October  is going out with some good storms and a bit of snowflurrying. Here are some interesting skies and the end of the milkweed pods fluffing out.

Looking West, from Hwy 69 just north of Woods Road…

Flukey birch pointers!

Entrance to Burwash …

Neilly Lake, Burwash …

Approaching rain from the Northwest as seen from the lookout…

Lone white spruce …

Oft-photographed pond looking East from Burwash Road (old Hwy 69)

Milkweed pods … I find the dainty plumes and the orderly rows of packed seeds to be interesting and worth photographing …

Hmmm …. yet another set of interesting critters feeding on milkweeds …

More chitchat about making pictures is offered by GeorgianBay39 here.

Although I haven’t seen any Trailing Arbutus this fall, Mary Holland has.   I will keep my eyes open for them.

As the autumnal abscission processes (leaf drop) continue into late fall we are treated to some interesting scenery.  Some examples:

You may have to  click on the image above and on the one below to notice that the back-lit inflorescences are very different.  Native cattails fill the swamp above while the invasive Phragmites wave in the breeze along Hwy 529.

For a short period of time some of the Red Oaks are quite showy with brilliant red or orange leaves instead of their more common brownish colour.

Early morning sky from Hwy 526, looking over the Still River.

Looking east from Legion Lane…

Hamlet of Byng Inlet from Riverside Drive in Britt…

Vines (Boston Ivy ??) casting their shadows on a window of the former Little Britt Inn…

Mill Lake, Parry Sound …

Beech leaves usually turn yellow and stay attached over the winter.  These turned orange and are dropping.

Beech trees are usually found in deep protected forests with good soils as we are near their northern range limit.

Nice bit of sun brightening the corner …

Larix laricina needles are turning yellow before dropping.

Our Tamaracks are usually found in bogs in association with black spruce,  cotton grass…

… and red winterberries …

Our Tamaracks like wet feet, unlike the Alpine Larch in the mountains of the Pacific Northwest.

Here are some magnificent photos of the Alpine Larch in the North Cascades of Washington State.

GeorgianBay1939 contributed some pictures to that thread.  One will be very familiar, while the one labelled Breakfast in Oregon Fog was made about a decade ago.

I just tried a little experiment.  I “googled” the Images for  “brtthome’s blog fall colours”  to get this.   Amazing!

We continue to enjoy this year’s very variable fall colours.   Some examples:

Sugar Maple catching some rays …

Sugar Maple in Ann and Lon’s lawn …

Vine surrounding a window at the former Little Britt Inn…

Staghorn Sumac in full colour …

Nice place along Riverside Drive ….

White-faced (or ???-faced) Meadowhawks are still flying at Portage Lake …

Tinsley checking out the photographer at Portage Lake …

Check out this VERY nice news about Tinsley,  (aka TinTin).

Further correspondence:

Thank you Tom, I am thrilled that you replied and I’m thrilled that she has the space to stretch her legs and has someone who loves her as much as she deserves.

Yes she would be 9 now. I first met Tinsley in January 2011 and was with her till October 2015 and I to made sure I had biscuits in my pocket when I met her the first time. I had her in my pocket “pun intended” from that day on.
She is a Shepherd and so she is weary and cautious by nature but once she is comfortable with someone she is gentle.
I don’t think she was socialized with other dogs and people before I came along hence some of her quirks. I know my ex got her as a pup and for most of her early life it was primarily the two of them.

Sit and shake were always rewarded with a treat at our home also. She is very intelligent, again that’s a Shepherd trait.

It’s funny that she returned to the last place we all went as a family. We camped at Grundy P.P. and actually drove around and through Britt.

Nice, eh?

We were attracted by the colours reflected by the pond across the Shebeshekong Road from the Shawanaga gas station.   After a careful look we saw this bonus….

The GBH was slowly walking amongst the rushes and lilies looking for minnows …

Then it checked out the photographer ….

Aha! Lunch!

Gulp! …

Swallowing another one …

Going deep for more morsels …

Vertical study….

Insect Info

I have recently had some discussions about human population growth and the changes in population of other fauna.   This estimate was a surprise to me:

Recent figures indicate that there are more than 200 million insects for each human on the planet.  An article in The New York Times claimed that the world holds 300 pounds of insects for every pound of humans. Ants have colonised almost every landmass on Earth. Their population is estimated as 10⁷–10⁸ billion.

This Smithsonian article adds some flesh to the estimates of insect population.

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We took a detour to Skerryvore Community Road (off of Shebeshekong Road, down to the shoreline community of Skerryvore) on our way back from Parry Sound in late afternoon.  It was a good time to see various lighting (top, front, back, side) effects on the fall colours…..

This is the CPR crossing at Woods Road looking south, showing the effects of classical side lighting on leaves, the subject point at the end of the curve, and the cumuliform clouds.

Looking west, into the sun (which is hidden by that dark cloud) from Shebeshekong Road.  Always a challenge to preserve colour in such backlit scenes as an optimal exposure is difficult.

Looking southerly into a dappled driveway as the sugar maple burst of colour ends.  This is the first of several photos looking southerly as we headed westerly on Skerryvore Rd at around 4:00 PM.

