Shadow of a Water Strider:for Shadow Shot Sunday

This is a very fascinating shadow of a Water Strider. The Water Strider itself is very small but if you look carefully you can see a hint of yellow floating on the water near the mid upper right quadrant of the photo.There were several striders on the water and their shimmering shadows were an absolute delight of shadow art to behold!
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My appreciative thanks to the host of Shadow Shot Sunday for this interesting idea; for more information please click on the icon in the side bar.

Newly Born Colt: for Camera Critters

We have been spending quite a bit of time outdoors this past week and one day while hiking up a railroad track adjacent to a stream, we spied a marvelous sight of a mare and her newly born colt from across the river. There were signs to indicate to us that this colt had just recently been born and we were surprised at the lateness in the year of its birth. It is so amazing to see how some of nature's creatures adjust to their new environment so quickly. We viewed as best we could from our distant location, and watched while the colt followed the mare as it grazed about in the wooded and pasture area.
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My appreciative thanks to Misty for hosting this site. To see other participant's photo contributions just click HERE or on the Camera Critters
logo on the side panel.

Skywatching From a Stone Arched Bridge: for Skywatch Friday

editing note: This last photo, which I have added on Oct. 18th, was taken by my brother while he was standing above on the railroad bridge, and I am down below at the river level; to the slight left of the orange tree.
My appreciative thanks to Tom, Sandy, Imax, Ivan and Klaus for hosting Sky Watch Friday .

Sparrow Visitors

Whenever I see this handsome little sparrow in my feeder area it is always a special sighting to me. Today we have at least two and they are both very busy foraging for seeds on the ground and in the grass under our feeders. These White-crowned Sparrows are seasonal visitors dropping by on their way through our region during their spring and autumn migration. I wait for them every year and delight in their visits which will last for about five days duration.
The most regular of bird visitors right now are Chipping Sparrows. I can at any minute look out my windows and be quite sure that within a second or so I can count one, or two or five.... feeding at our feeders. They will remain here until sometime in November and then one day I will notice they are gone; but a similar looking sparrow cousin, the American Tree Sparrow, will have replaced them.
The first sparrow I learned to id was a Song Sparrow. These sparrows run a second to the Chipping Sparrow for numbers at our bird feeders right now. These sparrows are bigger than the little Chipping Sparrows and its larger size makes it easier to pick them out from a group of sparrows all feeding together.

Earlier this week we had a White-throated Sparrow make an appearance and we will perhaps still see a Savannah Sparrow at our feeders this season, and maybe a Song Sparrow or two will winter over too, but that is not a sure thing.

Spider

Yesterday, while selecting an old post to be recycled as a bird feeder pole, my husband called me to see the spider that he found crawling on it. Can you see its eyes? I wonder if it was in search of a place to lay eggs for it looks very full and round. I am not sure of its name but while doing an image google search I found some that looked similar to this one that were labeled as European Garden Spiders? I am not sure if this is one of not?

Wild Apple Tree for Ruby Tuesday

Wild apple trees fringing the the edge of the woods
message enticement with their rosy ripeness
drawing me nearer I stop to fill my pockets
to later enjoy their aroma escaping from my oven

To check out other Ruby Tuesday postings, just click HERE, or click on the Ruby on the side bar. My appreciative thanks to Mary/the teach for hosting this site.

Today's Flowers

Hare Bells: This wildflower was found still in bloom on the weekend. These flowers were found growing on soil found in between crevices and uneven solid rock ledges along the river.
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Thank you to Luiz, of Todays Flowers, for this opportunity to share beautiful flowers with others. For more flower photos please click HERE.

Geese and Teal

Changes in weather are often noted and remarked upon and the recent rains that we have had in our area are certainly an obvious deterrent and interruption and maybe even a reason for changing plans for the day, but for nature's multitude of creatures it can be a major factor in their daily pursuit of survival. I noticed yesterday many newly sprung field ponds in an area where all summer I have seen bundles of hay being harvested; the field ponds being seen are usually a feature of spring rather than being seen in early October. However, it was an exciting thing to find for immed- iately I could see Canada Geese off in the distance edging these temporary ponds and closer to me a few ducks were swimming around. At first I had thought the ducks were just a group of Black Ducks, but their bodies did seem to be a bit lighter in colour, and so following my self imposed rule to, " always take a picture" to examine closer at home on my computer screen, I did so and am glad that I did.I had found a small group of Green-winged Teal. How nice!

Baby Turtles Hatching

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.

Watery Reflections for Watery Wednesday

mirror mirror on the river
tell me true
do you like your autumn colours best
rather than your summer blue?

or do you prefer your winter dress
when you look so nice

wearing winter snow and ice?

I thought these watery reflections fit well for the theme of Watery Wednesday. This photo was taken on October 1st., 2006. My appreciative thanks to 2sweetnsaxy at her Eyes Mind Heart blog for hosting this theme.

K is for Kingbird and Kingfisher: ABC Wednesday Round #3

The Eastern Kingbird is distinguished from other Kingbirds by a white tip on the end of its black tail. Kingbirds feed on insects.

The Belted Kingfisher is the second bird shown here with a 'KING' in its name. Kingfishers are fish eating birds and these beautiful creatures plunge into the water head first in search of their prey. I always know when a Kingfisher is around for I am alerted to its presence by its harsh clattering sound.
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My appreciation and thanks to Mrs. Nesbitt's Place for hosting ABC Wednesday Round 3. To view more ABC Wednesday posts via Mr. Linky please click HERE. For viewing the new format of ABC Wednesday Round 3 where all posts can be seen in the same place, please click HERE

Ruby Tuesday .. the Beauty of Autumn Leaves

The first three photos were taken today and yesterday; the last is an old favourite of mine taken several years ago and was scanned from a 35 mm print. The autumn colours are glorious and I cannot resist taking pictures of them each day!
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To check out other Ruby Tuesday postings, just click HERE, or click on the Ruby on the side bar. My appreciative thanks to Mary/the teach for hosting this site.

Today's Flowers in My Garden

Thank you to Luiz, of Todays Flowers, for this opportunity to share beautiful flowers with others. For more flower photos please click HERE.

Woodpeckers at My Feeders

After not having seen much of this Woodpecker species all summer, Mr. Hairy Woodpecker is back at our feeder area now feasting daily on peanuts. I refer to this bird shown above as Mr., simply to indicate it is the male of the species. The male Hairy Woodpecker has a red patch on the back of its head as does this one in the first two pictures. Shown below is a Downy Woodpecker and this one is a female, for just like the Hairy Woodpecker species, the red patch on the back of the head denotes that it is a male, but in this case, you can see no indication of red on the Downy pictured so we know it is a female.
The Hairy and Downy Woodpecker appear very similar in markings but there are three things that I look for when deciding which species I am looking at. The first is size as the Hairy is larger than the Downy. Just compare the size of the Hairy shown below in relation to the feeder cylinder, to the photo of the Downy above at the same peanut feeder. The Hairy also has a large long bill whereas the Downy has a small bill, and bill size is the second characteristic that I look
for.
The third thing I always look for are the little black marks that look like 'dashes' on the underside of the Downy's tail. If they are not there then it is a Hairy Wood- pecker for the Hairy does not have these undertail markings. The last photo shown here is of a female Downy Woodpecker.