Inside Caledon, Ontario

Since I reported on this blog on the tragic murder-suicide in Orangeville/Mono some new information has come to light about this very sad story.

The young son Connor, 14 of Heidi & Hugh Ferguson has disputed some of the published accounts of what happened that fateful day defending his father.

“My father was a wonderful man and was not the crazy man that shot at cops during the event as you stated,” wrote the couple’s son in an e-mail.

“You would never understand the full story behind the … situation between my mother and father,” he stated.

Connor wrote the e-mail to Sun Media objecting to a published account from a neighbour who told a reporter the man shot the tires of an Ontario Provincial Police van. Police have now confirmed that no shots were fired at police and said the van had driven over a spike belt police laid out on a roadway.

The full details of what initially sparked the tragic chain of events may never be known but according to OPP Constable Peter Leon the police received an initial call about an hour before the shooting involving a domestic dispute at the Orangeville address. There was no weapon involved in the initial incident, but police wouldn’t say if Heidi Ferguson was threatened or assaulted. Orangeville police were “actively investigating the original call and they were called back to the residence,” Leon said.

The whole incident has shocked many friends, neighbours and the community.

“It was such an amicable breakup,” said Bridget Wilson, a neighbour who knew the Fergusons for 19 years. “I never heard a bitter or a nasty word from either of them. I get a headache thinking what could have gone so horribly wrong.”

“Everything was fine,” said Wilson, who recalls they hosted a party two weeks ago for the lacrosse team their teenaged son, Connor, plays for. Their daughter, Courtney, is 19.

“This is completely out of character,” Penny Bogner (Heidi Ferguson’s mother) says of the allegations against Hugh Ferguson. “They were really remarkable people. They were friendly even though they separated.”

Todd, a teen who worked with Courtney at Boston Pizza, said he remembers her saying a few months ago: “My parents are still good friends – thank God for that.”

Ontario’s Special Investigations Unit continues the investigation.

Tragedy has struck a family in Mono Township just north of Orangeville. A mother of two teens apparently wanted to cut ties with her estranged husband and move on with her life but her plans ended when he instead went to her rented home in Orangeville and shot her. As she fought for her life in hospital, the man 42-year-old Hugh Ferguson faced off against police before turning a gun on himself.

Just before midnight Saturday police were called to a domestic disturbance at an Orangeville house. Police later were called back to the house and found that a woman had been shot. She died after being airlifted to Sunnybrook Hospital in Toronto, says a statement issued by the SIU (Special Investigations Unit).

The 39-year-old woman, identified by friends and neighbours as Heidi Ferguson, ran to her neighbour’s home on Westdale Ave. to get help after being shot late Friday. Her ex-husband, identified by neighbours as Hugh, 42, then fled to his home in Mono Twp. north of the town where he barricaded himself in the house for several hours in a tense standoff with the OPP tactical team before killing himself.

Hugh Ferguson a hunter had about 10 firearms in his home and ended up shooting out the tires of an OPP van during the standoff , neighbours said. The standoff ended just before 6 a.m. when police confirmed Hugh was dead.

Friends and neighbours said the couple had been separated since about last fall, but maintained an amicable relationship.

Neighbours of the couple’s Mono home on Madill Dr., which is up for private sale, say the couple hosted a party two weeks ago for the lacrosse team their high school son, 13-year-old Connor, plays on. The couple also have another teen, daughter Courtney, now at university.

“It’s kind of hard to believe,” said a friend who didn’t want to be named. “There were no signs.” He said he last saw Hugh Thursday night, and “he seemed a little bit cooler, which is unlike him,” adding the man was usually upbeat emotionally.

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New Articles about the story:
http://www.torontosun.com/news/canada/2009/09/13/10867271-sun.html
http://toronto.ctv.ca/servlet/an/local/CTVNews/20090912/Orangeville_Deaths_090912/
http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/article/694880

I caught a few pictures of this little bunny on Finnerty Side Road on my way home last week, he was nervous but was still enough and posed for a few photos. He is a Eastern Cottontail Rabbit and is a native species to Canada and a common sight in Caledon, Ontario. Eastern cottontail rabbits are one of the few wild animals that are known to “play” with other members of their species. Rabbits are also incredibly fast, and are able to reach speeds of 60 to 75 kilometres per hour. This speed is a necessity for eastern cottontails since they have numerous predators and very few natural defense mechanisms. They are usually found in or near wooded areas and meadows but they have also adapted to increasing urbanization and frequently live in city parks, golf courses and in residential yards. For more information about them click here.

Baffo’s Pizza the popular local pizzeria and restaurant in downtown Bolton for over 38 years will soon be moving to a new better location right on Queen St. (Hwy 50). Currently tucked away one street east on Chapel Street Baffo’s will be moving to the main street where the Billiards/Pool Hall used to be. The new location will have a much larger space for the restaurant and a patio for the summer. Baffo’s expects to transition over to the new location sometime in December.

Baffo’s Pizza is still currently at 31 Chapel St, Bolton, Ontario and can be reached at (905) 857-3444. They have great service and I highly recommend their pizza, you can take a look at their menu by clicking here (pdf).

