Chelsea's Blog

Moonset pillar

2012-01-08T08:47:00.000-08:00

The BigWetNose had me out of bed at 6:20 a.m. this fine morning, and while outside I noticed that the setting moon in the clouds was throwing up a pillar. I got bundled up, grabbed the camera and tripod, and trotted out to the cemetary field to try to get some shots. I am definitely NOT a "morning person", had quite the time trying to focus the lens, and not entirely successfully. Nonetheless I managed a few shots, a couple of them here.

New Binocs

2011-12-29T14:11:00.000-08:00

Just before Christmas, Canadian Tire was running a special on Celestron 15 x 70 Skymaster binoculars, regular price $149.99 marked down to $49.99. Couldn't believe my eyes. Debated with myself for 24 hours, is this for real? Read reviews online, most said they were good binocs. Sooo...off I went and got myself a pair. I am quite pleased with them. They had a cheezy little plastic adapter to mount them on a tripod, as you simply cannot handhold these steady for star viewing. I set about building a sturdy mount plate instead, took a piece of hardwood, added a Tbolt for the quick release plate, stitched together some plastic padding to help reduce vibration, and added one inch wide strapping with a good dose of velcro. I adjusted the binocs to my eye width and strapped them to the plate, put them on the tripod and headed out for an hour long session to gawk at the sky. I am impressed. I can see the moons of Jupiter, the 4 stars in the Orion Nebula, and Pleaiades fills the whole viewing frame. Only problem is, now that I have my new toy, we're going to have crappy cloudy/rainy weather for the next 5 days. *sigh* just classic. Can't wait to take these out birding some nice day.

Fun with photography

2011-12-06T18:37:00.000-08:00

A recent presentation at our photo club showed us how to use various light sources for various effects. I scooped a few of the discarded glow sticks at the end of the meeting and proceeded to play with them at home. I have a few "nature artifacts", sometimes they come in handy, like this deer skull and antlers. Still working on ideas for compositions, this is just trying out the light effects with long exposures.

Jupiter

2011-10-29T12:29:00.000-07:00

Jupiter has been "at opposition", high in the night sky and easy to see. Took a shot with the 300 mm lens, can see 3 of its moons. Gotta gotta gotta get me a telescope, just can't decide what to get.

View of the night sky from my backyard, October 28, 2011, 4:50 a.m., 10-20mm lens at 10mm, f4.5, ISO 800 for 30 seconds.

Glow-in-the-Dark Firewood

2011-10-20T07:24:00.001-07:00

There was a thunderstorm rolling in at about 2:00 a.m. this morning that woke me up, so I grabbed the camera and set it up hoping to get some shots of lightning. No dice, the lightning was up in the clouds lighting up the sky but no clear bolts. I stoked up the woodstove and sat on the couch for a while, and when my eyes adjusted I noticed a strange green glow by the firewood box. I wondered what the heck that was, as there were no electronics there with little lights that would cause the glow. I turned the light on and saw some pieces of firewood I had set beside the box. I turned the light off and let my eyes adjust, saw the green glow. Turned the light on and took the topmost piece and set it on the table and turned the light off. The piece of firewood was glowing. I set up the camera and took some long exposures of the glow. It is the bottom butt piece from a small dead tree that I had cut yesterday, the bottom end glows but not the top end. Must be some kind of fungus in the decaying wood, I'll have to investigate this further. The gnarly root piece is still (I think) out beside the firewood pile, I'll have to see if I can find it. It's too bad I don't know where I had collected this particular supply of wood, yesterday I had taken my little 16" chainsaw and went out the laneway, stopping in several places to collect small dead trees for firewood for our woodstove, things that had fallen over, "easy stuff" that I can gather on my own. This particular piece is 5 1/2 inches wide at its widest. I'll have to do some investigating on causes of phosphorescence in decaying wood.

Excuse me, WHAT kind of potatoes???

2011-10-18T18:43:00.000-07:00

Sometimes when you read some pretentious nonsense on the side of a package your really have to laugh out loud. This time it was on the side of a small bag of potato chips. I LOVE potato chips. Bought a small bag because I will sit and munch non-stop on the largest family size bag of potato chips you can buy. An open bag is an empty bag. Anyway, I digress... Having enjoyed my small bag of ketchup potato chips I got to wondering what kind of spices they use to get the ketchup flavour, so started reading the list of ingredients. Now, the main ingredients are always listed first, and you can usually assume that the main ingredients in a bag of potato chips are: (insert *drum roll* ) potatoes. In THIS bag, however, we didn't have just any old potatoes. Noooo...these were "specially selected" potatoes. Not red potatoes, not Irish white potatoes, not PEI potatoes, not sweet potatoes, not yellow potatoes.... "specially selected" potatoes. I'm picturing some bespeckled guy in a white lab coat and boots, clipboard in hand, pen clutched firmly in other hand, as he steps between the furrows of a freshly plowed field specially selecting the potatoes. Just warms the cockles of my heart, and the digestion of my belly, to know that I have just eaten specially selected potatoes.

More Orion

2011-10-09T18:28:00.000-07:00

This is how this dog sleeps. Honestly. Sometimes she rolls up against me on the bed, I wake up, all I see is feet in the air. Finally managed to grab the camera in time to catch her in the act.

I think it's obvious that Orion is my favourite constellation. While the rest of world, my dog included, were sleeping, I got up just after moonset this morning and got out the camera and tracker, knowing that this would be the last chance to photograph stars in a dark moonless sky for a while. This was the night of the Droconid meteor shower, but with the nearly full moon and the shower peaking on the other side of planet, no Draconids were seen. (I was out a couple times just after dark to check.) There is, however, a minor meteor shower, the Arietids, originating from Aries/Taurus, and I did see a few that were probably those. Lovely to the eye, too dim to show up in the photographs, in spite of high IS0 and wide apertures.

At least it was a mild night, we've been enjoying sunny warm weather this past week. There were a couple of firefly larvae lighting up lime green in the grass near my feet.

I had forgotton to put the slip of paper in my pocket that listed the time the ISS was coming over, and of course had the camera pointed in the other direction. Fortunately I looked around in time to see it coming, so didn't miss it entirely.

*sigh* The full moon is coming around, and by Wednesday we're supposed to get another rainy spell for a few days. Hopefully there will be some breaks in the clouds during the night, lovely to see the moon shining through, lighting up the clouds and reflecting in the water.

2011-10-07T06:36:00.000-07:00

Kerrie the Merry Pup stuck her nose in my face at about 3:30 a.m., and insisted on going out. So...on with the pants, shirt, boots, coat and out we went. When my blurry eyes cleared a bit I realized that it was clear skies, moon had set, and the temperatures weren't that cold, so I got the tracker and camera bag and headed down to lake to try for some shots. Conditions were good but photography was total frustration. Could not for the life of me figure out Polaris, so couldn't set the tracker. While I was wandering along the lake shore looking for it I set the camera for a few minutes, thought I may as well get a star trails shot. Took a few 30 second shots, I'm *sure* I had set the camera for 1600 IS0 but found out later that it was set for 400 IS0, not good.

I then headed over to the dock to see what the viewing was like there. Still couldn't figure out which star was Polaris, with the field of stars turned many degrees at that time in the morning (now 4:26 a.m.) it was confusing, not a view I'm used to. It finally occurred to me to set for a star trail shot for about 3 minutes and then check the viewfinder in the camera, the one in the middle's gotta be Polaris. So, having done that, could finally set the tracker. At the far end of the dock Orion can be seen *just* above the trees at "the point". I love trees, but being down in the valley with trees on a hill, ain't good for astronomy.

Another source of frustration is the Manfrotto ballhead. It's a squat shape, the release knob is large, doesn't allow the camera to settle into the angle that I want for some shots. Again, I had set the camera for some 30 second shots at IS0 1600, was *sure* I had set the IS0, but they were on 400 IS0 where I had it set for the tracker shots.

At least the dew held off, I could see a bit of steam rising off the lake in the flashlight beam while setting up, that's usually an indication that you don't have much time before the lens fogs up.

Finally gave up around 4:45 a.m. and went back to bed.

My first Star Party

2011-09-28T16:22:00.000-07:00

Photo taken at around 4:30 a.m. the Fall'n'Stars Star Party.

2011-09-14T17:44:00.000-07:00

It's that time of year again when the fat mature caterpillars start showing up. Here are 2 that I photographed today.

Since 2006, Giant Swallowtail Butterflies have been seen in our area. I finally got to see several of them this summer, and recently discovered their caterpillars in the prickly ash bushes along our laneway.

When you prod these guys they suddenly sprout red tentacle-like structures called osmeterium as a form of defence. Also helps to hide in plain when you're shaped like a bird turd.

I nearly stepped on this big caterpillar, it was over 3 inches long. Closest I can figure from caterpillar book is that it may be the Great Ash Sphinx, will have to have that confirmed. It was a lively fellow, (m?f?) thrashing about excitedly when I picked it up, nearly dropped it.

