It was a beautiful, sunny morning, with a cool breeze. Kara and I went for our daily walk in the meadow.

My poor meadow!

First, we hacked down most of it for hay.

Now, a few weeks later, I have covered it in (horse) poop! It definitely has a bit of "aroma" to it, but I don't find it particularly objectionable. I am in the process of moving the "muck heap" (the big pile where bedding and horse droppings from the stalls is collected through the year). It is all well  composted, but it still has a distinctive rich musky smell. Yesterday, I spread about half of the pile. Today, I'll try to finish it off.

I managed a few closeups of butterflies this morning (to be posted later), but otherwise the pickings were rather slim. On the way back to the house, along the path through the sugar bush, I scared up four grouse. They were awkward fliers, and not very big. I suspect that they are this year's babies.

We have a pair of house wrens living in the immediate vicinity of the house. I find them particularly delightful, especially when they break into their cheery warbling song. There was the pair of them yesterday afternoon on the clothes dryer rack outside, both bowing and shaking their wings. A courtship ritual? Territorial display?

A week or so ago, I had a telescope set up on the deck, and one of them came and perched n the dryer, about 30-40 feet away. I managed to get the scope (a Televue Pronto, awesome optics!) on him, and was treated to a really detailed close up view. Every feather popped out in full  detail. Lovely!

We have some phoebes hanging around the house as well. I'm not sure where they are nesting, but they met be nearby.

The flickers I saw and filmed this spring disappeared soon after. I did not see them again at their nest. Today, there was a pair on the lawn near the nest. Same ones? I wonder if their nest was raided. I did see them harassing a red squirrel in a tree near their nest back in the spring. Hmm.

We're well into summer now, and the greens are tinged with brown. The skippers and other small butterflies have largely disappeared from the meadow. There are a few newcomers, including some monarchs, but far too few. The milkweeds were in full bloom last week, and walking by them, you couldn't miss the sweet scent. The heat and dry weather has ravaged the blooms, however.

 I rarely encounter the monarchs. This fellow was quite wary, and really didn't let me approach. A fuzzy shot, but so far the only one I've managed this summer.

A sad looking fritillary (Great Spangled?). They are among the more common butterflies now, apart from sulphurs, in the meadow. Beside the maple bush, the main butterfly species is the wood nymph.

This cute little fellow was pumping his wings, trying to warm up in the morning sun. I believe it's a banded hairstreak.

The drama of life continues, with murder .... (robber fly and moth)

And an unknown predator  (another type of robber fly?) chowing down on a fly

There is also new life.

A cluster of teeny, tiny eggs. Whose eggs? A mystery.

There's also this - I couldn't tell if it was an egg or ?

And caterpillars

There were mysterious goings on, involving ants, a twig, and some flies that were harassing the ants. I suspect that the new growth was exuding some sap that was attracting the insects.

And, as usual, my assistant Kara was always ready for fun!

The weather hasn't been too cooperative recently. I blame myself. It's the ancient "astronomer's curse". When an astronomer acquires a significant new piece of equipment, it is guaranteed that the gods will send inclement weather, clouds, and haze for weeks afterward. Having bout a new mount for my telescopes, I should have seen it coming. Hah!

Anyway, I'll post more images from the past week, while it is raining yet again outside.

The wild black-eyed susans are starting to bloom, a sure sign that we're into real summer.

I found this smallish plant, that kind of looks like it is in the mint family - for now, its unidentified.

A few damselfly images: the first one is a new one, to be identified.

A new species of dragonfly has arrived, this one down near the wetland. I think it's a meadow hawk, but I haven't been able to identify the species. Possibly a ruby meadow hawk, though it is distinctly orange. It may also be a white faced meadowhawk. There are a great many species of dragonfly, and variability in colour, making it hard for an rank amateur like me to make an ID. They're still remarkably pretty, eh?

An unidentified katydid, possibly a Roesel's katydid.

 A classic fuzzy caterpillar, just hanging around ... probably a yellow bear.

And some drama - a dead fly, being devoured by a ????

(Sorry for the fuzzy image. I got a quick grab shot before the whole scene was knocked over by a mystery canid who shall remain nameless. Oh well ..)

Nearby, viewing the scene with horror (he he) or just watching me, was this fellow. My, what big feet you have! My, what big eyes you have!

Of course, there are many hunters out there. One dewy morning, as I was crossing the lawn, I saw a number of these very low webs ready to trap the unsuspecting. I managed to escape, though, lol.

And not only do insects struggle, but plants have their conflicts too.

Oops!

