We enjoyed some warm weather which brought more spring flowers out providing pollen and nectar for various pollinators, flies, bees, flying beetles, butterflies and moths.
Very small butterfly, probably one of the “morphs” of Northern Spring Azure:
First Warbler of the season, gleaning some blooming tamarack (see the little purple blossoms in front of the birdie?). If you want to get into the intricacies of gleaning here is a study for you.
First migrating hawk of the season, a big fellow, with a wingspan greater than a metre on top of a new power pole along Hwy 529.
After photographing the Rough Legged Hawk (on its way to its breeding area in the arctic tundra) we went to check on the Trilliums at Twin Rivers, where the Naiscoot and Harris Rivers join.
An hour and fifteen minutes later we came back to see it on a nearby pole. I got this one exposure before the camera died with an exhausted battery.
So I grabbed the ever-ready Panasonic FZ-1000 and focused on the bird just as it took off:
Lucky!
The next day I played peek-a-boo with this lady as she fluffed on a little pile of dry earth near Boucher’s Pit Road.
It was nice and warm which brought out this gang of turtles. See the Blanding’s Turtle among the Painted Turtles? If you go to the Blanding’s Turtle’s link you will learn that it is a Threatened Species at Risk, matures at age 25 and can survive in the wilds for up to 75 years.
This really shows the difference between the Blanding’s in front of the two painted turtles. Here is a wonderful article on Painted Turtles.
A first for me! A little Nashville Warbler gleaning some willows on the Forest Access Road near the old mill.
Another first! Seeing and recognizing Blue Cohosh as it matures. The vestige of the blossom is on the right hand side of the photo, taken on the east side of Old Still River Road near the “Corner Fence Post”.
Blue Cohosh again, a little further advanced this time …
Some sort of wild plum on the East side of Old Still River Road, between the two main culverts.
We’ll keep and eye on these to see what they bear…
My best photo showing the two different catkins of the Paper Birch. When I went to the very good Paper Birch Plant Watch site I came across this interesting article describing the events of spring in Simcoe County (between Lake Simcoe and Georgian Bay).
Citizen Science is making great progress. I will be checking out this very powerfull app with my iPhone one of these days….
and I will check out this aggregation of nature blogs (when I can take time away from making pictures and learning a bit about nature!):
http://blog.feedspot.com/nature_blogs/
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