You are presumed to be honest and responsible without evidence to the contrary beyond a reasonable doubt… on the balance of probablilties you are justified by 51 % likelyhood.
This hawk seems relaxed around electrical fixtures. File :Photo KDG
The local club is having their annual get together in March. The potluck and trophy night on the Saturday the 4rth will have a number of awards.
The group has a particular relevance at this time as the Conservation Officer is looking into the death of 5 serious birds of prey, and ongoing access to the public issues are at decision stages here.
The event is held at the Merritt Senior Center and a 10 dollar admission is required.
Some intersections have limited visibility, if someone misses the stop sign there is very little time to react.
Editors note: We believe that when approaching a limited visibility intersection the practice of taking your foot off the gas pedal and covering the brake with your foot will give you a split second that could make a difference .
The dome of the Coldwater Hotel in Merritt. Photo KDG
Dr. JJ Gillis had an office and a practice in this hotel for may of the years of the first half of the 20th century. The government long term care facility near the museum and archives in downtown Merritt, bears his name.
Gillis had the fortune or misfortune of being the member of the provincial legislature for two decades here. His time included the great depression and the second world war. Dealing with local Japanese citizens and coal mine s in the valley.
A graduate of Mcgill University in 1918 he was invited by a director of the Canadian Pacific Railway to Merritt as a Doctor. He was responsible for a work camp and he ran a nursing school at a Merritt Hospital .
A man in a wheel chair was covered head to toe by a blanket on the sidewalk during the December cold spell, when approached he said nothing a neighbor said his name is JJ and I some people left him there, ” I called the police” . The man then came alive and said ” leave me alone”. The police later were seen talking to him and it was resolved somehow.
Gillis was also the local coroner. He passed from this life in 1965: source
If the ghost of Dr. JJ Gillis visited and I was him I would say leave me alone.
RIP DR.Gillis
On this Day: January 24th 1972
Sgt .Shoichi Yokoi of the Imperial Japanese Army is found hiding in the Jungle since war end in 1945.
Despite hiding for twenty-eight years in an underground jungle cave, he had known since 1952 that World War II had ended.[5][6] He feared to come out of hiding, explaining, “We Japanese soldiers were told to prefer death to the disgrace of getting captured alive.”[1][5]
Yokoi was the third-to-last Japanese soldier to surrender after the war, preceding Second Lieutenant Hiroo Onoda (relieved from duty by his former commanding officer on 9 March 1974) and Private Teruo Nakamura (arrested 18 December 1974). source: Wikipedia
These creatures were at the Highway 8 bridge on Nicola Avenue , Sunday,few skaters among them.
The ducks came to me as if to want to be fed….
Editors Note: the Nicola Naturalists are having their regular monthly meeting on Thursday. The group did a Christmas bird Count in December and their is likely to be a report….
Dr Kerridge gives a talk on bats at Nicola Naturlists. File photo KDG
The Nicola Naturalists are having a night on Bobcats and their possible change of range. The meeting is at the local community college ,top of the hill, Belshaw avenue on November 17th, 7:30 PM, in the lecture theater.
T.J. Gooliaff is a graduate student at UBC Okanagan in Kelowna. He is studying Bobcat and Lynx distributions in the BC Interior. Climate change is causing numerous species across the planet to shift their range to higher latitudes and elevations. Using historic harvest records and sightings, T.J. is analyzing whether Bobcats and Lynx are among those species moving northwards. He is also using photographs submitted by the public to map the current provincial distribution of both species. This will be a fascinating presentation on these elusive cats.
The Ware family at the end of Garcia street had trouble with a Bobcat and chickens on their property at the end of Garcia street on the Nicola river last year. The property historically a small farm has an application to the change the zoning from single family residential to agricultural. The Bob cat was destroyed and the noise from the acreages chickens when disturbed is a concern.
