July 19 2022 - From the Air

 

The first aerial photograph shot in Canada was taken over the Halifax Citadel in 1883, when Captain Henry Elsdale of the Royal Engineers attached a camera to a small balloon and sent it upwards. The camera was fitted with a time-sensitive automatic shutter release which enabled it to work at various heights, and at least one vertical photograph taken that day still exists, showing the Citadel from about 1450 feet. And today? What are we photographing from the air?   "Scientists have discovered that ancient cities really did exist in the Amazon. And while urban ruins remain extremely difficult to find in thick, remote forests, a key technology has helped change the game. Perched in a helicopter some 650 feet up, scientists used light-based remote sensing technology (lidar) to digitally deforest the canopy and identify the ancient ruins of a vast urban settlement around Llanos de Mojos in the Bolivian Amazon that was abandoned some 600 years ago. The new images reveal, in detail, a stronghold of the socially complex Casarabe Culture (500-1400 C.E.) with urban centers boasting monumental platform and pyramid architecture. Raised causeways connected a constellation of suburban-like settlements, which stretched for miles across a landscape that was shaped by a massive water control and distribution system with reservoirs and canals. The site, described this week in Nature, is the most striking discovery to suggest that the Amazon’s rainforest ‘wilderness’ was actually heavily populated, and in places quite urbanized, for many centuries before recorded history of the region began.  From the Smithsonian Those are the professionally curious explorers.   Each of us looks at the passing landscape on an airplane flight,  There's a web app that guides you through the landscape you are flying over. Gregory Dicum, the inventor,  said he's currently working on getting his "Mondo Window" installed on planes so that you can get information about what you're seeing below on your airplane console as you're flying.

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Twelve Months a Year - Fishing in Niagara

The Lower Niagara River can be fished 12 months a year, and someone was out fishing a few weeks ago.  There are a lot of varieties of fish. Chinook and coho salmon, steelhead (rainbow trout), walleye, small mouth bass, white bass, carp, catfish, yellow perch and carp.  There are even Muskellunge and Northern Pike. There are sturgeon though these are endangered.  The deepest section below the falls is 170 feet deep, just below the Falls.  That's the same as the height of the Falls themselves.  I was curious how deep the sections of river are for the pictures we're looking at today. The first is the scenic look-out at Queenston - it faces towards Lake Ontario.  The second looks towards the Niagara Falls - this is the Queenston Bridge in the distance.  Our final image shows the Queenston docks withe the ubiquitous fisherman.

Megalomanic Fun

It looks like fun at the Megalomaniac Winery.  It is perched on the escarpment with views of Niagara Falls, St. Catharines, Port Dalhousie, Toronto, and Hamilton.  That's quite the panoramic view.  And it has quite the personality to go with it.  The wine has names like Bigmouth and Vainglorious.  Tables and chairs are sculptures made of wood, and the winery is full of young people.  Our visit include a party of girls in hats. The owner is John Howard and the location is in Vineland at 3930 Cherry Ave.

Catching Up with Niagara's Harvest

It's a short drive from Toronto to the vineyards of Niagara.  They start in the Grimsby area and continue right to the Niagara River.  These shots were taken in the Grimsby area at Hidden Bench and Angle's Gate wineries.