Summer storms

2011-08-21T17:57:00.000-07:00

Saturday wasn't too bad weatherwise for most of the day. Along about 11:00 p.m. the clouds came rolling in and I saw lightning coming up in the distance, so I grabbed the camera and found a dry spot to sit and take long exposures. Had fun watching the storm and shooting the lightning until it was directly overhead and pouring down rain, figured then it was time to skedaddle indoors.

Summer night skies

2011-08-09T16:16:00.001-07:00

Haven't had much time to play with the cameras during the daytime hours, but there have been a few nights when I got out the barndoor tracker and took a few shots. These were taken just past midnight on August 2, 2011. The first on is looking southwest. Lens Sigma 10-22mm set at 10 mm, ISO 400, f 4.0, 267 seconds exposure.

The second shot is northeast to southwest, same shot settings, exposure time 249 seconds. Both shot in RAW and converted to .jpg

The Perseid meteor shower is coming up Friday night/Saturday morning, predictions are for clear skies. The only drawback will be the near full moon. Going to be interesting trying to shoot meteors with the bright moonlight.

Flashdance

2011-06-28T13:06:00.000-07:00

I was ready to go to bed last night, turned out the lights, peered out the window...and saw lots of little green sparkling lights dancing over the beach. The fireflies were putting on a good show, so I decided to take the camera out and see if I could get some pictures. I did manage a few good long exposures.

It's interesting to watch the patterns of the flashes. This was discussed on the nature list, that we should learn the flash patterns of the different species. I'm just wondering where one would find the information on the flash patterns. I was thinking this would be difficult, but when you stand for a while and watch the fireflies in action, after a while you can pick out different patterns. Some are *bippitybippitybippity*, pause, repeat, others are *bip* pause *bip* pause, repeat, and still others are *bleeeeeep* pause *bleeeep* pause. A couple of these patterns are apparent in the shots.

A mass of firefly lights in a long exposure. There were about a dozen fireflies in this location.

Here are two of the patterns, the *bippitybippity* and *bip* *bip* *bip*.

One of the fellows on the astronomy forum has some wonderful shots of fireflies and star trails. I'm inspired by these, and hope that I can find a location where I could shoot something similar.

Dragonfly with Shrunken Head...or a case of Head Ripped Off?

2011-05-25T18:14:00.000-07:00

The Update/Correction: Okaaaaayyyyyy.....I was bound and determined to see a shrunken head on this dragonfly. Now I'm not so sure, it's probably a head ripped off. It LOOKS like eyes and mandibles, but I have no good magnifier to put on it. I have found out that a dragonfly's brain is not necessarily in its head. "Ichabod", as I've named it, lived about 6 more days. Then I was reminded of how cockroaches can live without their head for a week. I have found newly emerged dragonflies with some kind of deformation, some not even making it out of the exuvia and dying half way through emergence. I am thoroughly creeped out by this episode. I am also reminded of how badly I need new glasses! Time for some bifocals for the closeup views.

The Original (Erroneous) Post and Observation:
?This morning I was moving plants out onto the patio, and saw what I thought was the body of a dragonfly laying there. I picked it up, thinking to set it aside and examine the remains later, try to identify the species. It looked to me like something had bitten the head off. I had it by the folded wings, and the legs started kicking. This creeped me out a little, and had me wondering how the body could keep moving without the head. I took it upstairs and set it in a container. A couple hours later I came indoors for something, looked at it again, poked at it with my finger. Legs started moving again. Surely it couldn't live that long without a head. So I grabbed it by the wings and peered at it closely. I realized that it wasn't headless, it had a shrunken deformed head, really bizarre looking. What really puzzles me is how the heck the thing managed to live out its larval stage with a shrunken head. The snapper swing-arm jaw must have been working. The mandibles on this adult are pretty much useless, it is doomed to starve to death. It's already weak, or it probably would have flown away while I was photographing it out in the bright sunlight.

Snow Goose

2011-05-25T18:08:00.000-07:00

We've got a northern visitor in our back yard. This snow goose has been hanging around the lake shore the past couple of days, looks like it may have an injured wing. It trots up onto the lawn and grazes, swims quite well, looks like it's otherwise okay, just can't fly. I'm keeping an eye on it, hopefully it just needs a little time to rest and recover.

It was a dark and stormy night....

2011-05-22T12:46:00.000-07:00

It started out as Quest for Treefrog, but after stumbling around the hillside by the frog pond for a bit in the dark there was a bright flash and a boom of thunder, so I skedaddled out of there. I headed down to the lake to see if there was a storm to be photographed, it headed across the east side of the lake and south. Lightning lit up the clouds, but didn't catch any bolts.

As I was standing there with the camera, I noticed bright flashes coming from the west, across the peninsula, so I headed over to the dock at the other bay, only to discover that I had been missing a good storm cloud on that side headed south.

That cloud had a nice big cumulus being lit up spectacularly by lightning. In one of the shots I did manage to catch a couple bolts. Looks like some kind of creepy outer-space alien monster from a B movie.

After all the storms had headed south, the sky above cleared, but I sat on the dock continuing to take long exposures of the night sky as the clouds lit up now and then in the distance. Lo and behold, I was lucky enough to catch a meteor in one of the late shots.

Waxing Gibbous Moon

2011-04-14T06:35:00.001-07:00

This gets downright addictive. I was wanting to take more pictures as the moon waxes and wanes, but the weather's not cooperating.

Crescent Moon

2011-04-08T08:55:00.000-07:00

I finally got the adapter so I can attach my camera to my Bushnell 60mm spotting scope, and have been playing around with it trying to shoot the moon. The exposure is okay, but I can't seem to get the shots really sharp. Still, fun to play with. Took some shots of the crescent moon 4 days past new last night, then took the barn door tracker setup out to the field and shot the moon as it was close to the Pleiades cluster and just over from Orion. Orion is my favourite constellation, easy to find, and lots of interesting things in that section of the sky. Have to see how much I can save this summer, I have dreams of a decent telescope.

Geese in the wind

2011-04-06T12:17:00.000-07:00

Last night it looked like we may have been getting another good sunset, and I ran out to the back field, but it fizzled out by the time I got there. The geese have been coming over at dusk by the hundreds to settle in for the night on the marsh to the northwest. There was a strong wind blowing, and the entertainment began. As the geese came from the south and southeast in their V formations, and then lowered altitude towards the marsh, every now and then a sharp gust of wind would hit them. There were near collisions, geese getting flipped over, their tidy V formations suddenly being thrown into a jumble of birds that looked like a flock of drunken crows. I tried to photograph some of them, only got a few out-of-focus shots with the short lens and poor light, but here's a couple that show what a struggle the poor birds had in that wind. I am amazed at how quickly they managed to recover from being knocked around in the gusts.

One bird here got flipped right over.

Sunset

2011-04-03T05:25:00.000-07:00

We had on/off clouds and wisps of rain yesterday, typical spring day. At sunset I noticed the sun peaking out from under a band of clear sky, and realized we may get a pretty sunset sky. I wasn't disappointed, got this "ring of fire". After a day of things going wrong around the house, at least this worked out.

Speculations about a possible Water Shrew

2011-03-20T17:01:00.000-07:00

In the field by the cemetary out back there is a drainage ditch leading to a creek. Last fall I noticed a few tunnels in the mud close to the water, and caught a couple glimpses of a black mouse-sized creatures scurrying for cover into one of the tunnels. Discussion on the nature list led me to believe this may be a water shrew. Now that the snow has recently melted, it is evident that the wee creature(s) has been quite busy over the winter. There were only a few tunnels at the end of the ditch, now both sides of the ditch are littered with these tunnels. Would be interesting to find some sort of live trap to catch one of the critters and get a closer look at it.

Last flight of Discovery

2011-03-12T06:40:00.000-08:00

Tuesday evening was a rare clear night, with the last flight of the Shuttle Discovery scheduled. I had missed the better sight the night before, when Discovery had just parted from the International Space Station. Now, I didn't know that Discovery was still in close proximity to the ISS, but I wanted to get a shot of the ISS. Later, when I had news from an astronomy forum that people had seen Discovery several degrees ahead of the ISS, I went back through the pictures and found one shot with a faint streak ahead of the ISS. So I did manage by dumb luck to get it.

The ISS as it passes below Orion. Orion is one of my favourite constellations, easy to see, big and bold in the winter sky. I have a theory about Orion and

the pyramids,, but need more information and don't know how to go about getting it. Internet searches don't quite show what I'm looking for. Need to get myself down to Queen's library one of these days and do some reading.

