Cabbage Whites

One consistent sighting in our yard these past few days are fluttering white butterflies, and as well we are enjoying, almost daily  seeing the jagged edge Green Comma Anglewing. Within the past couple of weeks we have also had a Monarch butterfly feeding on our hydrangeas and just a couple of days ago a beautiful Viceroy.  Its not always easy getting a photo of the flitting whites, but I was lucky today with a couple of shots.

I am used to seeing a lot of white butterfly at this time of year, but the yellow sulfurs are missing.  I used to seea a lot of yellow at this time of year also.

Anglewing; A Green Comma Butterfly

Our wonderful, sunny warm days seem to have returned.  So, hopefully I shall see butterflies in my garden again today as I did yesterday.
My husband spied what at first he thought was a tattered and torn butterfly in our cone flower patch yesterday,

but upon examination of its dark underside wings we discovered that its wings had a most irregular shape as seen in the picture above. , and the term anglewing immediately jumped to my mind. After downloading the pictures I started researching anglewings and within this classification are Questionwings and Comma butterflies ..  hmmmm. which comma might it be? I have decided that it is perhaps a Green Comma Anglewing butterfly. And the following photos will show you why I made this id.  According to my butterfly fieldguide

a Green Comma has submarginal green spots on its dark underside and when I checked my photos for these green spots I found some. If you look closely you can see some green spots also.
 

A Green Comma also has submarginal yellow spots on its hind wings and yes, this butterfly has yellow spots on its hind wings also.
Now to look at some more pictures of this Green Comma just because it is such a beautiful little creature.

 It has been a good summr despite the experience of Hurricane Arthur.  We have enjoyed spending time with our grandchildren and watching our garden grow; both flower garden and tomatoes and
 grass and the many hummingbirds at our feeders.  Hopefully I shall now become more attentive to my blog in the coming days as I have been quite neglectful of it for most of the summer. And today I am hoping to be able to get more butterfly photos, A goods day  wished for everyone

Baby Canada Geese

Sometimes I really get a surprise when I download my pictures! This morning, while standing on an observation deck overlooking the Oromocto river I saw something  moving across the river below.  It seemed to be something large moving but at first I couldn't make out what it was,.  Then I noticed the white neck notch on the moving objects which told me I was looking at a couple of |Canada Geese.  They were at quite a distant but I tried to take their pictures anyway. ( I never pass up an opportunity to take a picture of a bird!)

I was very surprised when I downloaded the pictures at home and  I saw four little yellow babies in the pictures following the adult Canada.  How I wish it were a better picture as this download has made my day!

 

Can you see the four babies?

 I have edited the above picture to try to give you a closer view of the babies.  I hope I am able to find them and see them again!

Northern Flicker

One day last week I saw a bird high on a branch of an old dead tree.  From where I was sitting in my car I couldn't tell what species it was, and initially I thought it appeared to be a pigeon as I saw a white patch on its back.  , but I was not used to seeing pigeons in the woods,and I was out in the woods on an old gravel road.  I took as many pictures as I could as I had my small telephoto on my camera ( 250 mm IS canon) or maybe it was my (300mm nikon) .  
The fun began as I downloaded my pictures when I returned home and I could see the characteristic

markings of a yellow-shafted taiga eastern northern flicker.  The markings on this species are ideal for identification and I started with the yellow shafted feathers as this bird had turned and raised its tail and the golden yellow could be seen underneath.  Have a look. I love this feature of this bird as the yellow colouring is so beautiful!

The first obvious markings that stated that it was a flicker was the black crescent shape on its breast.  This marking shouted flicker!

Also take a look at the photo above and you can see that the flicker has its claw wrapped around a twig jutting out from the branch, holding on! See its black crescent shape on its breast.
The eastern flicker also has a brown face and a black malar on its jaw as this one does .

I had been confused about the white rump marking  this bird had and had not known that  this white marking is also characteristic of northrrn flickers.; but it is!

Also note the red patch on the back of this flicker's head.

Usually I see Flickers flying off from the side of a road or else in a field , but this one high in the sky offerred me some good views of the whole bird while it was in a stationary position.

I saw a swallowtail butterfly in my yard yesterday and the lilacs are blossoming out so hopefully in a few days I will be able to post some butterfly pictures!
Wishing everyone a good day!

Wood Aneome

Sharing the beauty found along a woodland trail: Wood Aneome.

Rose- breasted Grosbeak for Saturday Critters

This Grosbeak is still hanging around bird alley and its favourite choice of food is black-oiled sunflower seeds. I found him feeding on the ground just in front of our bay window and I was able to get some close ups that show a few of its markings

 that I had not noticed before. Under each wing at the front is also a patch of its beautiful rose colour and down each side is a line of black dashes.  how interesting! In the picture below you can also see the rpose wing patch and the black dashes!

The Grosbeak looks like he might even be smiling in the picture above.  It was quiet and there were no other birds around at the time.  I had already removed my feeders for the day and this bird seemed delighted to have found the seeds on the ground.

