To the seasons of life
Pay attention
File photo KDG
The law enforcers are viewing the month of March as distracted driving month. Fines are big and patience little. Its not just cell phones its anything from emotional upset to…
The point is pay the required amount of attention to driving…
On this Day: March 24th 1837
Canadian men of African extraction given the right to vote…
Visitor to the Nicola Valley
Ran a program with youth
File Photo KDG
Butterflies have a following in the Nicola Valley.
The Nicola Naturalists are having their March meeting on Thursday the 16th . The speaker will be local Bob Scafe and will present butterflies and Moths of the Nicola Valley.
Bob is an active member of the Nicola Naturalists, a keen photographer and a very enthusiastic investigator of butterflies and moths. Bob’s presentation on this topic was very popular so we’re getting him back with new photos and new information on these colorful insects. Bob’s documentation of our local butterflies and moths is a popular feature of the Nicola Naturalist Society website – .. Come and see great photos and learn about these interesting members of the Nicola Valley area fauna.
Start time is 7PM at the NVIT lecture hall, top of the hill Belshaw Ave. in Merritt BC. Membership or donation requested
On this Day: March 15th 1892
The Liverpool Fo0tball Club is established.
Mallards on Nicola
Photo
The weekend saw another snowfall followed by overnight lows in minus double digits. These mallards responded to a call for bread, in recent weeks they had turned their bills up at bits of apple.
On this Day: February 28th 1954
NTSC standard color television is sold to public for the first time…
File photo live beaver on the Nicola River.:KDG
The Nicola Naturalists are having their February meeting on Thursday February 16th and have invited author and biologist Frances Blackhorse to present.
The evening begins at 7 PM at the NVIT lecture hall, top of the hill on Belshaw Avenue in Merritt. “All welcome membership or donation requested.”
Frances Backhouse has published books on a wide range of nature topics, including owls and woodpeckers, and also on historical topics such as the women in the Klondike gold rush. Her latest book examines humanity’s 15,000-year relationship with Castor canadensis, and the beaver’s even older relationship with North American landscapes and ecosystems. This will be a fascinating presentation blending biology and history.
On this Day: February 14th 1998
Over hundred people die in a fire caused by one person trying to salvage fuel from a oil tanker train collision in Cameroon, Central Africa.
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.
Hawk
File Photo
On this Day: February 7th 1935
The game of Monopoly is introduced.
Coutlee and Voght
File Photo KDG
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 .
On this Day: January 31st 1930
Scotch Tape is introduced to the market.
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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….
On this Day: January 18th 1670
Henry Morgan captures Panama.
On this Day: December 30th 2009:
A pipeline ruptures in China dumping 150 thousand liters of Diesel into the Yellow River.
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
On this Day: November 2nd 1960
Penguin books is acquitted in an obscenity action.
Editors note: Freedom of expression is a right, civility ( not at the expense of truth) a choice…
Good authors too who once knew better words, now only use four-letter words. Writing prose, anything goes.
— Cole Porter, “Anything Goes” (1934)
Kingfisher
Photo KDG
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.
Pipe being placed
Voght park Merritt BC
Photo KDG
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.
Hey Merit what do you say?
Kevin Griffiths
percypaschal
The Proprietor Review 