Toronto trip - Part 1

On August 27th I ventured off to the big city of Toronto. The main reason was to attend a family wedding but I also hoped to visit areas where wildlife could be found. On the very first night I found the Mount Pleasant Cemetery which turned out to be as much of a treasure trove as the Mount Royal Cemetery in Montreal (and even more so as will be seen further on). This map shows the location of my hotel at the corner of Eglinton and Mount Pleasant and two of the major places I visited (outlined in red). Unfortunately it will not enlarge for some reason.

The next post will be devoted to the Ernest Thompson Seton Park. For now we'll see some of the sites of the Mount Pleasant Cemetery.




The beauty of the area.




One of a small flock of migrating Red-Breasted Nuthatches.

A Monarch Butterfly. These gorgeous creatures were flitting about everywhere.

I have tried to get a good close-up of the berries of the Bittersweet Nightshade for a long, long time. I finally got it!

I found these bees on one of the most colourful flowers in the cemetery!

Aside from the Gray and Black Squirrels, several Red Squirrels were out and about and this one seems ablaze in the late afternoon light.

But here is the sight that I have never seen at the Mount Royal Cemetery!! I was astonished to see a deer come running close to me. It was stressed by a loud grass mower hence the open mouth but afterwards it ran to another area and then just calmly walked.

And lastly, here I am. My reflection is caught in the polished granite of a tombstone. I thought it gave a dreamy image of the foliage and sunshine. Contrary to what people may think, I believe cemeteries are for the living and are poignant reminders to live life as fully as possible.

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)