24-APR-2012
White-breasted Nuthatch
Another suet seeker. I wish I lived closer, for I'd have gone home and picked up one of the suet packages I have, and brought it back for these guys.
24-APR-2012
White-throated sparrow
One of about 6 white-throated sparrows in the BYG. They were mostly under the cedars, jumping on the leaves that had accumulated there over the fall and winter, to turn them over in their search for seeds.
24-APR-2012
Prairie smoke (Geum triflorum)
One of the prettiest flowers in the rockery in the Backyard Garden section of the FWG. They are a native species, but not to this part of Ontario. However, they seem to be thriving in our garden, so the climate must be conducive to them.
24-APR-2012
Red-winged blackbird
Not sure what he was doing, but he was making a bit of a ruckus. Perhaps directed to the red squirrel directly below him.
24-APR-2012
Brown-headed cowbird, female
This is the second female cowbird, and it may just be my imagination, but she looks as if she has a slight problem with her bill.
24-APR-2012
Brown-headed cowbird, female
One male and two female cowbirds were in the Backyard Garden this morning. All three were happily bathing in the upper pond, along with a couple of white-throated sparrows and robins. There was almost a traffic jam as birds lined up to use this shallow and secluded enough pond.
24-APR-2012
Hairy woodpecker, male
With great fanfare, this male hairy woodpecker came flying in, straight for the suet feeder, which was empty, unfortunately. After what seemed a momentary shock, he reached over and plucked some seeds from the feeder.
24-APR-2012
Magnolia
With the sun, a few insects came out, including some flies on the magnolia flowers.
24-APR-2012
Magnolia
This photo proves we had a brief bout of sun today! And how welcome it was, as I can't really recall when we last saw sunshine. There are two magnolia trees at the FWG, neither planted by us, but stemming from the time, pre-FWG, when a number of ornamental trees were planted in the area.
24-APR-2012
Bee bundles
The same AAFC researchers who put up some bee boxes around the garden, also put up a couple of bee bundles made of different lengths of bamboo, bound together, and placed in this plastic bucket to give some protection from the weather.
24-APR-2012
Red in tamarack
This red squirrel looked quite pretty sitting in the midst of the just-beginning-to-green tamarack needles.
24-APR-2012
Red admiral (Vanessa atalanta)
This is a sad photo. Most of you probably remember that last week, before it turned cold (and snowy!), red admirals were migrating into this area by the hundreds of thousands. There is probably not a soul in the city who didn't have at least a few of these butterflies flutter past, even if they didn't see them. But once the rain, winds, cold temperatures, and snow arrived, the butterflies were, not surprisingly, nowhere to be seen. In today's Ottawa Citizen, there was speculation that as many as 90% of the red admirals could have died. I was therefore happy to see two red admirals today. One in the Arboretum, and this one at FWG. As you see, it is in a spruce tree. It appeared in a brief sunny break but some rain was starting to fall and as it did, this butterfly flew straight into a spruce and began walking delicately along the branches until it got quite far in and after some moving around, folded its wings and sat still. Just at that moment, the skied opened again. So perhaps some have survived by just this sort of protective behaviour. This one was very tattered and torn, however.