Bobcat prefers rabbits and hares, it will hunt anything from insects, chickens, geese and other birds and small rodents to deer. Prey selection depends on location and habitat, season, and abundance. Like most cats, the bobcat is territorial and largely solitary, although with some overlap in home ranges. It uses several methods to mark its territorial boundaries, including claw marks and deposits of urine or feces. The bobcat breeds from winter into spring and has a gestation period of about two months.
Source Wikipedia
The group is getting ready for its participation in their Christmas bird count on December 18th. The count is a global effort and monitors birds health and numbers for various conservation or interdiction reasons.
You don’t have to be an expert birder to participate in our Christmas Bird Count. It is a great way to get to learn the local winter birds – each birding group has at least one experienced birder. Followed by a festive potluck for participants. If you are interested in participating and not already on the contact list send us an e-mail nicolanaturalists@gmail.com
Kingfisher birds were happily working the local river down town Merritt. They are ” responsible for missing salmon populations” source ” tongue in cheek”
On this Day: October 11th 1952
A British report is published saying children under 15 die by accident more often in the home than any other place, mostly from burns and scalding.
Contractors are busy with installing a water line loop for a new purification process in Voght park, Merritt BC. The loop is yards from the Coldwater River. The construction includes a small building and is near a walking trail that is on the border of the park and the river. Two poles in the area have an antenna for receiving the CBC and it includes other infrastructure including a well.
On this Day: October 6th 1876
The American Library Association is created.
Even a small fence make a boundary against guessing File photo KDG
Stable people are at a premium and to grow stability a virtue. Changeable is not always the same as adjusted, and adjusted not the same as successful but knowing your limitations will help you to rely on the stable.
The two dimensions or axes, extraversion-introversion and emotional stability-instability, define four quadrants. These are made up of:
Stable extroverts (sanguine qualities such as outgoing, talkative, responsive, easygoing, lively, carefree, leadership)
Unstable extroverts (choleric qualities such as touchy, restless, excitable, changeable, impulsive, irresponsible)
Stable introverts (phlegmatic qualities such as calm, even-tempered, reliable, controlled, peaceful, thoughtful, careful, passive)
Unstable introverts (melancholic qualities such as quiet, reserved, pessimistic, sober, rigid, anxious, moody. Source Wikipedia/Eysenck personality….
If you are quiet or loud, life’s for you or against you stability will be the better choice.
The Nicola Naturalists have had heir AGM and are onto the fall program with monthly speakers and activities. A big one is the Christmas bird count likely to be in the weekend of the 17 th of December any one keen on taking on a supporting or another role in the count would do well to start thinking for this annual event.
The October meeting will be on ants with speaker Dr. Bob Higgins of Thompson Rivers University. The talk is titled Ants of British Columbia ecological giants; the meeting will begin at 7 pm on the third Thursday as usual.
Ants are one of the most successful groups of animals on the planet. About 15,000 species have been described and they contribute more biomass to most ecosystems than any other animal group. Dr. Rob Higgins is an entomologist at Thompson Rivers University, Kamloops – a keen naturalist and an enthusiastic speaker. He will describe this diversity of ants and the ecological roles that ants play in British Columbia. He will also talk about new arrivals – the fire ants – that are overshadowing our native species.
The Christmas bird count for members goes beyond the local count to compilation and a reading of the health of the ecosystem in respect to how the critters are doing.
You don’t have to be an expert birder to participate in our Christmas Bird Count. It is a great way to get to learn the local winter birds – each birding group has at least one experienced birder. Followed by a festive potluck for participants. If you are interested in participating and not already on the contact list send us an e-mail
A returning Salmon rises out of the water in the Nicola river by the highway 8 entrance,(train bridge walking trail, ) Merritt BC August 12th/16
Photo KDG
The weekend saw the return of the salmon to the Nicola River here in Merritt. Numbers of fish were in the river at the junction of the Nicola and Coldwater rivers on the weekend.
A fish trap is upstream from the junction on the Coldwater River by Voght park, there is little indication of fish taking to the trap route at this writing.
On this Day: September 13th 16o9
Henry Hudson reaches his namesake river the Hudson.
Kevin Griffiths
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