Snowberry Clearwing (Hummingbird) Moth Today is impossibly hot with blazing sun and a humidex of >40C ... on the other hand, these conditions brought this wonderful moth out to play amongst our phlox flowers. Hemaris diffinis The moth is not quite as large as a Hummingbird but easy to confuse at a [...]
Realizing that I had a good photograph of a White Admiral butterfly, an insect that is more black than white, I wondered what it would look like in monochrome. This is the result - quite pleasing, especially as it was sitting on a white flower at the time. This was taken almost a [...]
I am not a person who appreciates, or usually understands, poetry beyond Ogden Nash and the Horatio on the Bridge sort of thing. But there are exceptions. Many friends and readers of this journal will have noted that I enjoy wildlifing on my "patch", which is to say I like to go [...]
IS THIS THE ‘MOST BIODIVERSE” COMMUNITY IN CANADA For a five day period that took in last weekend we took part in a Canada-wide “Bioblitz” organized by the Nature Conservancy of Canada and the Canadian Wildlife Federation. We (and our little town of Baie-D’Urfé) came within a whisker of being the top [...]
This bird was easy to find - I was aware of some movement in a Viburnum bush in the garden and assumed it was a squirrel but then this lovely Warbling Vireo stuck its head out and actually stayed around long enough to get a few pictures. It was busily scouring the branches [...]
Early in the week we decided to take the now three month old EV for a longer run to see how the batteries behaved under greater stress than going to the supermarket involves. We crossed into Ontario and spent a happy half day walking the trails in the Cooper March nature reserve. We [...]
A garden for children of all ages. Since, some three or four years ago we decided to stop mowing our lawn but create a native flower “mead” in its place, we have been fascinated by how much more interesting our garden has become - and also by the fascination this style of [...]
Flowers from the garden - arranged by J © RG 2021
500 days ago I set myself the daily challenge of identifying and then sharing at least one different species of bird, insect, plant etc that I could find locally. Yesterday the number reached the 500 mark. My intention is to double that and reach at least 1000 species but no longer will I [...]
We have a much loved etching by the English artist Graham Clarke hanging in our dining room ... admire it every day. This is another of his works that pretty well sums up life for us these days - apart from the thatched roof. No complaints.