Bunchberry: Blooming in September

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

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

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.