19-JUN-2010
FWG 20th anniversary party
Happy Birthday/Happy Anniversary, Bon Fete, to us!! We celebrated 20 years of existence with a big party at the garden. It was well attended, as you can see from this group photo, and seeing many of our previous volunteers again was wonderful. Peter Hall and Jeff Harrison both attended, the founding fathers of the garden, and gave us their reminiscences about how the garden came to be. Eileen Chivers, the first manager of the Backyard Garden, shared her memories of those early days and it was a powerful experience to hear the collective wisdom of these three folk instrumental in getting this wildlife garden going.
16-JUN-2010
After the work on the dam
Regular visitors to the FWG will know that we recently had some much needed work done on the dam. The work took place on Monday and part of Tuesday. The crew created a wide spillway, and piled huge rocks down the slope to prevent further erosion. Next step is to install a new bridge.
14-JUN-2010
4-lined plant bug (Poecilocapsus lineatus)
Quite a few of these pretty little bugs around.
14-JUN-2010
In the Old Field habitat
This song sparrow is using a bird box as a perch from which to keep watch for intruders (several pairs of song sparrows are nesting in the old field area). The Rubus odoratus below adds a pretty touch to the scene. This shrub has self seeded only in the last year or so in this location.
14-JUN-2010
Hover fly (Toxomerus geminatus) female
A tiny, tiny little hover fly, one of the most common, along with T. marginatus.
12-JUN-2010
Pink (Dianthus)
These are garden plants from Europe that can now be found in many natural areas. These were photographed, however, in the Backyard Garden section of the Fletcher Wildlife Garden.
12-JUN-2010
Milkweed (Asclepias syriaca)
Milkweed are now blooming at the garden. In other parts of the Ottawa region the flower buds are just emerging, while in sheltered locations they have been flowering for over a week. This is of course, the iconic flower, associate with the Monarch Butterflies. I wonder if we will see any this year. They had a very tough winter in their Mexican wintering grounds, with heavy rains, hail, mudslides wiping out their trees, etc. Nonetheless, they are migrating northward. They are being seen in small numbers in various parts of the northern US and in Ontario. One was found near Carp some weeks ago. So far, I have not seen any, but am hopeful!
12-JUN-2010
Purple flowering raspberry (Rubus odoratus)
A beautiful native Rubus species, whose flowers closely resemble that of a wild rose.
10-JUN-2010
Blanding's Turtle
This large Blanding's is resting its long neck against a pile of cattails. The neck is so long that if you just saw the head and neck it might almost look like it was attached to a large snake.
10-JUN-2010
Wood duck with young
Although these three photos of the wood ducks were taken in the Arboretum, wood ducks visit our pond throughout the spring to fall months. Jeewanthi said that there were three families of wood duck in the Arboretum, and this one aggressive female was rounding chasing the other females away from this very large combined brood!
10-JUN-2010
Wood duck with young
A gorgeous shot by Jeewanthi of this wood duck family in the Arboretum.
10-JUN-2010
Wood duck with young
Isn't this quite the gathering?!