A few photos from last week-end

A couple of pictures of a raccoon being cute (head tucked in tree cavity and dipping its paw in a container of rain water). A flower with an iridescent green fly and a Goldfinch on a thistle. Another post of few words! :-)

Swamp creatures

Finally back to blogging. I seem to have blog posts that run through my mind but I haven't put anything down in writing. Actually, to take the easy way out, this will be another "picture post" with little text. My spare time seems to be spent either editing photos or taking them, with little time left for thinking or writing.

Here is a sampling of some of the swamp creatures that I encountered yesterday at my favorite nature park (Ile Bizard).

Least Bittern (a normally shy bird)

Turtle

Song Sparrow

Frog

Marsh Wren

Dramatic Dragonflies

The more I photograph dragonflies the more fascinated I become by their beauty and variety. The following identifications are my best judgements. If anyone has another suggestion, please let me know.


Twelve-spotted Skimmer



Male Eastern Pondhawk



Female Eastern Pondhawk




Dot-tailed Whiteface



Four-spotted Skimmer


Unicorn Clubtail


Common Green Darner


Female Widow Skimmer


Immature male Widow Skimmer


Male widow Skimmer on Loosestrife

Male Widow Skimmer

Immature male Widow Skimmer

Immature male Widow Skimmer

Glorious birds!

Here is a sampling of some of the glorious birds I have seen recently.

Tree Swallow
Mallard (with a mischievous look but is that a halo over his head?!) :-)

Wood Duck (female)

Red-winged Blackbird (female)

Two more insect photos

Just another quick post of two more insect photos. Butterflies are obvious choices as beautiful insects but I think this fly is quite stunning too!

I'm back!

Well, it has been almost a month since I last posted. One reason for this is that I was on vacation for a week and took so many photographs that I have spent all my time editing them since then. Also, of course, there was the usual "catch-up" to do at work and on top of that I bought a new computer and had it installed this past Friday. I was aghast to find out that data transfer (from the old computer) was not included in the installation (it was when I upgraded eight years ago!) so I have worked all weekend doing it myself. I am almost finished but my photographs alone have taken 10 hours to transfer!! What takes 1 hour on my old computer takes only 3 minutes on my new one so it was way past time to upgrade.


Now I am exhausted but thought I would post two dragonfly photos. I took these at an urban nature park that is a real treasure trove for finding dragonflies so I will go back often. I hope you like these in the meantime.


Eastern Pondhawk (female or immature male)


Widow Skimmer (female)

More spring babies (of the Woodchuck variety)

This week-end I checked out a Woodchuck den that was active last year and was delighted to see a new family with three little ones. I can't be sure but I believe the mother is the same one as from last year. You can see my gallery of that family here.

This den is on a wooded slope in a cemetery which is a very busy place on week-ends and holidays. Car loads of people kept arriving and, in order to be discreet for the sake of these animals, I patiently waited for about two hours hoping that as the day waned, the crowds would thin out. Sure enough, around five pm I could hear car doors slamming and engines starting. At last I would have some "alone" time with the mum and her babies.

Well, one's patience is sorely tested when photographing wildlife! Just after the last car left and I positioned myself near the den, a raccoon wandered by on the upper edge of the slope (where one of the babies was exploring). By its manner I don't think it was stalking the young one but at the very least, it startled it and there was a big commotion resulting in one terrified little Woodchuck hurtling down the embankment (gravity was helping propel it and amazingly it never lost its footing) and all three dove deep into the den. As well, a stone was dislodged in the process and it made quite a racket as it tumbled down into the dried leaves. All this caused the mother to leap into action and climb up to confront the intruder - however it was long gone at that point.

Needless to say, my photo op was quickly over! Instead, I decided to come back the next day at an early morning hour which paid off with many of the following pictures. I am also happy to report that all three babies seemed no worse off for the skirmish of the previous day!

Mother resting.
Two of the babies.

All three babies!

Watching the watcher.

A tender moment between litter-mates.

A young one with the mother.

Mother bonding with baby.

Mother and all three babies!

The little ones love to chew on branches and twigs.

Litter-mates.

Relaxing in the dappled sunlight.

I was amazed to see lots of tree climbing!!

A sweet and alert little face :-)