The World through our Lenses

rmc orb, a photo by Tom Rutledge – Photosbytomandpolly.com on Flickr.

I had a photo make it in the finals for the Kingstonist greatest photo contest and hoping to make it even further. Have a look here All and all it’s nice to have photos picked for contests. Hope you take time to vote.

So off to paint the town last night Adam, Sean and I first headed to RMC and did an orb in the arch. Off to Richardson’s beach, PUC Dock, the breakwater and finally Time. Despite a cold wind coming off the lake the evening went well. ENJOY the pics.

Adam and I walked Lemoine point today and had great luck with seeing lots of birds and deer but no owls.

Lemoine Point Conservation Area has an interesting history. It’s changed hands numerous times since the era of European exploration, when it was part of the seigneury of Robert Cavalier, Sieur de la Salle. The land was seized from the French after the British won the Seven Years War in 1760. After the American Revolutionary War in 1784, it was awarded to the United Empire Loyalist Captain Johan Jots Herkimer. After Captain Herkimer’s death in 1795, his third son Nicholas, a farmer, inherited the property and held it till his death in 1809 when he was murdered in Bath by two blacksmiths. It then remained in the Herkimer family until the 1830s.
The Point had by then become known locally as Herkimer’s Nose, and later as Herkimer’s Point.

During the War of 1812, several cannons were planted on the Point in the expectation that the Americans might land there in an attempt to capture Kingston.

In 1836, the Point was sold to Captain William Lemoine, a retired British Army officer who settled here. After his death, the Point was inherited by his son J.W. Lemoine, a bachelor, who was killed in the winter of 1872 when his sleigh overturned on Collin’s Bay. The property remained with family relations until the 1910s, and by that time it was partly wooded and partly a farm with a large stone house and other buildings, with a total of 2 1/2 miles of shoreline.

It is the Lemoine family that eventually gave us the Point’s current name.

In 1918, the property was purchased by William Hugh Coverdale. He was the son of a prominent Kingston family, and as a boy had actually been known to roam the Point. As an adult, he moved to the United States and eventually became a wealthy industrialist and financier, including building the Southern Steel Company into a very successful business and being a co-founder and president of Canada Steamship Lines. Thus his wealth enabled him, at the age of 47, to purchase the Point. It provided him and his family a retreat from his very busy life, especially for rest and recreation in the summer.

Shortly after buying the property and during excavation for a second stone house, several old cannon balls were unearthed, presumably remnants of the naval action of just over 100 years earlier.

When Coverdale died in 1949, and his wife in 1955, the property was inherited by their four children, who continued to summer at the farm.

Thus it is in large part the Coverdale’s use of the Point as an estate that enabled this natural site to now still be in our midst. The northern entrance road to Lemoine Point, Coverdale Drive, is named after the family.

In the 1960s and 1970s, various local politicians became interested in acquiring the Point as parkland. Although they ran into many roadblocks, including funding problems and OMB delays, they were eventually successful in 1975 in acquiring a large part (337 acres) of the Point on behalf of the CRCA.

An 88 acre section with the stone houses and working farm (the current Lemoine Point Farm) was retained by one of William Coverdale’s four children.

The Trumpeter Swan is the tallest of the world’s eight swan species. They range in size from 138 to 158 cm (54 to 61 in.). Males are slightly larger than females. With a wingspan of up to 2.5 m (8 ft.), they are powerful fliers and capable of speeds up to 80 km/h (50 MPH) in flight.

Once mated, Trumpeters usually remain together for life. They often build their nests on the tops of muskrat lodges.

Trumpeter Swans are found only in North America. They were once common in their breeding range, but by the early 1900s the species was nearly extinct. The cause can be traced to human activities: Trumpeter Swans were hunted extensively for food and feathers. The decline in their numbers sharpened when a market developed in European settlements for its skin, feathers and down. The trend continued with the gradual loss of nesting, feeding and wintering habitats, especially in the United States, to expanded land use.

Trumpeter Swans are now legally protected in Canada and the United States, and provided with sanctuaries. Also, their survival is assisted by habitat restoration and controlled relocation of populations. As a result, the number of Trumpeter Swans has slowly increased, and it now relatively common again. In 2005, the global population was estimated at 35 000 individuals.

Looking for possible site for some light painting

swans and windmill, a photo by Tom Rutledge – Photosbytomandpolly.com on Flickr.

swans in flight, a photo by Tom Rutledge – Photosbytomandpolly.com on Flickr.

Todays shots were taken in Elevator Bay where at least 132 Swans were enjoying lunch amongst other things. Adam and I snuck up on some and then at the tracks stopped to take some more. That’s when they started taking off flying in circles then returning to the same spot in groups of threes and fours. Some of the swans moved across the road to the other bay as well.

Normally they are other photographers in this spot but I guess with the north wind it was to cold to do so.

So Sean finally got out of bed after I had a hell of a work out Level 18 three hours, I took the weekend off then was able to get that out. We started looking for the abandoned house on Channel View and after an couple of drive bys it was located. Nothing worth looking at so we took the ferry over to Howe Island and found lots of abandonments and stuff. Complete series of pictures here.

For the next time we know where to stop and have a look, next time Sean is off we are hitting Wolfe Island hopefully and if we do I will give Paul a call as he likes Wolfe Island alot. On the way home off to shoppers to get my month meds and work on my latest shots.