The moon slowly rising from the east on an early September night. Took this photo from my Caledon backyard as I arrived home, starting to get dark a lot earlier now, fall is basically here…

On my way home I caught this Red-tailed Hawk (correct me if I am wrong) just south of Bolton along side Highway 50. He was scanning the ditch below for food and I must have made him nervous as he flew away fairly quickly once he spotted me. I didn’t notice it until after I had loaded up the photos on my computer but this particular hawk is tagged, click on the image for a larger view, if you look closely you will see a red tag on his foot. For more info on Red-tailed Hawks, click here. Picture was taken with my zoom lens sitting in the middle lane of Highway 50 (do not do this, its very busy and dangerous).

Here are two more pictures:

You can also see my previous Hawk post with pictures here from earlier in the year.

They are damm ugly birds but Turkey Vultures are all over Caledon and various parts of Ontario in the summer time. People often confuse them for hawks when they are flying high above due to a long similar wing span but up close they are not similar at all. I took this picture near the Eaton Family estate, there was a few of them sitting on a fence. The photo is a little dark, it was late in the day and I was shooting against the sun so the lighting was not optimal but a few of them came out ok, the above image (click on the image for a larger version) has been adjusted and manipulated with the HDR software Photomatix as well touched up in Photoshop. Photo was taken from sitting in my car with my 70-300mm zoom lens.

Some info about the Turkey Vulture, Cathartes aura, is a bird found throughout most of the Americas. It also known in some North American regions as the Turkey Buzzard (or just “buzzard”), and in some areas of the Caribbean as the John Crow or Carrion Crow. The Turkey Vulture is the most widespread of the New World vultures, ranging from southern Canada to the southernmost tip of South America. It inhabits a variety of open and semi-open areas, including subtropical forests, shrub lands, pastures, and deserts. Its life expectancy in the wild ranges upward of 16 years, with a captive life span of over 20 years being possible. The Turkey Vulture is a scavenger and feeds almost exclusively on carrion. It finds its meals using its keen vision and sense of smell, flying low enough to detect the gasses produced by the beginnings of the process of decay in dead animals. In flight, it uses thermals to move through the air, flapping its wings infrequently. It roosts in large community groups. Lacking a syrinx (the vocal organ of birds) its only vocalizations are grunts or low hisses. It nests in caves, hollow trees, or thickets, each year generally raising two chicks, which it feeds by regurgitation. It has very few natural predators. For more detailed info on Turkey Vultures, click here.

Here are some more photos of the Turkey Vulture:

I caught a few close ups of this Garden Snake on my way to Caledon Lake. The official name for them is actually Garter Snake but they also go by a number names, garden snakes, gardner snakes or gardener snakes, or even garder snakes or guarder snakes. I took this photo with my new Olympus E-620 DSLR camera and my 70-300mm zoom lens and was lucky to grab a few pictures with his tongue sticking out.

The common Garter snake is common all across North America from Canada to Central America and they are the single most widely distributed reptile in North America. For more information on Garter Snakes, click here.

Here are couple more pictures of this little guy I manage to get before he slithered back into the marshy water.

The above photo is a panorama picture I made of Caledon Lake which is located just south of Orangeville and west of Highway 10. Caledon Lake is easily the largest lake in all of Caledon which isn’t known for having lakes of any significant size. Given the size of the lake you would thing it would be a little more well known yet it isn’t because Caledon Lake is mostly a private lake with no easy public access to this lake and I am sure those who own cottages along this lake would like to keep it their private secret. Despite it being mostly a private lake it doesn’t appear to be totally private, except for the row of 20-30 cottages the rest of the area appears to be protected land going by the official name of the Caledon Lake Forest Conservation Area.

There is two ways to get to Caledon Lake, you can turn down a private road which leads to those cottages (road isn’t marked at all from the road) or better you can access it from the other side by driving over and up to the end of Mississauga Road. There you will find lands owned by the Peel District School Board which is a camp / nature centre. If you choose the later option simply walk up the driveway, pass the barn and you will find a trail that follows a river to Caledon Lake, make sure you are on the trail which follows the left side of the river. The trail is well maintained and a nice 5-10 minute walk to the lake. When you arrive at the lake you will see the same view as the picture above (click on the photo for a larger image).

Searching on Google I can’t find much else about the lake, only tiny bits of info here and there. It appears to be a good fishing spot, while I was there taking photos two guys arrived on the same path I took and easily started catching good sized fish with in a few minutes. The lake also looks like a great place to swim, the water very warm. Power boats also seem to be allowed on this lake despite it boarding on protected lands. Here are a few more photos of Caledon Lake.

Here is where Caledon Lake is located, click on the image below for a large version on Google Maps.

My fiance caught a small Northern Green Leopard Frog. I have seen many of them over the past few weeks in my Caledon backyard, especially when cutting the lawn I have to be careful not to run them over.

Some interesting info care of Wikipedia, the Northern Leopard Frog is a species of Leopard frog from the true frog family native to parts of Canada and United States. It is also the State Amphibian of Minnesota and Vermont. Northern Leopard Frogs have a wide range of habitats. They are found in permanent ponds, swamps, marshes and slow moving streams throughout forest, open and urban areas. They normally inhabit water bodies with abundant aquatic vegetation. They are well adapted to cold and can be found above 3,000 meters (9,800 ft). This species was once quite common through parts of western Canada until declines started occurring during the 1970s. The population decline is thought to have been caused by pollution drift from the United States falling in the form of acid rain. Many populations of Northern Leopard Frogs have not yet recovered from these declines.

I am not sure about how much they are endangered here in Ontario but they do seem to be in quite abundance, well at least in my backyard…