We live in Northern Ontario. Nature is abundant. It’s all around us. Wildlife wanders onto our property, rips open our garbage or sets up a home in our out-buildings.
That’s part of the charm of living in the North, that we live so close to the natural world.
Sudbury is possibly the most Northern Ontario-est of all Northern Ontario cities. The city’s huge geographical size encompasses the urban and the rural, the developed and the wild. More than 300 lakes dot our municipality.
In Sudbury, you can take in dinner at a fine restaurant, take in an art show or live theatre downtown and be at camp — in the great Canadian wilderness — in 15 minutes. That’s part of the Nickel City’s allure.
Louise McNamara knows that as well — and probably better — than most. She lives out on Red Deer Lake Road South, a winding track that intersects with Highway 537 that connects Wahnapitae on Highway 11 with Highway 69, and runs through the small village of Wanup.
As far as rural goes, Red Deer Lake Road is pretty darn rural. That means it’s a great place for encounters with wildlife and McNamara had some pretty good stories to share. When Northern Life asked folks for their stories about encounters with wildlife, she took the cake by sheer volume.
“I've sent you my favourites, the moose, both fox, the crane, and falcon are all regular visitors to our yard,” McNamara said, referring to the images above.
There's there’s the one about the moose…
“The moose with its tongue sticking out was taken just this weekend,” McNamara wrote. “I happened to look out the window and there it was.
“We watched and took pictures of it for almost a half hour when it turned around and looked at us and stuck out its tongue, like it was saying, ‘Nah, nah, nah, you can't catch me.’ ”
Then there’s this fox…
“The foxes are very playful and and will sit and watch us if my husband whistles at them,” she said. “We are very careful about this as last year one became a little too friendly and my husband thought throwing a stick close to it would scare it away, but it seemed to think it was a game and it picked it up, so it had the opposite effect.
Oh, and the crane who doubles as an alarm clock…
“The crane has been feeding in the field next to us for the past few weeks,” McNamara said. “It has one of the most eerie and loud calls I've ever heard. Unfortunately, it often does this at about 4:30 in the morning and can freak you out if you don't know what it is.”
Then, of course, the bear…
“The bear loves eating all the clover in our lawn. I don't see him often, but he does leave plenty of signs around the yard.”
A life-long resident of the area, McNamara said living in close proximity to animals is part of life in the North.
“I respect that they all have a right to feed where they want and we are invading their territory, not the other way around,” she said.
Do you have a close encounter to share? Email our editor at [email protected].
