A Hyalophora Columbia Moth

A big "thank you" goes to my neighbour  Dave,for alerting me to this handsome moth visiting in his yard.
It is a Hyalophora colimbia, more commonly known as a Glover's silkmoth

More Sea Birds Common Murre

                                        If you enlarge this photo you will be able to see some Common  Murre flying across the front of the rock face of the cliff. What magnificence this scene held!! Below, a Common Murre on the Atlantic and a whole bunch of Murre in the water.

Kittiwakes for Worldbird Wednesday

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On May 19, 2012, my daughter and I took a boat tour with O'Briens out of Bulls Bay, Newfoundland.The tour took us out to the Witless Bay Ecological Reserve.  We saw thousands, upon thousands of birds, including, Atlantic Puffins, Common Murre and thousands of cliff nesting Kittiwakes.  The sightings of the Kittiwakes on Green Island were fabulous.  from the boat we were able to take many, many pictures, some of which I include for your viewing today

Got pictures of birds you would like to share? Why not post them on Worldbird
Wednesday? http://pineriverreview.blogspot.com/To
find out how, please scroll down the right hand side of this page until you come
to the worldbird logo, click on it and follow the directions from there

Butterflies for Mellow Yellow Monday

Butterflies are a delightful nature accent to each day at this time of year.  We have an old lilac tree (bush?) which attract several of these flying creatures.  this year most noticeable seen feeding there are Red Admirals.  Other years yellow  swallowtails have been most prevalent. I have seen a few swallowtails flying by the past few days but none yet in our lilac bushes,

I have seen American ladies feeding on dandelions and that event creates a very colourful picture. yesterday I saw a Question Mark butterfly in our lilacs, perhaps I am going out on a limb naming it a Question Mark, but the body shape and outline suggested to me it might be of that  anglewing species.

I have seen many little yellow butterflies flitting about in the grass and they are most frustrating to photograph.  when they finally do land, it is most often with their wings closed. this one shown below allowed my camera to get a view of its side wing and from its markings there I have identified it as a Clouded Sulfur Butterfly.

 Got pictures with yellow that you would like to share? Why not post them on Mellow Yellow Monday, a delightful meme that focuses on the colour yellow?Just clink here:http://mellowyellowmonday.blogspot.com/ to access this meme

A Moose Story

As we were driving along  a forested road, this horse-sized woodland creature suddenly loomed on the shoulder of the highway beside us, having emerged from the forest.I momentarily panicked trying to ready my camera to take its picture, telling myself, "I must get its picture!!" The Moose unhurriedly walked across the highway, then stopped, turned its head, and stared at us, as if to say:"You are intruding on my highway!"

Then as  quickly as it had appeared, it moved and merged back into the forest. We waited within our vehicle for a few moments, giving it time to stay reassuring ourselves that it had moved on.
Then we continued on our way with wary watchfulness alerted to the possibilities of other wild creatures perhaps  crossing in our vehicle's path.

A view From the Sky for Skywatch Friday

Today I thought I would post a different sort of perspective, Rather than looking up at the sky I decided to look downward from the sky from an aeroplane window..  Last week my daughter and I traveled to Newfoundland.This first photo was taken as we were approaching Newfoundland, re: "the Rock", as much of this island province is rocky and hilly. the view from the airplane window was spectacular as we got closer.  Below is my favourite view of the photos I had taken.
We also saw an iceberg in the ocean below! How exciting! A second iceberg could be seen hugging the rocky shore near the bottom of the photo below
.My thanks to the hosts of Skywatch Fridayhttp://skyley.blogspot.com/ for continuing to host this very popular Friday skywatch meme. If you would like to post your own photos or just enjoy looking to see the photographic offerings of others, please scroll down this page and look upon the right hand side to click on the skywatch logo to go to the meme. A happy Friday to all.

Family Pride

I have been so preoccupied with my own family lately that I neglected to even see these Canada geese babies when I took this picture yesterday. Only when downloading it this morning did I see this lovely family!
Three beautiful goslings swimming between two proud , sheltering parents. Families are wonderful!!!!

Atlanrtic Puffins for World Bird Wednesday

On a recent trip to Newfoundland last week to attend the Atlantic Book Awards with my daughter, where she received the John and Margaret Savage debut book award for 2012 for her novel, The Town That Drowned, My daughter Riel Nason and I went on a boat tour in hopes that we might see Atlantic Puffins , and we did! They are such delightful looking birds and they are so unique in that they spend so much time at sea and they are amazing swimmers.
Puffins are not known to be great fliers but the photo above shows one in flight.

  . We saw and photographed many Puffins on the water there.  All in all we had a grand boat tour and achieved our goal of seeing Atlantic Puffins..

 Got pictures of birds you would like to share? Why not post them on Worldbird
Wednesday? http://pineriverreview.blogspot.com/To
find out how, please scroll down the right hand side of this page until you come
to the worldbird logo, click on it and follow the directions from there

Sightseeing in Newfoundland for Ruby Tuesday 2

As far east as you can go in North America, Cape Spear, Newfoundland.The oldest lighthouse in Newfoundland at Cape  Spear.


Saint John's , Newfoundland is a very colourful city.  Pictured here is  row of colourful houes vividly painted, the first house in the row being red!

 Ruby Tuesday 2 meme features photos with red of any subject. To contribute to this meme please go to;
http://rubytuesday2.blogspot.com/
or just click on the Ruby Tuesday 2 badge at the top of the column on the right hand side of this blog page.

