a place where nature, photography and writing meet
In recent years, nesting Osprey have become a common sight throughout much of eastern Ontario. A few days ago, I wrote about a pair of Osprey that had built a nest atop of a light pole over the projection booth at a local drive-in theatre. However, our favourite pair are much less social than the […]
A few of days ago, I mentioned having shot some DV footage of breeding Wood Frogs (Rana sylvatica) in 2002. This morning, I scared up the footage and made a small QT movie clip from a section of it. The clip is about 25 seconds long and approx. 905kb and has a soundtrack. I should […]
A couple of nights ago, while out for our evening walk, I stopped to examine a beetle which was moving about on some coyote scat beside the trail through the woods here at the farm. It turned out to be some species of Carrion Beetle (see above). I think it might be a species of […]
The 21st edition of I and the Bird is now up at Cup o’ Books. It’s a super edition with links to many interesting blogs. Further, Seth has put it together in a unique format. Rather than explain, I would just encourage everyone to just go and see it. For any IATB visitors who have […]
This afternoon, I donned tall rubber boots and went for a wade up the drainage ditch to search for Wood Frogs (Rana sylvatica) and their eggs. It didn’t take long to find the first egg mass which measured 10 to 12 cm. across and was floating in water about 25 cm. deep. Frogs were heard […]
This morning, while doing some yard work, I heard the distant clacking “quack” of Wood Frogs (Rana sylvatica) coming from the old drainage ditch that cuts through our farm (sound file is about 335kb). My dog and I went back to investigate and found several frogs swimming about among the cattails. Each year, around April […]
Yesterday, while hiking at Murphy’s Point, we spotted several Mourning Cloak (Nymphalis antiopa), and what looked to be a Grey Comma (Polygonia progne). At this time of the year, with the forest floor scattered with winter-bleached leaves over dark, bare earth, it’s surprisingly difficult to spot Anglewing butterflies unless you happen to catch sight of […]