Some additional shots from the Bruce

For some reason Blogger was being a little b*tch last night and I was having a bit of trouble uploading photos, so I only put a few up. Here are a couple additional photos from the weekend.

enjoying the beach at Singing Sands

have you EVER seen a happier looking dog? - Singing Sands

Wolf Spider with young - Singing Sands

Cool to see one up on the Bruce. (Common Buckeye)

Mantis - Cyprus Lake (photo by Kaylyn McCaw)

Patrick doing his thing (photo by Kaylyn McCaw)

full extension - The Grotto

Northern Leopard Frog

Also forgot to mention - on the way home, my car stopped in Mount Forest for a little bit of a stretch break. East of the bridge downtown (where they are doing construction) is a fairly extensive floodplain with some muddy edges. We found 8 species of shorebirds here, including 1 White-rumped and 1 Wilson's Snipe. Various dabbling ducks were around, as was 1 Osprey, 1 Double-crested Cormorant, 2 Green Herons, and 2 Great Egrets. This is probably the best spot I know of in Wellington County for shorebirds at the moment.

Some forgotten shots from this summer

I was going through some of my photos today and realized there were quite a few that I had taken but hadn't taken the time to edit. Since I never made it out to Pelee as planned (work got in the way), this will be my only contribution of the day.

An awesome little bug that I tried to be "artsy" with.

This is one of my radioed females. She was implanted in early June, moved almost 1/2 a km to give birth (the farthest movement I've seen so far out of this species), gave birth in mid July, and then traveled the entire distance back back to her home range. Quite an accomplishment for a little snake that weighs just 50 grams!

Butler's Gartersnake - Windsor, ON

In early summer, I took some time to photograph some of the metamorph frogs. In some areas it was possible to have at least 10 of these little Northern Leopard Frogs hop away with every step one takes.

Northern Leopard Frog - Windsor, ON

One afternoon, a few of us went on an Eastern Prairie-Fringed Orchid hunt in Ojibway. This plant is Endangered in Ontario with only a handful of populations left. On our way to the orchids, I stopped to take some (very poor) photos of some metamorph Western Chorus Frogs.

Western Chorus Frog - Ojibway

And the star attraction of the day...

Eastern Prairie Fringed-orchid - Ojibway

July 2 was the Ojibway butterfly count. I met up with Tom Preney and we spent the morning scouring our area for whatever butterflies we could find. We didn't see much and I didn't photograph too many things, but here is a small sample of some of the insect life... Not photographed (but seen) was the endangered Rapids Clubtail near the Ojibway Nature Centre.

Robber fly sp. - Ojibway

Mourning Cloak - Ojibway

There's no place like home.

Today I had very little on the agenda, so I slept in and went for a few hikes in the afternoon and evening. The first place I went was the Grand River. It is only about 2 kms from my parent's place in Cambridge and I place that I spent many hours at as a kid.

There were hoards of bikers and dog-walkers on the trail, but once I headed off into the bush I didn't see another soul (except a hobo who had set up camp).

I tried to photograph some insects, even though the light was kind of crappy at mid day.

Cabbage White - Grand River, Ontario

I'm not really sure what species of skipper this is and I don't have any reference books nearby. It was feeding on Joe Pye weed.

Tawny-edged Skipper - Grand River, Ontario (thanks to Kirk Zufelt for the ID)

Ebony Jewelwing - Grand River, Ontario

Little Wood-Satyr - Grand River, Ontario

The bird life was what one would expect for mid afternoon on a 30 degree day in mid-August. Not much was singing! Among the usuals (Indigo Buntings, E. Kingbirds, SOSPs, etc) there were a few highlights, such as a Belted Kingfisher, 40+ Chimney Swifts hawking insects, Osprey, and a few shorebirds. There were 3 Lesser Yellowlegs and 2 Least Sandpipers mixed in with about 30 Killdeer on a rocky island. This is the first time that I've ever seen migrating shorebirds at the river.

Also interesting to see were 2 presumably summering Common Mergansers.

Common Mergansers - Grand River, Ontario

I didn't see too many herps today but I stopped to grab a quick shot of this Northern Leopard Frog.

Northern Leopard Frog - Grand River, Ontari

This evening I checked out a few of my favorite areas to the southwest of Cambridge. I photographed this Question Mark,

Question Mark - North Dumfries, Ontario

and saw a nice variety of Grassland Birds. They included Eastern Bluebird, Savannah and Grasshopper Sparrow, Eastern Meadowlark, Merlin, Killdeer, Eastern Kingbird, and Brown Thrasher.

Grasshopper Sparrow - North Dumfries, Ontario

All in all, nothing to crazy was found but it was nice to check out some of my regular spots that I have somewhat neglected in recent years.