Song Sparrow in Bird Alley

Bird Alley has seemingly been a bit inactive recently and so when looking out yesterday and seeing two Song Sparrows foraging about the ground foliage I was very pleased. I shall be watching for these two today with my camera ready a

nd I assume I shall also see Blue Jays and Robins around the larger ares of our dooryard.

A Happy Halloween to all

We think that our black cat Shakey is pretty special and this year he has decided to wear a Black cat costume. Here is what he looks like

Bircam fun in Bird Alley with Bluejays

I haven't used my bird cam much this past summer in Bird Alley, however after having refilled our feeders on Tuesday We were rewarded with quite a few hungry bird visitors and I decided to try to capture some of the action.  Due too foraging nighttime raccoon visitors we do not  often leave a lot of enticing birdseed around during the summer for the raccoons as they are such a nuisance.
Yesterday I captured quite a bit of interesting action with the birdcam.  We have quite a few performing Bluejays flipping thrpuigh the sunflower seeds as can be viewed below.

 
Three bluejays feeding together

A Fast Moving Red-breasted Nuthatch for Thursday's Challenge

A Red-breasted Nuthatch at our feeder in Bird Alley.

The theme for this week's Thursday Challenge is "blurry". When I took this photo on Tuesday of a Red-breasted Nuthatch speeding away from our bird feeder I knew I had my photo representing "blurry"!

Blurry is this week's photographic theme for Thursday's Challenge. To view more photos posted on this theme, or to join in on the fun yourself, just 'click' on the highlighted name:

Transition period from summer to autumn

Transition

Yes, I know, the calendar dates now say fall, however our daylight hours recently have been filled with unexpected lovely warm temperatures.  and although our woodlands are being filled with gorgeous colours of the changing leaves  on the trees along our roadsides, our flower beds still contain beautiful colour and growth as well.

The End of Summer

The shuddering wind shook my house
Forgetting to whisper in its summer voice
It boisterously shouted; Jesting in its autumnal tones of summer's end!

Cormorant

The first Cormorant that I saw  in 2013 was this morning, standing on a rock in the Oromocto River at Tracy.  I usually see Cormorants each summer but this was my first sighting this year. Perhaps it is in migration, just taking a rest on its way through the area.

repost of Baby Snapping Turtles Hatching

The hatching of Baby Snapping turtles has always been a popular post so I have decided to repost this post of October 2, 2008.  This year we had  been  hoping to see baby turtles hatching again and had in mind that the date would possibly be around September 24th.  However a check at the egg laying site a week ago indicated from two exit holes there that the babies had already hatched so we missed them again this yeart.  It is not always so east to be so lucky as to be able to see the actual hatching take place , so this post was one of extraordinary luck and it was a wonderful event to be opresent at and to observe.  I do hope you enjoyt this repost!

We had hoped we might be lucky this fall and would get to see a few baby Snapping Turtles emerging from their nest sites at locations where we had seen adult Snapping Turtles laying their eggs in June, earlier this year. We had seen this occurrence a couple of times before but this year found only remnants of shells scattered about where the nests had been. At least three nest sites had been dug up and destroyed by some four legged creature.
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What follows is a description of what we had seen on October 1st, 2000, eight years ago. The pictures, which don`t show a lot of sharp details were taken with my first digital camera which had less than one megapixel, however I feel they are photos worth sharing.

Hello world!

October 1, 2008:
" It looks like you got there at just the right time. Gritty looking bunch, aren't they? It had been so long that you were watching the nest I thought you must have missed your chance ."
Those comments which I had received from my son, after having sent him some of the pictures I had taken of twenty baby Snapping Turtles emerging from their nest reflected my thoughts also; for after having watched the nest site since the laying the eggs on JUNE 27, 2000; I too began to think that perhaps we had missed the hatching.

However on OCTOBER 1, 2000, I arrived at the nest site at exactly the right moment to see a baby Snapping Turtle emerge at 5:51 pm. My last picture was taken at 7:19 pm of turtles number nineteen and twenty both coming out of the hole in the ground. We think that maybe the first one to leave the nest was the one that I had observed upon my arrival. We had kept checking the nest site since about 2:45 pm that day; as an enlarging hole in the sand had been detected by our neighbours, who had also had become members of our turtle watch team. The monitoring of the nest site had taken on a special focus for us and became a reason for a morning walk most days during the summer months. I didn't really expect to experience the exact moment in time of the hatching, but at least thought I could perhaps make note of the time when/if the possible destruction of the nest may have occurred by predators, or perhaps could have noted when the babies might have emerged from their nest by signs of soil disturbance at the nest site.
I didn't know what to expect but discovered that one hole of about 1 1/2" in diameter was the exit for all of the turtles. And as my son had commented, they certainly were a gritty looking bunch, as they were covered with sand as they came out of the hole.
As they dried off a bit in the late afternoon sun the details of the shell could be detected, and the distinctive serrated edge at its shell back could be easily observed. I noticed a couple of them open their mouths. They emerged one at a time with a few minutes between each appear -ance; however the last couple or so seemed to come out closer together. They were so tiny! To visualize their size; place a Canadian two dollar coin in your hand and that would be comparable to their shell size. Then add to the coin size; a head, four legs and a tail slightly longer than the diameter of the coin.

