26-JUL-2015
Big stretch
A fat and happy young groundhog having found heaven in the garden!
26-JUL-2015
A mouthful!
This youngster is happy as can be having found paradise in the Backyard Garden of the Fletcher Wildlife Garden. However, not everyone is happy that he is eating the plants that were planted to attract wildlife. It is a conundrum for sure! But I think this little guy is so cute that I'd allow him to chomp away.
26-JULY-2015
Happy Groundhog
Hans found this young groundhog happily eating flowers in the Backyard Garden. This should not be a surprise. We created this garden to show people how they can also create a wildllife friendly backyard, one that is full of plants supplying nectar, pollen, seeds, fruit, and other edibles for wildlife.
23 July 2015
Art in the woods
In case you were wondering, several of the ash tree stumps in our Old Woodlot were carefully embellished by students from an Ottawa School of Art camp under the direction of Marika Jemma, a well known local artist. This morning, Sandy showed the group around the FWG, visiting the Butterfly Meadow, Insect Hotel, and Old Woodlot. After lunch in the Arboretum, the students returned to work on environmental pieces in the woods.
23 July 2015
Bark and DSV
The students used dog-strangling vine in some of their pieces of art after asking permission to pull some from the field north of the woods - of course, you can pull it; please feel free to weed the whole field!
23 July 2015
"What you give you get back only 10x better."
A lovely sentiment and a lovely montage of found flowers, grasses, seed pods, and a wreath made of DSV.
23 July 2015
Beetle trails, flowers, and sticks
An interesting juxtaposition of a piece of tunneled wood, tiny flowers, and sticks wrapped with leaves and wedged under the bark of this ash stump... And nice use of the setting.
19-JULY-2015
Chipmunk
Checking out the plums. Chipmunks, though they are mostly seen on the ground, are adept tree climbers and will often be seen high up in a tree in pursuit of food.
19-JULY-2015
Gray treefrog (Hyla versicolor)
One of the cutest of frogs! These little creatures never fail to delight. As their name suggests, they are primarily a species of upland habitats, often found in trees, or perched on vegetation, only spending time in aquatic settings when mating and of course, in the tadpole stage.
15-JULY-2015
Soldier beetles (Rhagonycha fulva)
An introduced species that is now quite commonly established not only in Ontario but across Canada. Barry found this mating pair on queen anne's lace.
19-JULY-2015
Eastern comma butterfly (Polygonia comma)
A rather tattered comma on a coneflower plant, photographed by Barry. Eastern commas are one of several species of butterfly that overwinters as an adult at the FWG.
19-JULY-2015
Hover fly (Eristalis arbustorum)
The queen anne's lace is is full flower now and attracting a myriad of insects, such as this bee mimic hover fly. Eristalis arbustorm was introduced from Europe.
