20170713 Hwy 522 Highbush Cranberry, Tachinid fly, European Skipper, Red Admiral, Northern Spring Azure, Bristly Sarsaparilla, Tansy, Chicory

Above photo:  Sweat Lodge frame at Portage Lake

 

We stopped in at Portage Lake to see the wigwam and sweat lodge frames left from the Summer rituals celebrated at Solstice.

We also went for a short trip to see the sights along Hwy 522:

It looks like a good crop of Highbush Cranberries this year.

 

This looks like a Tachinid Fly which is visiting the last of the Common Yarrow for nectar…

Unknown beetle(?) up close and personal with what’s left of a Common Vetch flower.

Looks lie a European Skipper nectaring on a Common Vetch.

Tamarack cones are slowly changing colour from purple to brown …

Evening Primrose, Oenothera, are starting to bloom in earnest now …  we’ll be keeping an eye out for its pollinators since …”the bees which visit Oenothera are generally vespertine temporal specialists: bees that forage in the evening.”

And the  Great Mulleins are starting to bloom also, especially when close to a south facing rock, like this one:

 

Another of the many Red Admirals that we’ve seen this year, leading us to wonder if this year’s migration resembles the huge migration of 2012.

 

A newly seen tan, fuzzy, bee fly …. but which one???

A Northern Spring Azure  (there is some debate about this genus, Celastrina, in Ontario)

A nice simple Inuksuk:

Pale Corydalis still blooming!

Bladder Campion is starting to release  its seeds…

Bristly Sarsaparilla are starting to form their characteristic dark blue fruit..

Bombus is finishing the nectar in the florets of the Ox Eye Daisy.

Moss spore capsules are releasing spores…

Three different fern species in these two photos? …

Tansy is starting to bloom along the roadsides …  this one with a visitor…

 

So is Chicory ( aka blue daisy, blue dandelion, blue sailors, blue weed, bunk, coffeeweed, cornflower, hendibeh, horseweed, ragged sailors, succory, wild bachelor’s buttons, and wild endive.)…. related to these yummy edibles: endive, radicchio, radichetta, Belgian endive, French endive, red endive, sugarloaf, and witloof (or witlof).

 

Have you noticed the new Gallery up there in the Title Block?

Try clicking on Selected Winter Photographs (in a menu under Gallery) to see a start to a new project.  Or you can just click here.

 

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20170530 Water Arum, Blackbird, Canada goose gosling, Northern Spring Azure, Pale corydalis, Taraxacum, Fanleaf Hawthorne, Eastern Tent caterpillar, Star flower, ambush spider, Forget-me-nots, Wild Allium.

Water Arum, Blackbird, Canada goose gosling, Northern Spring Azure, Pale corydalis, Taraxacum, Fanleaf Hawthorne, Eastern Tent caterpillar, Star flower, ambush spider, Forget-me-nots, Wild Allium.

 

On the way back from Sudbury we detoured to Alban to see a few sights then went for a short drive along Riverside drive…

 

Water arum, Calla palustris,  is starting to bloom along Hwy 607.  The blossom  looks like the Calla Lily:

Redwinged Blackbirds often spread they tail feathers when they are calling …

Parent and youngster …

 

Northern Spring Azure, I think, from a long ways away….

Pale Corydalis collecting fluff …

The beneficial weed Taraxacum shedding seeds….

Canada anemone is starting to bloom near George W’s place on Riverside Rd….

It has a beautiful white flower, emerging here …

Fanleaf Hawthorn, complete with two thorns, and two visitors … and a half eaten blossom …

I have a whole new respect for them after reading the Wikipedia article about the Eastern Tent Caterpillar.

I need help to identify this shrub… Probably Sandcherry.   Prunus pumila.….

Starflower with a wee spider hiding in ambush.  The blossom is about 1 cm in diameter when fully open.   I guess that the spider’s leg span is about half a centimeter.

Forget-me-nots, probably escapees from someone’s garden to the roadside wilds:

Wild Allium, also probably escapees , at “Reynold’s Rock”  …

Spring seems to be developing in fits and starts this year.  A day or two of warm sunshine accelerates development interspersed between cold wet days which retard growth and critter activity.  The only constant this year is the voracious activity of blackflies and mosquitoes who are both multiplying rapidly.  They challenge the careful photographer while focusing and composing.   Usually wind is a photographer’s enemy.  Not this spring!

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