The World Through Our Lens
Bob and I could not believe our good fortune when we found a second Eastern Screech Owl on the same visit to Burlington, Ontario. This Eastern Screech Owl Grey Morph is quite different from the Red Morph Eastern Screech Owl we had just observed at a nearby Cemetery. Read more
Well, Bob and I can finally say that we have seen an Eastern Screech Owl in the wild, as opposed to one we visited at the Mountsberg Raptor Centre a couple of years ago. It has taken us two years to finally see the Eastern Screech Owls in Burlington and not for lack of knowing where to look. It was overcast one day last week when Bob and I again ventured west of Toronto in hopes of finding at least one of the known Screech Owls out of its nest hole. Read more
What a challenge to capture any Belted Kingfisher (Megaceryle alcyon) in a photograph! Over the years, as Bob and I have canoed on various lakes and rivers, we have observed countless Kingfishers taunting us with their perpetual cat and mouse routine. Always just one step ahead of us, it seems that these birds are playful at best, and always wait until we are in sight before taking flight for another tree a couple of hundred feet further down the shoreline. This handsome female took no notice of our presence on the observation deck at Colonel Samuel Smith Park in Toronto. Read more
When Bob and I set off to explore the Atkinson Park Wetlands found at St. John’s Sideroad and Yonge Street in Aurora, Ontario, we expected to find ducks and herons, frogs and toads, but had not anticipated or planned on focusing on a number of interesting insects. As I studied the frogs in the pond, Bob was absorbed in observing a curious black bug that turned out to be a Great Black Digger Wasp (Sphex pensylvanicus). Read more
This past summer, Bob and I undertook to hike the Mizzy Lake Trail in Algonquin Provincial Park in Ontario. For a summer’s day, the temperature was not all that hot, but we were blessed with wonderful sunshine and a gentle breeze to cool us over the course of the 7 hours that it took to complete our hike. Along about mid-morning, amidst the flickering shadows cast by millions of green leaves, a Northern Pearly-Eye Butterfly (Lethe anthedon) settled its dainty body on some foliage at the edge of the thick forest. Read more
For weeks, Bob and I had been hearing about a Yellow-crowned Night Heron making a stay at Colonel Samuel Smith Park on Toronto’s lakeshore. When finally we had a chance to pop down there for a look, it was quite late in the afternoon so we did not hold out much hope of seeing it since other people had been numerous times without success. Lo and behold, after we circled the main pond on an obscure trail through the woodlot, we came out to a clearing and found the Night Heron perched nonchalantly on a rock. Read more
Earlier one fall, Bob and I set off for a three-day visit to Algonquin Park in Ontario, Canada. We were on a mission to find and photograph a Bull Moose. Given the time of year, the odds were pretty good that we might come across one. Instead, we were rewarded with the opportunity to observe and photograph not one, but two, Red Foxes. I was ecstatic! Read more
When hiking the Mizzy Lake Trail in Algonquin Provincial Park, we took a lunch break near the top of the loop a short distance beyond Wolf Howl Pond. Two small ponds made an inviting place to have our picnic lunch, and there was so much activity around the water that we were fully entertained while we ate. One Lance-tipped Darner Dragonfly repeatedly landed on a submerged log directly in front of our picnic spot. Read more
Earlier this past fall, visitors to Milliken Park in northeast Scarborough would have noticed that only two Trumpeter Swans were inhabiting the main pond where previously there had been a family of four. Tango, the female or pen, was diligently caring for her one remaining cygnet after the untimely death of her other baby in mid-September. Read more