The World Through Our Lens
Ontario is one of the ten provinces of Canada, located in east-central Canada.
One summer, Bob and I made numerous trips to Tommy Thompson Park, in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. During one trip to the park, we were quite pleased to find an Osprey perched on a tree stump in the middle of the first large pond in the wetlands. 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 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 decided to take a drive into Algonquin Park in Ontario, Canada, one summer, and at one of the beaver ponds along Highway 60 in the park we spotted this moose cow and calf beside the road. Read more
What a sad summer it was here in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, in 2014, because Monarch Butterflies 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, and Butterflies and Moths of North America. We were not the only people discouraged by the poor showing of these beautiful insects so far that year. Read more
How beautiful is a sprawling drift of Sunchokes fading into the distance! That is just what we found when Bob and I visited Lower Reesor Pond in northeast Toronto. This native species of sunflower goes by many different names including Sunchokes, Sunroot or Earth Apple. Read more
Bob and I take regular walks in a local park in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, because we find that the variety of habitats found there encourages an assortment of birds and animals at any given time of the year. One walk we were stunned by the numbers of cedar waxwings we sighted. Read more