The Boys

2011-03-05T16:46:00.000-08:00

My boys. Two spoiled rotton cockatiels. When my rabbit Chelsea passed away, I wanted to get another rabbit. A cute, cuddly, soft, furry little bunny rabbit. Ike wanted these birds. Ike got the birds. After a year, Ike lost interest in the birds. Now, any critter that comes into my house (any except things like ticks or spiders) is going to get their claws into my heart. These guys came squawking into my house about 12 or 13 years ago, so they've pretty much got a firm grip. They're not cuddly, you don't want to get your fingers too close to those nasty sharp beaks, and when they're excited they can scream a shrill squawk that drills through your eardrums into your brain. But I love them. I don't like keeping birds as pets, I think if you're going to keep a creature whose very life and soul is flying around, you should have a large room where you can let them do so. I don't have the space. So I have to keep their wings trimmed. They have a very large cage, but that's not the same as having space to let them soar as their very nature intends them to do. They're used to being kept in the livingroom, where they can watch the goings-on of the household, but since the Monster Puppy Kerrie (more on her later) came into our lives, I have to keep them in this back room for their very safety until we can train the Beastie not to chase them. I hope she settles down soon, I want them back out where we can watch each other through most of the day.

In Memory of TANKA

2011-03-05T15:55:00.001-08:00

I miss my "Baby Bear". My beloved Tanka was a big lumbering German shepherd. I got him when he was a wee pup only 3 months old, a clumsy lively bundle of energy with short legs and huge paws that he would occasionally trip over just walking across the livingroom. His antics would make us howl with laughter. He loved to play fetch, and would chase a tennis ball for hours if you had enough strength to keep throwing it for him. He grew up to be a good-natured dog, a big goofy giant of a dog, not an ounce of aggression in him. People who knew him wouldn't believe that, his sheer size intimidated many humans, and his penchant for barking at anyone who came near me didn't alieve their fear of him.

We put him through the obedience training, and he learned to be quite civilized in some ways, but in other ways he had a mind of his own. He did not like the word "come". His motto in life was "What's in it for ME?", and often had to be bribed with treats. In spite of a few quirks he was a wonderful companion, always happy to see me when I came in the door. He hogged the lion's share of my bed, averaging 100 pounds throughout his adult life, and wanting his half out of the middle. In spite of my own size I often woke to find myself clinging to the edge of the bed with my feet hanging out in mid-air. I'd have to get up and shift him over, or bribe him over with a treat. He didn't sleep with his head pointed in the same direction as mine. I was faced with a big furry butt by my waist, and feet that would kick me in the backside during the night. Thank heavens he rarely farted! Rare was enough, a couple times a year the aroma would rudely wake me from my sleep. He was never "cuddly". He loved sitting beside me and having his ears stroked and liked being petted, but never liked having an arm around him or being cuddled. His left ear never came up straight, but flopped, and when I talked to him he would turn his head back and forth while he was listening, giving him a really comical look. If you wanted to get his attention REAL quick you just had to say "Cataraqui?" Little Cataraqui Creek Conservation Area was his absolute favourite place to go, and during the cold months we went there almost daily so that he could sniff his way around the trails. I didn't even have to say it, he was so tuned in to me that I just had to think about taking him, and look at him, and he'd KNOW. He didn't even have to be in the same room, sometimes Dad would look at me, point to the south silently asking me "Going to the park?" I would nod, and 5 seconds later Tanka would come bouncing in the room, staring at us, and then excitedly jump around. Too bad we didn't have some way to document this seemingly doggie ESP.

It's been four months since Tanka got very suddenly and very seriously ill, and I had to face that heart-breakingly painful decision that many pet owners have to face. Dogs don't live near long enough. I'm one of "those" pet owners, you know the kind, the ones that get seriously attached to their critter companions. My life has been made so much richer by having shared my life with Tanka. And Norrie, the Boss Bitch. And Champ, another Boss Bitch. And Chester and Chelsea, the rabbits. Guinness, Guinea, Cinnamon and PeeWee, the guinea pigs. Buster the hamster. Wolf, Fritz, and Esther, German shepherds we had when I was a kid. I miss every single one of them.

Late season Monarch

2010-10-27T19:20:00.000-07:00

I was pleasantly surprised today to find a monarch butterfly. 'Tis a bit late in the season, they all should be well south of here. Was a nice warm sunny day for this last week of October, although breezy. At least the big "weather bomb" that hit the midwest U.S., southern Ontario and southeast U.S. brushed by us last night, we just got a bit of rain and wind. Nevertheless we headed out to the lake to check on things, I had to paddle down the lake and open up the dam, water level was getting high again. I saw a few dozen meadowhawk dragonflies, the last dragonflies of the season that hang on until brutal cold and frost is finally too much for them. There was one big darner near the dumpster, flying too high and fast for me to get a bead on it. At the roadside pond painted turtles were basking on the logs. A water snake was curled up in the sun by the steps to the trailerpark area, until I came down and it wiggled away. Frogs were still numerous along the shoreline. I would have liked to have explored a bit this afternoon to see what else was still out and about but I was just too tired from lack of sleep last night and fighting the wind paddling down the lake. Seeing the monarch made my day. We were driving home and this big butterfly was winging along in front of us, I thought it was a mourning cloak until we got close and I saw the orange, so I stopped, grabbed my camera and leaped out of the truck to get a few shots. Was supposed to be clear tonight with "a few clouds", I had hoped to get out the camera and try some star trail shots, but those few clouds turned into dense overcast with a gale force wind. Hope my butterfly is holed up somewhere until it can flutter south.

Little green blobs

2010-10-11T16:30:00.000-07:00

It somehow seems fitting that during the time that Comet Hartley sails through the sky someone on the nature list brought to our attention firefly larvae. While out trying to photograph the night sky, I "discovered" that we had several larvae on the ground down by the lake. Last night I tried to photograph them, this proved more challenging that I had thought. You need to set the tripod and macro lens near one that is consistently blinking so that you can focus on it. It took several minutes and some wet knees to get some mediocre shots, and then, as with all light objects in the dark, just got a blob. But some may interested in seeing what they look like so I'll post it here. This is much enlarged, in reality they are tiny green lights twinkling in the grass, as if to use their bioluminescence to reflect the very stars twinkling in the sky above, or even to celebrate the passage of a celestial body that looks similar in our eyes.

Comet Hartley for comparison.

Night shots

2010-10-10T06:24:00.000-07:00

Had a beautiful clear night last night, but you can feel that it's getting into fall and winter, temps got down to just above freezing. I stood outside by the lake playing with the camera and barn door tracker for a couple hours until my fingers and toes started to hurt from the cold. It's soon going to be too cold to stand out there for any length of time, so I'm going to enjoy the view while I can. The first shot posted here is for a friend of mine who was smart enough to move to Arizona. He was lamenting that he's having to get used to the stars at that longitude/latitude, couldn't see the Big Dipper in the evenings. It's started to get low on the horizon here, managed to catch a shot as it was sinking towards the tree.

Second shot is a digital montage of 2 shots, one was taken with the barn door tracker to get the stars, the other was a star trails shot that kept the trees sharp. I love photoshop. I can see possibilities with this. I can also foresee more cold toes and fingers, it's supposed to be clear for the next couple of nights, I will no doubt be out again trying to get more similar shots while we're still here at the lake.

Comet Hartley

2010-10-03T19:09:00.001-07:00

I finally "saw" the itsy-bitsy comet that is now whizzing through our solar system. I still can't find it with binoculars, but I put the camera on the tracker and pointed to where it's supposed to be and fired a few shots. The little green blob appeared in the image. Hopefully later this week it will get a bit brighter, and we shall continue to be blessed with clear skies.

Big ol' Toad

2010-09-30T19:30:00.000-07:00

Rained all of today. This evening, just as it was getting dark, thought I'd bring in the night's supply of firewood, we have a small stack against the rockwall straight out the door, covered with a small tarp. There are some small stones to hold the tarp in place, I was grabbing them and setting them aside to pull the tarp back. When I grabbed for one of the "stones" I immediately realized the cold rubbery thing in my hand was not a rock. It was a big ol' toad, lovely specimen. I brought her inside for a better look, and to take a picture. I set her in a plastic tote while I brought in the firewood, in the few minutes it took she warmed up and got lively. I got the little camera and tipped her out onto the carpet by the door, then tried to herd her with my right hand onto my left. ("Her", had small ears.) Finally got her cornered, she had to climb onto my hand, then settled long enough to take some quick snaps. I was wanting to measure her but she'd have none of it, so I took her back out and set her back atop the tarp where I'd found her.

I'm having to watch my step when I come out the door, the green frogs are on the move, sometimes 2 or 3 on the walkway. Tanka sees them hopping and then tries to get his big nose on them, they just hop into the goutweed groundcover and hide behind the flowerpots. The peepers have been calling for over a week, there's one outside the window as I type this. It must be sitting somewhere at the side of the house but I haven't found it yet, when I open the door it quits calling.

