08-OCT-2010
Hermit thrush
OK, so this was not taken right in the garden! But it was taken in the Arboretum close by and is the same shrub in which the yellow-rumped warbler was photographed. The fruit of this Aralia spinosa (a fearsome shrub by the way... you'd know if you bumped into it. Ouch!!) seems much beloved by many species of birds.
08-OCT-2010
Yellow-rumped warbler
These guys were around in good numbers both at FWG and in the Arboretum. I took this photo in the Arboretum, on an Aralia spinosa shrub, the fruit of which these guys (and robins, hermit thrushes and cedar waxwings) were consuming with gusto. This is shrub native to eastern NA, just not quite this far north.
06-OCT-2010
Backyard Garden feeder
I spent a short time in late afternoon at the FWG. The skies were dark and it was pouring rain, but when I saw that Tony had installed the BYG feeder for the winter I had to take this shot. Already the chickadees were flocking to it. Doesn't take these clever little guys long to find their food source! I am quite certain they would say "thank you" to Tony if they could!
05-OCT-2010
Dog-strangling vine/Pale swallowwort
You can easily see that the dog-strangling vine (DSV) is in the same family as milkweeds, in this shot. The seeds disperse in the same way, using their silken parachute to reach new ground. Sadly this is a serious invasive species and has no value for insects, the milkweed has.
05-OCT-2010
Autumn meadowhawk (Sympetrum vicinum)
There was just this one dragonfly flying around the Amphibian Pond today. If the weather remains warmish, we can often see these odonates right into early November. Other than this meadowhawk, I saw a few clouded sulphurs and cabbage whites, a good number of honey bees and bumblebees, a few plant bugs, some orb weaving spiders, an Asian ladybeetle, but not much else.
05-OCT-2010
A raft of ducks
Today there must have been more than 25 ducks in the pond, an unusually high number (except for that one winter when we had over 125 in the pond for much of the season!). Most were blacks and mallards, but the lone green-winged teal continues to reside there.
04-OCT-2010
Grey squirrel with walnut
Another shot of a nut-collecting squirrel.
04-OCT-2010
Green frog
It was such a lovely morning that even the frogs were taking advantage of the warmth. In many places around Ottawa (but not at FWG), one can hear the spring peepers calling away. They first call in early spring, one of the first and most abundant frogs to do so, and they start up again in late summer and fall! The green frogs don't call, but they are more readily seen than the elusive, though common, spring peeper.
04-OCT-2010
White-throated sparrow
Jeewa reported many birds during the morning at FWG. Flickers, catbirds, song sparrows, juncos, white-crowned sparrows, cardinals, yellow-rumped warblers, chickadees, and so on, and white-throated sparrows of course. These birds breed in the area, but not at FWG which doesn't have quite the right breeding habitat. However, throughout the summer they can be found around the greenbelt, Larose Forest, Marlborough Forest, Gatineau Park, and so on, a common nesting species.
04-OCT-2010
Yellow-rumped warbler
This lovely photo is by Jeewa who had a productive morning birding at the FWG. Yellow-rumped warblers are one the first warblers to arrive in spring, one of the last to leave. They don't go as far south as most of the other warbler species in winter, often only to the southern US, and are therefore more hardy and more important, able to arrive more quickly on breeding territory each spring.
04-OCT-2010
Black squirrel with food
As they've been doing for some weeks now, the squirrels are very, very busy gathering and storing food. The greys, such as this black (melanistic) one, employ a different method from red squirrels and chipmunks. They bury their food all over the place, a nut here, a nut there, scatterhoarding as it is known. This is undoubtedly what this one is preparing to do.
04-OCT-2010
Hermit thrush
These are relatively late migrants in fall (and early in spring). They have been found in many places around the region lately, and Jeewa took this lovely photo at the FWG.
