21-Nov-2021
Checking it out
The chipmunk was either hiding under the squirrel baffle (which has been "tagged") or thought there was a way to the feeder through it.
21-Nov-2021
Eastern chipmunk (Tamias striatus)
Deciding there was more chance of seed under the feeder...
21-Nov-2021
Mallard
looking rather contented.
16-Nov-2021
American red squirrel (Tamiasciurus hudsonicus)
16-Nov-2021
Last of the autumn leaves
The day was cold but the sun came out on and off and was lovely, backlighting these brilliant yellow leaves, some of the few still clinging to trees.
16-Nov-2021
Oriental bittersweet (Celastrus orbiculatus)
The bittersweet vines are very pretty, especially in autumn with their bright red and orange seeds. However, this one, the non-native species can hybridize with the American bittersweet and in time cause the latter to become scarce. You can tell this is not the native variety because the seeds are arranged all along the stem, rather than clustered at the end as in American bittersweet.
16-Nov-2021
Black-capped chickadee and female house finch
The feeder at the Backyard Garden was a very busy place this morning,with small flocks of house finches, a few white-breasted nuthatches, chickadees, white-throated sparrows and downy woodpeckers. Nearby flocks of juncos and a few robins, and in the ravine, American goldfinches, while overhead an immature northern harrier circled, and flock after flock of Canada geese fly by.
16-Nov-2021
Eastern chipmunk (Tamias striatus)
Three or four of these little ground squirrels were very much in evidence and as I spoke to a couple of people, one darted past and within a foot of us, dove into its not very well-placed burrow entrance.
16-Nov-2021
The Old Woods
This is the southern edge of the Old woods, the open field under the purview of AAFC. At one time it was full of goldenrods, asters, grasses, dogwood shrubs, common milkweed, etc. and attracted all types of insects including monarch butterflies, as well as birds. But it also had thickets of the highly invasive pale swallowwort/dog-strangling vine and this is probably why it is now kept mowed.