Flying Squirrel

2010-09-26T10:33:00.000-07:00

This afternoon Dad and I wandered into the woods off our lane to check on some dead trees that we'll be cutting for firewood. It started to rain, so we trotted back out again, and just before I got to the road I spotted this dead flying squirrel lying belly-up on the forest floor. It looks as though some predator got it, from the marks probably some bird of prey. We had been talking loudly back and forth and tramping along, not my usual try-to-be-quiet prowling and looking, so we didn't notice whay may have gotten the squirrel. I scooped it up to examine it back at the house, it wasn't warm as it should have been had it a fresh kill, felt more like it had been laying there a while, although when I set it upon a newspaper the fleas started to come off it, so it hadn't been there long. My "Mammals of Ontario" describes the northern flying squirrel's belly hairs as being gray at the base, as this one does, so I'm thinking it's a northern. Makes me sad to find one in this condition, they're beautiful little squirrels. I had a live one active near my cabin last summer, saw it land on the trunk of pine, and I could hear a soft *thump* on my cabin roof now and then before I went to sleep, no doubt one of them landing on its way to and from the big oak tree. We have 3 big oaks in a clump near the house, I should put a little feeder platform on one of the trunks and put a couple handfulls of sunflower seeds out after dark, see if I can attract some to where I can photograph them.

Caterpillars

2010-09-21T08:47:00.001-07:00

August and September are good months for finding caterpillars, they're coming into the mature stage and fattening up for winter, either overwintering in their present state or more often going into cocoon. I spotted some red-humped oakworm caterpillars on the side of the laneway on a small oak tree (* my guidebook says they're almost identical to the white-headed prominent but even the expert writing the book has difficulty separating the two, so for the sake of ease I'll refer to these as oakworm.)

Caterpillars are far too often overlooked, many of our species can be quite beautiful, sporting bright colours and lovely patterns.

Among my favourites are the tussock moth caterpillars, like this hickory tussock. They're like soft furry little teddy bears, silky to the touch, not spiky and in some cases stinging like the io moth caterpillar. I grabbed an io caterpillar once by mistake when picking up some leaves, the tips of my fingers were numb for a couple of days.

Couple others that I've found and have had time to photograph are this green and yellow striped black arches moth, and an orange with black headed caterpillar found on red oak, as yet unidentified. Looking at the pic of the orange caterpillar I'm seeing the "stitchery" of some critter that glued leaves together with web, I've been meaning to investigate that further, haven't gotten around to that yet.

Stinkpot turtle

2010-09-20T18:33:00.000-07:00

The highlight of my day today was finding a stinkpot turtle. Stinkpots are a relatively rare species in Ontario, and are rarely seen due to their secretive and nocturnal habits. I've always suspected that we had some in the lake, seems to me we found "mud turtles" years ago when I was a kid, but couldn't say for sure if they were all just snapping turtles. Today I have confirmed their presence. It was a beautiful sunny day, light northerly breezes, Dad and I were working on various things. I've been fighting a horrendous cold all week so have been plodding about. This afternoon after having finished most work I took something over to my cabin, and dawdled about looking at flowers, then wandered down to my dock watching the fish in the calm water. Something moving on the bottom of the lake caught my attention, a small turtle was crawling over to the rocks at the base of my dock, and stopped and half hid when it saw me moving closer for a look. By the shape of the shell I realized right away that it wasn't a painted turtle, and hoped it were a stinkpot. I ran and got my fishing net, knelt on the dock and carefully scooped up the turtle. To my delight it was indeed a stinkpot, and I carried my prize up to the house to show it off to Dad. I grabbed camera and measuring tape, took some photos of the indignant creature, then took him promptly back to the lake and set him gently in the water, where he quickly headed for the bottom and immediately dove into the weeds and mud. I say "he", the cloaca was near the end of the tail.

Using the barn door tracker

2010-09-11T15:43:00.000-07:00

We FINALLY had a clear night last night, no moon, no humidity, and I had a chance to play with the barn door tracker. I had tried one night a couple weeks ago but had the hinges on the wrong side. Last night I got it turned correctly, sighted on Polaris, then proceeded to take some pictures. Much better results when you've got it set up properly. The results were not bad for a start. I was hoping for a few more clear nights so I can practise with it before Comet Hartley shows up, but we're back into cloudy weather for a few more days, and then the moon will be getting brighter next week. Maybe if Henry's gets me my adapter tube for the camera I can set up the scope and shoot the moon til we get clear skies again. In the meantime, these will have to do.

Lightning

2010-09-09T13:55:00.000-07:00

We had a wicked storm a couple nights ago, the good thing about it was the lightning. Not that I'm fond of getting zapped, and it can be a bit scary, but a storm like this at night is a great opportunity for photography. I started shooting the storm from the dock, but as it got nearer and the rain started pelting down I hightailed it for the safety of the house. It's too bad our view had become overgrown over the years by the trees. I need to find some way to park my truck down by the lake where's there a clearer view, and shoot through the driver's side window.

Barn Door Tracker

2010-08-20T14:06:00.000-07:00

I spent the afternoon constructing a "barn door tracker" for astro-photography. It's a contraption meant to keep the camera pointed at the star you're aiming at, compensating for the earth's rotation, and preventing star trails. I'm hoping to try it out tonight if the sky remains clear, and IF I can haul my sleepy bones out of bed after moonset, which happens at 3:01 a.m.

Moonlight

2010-08-18T07:12:00.000-07:00

We're in a phase of waxing moon, my dark skies and stars are going to have to wait for a while. I was hoping to get the camera adapter to set up the scope, but forgot to take the camera with me to the photo store, so that will have to wait for another week.

So...if you don't get dark skies, enjoy what you have. Some clouds came in over the moon, reflected on the still waters of the lake this makes a pretty sight. First shot was taken with the lens that I had, the kit lens 18-55mm, only opens up to f 5.6. I was wanting a more light-sensitve lens, bought me a 50mm f 1.8, the second shot was taken with that one. Picks up starlight very nicely, only drawback is that it doesn't cover much sky. The wide angle lens that I've been drooling over is way out of my price range at the moment. Next project is to build a "barn door tracker", see if I can get some shots of the milky way.

Perseid Meteor Shower 2010

2010-08-15T13:09:00.000-07:00

After suffering through forecasts of cloudy, clear, cloudy, clear, the sky finally cleared up nicely in time for the annual Perseid meteor shower. I set up the camera around 11:00 p.m., and stayed out taking long exposures until 3:30 a.m. when a bank of clouds rolled in and spoiled the fun. I would have stayed til dawn, it was a good show. Unfortunately the only "small" lens I have only stops down to 5.6, I need a wide angle lens that stops down (or is it up on the wider open?) to 2.8 or even 1.4 . Something that is faster and more light-sensitive at any rate. I see the ol' "toys budget" being blown on a new lens in the near future. I'm in withdrawal this weekend, cloudy skies. The Kappa Cygnids, a minor meteor shower, is coming on the 18th, if it's clear, I'll be out there.

Something else I'll have to save for is a decent telescope if this obsession continues. The Chapters Bookstore gift certificate was burning a hole through my wallet, I finally got Terrence Dickinson's book Night Watch, good all-around astronomy book. There are nebulas and galaxies waiting for my peering eyes to scope them out. I found the Andromeda galaxy last week through binoculars. Now I'm wanting bigger and brighter. Some women settle for shoes or jewelry. I want the very stars!

Moon through telescope

2010-07-28T04:50:00.000-07:00

Last night I took out my little Bushnell spotting scope and just for the heck of it took a look at the moon. I haven't looked at the moon through the scope in a while, forgot how wonderful it looks. I wondered if I could get a shot somehow with the camera, so I put on the macro lens and held it up to the eyepiece and fired away. Some of the shots were not too bad. Now I need to get another tripod and line them up for a steadier better focused shot. Of course it would be best to get a camera adapter and just attach the camera to the scope, but I don't have one yet, so this will have to do for now.

Moon

2010-07-21T17:23:00.000-07:00

Playing with the camera past couple of nights, shooting the moon. Finally bought me a cable release for my Rebel XT. Use it once, you wonder how in heck you ever got along without it! The moon being eaten by trees was shot with the 75-300 mm zoom, had trouble seeing to get good sharp focus.

Bombus, halictid, and the purple flowering raspberries

2010-07-09T19:11:00.000-07:00

What nectar-eating creature could resist an offering such as this? The purple-flowering raspberries, like many other plants this year, are just bursting with a profusion of blossoms. I can't recall ever having seen such large clusters of flowers on these shrubs. I wish I had more time to just stand and admire them, camera at the ready, the bees and other insects are taking advantage of the bounty.

This little halictid bee worked over this blossom pretty thoroughly. These are

among my favourite insects, one of the first bees to come out in spring and dazzle the eye with their metallic green working their way through the bright yellow dandelions.

We've been discussing Bombus, the bumblebees, on the nature list. I'm wondering how many species we have in this region, my amateur offhand observations give me the impression of 4, this without having examined them closely. There's the big ones, I call those the B52's. Then there's the "midsize guys" (gals, but don't tell the bees, it doesn't rhyme). Then there's the little duffers, mini-bumbles, about 1/3 the size of the B52's. In the mid-sized range there's the red-butt bumblebees, they have a wide reddish stripe across the abdomen. The B52s move about purposefully, with that recognizable drone. The midsize guys always seem to be in a hurry, frantically buzzing about. The little duffers act more like honeybees. It's amazing that they can fly so well when you see the size of the wings in proportion to the body. They remind me of furry little cherubs, pudgy bodies being held aloft with undersized wings, some kind of magic keeping them airborne.