Rose-breasted Greosbeaks in Bird Alley

I have been waiting fot this handsome grosbeak and  I was delighted yesterday when I saw it at one of my feeders in Bird Alley.  Its black and white patterned feathers alerted me to its difference from all the other birds at our bird feathers.  But where was its rose-coloured breast? It was noticeably missing except for a a small amount of rose colouring at the central part of its breast.  Confusing.However later in the afternoon I realized that we had two male grosbeaks visiting when this one shown above showed up at the same feeder where the first had been, This second grosbeak had a full rose coloured breast.  Wow!  How great can it get!?

 This white church feeder seems to be their feeding location of choice and this morning I have my birdcam on a tripod focused on this feeder.  I haven't seen any Grosbeaks yet today but hopefully soon one will appear.  And perhaps by the end of the day I may have some closeups of these handsome birds! One or both of them may show up here to feed. And yes!!~! success!!! Can you see the male Grosbeak posing for the camera?( see photo below) I won't download the pictures yet but hopefully this bird has activated the camera.  Earlier I had to chase away a grey squirrel which had chosen to feed there and I was worried it might have eaten the choice pieces of corn and sunflower seeds which appeal to a grosbeak's appetite.  Oh Happy Day, a bird cam is such fun to play with! I finally downloaded my pictures of the birdcam rose-breasted grosbeak! I think they are quite nice and i am pleased that I was able to capture these closeups with my birdcam.

A Ruby-throated Hummingbird for Ruby Tuesday 2

Our Hummingbirds have been back since the weekend.  It took them( two males) a few daysto feel comfortable with our feeders, and at first it was difficult to get a good picture of them, not so now they are visible all of the time.  Perching in the tree branches and on the clothesline, they are a lovely additional decoratio to bird alley.

Ruby Tuesday 2 meme features photos with red of any subject. To contribute to this meme please go to;
http://rubytuesday2.blogspot.com/
or just click on the Ruby Tuesday 2 badge at the top of the column on the right hand side of this blog page.

The Return of a Nesting Robin to the Garden Shop.

Last May , 2011,when we visited Sobey's Garden shop at Oromocto we had seen a robin's nest that had been built there and one beautiful robin's egg had been laid in it.  I wrote a post about it at the time which you may read by clicking here:http://naturetales.blogspot.ca/2011/05/birdwatching-at-garden-center.html The egg never hatched and after a while the nest had been abandoned  last spring/summer

Today we went to Sobey's Garden Center in Oromocto  to buy some pansies for our garden, and as soon as we arrived we saw this sign

posted there by the staff.   Ah ha!  Its seems that last year's events have been repeated.  Last week, a Robin built a nest there among the shelving and flower pots at the garden shop, and had laid three eggs there. In the photo above I have circled the location of the nest with the three eggs in it. Apparently the Robin had only spent a short amount of time egg sitting there one day after the first egg had been laid.  As had happened last year it seems seems unlikely that the eggs will have much chance of hatching. After some time last year the egg that had been laid remained in the abandoned nest, unhatched.

                                                                 I will follow up on these three  eggs

  this spring at the garden shop and see how this story develops. The eggs are so beautiful, don't you think!? I wonder, could it be the same Robin that had attempted to nest there last spring?

The Flower Moon for Mellow Yellow Monday

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Seen today in the early morning sky, this beautiful full moon! The  name for this full moon is the flower moon and to me it seems to be an appropiate naming. the month usually begins with the finding of Mayflowers, [Trailing Arbrutus], followed by Purple violetd, Dog-toothed Violets and then Wild strawberry blosssoms.  At least that sequencing has been my experience.

Got photos with yellow? That's all you need to qualify for the mellow yellow Monday meme: http://mellowyellowmonday.blogspot.cahttp://mellowyellowmonday.blogspot.ca//. Just scroll down the right-hand side until you come to the mellow yellow Monday logo. Just click on the picture and you're there. Just continue on and enjoy!

Yellowish brown lichen for Mellow Yellow Monday

Yesterday while walking on a nature trail at New Maryland we saw this growth on a softwood tree. At first it appeared to be a large cluster oak leaves, however we soon realized it was not so as there were no twigs attached to the leaf-like cluster.  We next assumed it was some sort of fungus growth.Attempting to research what we might have found , there was nothing definite I found, however I have begun to think this growth is a lichen.  It was fascinating for sure, interesting.

  Got photos with yellow? That's all you need to qualify for the mellow yellow Monday meme: http://mellowyellowmonday.blogspot.cahttp://mellowyellowmonday.blogspot.ca//. Just scroll down the right-hand side until you come to the mellow yellow Monday logo. Just click on the picture and you're there. Just continue on and enjoy!

A Dog-toothed Violet

I was absolutely delighted to find this yellow beauty in bloom in the woods earlier this week.I knew it as a Dog-tooth violet but it goes by many other names as well: Trout -lily,Fawn lily, both names are derived from the spotted leaves of this woodland plant And its also called Adder's tongue. A clue to the origin of this name lies in the visual red stamens seen at the center of its yellow petals.

The dog-tooth violet photo lent itself readily to the kaleidoscope photo shop filter and in the first photo below Part of the border shows what looks like a white tooth. the name dog-tooth is rooted in the root of this wildflower, which looks like a canine tooth. I dug one up once to verify that and its root does look just like a dog's tooth. this second kaleidoscope I call 'the Adder's mouth!! so much fun playing with this wildflower's name.