May 22 2005
Groundhog
While walking in the park I saw something that looked like a molehill. And upon closer inspection it even moved. But the animal was brown and much bigger than a mole, more like a cat. I made this picture and when I tried to get closer it disappeared into the hole next to the heap of earth. Poupoune didn’t even notice it. After I asked Alison this proved to be my first Groundhog Day. A historical moment indeed. We don’t have these animals in Europe so I hadn’t seen one before. So I can scratch groundhog from my list of Canadian animals still to see. That list looks like this:
- racoon (“wash bear”)
- moose
- eagle
- brown bear
- kodiak bear
- grizzly bear
- polar bear
- polar fox
- polar hare
- snow owl
- seal
- penguin
- wolf
- wolverine
- cod
- salmon
- rainbow trout
- marmot
- and many more, that I don’t even know exist
I’ll keep you posted, hopefully with pictures.
Sunday, 29 May, 2005 @ 06:01
Ik hoop dat jou Groundhog Day iets minder disturbing was dan die in de film…
Enne, lees ik ‘seal’ op jouw lijstje? Die hebben we toch ook in onze eigenste Waddenzee zwemmen?
Sunday, 29 May, 2005 @ 06:38
I know about seals but I haven’t seen one in the wild yet. Yes, I’ve been to Ecomare on one of the ‘wadden’-islands once (I even have the T-shirt) but they were in captivity. And Canada has that nice big seal population that they kill a couple of hundred-thousands of every year. Harper-seals they are called.
Sunday, 29 May, 2005 @ 07:32
I’ll look the Harper-seal up then. And of course captived animals don’t count! But when visiting the ‘waddeneilanden’ one is often able to see seals sunbathing on the sandbanks, especially when heading for the more eastern islands.
Sunday, 29 May, 2005 @ 10:20
Harp seals.
https://www.imma.org/harpseal.html
We have to go to Newfoundland to see them, which is also an excellent place to see moose… and used to be an excellent place to see cod.
I had been hoping to go to Newfoundland this year, but it looks like Virginia instead: another place we’ve never been, but quite different.
Sunday, 29 May, 2005 @ 12:16
Oeh, wat een mooitjes! Beautyful seals! And tnx for the url.
Sunday, 29 May, 2005 @ 15:27
Yup, very very mooi! Canada is famous for them all over the world: check out the following video.
https://stream.realimpact.net/?file=realimpact/hsus/video_features/seal-hunt-story.smi
Sunday, 29 May, 2005 @ 15:37
Something tells me I’d better not follow the url…
Sunday, 29 May, 2005 @ 16:15
You’re probably right, but as I didn’t have the guts to watch it myself I can’t say for sure…
Sunday, 29 May, 2005 @ 19:14
Sissy!
Monday, 6 November, 2006 @ 13:47
Just so you know, Penguins live in antartica, not Canada :) Polar bears and Penguins don’t actually coexist :)
Monday, 6 November, 2006 @ 17:59
In Quebec they actually do co-exist.
But it was a joke, and a test to see if people actually pay attention…