20170626-27 Crab Spider, Skipper, Bumblebees, Hummingbird Clearwing Moth, Beaked Hazelnut, Yellow Toadflax, Long Hoverfly, American Goldfinch, Viper’s Bugloss

We had a couple of breaks in the continual rain so we got out to see what we could see…

Bumblebee foraging for nectar on Ox Eye Daisy …

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A crab spider (?) lying in wait on the top of a Cow Parsley blossom:

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A Sweat Bee, I think, on an Ox Eye Daisy:

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An unknown spider (Xysticus??) looks to be manhandling a carcass of a Goldenrod Crab Spider from its Ox Eye Daisy.

A critter in the last of the Canada Anemones …

One of the many Ontario Skippers (European?) on vetch …

First sighting of Linaria vulgaris (common toadflax,  yellow toadflax, or butter-and-eggs) this year:

This looks like a Long Hoverfly

Wild plum with Plum Pocket

Remember those beautiful little flowers in April, about the same time as Red Maple?    Yes!   Corylus cornuta that will be ready to harvest in a month.

 

A pair of American Goldfinches.   Dancing?  Maybe!

“American Goldfinches breed later than most North American birds. They wait to nest until June or July when milkweed, thistle, and other plants have produced their fibrous seeds, which goldfinches incorporate into their nests and also feed their young.”

Watch me dive!!

Uh!  Oh!  Bombus ternarius, commonly known as the orange-belted bumblebee or tricoloured bumblebee, in fatal embrace of a Goldenrod Crab Spider.

Another Bombus nectaring at a Viper’s Bugloss blossom.

 

Hummingbird Clearwing Moth —- First time I’ve seen one on a Viper’s  Bugloss.

Bumblebee really gets into the Blueweed.

Hummingbird Clearwing is uncoiling its proboscis in preparation for nectaring …

Whenever we get a bit of sunshine the pollinators get busy doing their thing.  The very small insects, including hoverflies and skippers don’t seem to be deterred by rain.

Finally we must have one of Diana’s beauties, just in time for Canada Day:

See the visitor?

Speaking of visitors, have a look at these beauties.

20170617 Yellow goatsbeard, pink ladyslipper, viper’s bugloss, cinnamon fern, tufted loosestrife, pitcher plant, dogbane, potentilla, cow parsnip, pollinators

An afternoon drive down Hwy 529 yielded some interesting scenery…

Yellow goatsbeard stayed open in spite of a light rainshower:

When you look closely (click on the photo) you can clearly see the anthers on this seed head of grass…

Patch of pink ladyslipper orchids, in a sphagnum bog just off of the rock dump north of Big Lake.

Viper’s bugloss being pollinated by a visiting bumblebee….

Cinnamon fern, named for its spore-bearing fertile fronds …

First (and only, so far) sighting of tufted loosestrife

The purple pitcher plant .6 km N of 529A is in mid-bloom.

Possibly a (ground?) crab spider of some sort waiting in ambush.  It didn’t move at all.

I am now reasonably certain that the Monarchs are laying eggs on the yet-to-bloom milkweeds …

Another copious source of nectar for a variety of pollinators, including many butterflies … Spreading Dogbane.

“Potentilla simplex, also known as common cinquefoil or old-field five-fingers or oldfield cinquefoil, is a perennial herb.

Pollinators include mason bees, small carpenter bees, cuckoo bees, halictid bees, syrphid flies, tachinid flies, blow flies, and others. Less common pollinators are wasps and butterflies.”

 

Nice camouflage!   (The ID is also “camouflaged” in my brain!)

I have seen several of these, some with all of the petals removed.

She loves me.

She loves me not.

She loves me.

Etc.   ??

Painted Ladies have more “eyes” than American Ladies:

Backlit Cow Parsnip looking towards the setting sun ….

While trying to ID the above spider I came across this link to very fine nature photography:

http://www.randysnaturephotography.com/index.html

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