Today I am linking to Saturday Critters hosted by Eileen. Thank you Eileen for hosting this meme. Why not join the photo party with Eileen at http://viewingnaturewitheileen.blogspot.ca/

My apologies as I first called rhis grosbeak an evening Grosbeak, but I actually knew it was a Rose breasted grosbeak, I just made an error when tying in its name.  Thank you for the correction in the comments section!

Warbler

Its warbler season again and I love finding these little birds.  sometimes one will wander into bird alley but often I have to go further a field to find one, which is what I did yesterday. The little warbler I found was a familiar and a favourite one.  My husband has nicknamed this warbler "the Lone Ranger" bird as it wears a black mask across its eyes. You can see its  black mask in the picture below! Only the male of this species has the black mask.

1. Its real name is a male Common Yellowthroat which is prominently displayed at its throat.

        

     

This warbler is a very pretty little bird , don't you think?!

Tree Swallows

I have a mental spring checklist and this morning I decided to check an old unused electrical box where in recent years I have found Tree Swallows nesting.  And at the first look at the electrical box I saw no swallows, however about 5 minutes later when passing by again I saw that there was a Swallow peering out of the hole in the electrical box.  Great,! the Swallow have nested there again for this year.  For some reason we no longer have Tree Swallows nesting in our swallow house and we miss them.  We saw this swallow species circling around our bird house earlier this spring but none decided to nest there.  We have had nesting swallows faithfully for many years until the last 3 or 4 years.  We are not sure why not, but we do wish they would return. I shall continue to moniter this nest site until the end of June when the new babies will be leaving their nest at about that time!

the abandonded unused electrical box adjacent to a newly plowed field.

 Tree Swallow peering out from its chosen nest site in an old, unused electrical box

 The Tree Swallow appears to be quite contented in its chosen location for nesting!

Next on my spring checklist is to locate more swallows.  perhaps Cliff Swallows or Barn Swallows.
I am also watching for Painted Turtles and Snapping Turtles!

Groundhog

I just got a glimpse  of this creature yesterday and I thought I had seen a short haired cat near the back of our garden shed.  When I saw it feeding on my lawn this afternoon I knew

it was a 

groundhog I had seen instead.

More Recent Arrivals

All three of our recent arrivals have been expected, although to our way of thinking the chipmunk was really late in showing up.  We had seen a female cowbird a couple of weeks ago but yesterday was the first that we had seen male Cowbirds.  The Cowbirds were here today, but no females were seen the last couple of days, only the males.

                                                             Chipmunk

        two brown-headed male Cowbirds

And saving the best for last, we had two male Rose-breasted Grosbeaks feeding at our feeders yesterday!

                two rose-breasted Grosbeaks in a Birch Tree

                      an interesting back view of a Grosbeak at the feeders

This is the feeder that they fed from the previous year also.  I was quite sure that they would arrive at this same feeder and they did!

Evening Grosbeak in Bird Alley

The  pleasure of spring bird watching seldom ceases in Bird Alley. Earlier

 this week my husband had commented that it had been a long time since we had seen Evening Grosbeaks.  There have been times when they seemed to arrive in droves, and yesterday what did I see in the afternoon ?,but one handsome male Evening Grosbeak.  It seemed as if it was just passing through as it  just perched on a branch before flying off.  Unfortunately its face was obscured by an opening leaflet.  but the yellow cap can be seen.  A black shadow is misleading on its breast as that is not part of his natural colouring.  
 I really like  grosbeak picture with the semi blurred background with blue sky highlights.  Nature is so beautiful!!! The use of a lower f stop at 5.6 causes the semi blurred background in the picture.

White-tailed Deer

I can see deer every morning if I am up early and looking out the window.  They come up from the river and cross the street near our property, then they run up our neighbours long gravel driveway and cut across the bottom of the  neighbours lawn diagonally and then  follow a path to the woods behind our properties.  The deer are the main reason we have fenced in most of our property.  My husband loves his hosta garden and  our cedar trees and so do the deer and so he built this fence shown below.

 why we have fencing.  You can see the deer legs through the fencing.

                                  this deer walked up our neighbour's long gravelled driveway

 our side lawn is still unfenced and I watched two deer stop to feed there this morning. 
 My ornamental Juniper on our unfenced front lawn has lost most of its attractive ball shaped foliage, so I have my own reasons for approving of fencing. although it is still a treat to see the deer as they are such beautiful creatures.

White-crowned Sparrows

I cou,d set my calendar by the arrival of this handsome little sparrow species.  I have been watching for them and as I looked out my window a few moments ago there they were, two of them!!

Their stand out white  striped head is very obvious and you really cant miss them as they are scratching about the ground in sparrow fashion.

Ruby-throated Hummingbird today!

It seems very early to have hummingbirds at our feeders in Bird Alley.  we put our feeders out today around 8 in the morning and by noon we saw two hummingbirds cautiously approach our feeders.  It is a handsome male as you can tell by the Ruby-red patch at his throat.  I love that you can see its little eye in the pictures. I think this is a magnificent bird!
A happy Mother's Day to all.