Our vigil ended as darkness approached and the last two baby snapping turtles slowly made their way over the embankment that the female turtle had climbed in June to reach the nest location where she had laid the eggs. This certainly was a unique experience that we were so very fortunate to have observed.

Hello Fall Welcome Back

 Hello Fall

You're back early this year
or does it just seem that way to me?
I've seen the advance notices of your coming

The leaving of the Hummingbirds
an early Junco in Bird Alley the other day
Song Sparrows foraging about in foliage tunnels
of undergrowth in overgrown corners of the bower

Autumn winds whisper change
as they energize the tall summer grasses
and damselflies cling and sway
to ancient choreographed rhythms

The woods and roadsides are scattered with Asters
beautiful blues accenting the late summer Goldenrod
and fluttering Cabbage Whites and Common Yellows
 

flit about in the afternoon sun with programmed purpose

My garden is full of mature colour
deep yellows and pinks of Coneflowers
vibrant reds of Bee Balm and Celosia
and skyblue Morning Glories

as the process of regeneration begins anewseed pods filled with determination for next year's renewal

 
are replacing blooms on annuals
and blossoms fade as somber browns emergeOur neighbor's apple trees fringing our back yard
message enticement with their rosy ripenesswhile baby turtles tunnel their way to the surface
 



from egg filled nests laid during warm June days

Frogs now grown
bask in the strong afternoon sun
and acknowledge my presence with 'bleeps'
as they leap into the tranquil pond waters

Encroaching early evening darkness
proclaims a departure of long summer days
and the reds and yellows and oranges of turning leaves
trumpet your return.... Welcome back!

Milkweed Tusock Caterpillar

As I mentioned in my previous post I had spent a lot of time this summer looking for a piedbald deer; I also have been looking for monarch butterflies or their caterpillars, of which I have not seen one.  I have been spending a lot of time in a milkweed patch.  Milkweed is the only plant that a monarch butterfly caterpillar will feed on , so that is where monarch butterflies lay their eggs.  Last summer I collected six caterpillars from milkweed plants and brought them home and raised them until they turned into butterflies and then we released them.
Yesterday we had quite an exciting moment when we found three caterpillars on a milkweed plant that we initially thought that they might be monarch caterpillars!  but we were wrong.:-(  The colour pattern seemed almost right, but the texture and make up of the creatures was wrong.  

 It seemed to be made of segments or even scraps of yarn, and it seemed composed of tufts of hair. I have seen several tufted caterpillars before  which belonged to the tussock family of caterpillars so that gave me a clue as to its identity. I have a very helpful caterpillar guide book and was able to learn that the caterpillars we found and brought home were 
 Milkweed Tussock Caterpillars. I had planned to feed the creatures every day until they went through the pupa stage and then turned into moths or butterflies.  
I  have learned that the milkweed tussock will overwinter in their pupa stage, so I don't think I will invest the time and I will return the caterpillars to the milkweed patch today where I had found them and continue my search for evidence of Monarchs having been there,  We thought we might have seen a couple of monarchs one day earlier this week but we did not get a good view of them and they could have been Viceroys which look very similar to Monarchs.  That sighting is enough encouragement for me to continue my quest in the milkweed patch.  Milkweed is host to a variety of bugs and insects and flying or jumping things, such as grasshoppers things so I never know what I will find there! Have a good Sunday everyone. Much of my day will be spent in the milkweed patch.  Is'nt nature fascinating!

Piebald Deer Found

I have been looking fore this partially white deer all summer and last week I finally found it!  How exciting that was!  I was tremblingly all over as I downloaded the pictures.  It was a young male and you  can see his antlers just beginning to emerge.  Isn't he handsome.  It took a while to sink in when I saw it.  I was actually looking at the deer that I had been looking for, for so long. "

Oh Happy Day"

Juvenile Cardinal

 How exciting!  Today we have a juvenile cardinal visiting in Bird Alley.  This is the first ever sighting of a juvenile cardinal!  I take this visit to mean that the adult pair of Cardinals we had  seen frequently in Bird Alley over the winter was a breeding pair!

The photo above shows highlighted reds due to photo editing.  The first photo showing more sudued colours is closer to the cokours on the bird that we had actually seen.

Beautiful sunset of last evening

 Red, your colour was vibrant!!!!  spreading your beauty across the evening sky!

 Reflections: above on my car  window and below on the window in my door.

And today we have rain forecast for all day long.!

Mystery insect or bee?

Can anyone identify this insect for me?  I had found two dead ones on my doorstep in early July.
I hope there are no more as anything that has the potential to sting makes me uneasy, not knowing what it is or its source.
I would appreciate any comments from anyone who has experience with this species, what ever it may be.
TRhank you.

Black Swallowtail

This beautiful Black Swallowtail butterfly visited my garden yesterday.  It feasted primarily on a beautiful pink Bee Balm and it also tasted clover. .  It is so beautiful and colourful!  I do hope it returns to my garden today.

We have two Pink Coneflowers in bloom and they has been visited by a medium sized orange fritillary and other than yellow Tiger Swallowtails earlier in the summer that is about the total of butterfly sightings in my garden.  I continue to look daily in a nearby milkweed patch looking for Monarchs, but there does not seem to be any around as yet,
Have a good day everyone
note: I had initially identified this butterfly as a Spicebush Swallowtail, but have since reevaluated my id and now call it a Black Swallowtail: thus my erronerous  naming title .