I was very surprised to find this small Tulip tree sapling at the FWG!! I must have walked by it many, many times and never noticed it. It is about 18 inches to 24 inches tall, so perhaps it was covered by DSV (it is in the midst of a patch of it). This species is native to southern Ontario and is one of the trees usually associated with the Carolinian zone of southern Ont. There is at least one in the Arboretum so I imagine our sapling comes from that source. Unless someone planted it at FWG??

The crabapples at FWG had attracted many house finches and robins. Meanwhile, the big stand of burdock not far away was full of juncos, chickadees and more house finches.

Today, inspired by Diane's observations of so many insect species yesterday, I sought out some still-flowering goldenrod and sure enough, there were some tachinid flies, a couple of tarnished plant bugs, and this very slow-moving mason wasp who was probably, sadly, at the end of his life span. I say "he" because this looks like a male, with the yellow face.

This box contained a black-capped chickadee nest. The nest had later been taken over by a mouse who had added some seed fluff into the middle of the chickadee nest, although it looked like the whole thing had been abandoned before being completely finished. At the bottom of the nest was a layer of seeds. Not sure which plants they are from, but I'll try to find out. The mouse had clearly used the box as a storehouse for seeds,

A tiny little plant bug still out and about in this warm weather. Along with this, and the other insects noted by Diane, Claudia, Jeewa and I also saw a shamrock orb weaver, some wasps (looked like yellowjackets), and some biting late season blackflies.

The warm weather brought out lots of insects. Diane was at the garden also and found, as we did, a number of these pretty lady beetles. She also found some tachinid flies, a green lacewing, grasshoppers, a moth and a few plant bugs.

Claudia snapped this photo of me on the ladder cleaning out a box with Jeewa very kindly holding the ladder. The ground is very uneven and without someone to hold the ladder, it won't stay upright. This is taken just above the pond, on the south side. The New Woods are just behind us, and the red barn at the back.

Today, Jeewa, Claudia and I cleaned out all 34 nest boxes at the FWG. It was great to have help this time around, and someone to hold the ladder! We found some interesting things, such as three nest boxes with lovely mossy chickadee nests, a number of nests with mice in them, some with red squirrel nests, some with polistes wasp nests affixed to the inside roof of the box, quite a few unused boxes, and not a whole lot of swallow nests. But more on that in a report I'll try to put together soon for the FWG website.

Here is the chickadee nest (the mossy part), with a mouse nest built in the middle. You can see the seed fluff used by the mice, and you can see how the chickadee nest has been lifted up from within to create a sort of dome over the interior mouse nest!

I'm not sure which species this is. It could well be Trichaptum biforme, as in the previous photo, as they vary considerably.

A very dainty, delicate little mushroom that grows on logs and standing dead trees. Sometimes you will find them on a dead branch on a living tree. They grow on a variety of tree species including buckthorn, birch, sumac... If you look at the underside you will see that they are pink, fan shaped and very pretty.

It was a misty morning when Jeewa saw flock after flock of Canada geese flying over the garden. This image is very redolent of autumn!

Jeewa captured this group of geese taking off from the Canal below the FWG.

This female still has a beak full of seeds from the sow thistles she was eating. She, a flock of juncos, and some white-throated sparrows, were busy with the various weed seeds while a blue jay flew into the cornfield adjacent and began attacking some corn still on the cob!

When I arrived at the garden today, this crow was sitting near the feeder cawing away. You can see a splotch of white scat on its tail. This occurs when crows roost in large congregations and do what they have to do. The scat often hits other crows rather than the ground, hence in winter when these large roosts occur, you will often see crows with these white patches on various parts of their body.

Mourning doves are relatively scarce around the garden during summer, largely because they are breeding and therefore, secretive and quiet. Come autumn and they begin to appear again, congregating sometimes in large numbers as winter draws on. One winter we regularly saw 20+ near the Ash Woods feeder. In Jeewa's photo, you can see that they are gathering again.

Some warblers were still moving through the garden and Jeewa managed a shot of this one, not an easy bird to photograph. Warblers move very quickly and many, like this, are usually higher up in the trees, making photographs difficult. These are spectacular little birds and in bright spring plumage are a treat to see. Watch for them next May in the garden.

This beautiful little duck has been at the pond for the last month. He has finally acquired his lovely fresh plumage and seems much more comfortable now, hence he didn't immediately swim away when I approached to take his photo.

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.

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!

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.

Another shot of a nut-collecting squirrel.

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.

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.

This famous puddle has seen lots of activity over the last few weeks because it is in a near constant state of fullness thanks to the rains we've had. Jeewa captured some dark-eyed juncos there recently. The juncos, along with white-throated and white-crowned sparrows are now much in evidence. Keep an eye out for fox sparrows too. Still song and chipping sparrows around as well.

This absolute drenching rain came down while the sun still shone brightly. It looked like a curtain of water and I took a number of shots before I got one I liked. When I turned around, there was a spectacular rainbow!