I haven't posted in a few weeks. It has been a conspiracy of events. The weather did not cooperate for much of the that time, with either really windy or rainy, wet weather. Not really conducive to wanderings with a camera.

A couple of big events occurred, though, on days that were better.

The first was the cutting of our hay field. It was a shock when I went out right after the hay had been cut! My lovely meadow, strewn with a palette of wildflowers, grasses swaying in the breeze, buzzing with life ... gone.

I know we are a farm, and I knew it was coming, but after a month or two of daily walks and close observation, it was a bit sickening to see it all disappear. Only a small strip of meadow was left around the periphery of the field. It was crowded with skippers, who rose in clouds as I walked past. Most of the dragonflies were gone, probably because there wasn't much left to hunt. Ah well, we carry on.

The second big event: My morning walk was rudely interrupted by the sudden appearance of a black bear, about 100 yards off.

I grabbed Kara's collar (I saw him before she did), yelled at him, and he/she just stared. Eventually, it wandered south to the property across the road. While I'm wary of bears, it's neat to have them here at Wildhart, reinforcing the appropriateness of the first part of our name.

A few days earlier, I had been photographing near the old house site when I looked up and realized I was being watched ....

She stood there for quite some time, but didn't wait for Cathie to arrive.

There have been some new insects at Wildhart . This is a golden backed snipe fly. It's remarkably pretty for a fly, no?

 I also spotted a pair of them doing something (ahem) ...

Some new dragonflies/damselflies spotted (including a small brown dragonfly that I haven't got a shot of). This is an eastern fork tail, a damselfly.

A new moth .. with orange pants!

 A stunning metallic beetle ...

A mystery object, possibly an insect built structure, made of small pieces of grass ..

A shield bug, just hang in' around

The grasshoppers are growing.

And in the plant world, I spotted this flower. If you look closely, you'll see that it is a Siamese twin.

 The wild strawberries are ripe

And the milkweeds are ready to bloom (they've developed since this image was taken)

We have seen the  occasional Monarch in the last 2 weeks, along with some swallowtails and mourning cloaks. While the skippers are here in clouds, and are remarkable for their sheer numbers, larger butterflies have been relatively rare. We worry about that.

It's windy, cool and rainy this morning. Poor Kara is wondering why her morning walk is delayed ...

I thought I'd point out some of the resources I have been using in working on this blog. It is a real learning experience for me, because I've really only been familiar with the more common species of plants and animals, and trying to identify the new ones (to me) has been a bit of a challenge.

(NOTE: I expect I may have mis-identified in some instances, and would really appreciate hearing from folks that know better!)

Anyway, one of the better and more comprehensive online birding resources is the All About Birds website, from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. It's quite comprehensive, with lots of images, and searchable in a number of ways.

A useful site for butterflies and moths is Butterflies and Moths of North America, although the sheer number of species listed can make ID difficult.

For identification of local common pollinators, this pamphlet, written by a former University of Toronto  Zoology department colleague Laurence Packer, can be quite useful: A Guide to Toronto's Pollinators

It has been devilishly hard identifying dragonflies and damselflies here, and I have used the Toronto Wildlife website for some common species, as well as photographer Tim King's lovely blog for identifying insects and other species.

I hope some of you find these links useful and interesting. If anyone has links that they would like to share, I'd appreciate hearing about them!

Gosh, it's getting warm!

My morning exploration was a bit shorter than usual today, First off, it was quite hot in the sun. Kara did not approve, and wanted to head back.

It seemed that the insects in the hayfield agreed. It was quite quiet, with only the odd butterfly fluttering about, and very few dragonflies evident.I was back out with the tripod today, convinced that losing a few grab shots was worth the higher percentage of in focus shots.

I was carrying around my old Canon 40D body, which is a cropped sensor body. When used with my standard lenses, it gives the sense that you are getting better magnification compared to the full framed body. Some people refer to the smaller sensor bodies as "cropped sensor" bodies, because in effect, that's what they are - the sensor is reduced in size, and effectively crops a section out of the image that you would see with a larger sensor.

My 5D Mk2 has in excess of 21 megapixels. The 40D has 10.1 MP. If you do the math, I still get more pixels, and lower noise pixels, if I use the 5D and crop. The bigger sensor wins for image quality, every time.

The main advantage of the 40D is that it has a much higher rate of firing for multiple images, at 6.5 frames per second, while the 5D  is closer to 3 frames per second. For trying to capture the perfect moment in an action scene, the 40D might be better. It is also smaller, lighter, and plenty good for posting web images, so I will likely use both cameras for this blog.

