Back again

Out and about in southern Ontario for a few days visiting and a 80th birthday party for an uncle.  Always great to get home, quiet, clean air, my own bed.  Looks like they have had a lot of rain it's spawned a batch of mushrooms everywhere.  I think this is a Fly Agaric, but I am not mushroom smart any takers on what it is.

Hidden Lake

Today I hiked into a small hidden lake left with a buffer of tall Jack Pines and Black Spruce surrounded by cut over.  Along the edges thick mosses with Leather Leaf, Labrador Tea, mushrooms, bog flowers and Pitcher Plants.  Here are a couple of pics

Hummingbird banding in Gowganda

Wednesday birdbanders from New Liskeard came to Gert and Pauls house to band hummingbirds.  The birders were trained to do this in the US and are just starting to band hummingbirds in the Temiskaming area.  Gert had phoned and reported many hummingbirds on her 5 or more feeders which bought the banders to town.

Trapped in a special trap that they bought in the US they banded 25 hummingbirds in about 3 hours, none of the banded birds were trapped again that day. Measurments were taken, age and sex was determined, weight and a band was placed on the leg. 

This is the start of a humming bird study in the Temiskaming area.  They will be back next year to see if any have come back.

Gowganda this evening

What more can I say.

Tansy

Out checking on the osprey yesterday, the two biggest have left the nest now and the smallest one is being tended to by the adults until it can fly off.  I don't think it will be to much longer until it takes flight.

While waiting for the osprey to appear I took some shots of a grasshopper eating this Tansy flower head.

 Adult landing on nest, young bird is tucked down in nest.

Flowers

While out looking at the Ospreys I took some pics of a couple of flowers that were nearby, Spotted Touch-Me-Not (Impatiens capensis) the first one, the second Deptford Pink (Dianthus armeria

Checking in on the Osprey

Good thing I went out today as the young birds are almost the size of the parent.  The one on the right is the adult or so I thought.  Looking at the other pics I can see another head poking up.  I am begining to think these are the 3 young.  There was an adult north of the nest in a dead tree calling to them.  I wish I could have seen the other adult too. 
Update ---Found a pic with 3 heads, I suspect these are all young birds.

Giant Waterbug

Every time you check your minnow trap in the ponds around here you can almost count on trapping a couple of Giant Waterbugs (Lethocerus americanus). Some of these can be up to two inches long and they are in the traps eating the minnnows. They will also give you a good bite too sometimes.  Check out more on this predator of the ponds.  They even fly around at times.

Early Morning

Here is a pic I took a few days ago.  When you take a lot of pics like I do it pays to go back and see what you may have missed a few days back.  This pic is just one I looked right past when I previewed them first.  Fortunately I delete very few pictures which means trying to keep track of what you have can be difficult.