Polyphemus moth

2010-07-09T19:03:00.000-07:00

Tuesday morning (July 6) I noticed a male polyphemus moth hanging on one of the moon lights. I got my plastic box/cage and popped it in there, kept it in a cool room until late afternoon. I took it out and set it on a chunk of old wood and set about photographing it, it wasn't quite cool enough, it started to vibrate the wings. I got about 20 shots, most of them slightly out of focus due to the movement of the wings, and then it took off. This is the 3rd live one I've found this year, plus the wings of one found on the ground by the postal stop in Glenburnie.

Hairy tailed mole

2010-07-09T18:47:00.000-07:00

Doing a little catch-up, been so brutally hot and humid this week didn't feel much like photography or chasing any critters. Got most of my work done in the mornings and then vegged out for the afternoons. Wednesday afternoon I did a load of laundry, hung it on the line, and came back down around to the house. At the spot where we stack our firewood, there was a small pile of sticks and debris left behind. As I came by I heard loud rustlings, the pile of sticks was moving, and I wondered what on earth was under there causing the commotion. 2 moles came up out of the pile, one of them ran out into the open. Fortunately I had my towel with me, I dropped it on the mole and scooped it up. Mole didn't like that, there was some squeaking and struggling in the towel. I took it into the house, and, knowing that moles can't jump, set it in the bathtub. Mole came out of the towel and skittered around on the porcelain, little feet pedalling like mad, not making much progress. I got my plastic box/cage, shooed in there, and took a closer look. It was not one of the star-nosed moles that I usually find, I noticed the nose right away, pink and pointy, sniffing in all directions. I didn't flip it over to see if it were male or female, it was a hot day, 86F in the shade and humid, I didn't want to stress the poor little thing any more than I already had. I grabbed the camera and took a few shots, then took it right back outside and set it loose about 18 inches from a hole beside the pile of sticks. Little mole sniffed about, recognized familiar territory, and made a beeline for the hole. Managed to get a couple shots of it on the ground, and one as it scrambled its way down the hole.

Tonight's supper

2010-06-26T11:00:00.000-07:00

Opening day of bass season. My big decision today: beer batter, or lightly fried with a bit of lemon?

Bio Blitz, gray moth

2010-06-22T18:55:00.000-07:00

Big gray moth, it was the size of a sphinx moth.

UPDATE: Thanks to the nature list, this has been identified as a Waved Sphinx, Ceratomia undulosa.

Bio Blitz moth

2010-06-22T18:42:00.000-07:00

One of the moths from the Bio Blitz.

(I'll refer to this as "wavy lined".)

UPDATE: Thanks to the nature list, the "wavy lined has been identified as Common Lytrosis, Lytrosis unitaria, the "cloaked" one is Alien Probole Moth, Probole alienaria.

Second moth from the Bio Blitz.

(I'll refer to it as light cloak with border.)

Bio Blitz Ants

2010-06-20T05:57:00.000-07:00

Found these "pointy-butt ants" under a rock during the bio blitz. Neat looking little things.

UPDATE: Thanks to the nature list, these were narrowed down to the genus Crematogaster. It's too bad we don't have easily available identification guides for ants, there's so many of them, and they're fascinating creatures. Just think, a horde of females working together in cooperative effort without much interference from the males.

Bio Blitz: fly

2010-06-18T15:57:00.001-07:00

Another Bio Blitz creature I'm trying to identify. This fly was found on a milkweed leaf at the side of old field pasture.

Liverwort from Bio Blitz

2010-06-17T08:00:00.000-07:00

A liverwort, growing amidst some mniums and mosses on a rotted log in wet forest.

UPDATE: Thanks to the nature list, this has been identified as Conocephalum conicum.

More stuff from Bio Blitz

2010-06-17T07:50:00.000-07:00

A land snail found under a rock. It's too bad I didn't know that Morton Creek was more like a small river, I could have brought my kayak and a long-handled net to scoop mud to try for molluscs. The access to the creek was crowded with bushes, made it difficult to get into.

Bio Blitz fungus

2010-06-16T18:40:00.000-07:00

Some sort of fungus found under rotting wood/bark in wet woods, with some kind of beetle larva.

Damselfly, found during Bio Blitz

2010-06-16T17:20:00.000-07:00

The rainy weather didn't help us out much for insects. I did manage one shot of a damselfly.

UPDATE: Thanks to the nature list, this one has been identified as a male Sedge Sprite.

Damselflies are such delightful little creatures. It's too bad I can't find a good comprehensive guide book. I shall try to photograph as many damselflies and dragonflies as I can this summer.

Now to figure things out...

2010-06-15T18:47:00.000-07:00

I'm worse than a little kid, I'm still excited about having seen a bear. Now on to the practical part, sorting out all my scribbles and getting my list in order. So far I have about 195 species, got pics of a few things that I'll need help with, starting with this insect. It was about 1/2 inch long, found it on a milkweed leaf. Can't find it in my insect books, probably overlooking it.

Update: the kind folks on the nature list identified this one as the larva of a milkweed bug.

Bio Blitz

2010-06-15T18:40:00.001-07:00

Had a great time at the KFN annual Bio Blitz, held near Morton. My personal highlight was finding a black bear, cute little duffer, must have been a yearling. Not small enough to worry about Mama, not big enough to worry about it. I just had the great fortune to be at the right place at the right time to see it run out onto the road ahead of us. Thank goodness I had a young biologist with me as a witness, the bear ran up into the woods and looked back at us through some trees, so this is as good a shot as I could get. As he put it, we got the classic Sasquatch pictures, but at least you can see the outline. It's ABOUT TIME I get to see a bear in this end of the province!

Got my ladder back

2010-06-08T19:36:00.000-07:00

Chicks May 25, still blind and downy.

I'm always amazed at how quickly chicks grow. We had robins build a nest on top of the stepladder in the shed, seemed like in no time they had gone from hatchlings to fledglings. I found one that fledged out, sitting atop the little shed we keep back of the house in case we need to set up the generator. The next morning I watched the parents busily pulling worms from the freshly mown lawn, and it occurred to me I'd better look inside the shed to make sure they all got out. Good thing I looked, there was a tall empty plastic trash can, one of the chicks was sitting in the bottom of it, chirping at me when I loomed over the top. I reached down and grabbed it with both hands, chick chirped loudly, both parents started screaming from the neighbour's poplar tree a few feet away. I took it out and held it up for parents to see, they kept on screaming til I put it on the picnic table. As soon as I moved away one of the parents came down to inspect it. I thoroughly checked the shed to make sure no more of the chicks were trapped in there, then closed it up and went inside the house to watch the parents feed it on the picnic table.

Fledgling June 3rd.

Blue Star, Red Planet

2010-06-07T18:32:00.000-07:00

I had read on spaceweather that Mars was going to be 1 degree from Regulus, a bright blue star, so decided to see if I could find this conjunction. As soon as I went outside and looked up I found it, bright shiny red and blue easy to see even for us beginner astronomers. Got a blurry slight out of focus shot, cropped a bit of that one to show the lovely colours.

Made for a nice star trail shot.

ISS

2010-05-14T18:47:00.000-07:00

Finally got a clear night to watch the International Space Station fly over. Nice and bright, arcing across the skies til it faded into the trees.

Dragonflies, Chickadee nest

2010-04-23T16:26:00.000-07:00

This afternoon I found my first dragonflies of 2010. 3 of them were flying around our parking area, I managed to get a few grab shots. Looking through my dragonfly books I'm narrowing this down to Beaverpond Baskettail, next guess Common Baskettail. Will have to get some others to look at it and confirm. My Field Guide to The Dragonflies and Damselflies of Algonquin Prov. Park and the Surrounding Area says that the Beaverpond baskettail comes out earlier. Seeing as how their colours look pretty much "set", they must have emerged at least a day or two ago.

After chasing dragonflies I wandered around taking shots of coltsfoot and Dutchman's breeches, then noticed a chickadee flying back and forth from a broken off tree stump to some small trees. When it landed in the small tree it spit out a mouthful of sawdust/shavings. Another chickadee joined it, and started doing the same. I realized there was probably a hole on the other side of the stump that I couldn't see, and they were cleaning out a nest cavity. The landscape is such that I couldn't get down around the hillside to see the other side of the tree, so I just snapped a couple of grab shots and beat it out of there quickly so as not to disturb them. I would love to know if they're just doing a little housekeeping before nest building, or if they are excavating a larger cavity. That will remain a mystery, I want them to keep constructing, so I'll have a nest that I can come back to later and observe them bringing food to chicks.

