit if we have additional food security issues, or if you find a drey in your attic.

The Migration of Squirrels

   I thought squirrels lived in relatively small areas, but in some cases they migrate and sometimes in great numbers.  They can even swim. The sun is shining so I will just provide some examples below. 

  I have several from this continent, but here is one from across the ocean:

"There are reports of mass migrations of both Red and Grey squirrels in response to seed crop failures. Following successive ‘good years’ a squirrel population increases to the carrying capacity of the habitat. If there is a subsequent poor mast year, there is insufficient food to support all the squirrels and they must either leave or starve. Reports from Russia in the 1930s and 40s describe enormous migrations of Red squirrels on the move, even swimming fast-flowing rivers such as the Amur, Ob and Yenesi or large bodies of water including Lake Baikal and the Gulf of Finland.

In Squirrels in Britain, Keith Laidler notes that the migrating squirrels “move in a long ‘skirmishing line, sometimes more than thirty-five miles [56 km] in extent”, are virtually impossible to stop once the migration has started, and tells of a hoard of black and grey squirrels swimming five miles (8 km) across Seneca Lake in New York state during 1848. According to Laidler, the migration ‘wave’ moves at about a mile and a half (2.4 km) per day. More recently, a large group of Greys were observed swimming across the Potomac River near Washington D.C. in the autumn of 1990. I’m not aware of any similar migrations having occurred in Britain."Source - Wildlife Online

Here are some screen shots from articles:

This is from the Scranton Tribune, Oct.1, 1897

The last example is from: "Migrations of the Gray squirrel (Sciurus carolinensis),"

Ernest Thompson Seton, Journal of Mammalogy, Vol. 1, No. 2  (Feb., 1920), pp. 53-58.

Here is one of the more recent mass migrations that I was able to find:

"NOT ENOUGH NUTS IN NEW ENGLAND: Squirrels Have Started a Strange Migration Westward--Biggest Exodus Since 1927--Do They Smell a Hard Winter Coming?--Many Are Drowned Swimming Lakes," Lawrence Hanscom, Boston Globe, Oct. 8, 1933

For an equally fascinating post about the activities in our back yard see: SPARROWS

Tundra Swans

Ontario Swans

 Last week we drove a few miles from where I now live to see a large 'flock' of swans. (They were observed from a viewing stand which had a sign telling you what a large group of swans is called, but I forgot to write it down.) In fact, there are two places close by (Aylmer and Thedford) where one can see something very much like this.

Maryland Swans

     If I had gone looking for those same swans a few months ago I would have found them not far from where I grew up on the Eastern Shore of Maryland. Just a few miles outside of Princess Anne, Md. they could have been spotted in a field much like the one pictured below.

Migration

     After spending the winter in the relatively balmy weather along the mid-Atlantic coast they were just passing through on their return to the breeding grounds in the far, far north. The path they take looks something like this one and we are located at the first point where the line veers toward the northwest.

     As I mentioned back in a post about the “arrow storks”, a lot is now known about migratory routes and the migrants are often tracked using sophisticated technologies. Julia, the fine specimen pictured below wearing a cravat was, for example, banded back in 2006  on the Colville River Delta and scientists have been tracking her.

Sources: 

Aylmer Wildlife Management Area

Town of Aylmer

Discover Southern Ontario

Lambton County Museum
This location holds a Return of the Swans Festival which was held this year from March 10 to the 18th.

     There is some indication that the swans may be facing problems in Maryland. See:Chesapeake Bay Foundation
“While the numbers of tundra swans appear to be healthy across the continent, fewer and fewer are wintering in the Chesapeake Bay. This may be in part because the underwater grasses and soft clams they normally eat are being killed by pollution and other problems, Hindman said. As a result, more swans are feeding in farm fields. Others are skipping the Chesapeake region altogether and flying farther south.

 “Northern Alaska’s Tundra Swans Have a Long Haul for Winter Break:Every Year, the Birds Make a Months-long trip to Feast at the Chesapeake Bay,” Ann Cameron, Washington Post, Feb. 5, 2018