Sunlight on a distant “haymeadow” as our sun side-lights the golden leaves remaining on a poplar tree.

Sun is poking out from the trunk of the tree on the right.  It is a useful trick to position the camera lens in a bit of shadow to shield it from excessive lens flare.  Another challenging picture to capture the colours — along with the brightly lit clouds and the shadows in the evergreens.

Oft-photographed tree trunks, this time enhanced by a brilliant red maple in a very high contrast (High Dynamic Range) situation…

Sun is high to the left,  side-lighting the distant colours:

The colour is very different as we head back easterly on Skerryvore Rd.  Here we are looking northerly, down sun:

Looking northerly, into downsun-dappled leaves …

Sun is high behind my left shoulder as I tried to highlight the red oak against the leafless birch on the side of this little creek:

A patch of sunlight highlighting the red winterberries against the shadow of the pines and spruce in the left mid-ground.  I often use some cover in the foreground to act as an architectural “negligee effect” —- in this case the tag alder branches in front of the little pond.  I often don’t know if it helps or not.  In this case it might be too heavy, tending to block rather than to entice.

As we head north on Shebeshekong road we try an experiment:  To capture the golden tamarack needles against the bright sunshine.

It’s a lot of fun playing with photons (aka light)!

We spent some time enjoying milkweed pods fluffing their seeds  during a light breeze in late afternoon sunshine.   Here, without commentary, are some pictures of what we saw:

Milkweed seeds and pods seem to be subjects of photographic, culinary, gardening and commercial interest.   I find them to be an interesting photography challenge and magical in design and construction.

Autumn colours continue to be resplendent, enhanced by the bright red berries of winterberries.

Ilex verticillata aka Black Alder Winterberry, Brook Alder, Canada holly, Coralberry, Deciduous Holly, Deciduous Winterberry, False alder, Fever bush, Inkberry, Michigan Holly, Possumhaw, Swamp Holly, Virginian Winterberry, or Winterberry Holly.

Not to be confused with this bunch of  Highbush Cranberry  not yet harvested by foragers…

The last of the Elderberry leaves are yellowing…

Staghorn Sumac against a blue sky …

Century+ old CPR culvert was refurbished with new sides and a new outlet last summer, while the beavers were building a little downstream dam …

Sugar Maples at Big Lake …

The leaves of Fragrant White Water Lilies are transferring nutrients to their roots leaving splotchy fall colours …

On a misty rainy day, the colours are muted …

… to reappear in the sunshine ….

In  the photos above and below I was attracted to the illumination of the mid-ground trees ….

Mid-days with broken (stratocumulus) low clouds are good times to see patches of sunshine illuminating subjects of interest.  It is lots of fun to watch the patches of sunlight move across the forest glades.  The camera must be at the ready to catch images like the two above.

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In mid-October we continued to see pretty colours and some interesting seed pods.

This is the Hwy 69 bridge at the Harris Creek turn-off, looking downstream, westerly, under the bridge…

Sugar Maple along Harris Creek …

Heal-All is still blooming…

Tamaracks are starting to turn …

The view from Twin River Bridge is becoming quite colorful …

Big Lake in the evening ….

Seed head of the Purple Pitcher Plants along Hwy 509…  (Here is a blog discussing the cultivation of pitcher plants, including germination of seeds).

It is becoming quite popular to grow milkweeds.  This article shows how to harvest, store and plant the seeds.   Milkweed pods also make an interesting photo subject ….

Mary Holland writes about snowshoes for Ruffed Grouse.

This is what we saw between light rain showers:

South of Alban …

Murdock River launch point …

Hwy 607 …

CPR crossing of Hwy 607 …

Corner of Hwy 69 and Hwy 522 …

Jamot Lumber Road …

Behind the big sand pit …

Jamot …

Check out Jessica Outram’s nice little story:

http://www.sunshineinajar.com/picking-blueberries-a-memory/

Intermittent rain showers helped us to see this year’s fall colours … which seemed to peak in a ragged way this time around the sun.

Here are the remnants of a good crop of Bristly Sarsaparilla…

Little pool on east side Hwy 529 in the afternoon…

Red Maple turning …

Looking downstream, westerly, from Twin Rivers Bridge …

Goldenrod, “gone to seed”:

Three  milkweed pods, one with a critter in nymph form.

The nutrient remobilization in these raspberry leaves is almost complete.  The resulting colouration reveals the fractal-like pattern of each leaf’s vein structure.  (Click on the image a couple of times to see the patterns up close.  Use your browser’s “back” button to return.)

TinTin and I often enjoy CBC Radio One while out and about.  I find the Canadian content to be a pleasant antidote to some of the “news” that fills our aether.

A few days ago we came across a muddy pick-up carrying a couple of 4 wheelers, way back in the boonies.   In addition to other graffiti, the lifted half-ton was sporting this decal:

Apparently there are folks around who have strong feelings on the topic:

Probably best to ignore them  and to spend more of our time enjoying our natural environments, our arts and our kin and friends.