Dutchman's Breeches

2010-04-22T09:33:00.000-07:00

Dutchman's breeches are one of the first springflowers to appear in our woods. They literally explode out of the ground, in a couple of sunny days they go from little bunches of frilly green leaves to larger bunches of frilly green leaves with stalks of white blossoms shaped like puffed out pantaloons. They're blooming in abundance this year, many of them on hillsides/rockwalls where I can climb up and view them at eye level, not having to crawl upon the ground to view them close up.

My Audubon guide tells me that these are pollinated by bumblebees who have a "proboscis long enough to tap the nectar". I often see bumblebees buzzing about these flowers, trying to get a clear photograph of them is challenging. They're busy trying to get food and don't often sit still posing for me.

Another critter I sometimes see crawling about is the stilt bug, pretty little green bug, looks like a miniature walkingstick. To get these shots I was standing amongst the rocks on the hillside, picking my way about carefully to get a footing for both me and tripod. There was a 3 foot drop behind my heels, I kept my left arm firmly wrapped round a small ironwood tree to steady myself. To the left of me was a large section of rock that has parted from the base rock, there is a long 18 inch wide gap. When I was 4 and 5 years old I used to scamper through that gap, it was like a secret hiding place. I looked longingly at that gap, reminded that in my near five decades of life on this planet my travels through these rock hills have slowed from a scamper to a careful treading and plodding.

Hepaticas

2010-04-21T06:35:00.000-07:00

Hepaticas are one of my favourite spring flowers. Trying to photograph them can be a bit of challenge. Even though they're blooming in abundance this year, trying to find some that are in a good "clean" situation without a lot of grasses or twigs or other debris, and with a good background, has not been easy. I finally found a clump that was growing at the base of a clump of trees that looked like what I wanted, but it was behind a pile of pine firewood. I had to jam my overgrown self in against the tarp and pull branches out of the way in order to get the shot. There were a few bits of pine needles and dead grass that I picked out of the way so that streaks of white wouldn't show up in the photograph.

Many shotst that I take are what photographers refer to as "record shots", which are just fine by me, sometimes I want a record of how nature really looks. I think too much of our visual presentation of "cleaned up" scenes can create an unrealistic expectation of how nature appears. Many people who grow up in cities and who do not have much experience getting out and about in the woods and fields are disappointed when they don't find the showcased images on t.v. or in magazines. Having been influenced by fellow photographers I do try to get the "best" image, but have to watch that I don't overlook grabbing some shots of what's "really there". Sometimes those "record shots" are valuable when teaching people about where to look for things in nature, and about their real life history.

After shooting the "pretty" blue hepaticas in their nice clean setting, I wandered on up the hillside. There were bunches of white hepaticas growing in the grass...er, sedges. I took some shots of them in their "real" setting. Only after downloading the pictures did I realize that the abundant sedges surrounding the hepaticas were not a distraction to the image, but became a background pattern, and enhanced the shape of the flowers.

Tom Turkey

2010-04-16T20:06:00.000-07:00

Couple days ago we were driving along the back roads and spotted this ol' Tom Turkey struttin' his stuff to impress a hen. They were only 20 feet from the road, he was busy trying to get the hen's attention, she paid no attention to him or my truck, she was busy turning leaves trying to find some breakfast. He puffed out feathers, waved and strutted...such a guy thing.

2010-04-06T19:50:00.000-07:00

Went down to the park with Tanka again today, good thing I brought my camera. Several pairs of geese were wound up and fussing at each other, bullying a small flock of ring-necked ducks, and getting looks of annoyance from a pair of tundra swans.

One pair got just a little too close to another pair's territory, and a fight broke out.

A lot of pushing and shoving and biting until one of them finally gave it up and took off.

The maples are in bloom. A close examination shows a pretty frilly blossom. Didn't have my tripod with me, but managed to steady my arm using the "firewood hook" I keep in the truck to get a focused shot with the macro lens.

Bath time

2010-03-31T20:46:00.000-07:00

Took the dog down to his favourite park this afternoon for a walk and some sniffs. We were entertained by the antics of the Canada geese. They've paired off and have staked their territories, hanging close to their nest sites to ward off intruders. One pair was revelling in the warm sunshine, splashing, rolling, flapping, preening and just enjoying a good bath.

Along the trail we saw our first mourning cloak butterfly, and in another small pond we spotted our first turtle of the season, a painted turtle, who was basking in the sun at the edge of the cattails.

Elk

2010-03-26T19:23:00.000-07:00

There have been elk sightings in our area the past couple of years, but so far I hadn't seen them. My neighbour has been telling me of one that has shown up just down the road, it comes out at about sunset and munches on the leftover corn that was harvested in a farm field this winter. This evening I finally got the chance to see it, and managed to get a few pictures of it. These are about as sharp as they get, it was getting dark and I had the camera set at IS0 1600. Even then the speed was very slow. There were about 50 geese in the field around the elk, apparently the corn leftovers are good pickin'. In spite of about 20 cars pulled over and people standing at the fence, the elk seemed undisturbed, in fact came over closer to get a look at us, then went back to eating.

Garter Snake

2009-12-02T11:32:00.000-08:00

'Tis December 2nd, and a mild overcast day. Took Dad and The Beastie for a walk at the Little Cataraqui Creek Conservation Area, fed the chickadees, and headed for home. When we came back past the Outdoor Center I dawdled along looking for late-season blooming plants in their flower garden, and spotted a garter snake lying on one of the edging stones.

Moon and Jupiter

2009-09-30T18:20:00.000-07:00

Just when I was getting back into photographing the night sky, along came the rains. And clouds. This is putting me into withdrawal. This morning just before 2:00 a.m. I woke up, went to stoke up the woodstove, and saw the moon shining in the window. Spaceweather.com told me that the moon and Jupiter would be in close conjuction, so I got dressed, grabbed the camera and headed down to the beach to take a few shots before the thick clouds came rolling back in.

Odd effect with Jupiter

2009-09-16T20:50:00.000-07:00

I was out taking some star trail shots, with Jupiter in the picture, and when I downloaded the pics I got odd dots and arcs. I've not had this happen before, if there was some vibration in the camera, ALL of the stars in the pictures would be affected. I've cropped and enlarged the sections with Jupiter.

Encounters of the prickly kind

2009-09-11T19:06:00.000-07:00

My latest thing to try to photograph at night is the ISS (International Space Station). Caught it tonight cutting across the Big Dipper.

Ater the ISS had passed by, I headed over to another spot to see what the stars were doing where there was a thin film of clouds, thought maybe Jupiter would be over the pines. Good thing I had my flashlight, or I might have tripped over this porcupine.

At first he (she?) took off into the cattails at the shore, and I headed over to another part of the lawn to set up the camera and tripod. After a few minutes I heard noises, it was coming towards me, making a "hmmmm hmmmm" strange nasally kind of call. It came over and sniffed the tripod leg, and when I said "Well??" it took off again. I moved about 30 feet to another spot, and saw the porkie way off in the flashlight beam. I started to imitate the noise it was making, and it came trotting over to investigate. When I snapped pictures the flash made it move back, but I kept making the noise and it kept sniffing around. You can see by the picture of porkie sniffing at my shoe how close it came.

Exploding meteor

2009-08-27T06:27:00.000-07:00

Where did summer go??? Well, at least we're now into the season of clearer nights with a little less haze, and not too cold to stand otside for a length of time. Last night I took the camera down to the dock to play around with some long exposure shots, took a few of the moon setting, and then a few star trail shots. In one shot I managed to catch a meteor, and when I downloaded it and took a closer look at the enlargement, saw that there were bits trailing off as though it had been breaking up. Nice to catch a meteor, even nicer to catch some of the extra "action".

Wide angle shot.

Enlarged detail of the meteor.

Ringneck snake

2009-07-21T16:05:00.000-07:00

A couple of nights ago, when I headed out the front door, I nearly stepped on a snake on the front walkway. I shone the flashlight on it and saw the ring round the neck, so scooped up the snake for a closer look. Sure enough it was a lovely little ringneck snake. These are pretty, gentle snakes, very silky to the touch, and and are quite clean, never stink. I love the bright yellow colouring on the underside. I took several pictures of this one as it slid through my fingers, then turned it loose into the foliage beside the front door so it could continue on doing what it had been doing before getting near-trampled by a tired clumsy human.

Promethea moth

2009-07-21T14:40:00.000-07:00

About 3:00 a.m. this morning, when Tanka had to go out, I spied this moth at the windowsill of my cabin. It was cold, and I tickled it onto my finger and brought it inside for a closer look. It had a lot of spiderwebs stuck to it, I pulled those off gently with the use of a pair of tweezers. I set her in a dish where she stayed quietly til morning. I took her outside, set up the camera, tickled her onto the trunk of an old oak tree, and managed to get some pictures before she warmed up and took off into the trees.

