The World Through Our Lens
Over the summer, Bob and I made numerous trips to Tommy Thompson Park. It all started when we went to look for Monarch Butterfly larvae. On one subsequent trip to the Park, we ventured further out on the Spit than usual and were quite pleased to find an Osprey (Pandion haliaetus) perched on a tree stump in the middle of the first large pond. Read more
Before departing Kylemore Abbey, Bob discovered that we were in need of some cash and videotapes for his camera. Our route was chosen for us. We had to drive along the coast towards Letterfrack and Clifden in search of a banking machine and some shops that might sell camera gear. Supplies in hand, all that was left to do was get to Rossaveal and hop on the ferry to the Aran Islands where we would spend the next couple of days. En route, a serendipitous decision by Bob had us veering off into the lonesome countryside towards several of the Twelve Bens Mountains. Read more
Last week, Bob and I walked over to Milliken Park to check up on the Trumpeter Swan Cygnets and search for Monarch Butterflies. As we busied ourselves photographing a beautiful Monarch specimen on a milkweed flower, we became distracted by numerous Cedar Waxwings perching in the top of a dead tree. We were happy to see that a number of those birds were still at the park. When I glanced into the crown of a nearby maple tree, I was dumbfounded as to what I was seeing. It looked like a huge turban made out of cloth, but then I recognized it as a hornet”s nest. It was huge! Read more
One summer, Bob and I made for Tommy Thompson Park in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. We were certain, given the large number of Monarch Butterfly larvae that we had seen before, that we would be able to find a chrysalis on one of the many Milkweed plants. Our memory served us well as to the locations of a good share of the well-advanced larvae, but it took us two days to actually locate a Monarch’s chrysalis amid the fields of stately Milkweed plants. Our persistence had paid off! Read more
Bob and I had put in a very full day in Algonquin Provincial Park on the last day of our visit to that wilderness area so were heading home to Toronto late in the afternoon. We had no reason to stop again until we got home…that is until we spotted a young Porcupine (Erethizon dorsatum) hobbling across the pavement of the South Portage Road near Dwight, Ontario. Read more
Bob and I cannot get enough of exploring the wilderness in Algonquin Provincial Park here in Ontario. It was while hiking the Mizzy Lake Trail that we came upon a Moose cow and her calf standing in the muddy water at one end of a lake. Read more
On a nice outing to Tommy Thompson Park in Toronto, Ontario, we finally succeeded in locating some of this year’s crop of Monarch Butterfly larvae, ten in fact. We were ecstatic. Read more
Bob and I were visiting my parents at Oxtongue Lake near Algonquin Provincial Park one summer, and we decided to take a drive into the park to check on the progress of the wild blueberry crop. At one of the beaver ponds along Highway 60 where moose are known to frequent, we spotted this big Moose cow and calf beside the roadway. Read more
What a sad summer it was here in Toronto, Ontario in 2014, because Monarch Butterflies (Danaus plexippus) were conspicuous by their absence. Bob and I had been monitoring sightings posted by nature lovers on Facebook, and websites such as The Insects and Arachnids of Ontario, The Weather Network, and Butterflies and Moths of North America. We were not the only people discouraged by the poor showing of these beautiful insects so far this year. Read more