Although I believe there is a virus and people are sick with it, I don’t believe in the need for lockdowns, shut ins and etc. Most people who have had the virus recovered from it, just like many other flu viruses. You don’t hear about them. We don’t hear about domestic violence caused by people still having access to abused substances while in close confines with the people they abuse. How many people are living a nightmare and would rather take their chances with a virus? We don’t hear about people committing suicide. Virus tallies include people who had the virus but died from other causes, not always related at all.

We are given endless propaganda about staying home for the good of others/ everyone. So we are guilted into obeying. Meanwhile businesses are closed, many will not reopen, jobs are gone. There is talk of roads being closed – for a virus, really? What are we not supposed to see while living under the roof over our heads?

People are trapped at home, dependent on the Internet with all the various spyware from marketers. I’m sure this is a great time for gathering information. What happens when they start using it? Here we are, herded into our cages, waiting and ready for whatever messages they want to imprint in our brains. Marketing has been preying on people for generations, now it’s just gotten so much easier. Being pushed into the lemming mentality makes us all fish in buckets for them.

This extreme panic is for some other reason. This is not the first virus to make its way around the world. Does that qualify it as a pandemic? I wonder if some people just wanted to live in a zombie/ apocalypse movie. Others are making money from it and other still are using it for their own ends. These are the people that worry me. What is all the hysteria hiding? Why are businesses shut down and people trapped in their homes (hoping or assuming everyone has a home) for an endless time but the quarantine is just 2 weeks. Why are schools shut down but children from split homes are still shuttled back and forth several times a week from family to family. There are many things which don’t make sense.

This is why I created the coronavirus ASCII art. It’s a protest. I hope it gets people thinking, for themselves, rather than listening to the bottomless propaganda flooding the media. I think Con19 is the right terminology.

I wear glasses, also known as spectacles. This year I am aged 55 years and still a woman. People, some of them, think women don't explore. Those people are misled. I am surprised when someone is surprised that I still get out and explore, photographing old places, mainly in rural Ontario. Although, other than Toronto, a lot of Ontario seems fairly rural, or has melded into a suburb of Toronto.

I grew up in a Toronto suburb. Originally, it was a lot of trees and water and some animals, well before that it was all a lot of gas. How far back do you want to go? Less long ago, it was a town, village, called Port Union. Scarborough absorbed it. I was never happy about that. Even as a child I didn't like seeing history lost. I doubt many people now living there know it used to be Port Union. I don't count, because I don't live there any more. After the high school years I moved around. I have lived all over southern Ontario and visited most of the rest of it. I also lived in the US and the Dominican Republic for awhile. Different culture experiences. I would still like to visit more of the world but - when you're young you don't have the money and when you have the money you have somehow become old and less inclined to venture afar.

But, I still do, in my own way. Always, in my own way.

This site will display my photographs, experiences, discoveries and ideas current, ongoing and as far back as I can still find photographs I have taken.

The name, Wrecky Rat Bird, comes from my nephew, Zack. When he was a little boy we told him about the old, abandoned buildings as we stopped to take a look at various places (or made notes to come back and see them later). He began calling them "wrecky rat bird" places because they were wrecks with rats and birds living in them.

The name stuck. The nephew is almost 19 now (October, 2014) and he explores and takes photos too.

This site began as a place to post about my urban exploration photography from rural Ontario, Canada. Photographing ruined and abandoned places in Ontario. Mainly farm houses.

Urban exploration is an activity for photographers, amateur city planners and history buffs, intrigued by the decay of the built environment.

• abandoned places
• industrial decay
• rural exploration
• haikyo
• wrecks
• ghost towns
• cemeteries
• ghost signs
• underground
• under water
• rooftopping
• drain boating
• modern ruins

Not everything is urban exploration (as I see it): skywalking, train surfing, graffiti, salvage, or vandalism.

This is the first house I explored (on my own) with a digital camera. I had to duck under a gate and get a little snow covered. I didn't have any extra memory with my camera (it was that new!). Sadly I only got 16 photographs before I ran out of space. Getting back to my car I realized my keys were somewhere back there.

From those early days I learned a lot about how to explore, how to photograph and the history of old houses. Exploring an old house is just the beginning. The best parts are being there and then coming home to take a better look at it through your own photos.

I took this photo in 2006. The house was demolished sometime later. I still drive by the location and most of the time I still look at the void where this house was. I'm not the only person who noticed this house or stopped to take a picture of it. But, there is nothing like viewing your own photograph and how you remember being there from seeing it all again: the sights, smells, wind, rain, snow and dive bombing birds.

Take only photographs - leave only footprints.

I've been an urban explorer before I knew the name for it. I love history and old buildings and architecture in particular. People ask "did you go inside?". I seldom do. It doesn't feel right to enter the house where someone else lived and not be invited or permitted. I don't feel the same about places which were once open for the public, but these tend to be locked up once they are abandoned. So, one way or another I seldom enter the ruined places I photograph.

Note: The photos I post here are for people to enjoy seeing. No commercial use. Find your own adventures and take your own photographs, these are mine.

See also:

• Flickr: Ontario Rural Ruins - Flickr group for rural explorers in Ontario, Canada.
• Flickr: Canadian Rural Ruins - Flickr group for rural explorers all over Canada.

I want to know everything. Knowing I'm not immortal to see the future, or able to create a time machine to look at the past and the future... bothers me. How can I ever be satisfied when there is so much I don't know!