Mantisfly

2009-07-05T13:59:00.000-07:00

Sometimes I'm amazed what I find in our house. Today I was picking up my laundry basket, and right beside it on the wood box was a mantisfly. I ran and grabbed my bug catcher and put it into the aquarium, then set up a box with a screen to try to photograph it. It was not the most cooperative model, kept moving off the milkweed leaf I had set up for it, but I did manage to get a few shots. It's windy today, I'm hoping if things calm down and cool down after supper, I'll take it outside and see if I can get a few shots before it flies away. I was happy to find this rarely seen insect, it's only the second one I've ever found.

Moving turtle eggs.

2009-06-16T17:31:00.000-07:00

The other night I saw a painted turtle laying eggs in our volleyball court. Being only an inch deep and in the right front position, it was guaranteed that these were going to get trampled, so I decided to move them to a corner of the beach where they wouldn't be disturbed. Dad came up with the idea of digging down around the nest, and picking up the whole clump of sand, eggs and all, in one lump. So that's what we did. Dug a moat around the nest, pinned a towel around the lump to hold it together, and then slid the big square shovel under it. We dug a hole down at the beach where we've seen turtles put their nests, and carefully tucked the lump into the hole, filled the sides with sand, and pulled out the towel. For now we have some cinder blocks around it to keep the raccoons from finding it, it's supposed to rain tomorrow, so once the smell of human and turtle is gone, we can remove the blocks and just let nature take its course.

Second hummingbird nest

2009-06-15T06:46:00.000-07:00

I am not a morning person. It takes a few cups of coffee and some time to pry my eyes open. This morning, I was sipping my coffee, standing in front of the window, and peering sleepily out at the landscape, when what to my wondering eyes should appear? A hummingbird. I watched her land on a birch branch about 15 feet from the window. She wiggled, adjusted, and settled, and it took me a few seconds to realize that she was settling onto a nest. She's been on and off, looks like she may just be completing construction. I showed Dad, took a couple pictures, and now we're staying away from the front windows, we want her to settle in comfortably. All these years of checking trees by the house, and now we've finally got one that we can see from the comfort of our livingroom.

Snowshoe hare

2009-06-12T17:55:00.000-07:00

A couple new pics of one of our residence bunnies. They're pretty bold, pretty much ignore us. Got this shot of Dad putting the new tire on the wheelbarrow, you can see Bun sitting right behind him about 6 feet away munching on the clovers, couldn't be bothered. In the second shot you can see that there's still a wee bit of winter white fur on the legs.

Leaf Beetle

2009-05-30T19:24:00.000-07:00

Doing a bit of housecleaning on the laptop, organizing some photo files. On April 25th I had been taking pictures of some hepaticas, and spotted this beautiful little beetle with deep dark green markings. I looked it up in my insect book, looks like it is some kind of leaf beetle.

Lousewort

2009-05-23T17:40:00.001-07:00

Lousewort, or wood betony. Looks like a fern crossed with an orchid. I don't see many of these around.

While I was taking pictures of the lousewort I looked over and spotted this treefrog curled up and snoozing on the sarsaparilla.

Hummingbird nest

2009-05-23T17:12:00.000-07:00

I kept checking the clump of maple trees where a hummingbird has nested the past 3 summers in a row, and this afternoon I was delighted to see yet another nest, although this one is in a higher branch. Better for her, more difficult for me to see and photograph the action when the youngsters are growing.

Lilacs

2009-05-23T13:43:00.000-07:00

One of the lovliest sights of spring: lilacs in bloom. And along with it a host of insects feeding on the nectar. I actually had a calm sunny afternoon and a few minutes' free time to spend photographing a tiger swallowtail and a few clearwing moths.

Snowshoe hare

2009-05-15T19:06:00.000-07:00

These are from May 6th. One of our resident snowshoe hares showed up still sporting a bit of its white winter coat. Looked like it was wearing white stockings. It doesn't seem to have much fear of us, we can get within 10 feet of it before it hops off, and then only for a short distance. Of course, it doesn't take much distance to attract my German shepherd's attention. Last night I had the Beastie out for his walk, and BunBun decided to hop around the corner of a building right under his nose. Beastie exploded into the chase. Having one hundred pounds of dog hit the end of a leash at a full run tends to pop even the biggest and heaviest of us off our feet. Fortunately I've learned to brace for impact, knees and elbows flexed, bringing Beastie to a full stop. I'm glad there's not many around to watch this performance, it must be highly amusing to bystanders.

(Reminder to self: sprinkle a bit of pepper around the hostas before bunny finds them and enjoys a salad.)

Hickory buds

2009-05-15T18:22:00.000-07:00

One of my favourite things to see and photograph in spring is the opening shagbark hickory buds. The small buds suddenly explode to the size of a tulip, then start to expand and open up, revealing enlarging leaf bracts.

Black Rat Snake

2009-05-15T16:57:00.000-07:00

This morning, while prowling about with the camera, I came across my first black rat snake of the season, basking on the drive beside our garage. I reached down and gave it a little tweak of the tail and it responded by curling up into the classic curled aggressive/defensive position. It wanted nothing more than to be left alone in the warm sunshine, but Dad had the tractor out and about and I didn't want it sitting in the road, so I took several pictures and then carried it off to the side and shooed it out of harm's way. It wasn't until looking at the downloaded pictures that I realized there was something odd about this snake: it has no tongue.

UPDATE: I've been informed that snakes can retract their tongues all the way back. It just looks wierd, I can't recall having an encounter with a snake that didn't, at some point, flicker the tongue at me. I took 46 shots, not one of them shows the tongue.

Spring

2009-04-05T20:07:00.000-07:00

In the midst of cold rainy days, we had a brief respite, another warm sunny day. Hard to believe we're supposed to get snow and rain over the next couple of days.

On the way out to the cottage today, I checked a spot along the road where I always see my first Dutchman's Breeches. I wasn't disappointed, there in the rocks were leaves, and even a few blossoms coming out. Out by the cottage, in the sunny places on the rocks, the first leaves were just appearing.

There is a sunny hillside up from the lake where hepaticas grow, there were several coming out in bloom.

My favourite roadside pond had its usual show of turtles out on the logs.

One turtle closer to the road was reluctant to leave its warm perch. There were 3 other turtles basking alongside this one that plopped into the water when we pulled up, but this guy held his ground, posing and showing off pretty spring colours.

"Our" loon is back, I can't recall having seen one return to the lake so early. Many mourning cloak butterflies and a few tortoiseshells were out and about.

The ponds are screaming with spring peepers and chorus frogs, thought I heard a few woodfrog quacks in between, but can't be totally sure due to the cacaphony of sound.

At Glenburnie I'm finally hearing the woodcock peenting.

Painted turtles

2009-03-28T18:09:00.000-07:00

It was a gorgeous sunny spring day today, so we headed out to the cottage to check on things. On the roadside north of Loughborough Lake coltsfoot was blooming in the roadside ditch.

In one of the roadside ponds turtles were out on the logs.

We saw 7 mourning cloak butterflies along the way, on the walk back out the lane I managed to catch one of them with the camera. It was stubbornly sitting there with wings folded, it would let me close enough for a good shot, but wouldn't open the wings. I finally thought to cast my shadow upon it, and then it opened the wings, and I stepped aside to take the shot of it in the sun. I also saw an anglewing, probably a tortoiseshell, flitting past me by the lake. There was one little orange jobbie along the lane but it took off before I could get a shot.

We picked up 4 large bagfuls of pine cones off the lawn, there was a bumper crop this year. Judging from the piles of chewed up cones the squirrels had plenty to eat over winter.

The phoebes are back, they serenaded us as we worked. One green frog jumped into the water when I walked along the shore. The ice is off the lake, except for the swamps along the shore.

During the drive back there were half a dozen wild turkey hens trotting on the road, tried to get a pick but they got into the brush too quickly.

2009-03-15T19:10:00.001-07:00

Took a walk out to the lake, another lovely spring day. The ice is starting to melt back from the shoreline. I checked along the boat beach, and found a green frog sitting at the edge of the ice. Some chipmunks were scurrying about and a robin was singing. On the walk back out the laneway there were 3 flocks of midges flying about 4 feet above the snow.

The other springtime ritual witnessed along the way was the annual race-yer-snowmobile-over-the-open-water-at-Loughborough Lake. Flocks of people milling about on the bridge hoping to see one of the sleds stall out and sink, an assortment of vehicles lining both sides of the highway for almost a mile, cops aplenty, ride checks either side of the milling masses, and one enterprising person taking advantage of the whole gathering with his hotdog stand. I would have liked to have stopped and photographed these antics of Homo sapiens, but had my father and the dog with me, both of them tired and wanting to get home.

Amherst Island

2009-03-15T13:32:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I tagged along with the Teen group of the Kingston Field Naturalists, they were headed over to the KFN property to check the purple martin nest boxes. It was a lovely sunny day, along the way we saw a killdeer, many robins and redwinged blackbirds, Canada geese, common mergansers, and flocks of other ducks. On the shoreline of the property there were 3 big piles of ice that had been shoved up by the wind, always an amazing sight to see.