Anyway, I did manage a few images of skippers today. I was trying to get images of them doing something, or shot from unusual angles, or with unusual lighting. The shots of butterflies with their wings splayed are great for identification and to convey the full majesty and brilliance of their wings. It's also interesting to see the butterflies engaging in their daily routine.

Here are some shots of the skippers feeding ...

I like the backlighting on this one, it adds a glow to the shaded part of the butterflies thorax and abdomen.

I thought that this top down view, lending a symmetrical look to the butterfly, was a bit interesting.

Here's a new visitor to the flowers in the hayfield. At first glance, I thought it was a wasp of some sort. The banding on the abdomen, clear segments on the wings .... but a closer look showed that it was in a fact a wasp mimic moth. Quite the convincing impression!! I am having a tough time identifying the species, though. The abdomen is a dead giveaway, with the crayfish-like "tail".

I noticed another goldenrod crab spider. At first it was just hiding, but eventually it got busy, constructing a web. Here it is, just hanging out .....

And finally, the field is full of wildflowers. Here is one of Cathie's favourites - orange hawkweed. Full sun isn't the best lighting for flowers. I'm hoping for a day with high thin cloud to give me some softer light, so that I can document the profusion of wildflowers - before we have to mow the hay field! Gulp!

Another bit of excitement on the morning outing ....

As I was concentrating on taking photographs, Kara was following behind me. At one point, I thought I heard a flapping of wings nearby but saw nothing when I turned. Several minutes later, a grouse exploded into the air about 6 feet from where I was standing. It fluttered and didn't gain altitude, but was heading for the maple bush. Kara got quite excited and was bouncing into the air, watching the bird, but not approaching. I tried calling her back, to no avail.

The grouse eventually seemed to fly properly off into the woods, and Kara followed.

I suspect that the grouse was protecting a nest, and was doing the "hey look at me I'm a crippled bird" distraction. Do grouse do that? Do they nest in the open hay field?

Back to the images ....

I take back my previous comments about tripods. After a frustrating couple of days with lots of out-of-focus or soft images, I tried a tripod and ballhead today. I'm using a Canon 300mm f4 L lens, with 2X Canon teleconverter (very little effect on image quality!) and an extension tube.

The depth of field when wide open (f8) seems to be no more than a couple of millimetres! The slightest movement on my part puts the image out of focus. With the tripod, focusing was much more deliberate, and my percentage of "hits" increased dramatically. I was also able to stop down, typically to f11 (to increase depth of field), but sometimes more, and still get sharp images.

As a side note, I am using a Canon 5D Mk2 DSLR. It's a great camera, love it to bits. BUT, I do miss my old Canon film cameras, because they had much better focusing aids in the screen. I recall the little split screen for critical focusing, and the circular "waffle" pattern that would pop into focus when you were bang on. With the 5D, you basically have only a matte screen, and with a rig that is a bit dark like mine, it's a royal pain to try and get critically sharp. Yes, I could use Live View, but it would just slow me down even more. As it is, I often have no more than a few seconds before the insect of interest departs.

Anyway, a few new dragonfly portraits. The first one is of a dragonfly enjoying a snack. My best guess at an ID is a unicorn clubtail.

This fellow is resting on the leaf, causing it to curl. As the grasses in the hayfield get taller, there are fewer places for these fellows to land. The tall grass stalks don't support their weight.

Here's an attempt at a closeup of a dragonfly face. Quite neat, but one only a mother could love! A  dot tailed whiteface, I think.

Finally, a side on view of another dragonfly of the same species (I know, I know, I need to try and identify these guys!)

The new predominant butterflies in the hayfield are these skippers -  Long Dashes (Polites mystic) I think.

This one was feeding on a clover flower, and through the viewfinder, I could see it dipping its long black proboscis into the flower to get at the nectar. In this image you can see the proboscis clearly.

As I was taking images of this fellow, a second one landed and behaved a bit aggressively. The first one (top) held his ground, and would flutter his wings for intervals of a second or so. Eventually, the interloper left.

Here's an  Arctic skipper (Carterocephalus palaemon) - I think!

I noticed a small green insect on these yellow flowers.  It's a bee, Agapostemon virescens. The bright green metallic thorax is amazing! This is the first one I ever noticed, though apparently they are quite common. Something about old dogs and new tricks .......

Seemingly hanging mid air, this tiny (maybe 5 mm?) spider was simply hanging from a thread, with no web. The slightest breeze would set him swinging. This was the best shot I could get! Possibly a
goldenrod crab spider.