Of course, the more I find out about the more I want to know. Knowledge is bottomless, endless and I will run out of time long before I run out of viable brain matter, and that bugs me.
The future is out there. I can see some of it, imagine more of it. I look at what we have and try to deduce what will come. Without immorality or a time machine, that's the best I can do.
History is alive in our words, our traditions, our beliefs and our lifestyle.

I'm interested in: retro science, utopias, spirituality, traditions, the pioneering spirit, the paranormal, science fiction, survivalist theories, folk tales and vintage ideas.

I enjoy history. But, so many people think it is dull when you present it as a topic of conversation. I think they are assuming history is all about long winded tomes in the library under attack by dust bunnies and cobwebs. History is right now, each second passes into history. History is how we can see into the future.

I live in Ontario and I like old buildings, forgotten places, etc. If you have looked at a few urban exploration sites you know all the usual stuff. I'm not going to be amazingly different. But, I do have my own perspective and I take my own photographs. Sometimes I will post about places I want to see, places demolished, and places I can't visit but did find (online, otherwise I would have taken my own photographs).

I keep a directory of links to other explorers, groups and the odd location. I very seldom share locations myself. Vandalism being the main problem. I have shown filmmakers to a few locations so I can officially call myself a location scout, which is interesting on a resume.

My name is Laura. Hello. Season's Greetings (There are four seasons, year round). So greetings of the season to you!

Welcome to Wrecky Rat Bird Strange Ontario

The name, Wrecky Rat Bird, comes from my nephew, Zack. When he was a little boy we told him about the old, abandoned buildings as we stopped to take a look at various places (or made notes to come back and see them later). He began calling them "wrecky rat bird" places because they were wrecks with rats and birds living in them.

The name stuck. The nephew is almost 19 now (October, 2014) and he explores and takes photos too.

This site began as a place to post about my urban exploration photography from rural Ontario, Canada. Photographing ruined and abandoned places in Ontario. Mainly farm houses.

Urban exploration is an activity for photographers, amateur city planners and history buffs, intrigued by the decay of the built environment.

• abandoned places
• industrial decay
• rural exploration
• haikyo
• wrecks
• ghost towns
• cemeteries
• ghost signs
• underground
• under water
• rooftopping
• drain boating
• modern ruins

Not everything is urban exploration (as I see it): skywalking, train surfing, graffiti, salvage, or vandalism.

This is the first house I explored (on my own) with a digital camera. I had to duck under a gate and get a little snow covered. I didn't have any extra memory with my camera (it was that new!). Sadly I only got 16 photographs before I ran out of space. Getting back to my car I realized my keys were somewhere back there.

From those early days I learned a lot about how to explore, how to photograph and the history of old houses. Exploring an old house is just the beginning. The best parts are being there and then coming home to take a better look at it through your own photos.

I took this photo in 2006. The house was demolished sometime later. I still drive by the location and most of the time I still look at the void where this house was. I'm not the only person who noticed this house or stopped to take a picture of it. But, there is nothing like viewing your own photograph and how you remember being there from seeing it all again: the sights, smells, wind, rain, snow and dive bombing birds.

Take only photographs - leave only footprints.

I've been an urban explorer before I knew the name for it. I love history and old buildings and architecture in particular. People ask "did you go inside?". I seldom do. It doesn't feel right to enter the house where someone else lived and not be invited or permitted. I don't feel the same about places which were once open for the public, but these tend to be locked up once they are abandoned. So, one way or another I seldom enter the ruined places I photograph.

Note: The photos I post here are for people to enjoy seeing. No commercial use. Find your own adventures and take your own photographs, these are mine.

See also:

• Flickr: Ontario Rural Ruins - Flickr group for rural explorers in Ontario, Canada.
• Flickr: Canadian Rural Ruins - Flickr group for rural explorers all over Canada.

I want to know everything. Knowing I'm not immortal to see the future, or able to create a time machine to look at the past and the future... bothers me. How can I ever be satisfied when there is so much I don't know!

Of course, the more I find out about the more I want to know. Knowledge is bottomless, endless and I will run out of time long before I run out of viable brain matter, and that bugs me.
The future is out there. I can see some of it, imagine more of it. I look at what we have and try to deduce what will come. Without immorality or a time machine, that's the best I can do.
History is alive in our words, our traditions, our beliefs and our lifestyle.

I'm interested in: retro science, utopias, spirituality, traditions, the pioneering spirit, the paranormal, science fiction, survivalist theories, folk tales and vintage ideas.

I enjoy history. But, so many people think it is dull when you present it as a topic of conversation. I think they are assuming history is all about long winded tomes in the library under attack by dust bunnies and cobwebs. History is right now, each second passes into history. History is how we can see into the future.

I live in Ontario and I like old buildings, forgotten places, etc. If you have looked at a few urban exploration sites you know all the usual stuff. I'm not going to be amazingly different. But, I do have my own perspective and I take my own photographs. Sometimes I will post about places I want to see, places demolished, and places I can't visit but did find (online, otherwise I would have taken my own photographs).

I keep a directory of links to other explorers, groups and the odd location. I very seldom share locations myself. Vandalism being the main problem. I have shown filmmakers to a few locations so I can officially call myself a location scout, which is interesting on a resume.

My name is Laura. Hello. Season's Greetings (There are four seasons, year round). So greetings of the season to you!