Not the best season, but still the best tasting morels can be found around the village — only about 40 or so this year compared to about 200 last year.  Has someone found my secret spots?

Apparently an endangered bird, the Chimney Swift, has been spotted entering and exiting the chimney at The Hive, 3775 Carp Road.  This news we received recently in a letter from the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources.  In the accompanying information package we have now been made aware that the Endangered Species Act, 2007, contains legislation that protects this threatened species and its habitat from destruction or disturbance.  The Chimney Swift is a small, soot-coloured bird that is commonly seen and heard in groups darting overhead around dusk in urban areas.  Commonly mistaken  for Swallows (or in my case for bats), Chimney Swifts can be identified by their cigar-like shape and long thin pointed wings that form a crescent shape when they fly, as all as by their high-pitched chatter.  The Chimney Swift is known to catch thousands of insects a day to feed themselves and their young.  Chimney Swifts are appropriately named as they almost exclusively inhabit chimneys.  Once an adult pair has mated, they often stay together for years to come, returning to the same nesting site each year.  That all sounds good, but if one is found guilty of having disturbed the birds, the fine can be up to $1,000,000.