There were 6 Teens and 4 adults on the outing. Martin houses were tipped down and inspected, some swallow boxes were also cleaned out, and we looked for other things of interest. One snowy owl was hunkered down in the rocks, hard to see from a distance, we didn't go near so as not to disturb it. A rough-legged hawk and a redtail hawk were flying about, as well as some crows and ravens. There were signs of an abundance of voles, we even saw some scampering through the grass. Some owl pellets were found and examined, one of the boys gave me "the look" when I referred to it as owl puke. Anne does an incredible job with the Juniors and Teens. I've never been good with kids, but I think that one of the most important things that the KFN does is education for young people.

On the ferry ride back we looked for birds, didn't see any unusual species, but we did get some entertainment from a gull chasing a crow. The crow had a piece of fish in its beak and the gull was bound and determined to steal it from him. The resulting aerial acrobatics demonstrated what skillful fliers both these species are.

2009-03-11T19:25:00.000-07:00

When the weather is cold enough and conditions are right, I get some really interesting frost formations on my porch windows. These were taken March 1, 2009. It's one of the few joys of winter, I never get tired of photographing these.

Porcupine den

2009-03-11T18:01:00.000-07:00

On Wednesday, March 4th, we headed out to our roadside pond to cut some firewood. The beavers had flooded the area a couple years ago and killed off a bunch of trees. I got the bright idea that while the snow was crusty, to have Dad cut some of the trees into lengths, and I could drag them to the road. To one side of the pond are some rock outcroppings, ever since I can remember

there's been a porcupine or two using the sheltered spaces for dens. While Dad got started cutting a fallen ash tree on the hillside, I clambered over the rocks to check to see if there was any sign of porky.

There were tracks, fresh droppings...and the tail of a live porcupine. You can see how it would be well protected from predators with only the backside and quills protruding. I didn't have time to investigate further, had to get back to the chores.

Here is my father, carrying a log over his shoulder, chainsaw in the other hand. The man is 84 years old. I hope I'm in half as good a shape at that age!

We made sure we left the larger "nesting trees" for the birds. There were a couple of fallen trees on the hillside that were a bit too rotton for firewood, I had Dad cut those into 6 foot lengths and hauled them onto the ice. I set them up in strategic positions with one end that would rest on something solid. Hopefully when the ice melts these pieces will settle into a position that provides sunning perches for turtles. This is one of my favourite ponds, there are plenty of wood frogs living here.

Pine grosbeaks, pine siskins

2009-02-24T12:48:00.000-08:00

One of my delights this winter is having a small flock of pine grosbeaks and a flock of pine siskins hanging around. The novelty hasn't worn off yet, and it's great fun having birds to photograph who are fairly tolerant of humans and who have been very cooperative in posing.

I stood quietly under the crabapple tree, and this siskin came over to check me out. While I took a few shots, about 5 more of them came over to where I stood and hopped about the branches right above me, they seem to be curious little birds. (That, or their chattering translates to "put the camera down lady and re-fill the feeder!")

It's entertaining to see the antics of the grosbeaks as they reach for the crabapples. All photos taken Tuesday afternoon, February 24, 2009.

Two good sightings today

2009-02-15T17:29:00.000-08:00

It's been a while since I've been out and about looking for interesting things in nature. This morning I didn't have to go far, just walking the dog in the backyard, when I spied a bird up in the neighbour's tree that I thought to be a shrike. I went back inside for the binoculars, and saw that it was a pine grosbeak, so I ran back inside for the camera. It turned out there were 6 of them, and they let me creep near enough for some pictures while they picked at buds on a spruce tree. It's been a few years since I've seen these, 'twas a nice birding treat for the winter.

Later in the day Dad and I took a walk out to our summer property. The conditions are very good right now for hiking around, there was some rain last week and now it is clear and sunny and just below freezing, an adult human can easily walk on top of the crust. Along our laneway I kept an eye out for snowfleas (springtails), there were some, widely scattered. I spotted a larger creature moving on the snow, and when I stooped to examine it, saw that it was a snow scorpion. I tried to photograph it, got this lousy picture. I picked up a piece of grass and tried to "tickle" it into another position so that I could get a shot from the side, but the end of the grass touched on the snow, skipped and flicked my scorpion down into a crack. I probably could have dug it back out, but was afraid I might harm it in the process, so just let it be.

Trillium, pencil sketch

2009-01-26T18:56:00.000-08:00

For this winter semester the local college has an art course on botanicals, so I got myself signed up. One of our assignments is to draw and paint a favourite plant, I chose the white trillium. After a couple days of doodling and sketching I finally came up with the drawing, though this is still a work in progress. There are a few blips and burps that need correcting, and no doubt after a good night's sleep I'll see the things that need finishing. I've learned the hard way that when you're tired, put the pencil/paintbrush DOWN and walk away.

Freshwater Clams

2008-11-13T11:24:00.000-08:00

From November 10, 2008

Let me begin this post by stating that I am NOT in the habit of "collecting" artifacts from conservation areas, but knowing Fred's interest in molluscs, and wanting to find out more about these freshwater clams, made this exception. There was a cold wind blowing, and I didn't have my measuring tape with me, or I probably would have just photographed these clam shells onsite.

I was walking my dog at the Little Cataraqui Creek Conservation Area, at the south end of the dam/reservoir, and noticed some clam shells. I poked along the dam and found a few that seemed to be exceptionally large. I have found these clamshells in other locations, but none that I recall being quite this size. The smallest measures about 3 1/2 inches long, the largest just a hair under 6 inches, with a circumference of just under 8 inches.

Red squirrel

2008-10-12T14:02:00.000-07:00

Red squirrels are quite common in our area, take a walk in the woods in any direction and you soon have one chattering, chirping and scolding at your passage. Trying to get a good photograph, however, is a bit of a challenge. Their jerky quick movements and habit of getting behind branches and brush make it difficult to get a clear shot. Yesterday I finally came across one sitting on the rocks, enjoying her snack of pine cones. You can often find piles of chewed up cones, but rarely catch a red squirrel in the act of actually eating one.

Bunchberry: Blooming in September

2008-09-28T12:32:00.000-07:00

This morning I led a field trip for the Kingston Field Naturalists at the Little Cataraqui Creek Conservation Area just north of Kingston, in search of fungi. We found several species of mushrooms, boletes, and bracket fungi, a list of which I'll be compiling later. Other species of note: a wood frog, leopard frog, heard peepers and treefrogs, heard a catbird calling, saw a viceroy butterfly, and got chattered at by chickadees and scolded by bluejays. Two of us in the group of 6 participants thought we heard a grouse drumming, but couldn't be 100% certain. One interesting thing of note: we found a patch of bunchberries with 3 of the plants in full bloom.

Dragonflies

2008-09-27T12:21:00.000-07:00

One of the things I enjoy photographing in late summer and early fall are dew-covered insects. I found these 2 dragonflies on the weeds down beside the lake in mid-September.

Fathead loon

2008-09-27T08:03:00.000-07:00

I took to calling one of our resident loons "Fathead", it was a large squat loon with a wide head, and sat hunched like a bulldog most of the time. It's nearly impossible to tell loons apart, but Fathead stands out in a crowd, as you can see in this picture. Fathead is the one in the middle. Even when "sitting up", when next to another loon you can see that the neck and head is just a bit broader than the other birds. It was also an aggressive bird, the moment I'd pull off the shore with my canoe or kayak, Fathead could be a half mile away, literally, and would immediately start making a beeline towards me, and start squawking when it got near. It also seemed to enjoy sneaking up behind me, get within 10 feet, and start yodelling. One should not be startled like that early in the morning when one is sitting in a smll watercraft. The good side to this behaviour, however, was that the bird was often close and gave me good opportunities for photography.

Lightning

2008-08-19T07:27:00.001-07:00

You'd think with this summer of rain and storms at night that I'd get plenty of opportunity to practise what I've learned with long exposures and get a few shots of lightning. No such luck. The spectacular flashes that I used to watch from the window just haven't appeared this year, it's as if the fates are laughing at me and directing the storms around me, out of range of my lens. Last night we had a couple little storms pass over, I managed to catch one measly little sparkler.

Loon Chase

2008-08-19T07:14:00.001-07:00

Seems kind of late in the year for loons to be chasing each other, but these two were at it August 17th. Looking at time stamp on my camera, start to finish of photographing them, that was 15 minutes, and the chase started at least 2 minutes before I got down to the dock. If I had known it would last so long I would have hopped into my canoe and paddled out a bit further for some better pictures, this shot is about the best of the lot.

Downy Yellow Violets

2008-08-07T18:33:00.000-07:00

A discussion on the nature list reminded me to check on how the seed pods of our downy yellow violets were progressing.

Wasp for i.d.

2008-07-18T12:36:00.000-07:00

Bruce sent me this picture of a wasp he had found.

Galls for I.D.

2008-07-02T17:20:00.000-07:00

#1. Galls on a maple leaf.

#2. Galls on a basswood leaf.

#3. Galls on an ash leaf.

#4 "Scabby-looking" galls on a maple leaf.