Bulk Carrier MOTTLER

It was like déjà vu all over again. There parked across from me at the foot of Jarvis Street and Queen Quay in Toronto last Saturday morning was a big green hulled saltie. Her name was the MOTTLER. Odd name, I thought, just like when I snapped the SHOVELER, another green hulled saltie also tied off tight to the wall at the Redpath Sugar plant dock in August 2012. Both ships are 607' long and built in China in 2009 but at different shipyards. Regardless, it's amazing how much these two sisters look alike though it's plain to see rough weather and salt-spraying during many ocean transits has taken a toll on MOTTLER's appearance especially near her bulbous bow. Other than design, each ship is owned by Navarone Marine of Limassol, Cyprus though they are chartered by Canadian Forest Navigation of Montreal which displays their graphic "Canfornav" emblem on each ship's light yellow stack (which you'll notice in the snaps down below).

Neither the blustery winter cold temps or rusted out structure unloading sugar cane seemed to bother a sord of mallards gathered on the dock or rafting about on the choppy slip below because perhaps what they really wanted was to just be near a ship that was named after a type of duck, as is the case for all Canfornav ships in their fleet, or NOT c):-o Actually, MOTTLER is a nickname for Mottled ducks or mottled mallards that live along the Gulf of Mexico coast from Florida to as far south as Veracruz, Mexico. Meanwhile, SHOVELER ducks have been known to breed in northern areas of Europe and Asia, winter in southern Europe and Africa and have also been seen in Australia and South America. In North America they have been known to breed from southern Hudson Bay, the Great Lakes, Colorado, Nevada and Oregon.

Since discharging sugar cane at Redpath's in Toronto, MOTTLER has made her way up to Thunder Bay to take on a load of grain destined to an overseas port much like the BLACKY which I snapped (below) motoring downbound past Morrisburg on a very cold Boxing Day 2012. BLACKY is short for the North American BLACK duck which resembles the female mallard in colouration though the black duck's plumage is darker. They have been known to breed from Saskatchewan and Manitoba, across Ontario, Quebec and Canada's Atlantic provinces, as well as throughout Great Lakes region and Adirondacks in the United States.
Hey, though I maybe known to duck out of certain responsibilities, I'm definitely no water fowl expert so feel free to find out more about our webfooted friends via Google or whatever, and you may also want to check my earlier encounter with the BLACKY, by clicking on to this link: http://carlzboats.blogspot.ca/2012/12/boxing-day-is-extra-day-off-after.html You can do that when you have some "down" time, or NOT. c);-b