07-JUL-2009
White-striped black (Trichodezia albovittata), #7430
Lots and lots of moths, including the very delicate white plume moth, the Large lace border and the White-striped black.
07-JUL-2009
Large lace border moth (Scopula limboundata), #7159
A lovely Geometrid moth, very commonly found.
06-JUL-2009
Plume moth
A peculiar looking moth in the Pterophoridae family.
07-JUL-2009
White-faced meadowhawk
Apart from some Sedge sprites and Eastern forktails, the only Odonate was a White-faced meadowhawk.
07-JUL-2009
House wren fledged young
Baby birds are everywhere, which is wonderful. First of all, the House wrens nested successfully and now have at least 3 well-fledged young, and possibly 4. I saw three young together with one adult, and a fifth flew in to join them but I couldn't see whether it was a juvenile or an adult. Young catbirds were begging for food, as were young crows, song sparrows, and yellow warblers. Young robins have been around for a long time now and they robins are on their second broods at least, if not their third. Cardinal families are quite visible, and young chickadees are exceedingly vocal. On the other hand, the goldfinches are just thinking about nesting and will soon be in full breeding mode when the thistles bloom. I did see one gathering cattail fluff yesterday.
07-JUL-2009
Mourning cloak wing
Along the Bill Holland Trail, I found the wings of a Mourning cloak butterfly. Clearly a bird had caught and eaten the body and left the wing parts to fall to the ground.
06-JUL-2009
Muskrats in the Pond
I spent a few hours at FWG today, taking a look for interesting observations. While standing at the pond talking to a couple of visiting birders, one of them spotted a dark shape amongst the cattails. Through the binos we could see it was a muskrat. After they left I kept watching it and soon a second one appeared. They were having a great time eating the cattails and I spent an entertaining 15 minutes watching them. Unfortunately, they were just that far out of range that my camera couldn't do a good job of picking them up. Here is the best of a bad lot of photos.
06-JUL-2009
Chipmunk eating comfrey seeds
After watching the muskrats for while I noticed over to their right, a chipmunk amidst some comfrey and sure enough this little guy was chomping down on the comfrey seeds.
06-JUL-2009
Chipmunk eating comfrey seeds
Over in the Backyard Garden (BYG), chipmunks were busy eating the serviceberry fruit, sharing it with a few cedar waxwings.
06-JUL-2009
Wool carder bee (Anthidium manicatum)
THese non-native bees are big and easily identified members of the Megachilid family. They are frequently seen on plants such as Stachys.
06-JUL-2009
Fly: Rivellia sp.
These very tiny flies with the pretty wing patterns, are fairly common at the moment around the FWG.
06-JUL-2009
Tachinid fly (Cylindromyia sp.)
And here is another interesting little fly, one that can look like a small wasp with its long abdomen. In addition to flies, there were a few butterflies, European and least skippers, cabbage whites, a few odonates, Common whitetail, Sedge sprites, Eastern forktails, and some other beetles and bugs, but it was very windy and coolish, not great for butterflies and dragonflies.
