Thanksgiving Colour!

Happy Thanksgiving! 

Some of my favourite fall colour pics from last week's trip. 

(Limberlost Forest and Wildlife Reserve, above)

Turtle/Clear Lake Trail, Limberlost Forest and Wildlife Reserve.

Spruce Bog Trail, Algonquin Park

Oxtongue Rapids Park, Dwight, ON

Arrowhead Provincial Park

 Autumn in Algonquin Park!

I haven't visited Algonquin Park during peak Fall Colours since I was a kid. Our timing on the changing of the leaves and the weather couldn't have been better. Source Lake is in the photo.

We started our morning following the old rail bed at the North end of Mizzy Lake Trail. A Spruce Grouse was busy foraging on the ground. They eat the needles of conifers including some pine and spruce species. They can eat from high in the trees where newer needles are found, but also feed on the ground in search of small invertebrates, plants and mushrooms. They are known to be fairly tame which this bird demonstrated by feasting on the path and ignoring the hikers and photographers! Cornell Lab, All About Birds.

A little further down the trail, a local Common Raven patiently watched some hikers as they rested with a snack. This bird is obviously used to people! He certainly had a lot of personality, making many different sounds as he "talked to" the passersby!

A few dragonflies were airborne in the warmer afternoon weather as we toured the Spruce Bog Trail. This Shadow Darner would not land, but I managed an inflight photo!

Fall colours are reflected in the bog.

One of our target birds for the trip was a Canada Jay. We finally found one late in the afternoon at the east end of the park. This bird landed in my outstretched hand but didn't stick around when all I had to offer was sunflower seeds. He went in pursuit of people with peanuts.

North Lambton in October: 

I have made a few trips to North Lambton in recent days. A stop in Plympton-Wyoming gave me a view of Blue Point with a hint of fall colour.

Lambton Wildlife hosted a very informative iSpy Fungus Walk at the Lambton County Heritage Forest. We didn't cover much distance as conditions were ripe for Fungi to be found in a fairly short stretch of the trail. Reddish Brown Bitter Bolete is in my hand. Some of the souls braver than I tasted a sample and agreed that it was quite bitter. 

A member of the Amanita Fungi with the white "skirt" on the stem, is poisonous.

The gills of a Blewet are visible on the underside of this fungus.

Although also purple in hue, I believe this is a Viscid Violet Cort. The cap of this fungus was extremely slimy.

I was distracted by many things on the trail. We found a decaying log covered in ants with wings. These ants with wings are at the reproductive stage of life and are looking to find a mate. 

A millipede crawled around the top of a dead stick. It had possibly just moulted.

 Some Recent Favourites!

Clouded Sulphur butterfly covered in dew is waiting for the sun to warm up and dry it off after a foggy morning.

While touring in North Lambton this week, I checked out a ditch hoping for some butterflies. Instead I found a tiny Grey Tree Frog sitting on a leaf. He was barely an inch long. You can gauge his size by the width of the grasses behind him.

Winter Wrens are quick movers, bouncing around on the forest floor. I was lucky to have one bounce right past me as I stood stationary in a wooded section of Canatara Park!

Yellow Patches, a kind of mushroom found growing near Forest a few days ago.

Some interesting clouds with shadows early in the morning.

 Praying Mantises!

I found 3 different Praying Mantises this week. They go through incomplete metamorphosis. (egg, nymph, adult. There is no pupa stage.) When they hatch from the egg, they are miniature replicas of the parents. As they grow, they shed their exoskeleton 7 to 9 times before becoming an adult. They are easier to find in the fall because of their larger size.

Camouflage assists them in avoiding predators but also allows them to sneak up on prey. A well hidden praying mantis is in the centre of the photo.

Sometimes they are situated where they aren't as well hidden.

The orange and black colours of these Large Milkweed Bugs caught my eye. As I was photographing them, I noticed some slight movement. It was the hind leg of a Praying Mantis, as it ate one of their kin. Praying Mantises can rotate their heads 180 degrees. If you look closely, he is keeping a close watch on me!

Sharp spines on the forelegs allow it to hold on tightly to prey. I'm surprised the remaining Milkweed Bugs didn't try to hide. Perhaps the mantis would be temporarily satisfied after eating this snack. Keep your eyes open  for praying mantises as these insects will continue to be active on the milder days.

Update:

I published the above post first thing this morning then headed out for a walk. I wasn’t expecting to capture the following pictures with my camera! 2 male Praying Mantises vying to mate with the larger female! No, I didn’t wait to see if she would eat their heads. That behaviour tends to happen when they are under stress, such as when captive.  I walked away and returned over an hour later to see the competition was still underway. 6 Praying Mantises in one week!

 

Recent Canatara Finds!

Great Egrets having been gathering and roosting in Canatara in recent weeks. I finally found some sitting in the sunshine! 2 more Egrets were also resting in this tree.

This Egret landed with a stick in its beak. Several times it dropped the stick in the water and then retrieved it. The action can attract curious fish who may be hoping to find a juicy insect to eat. If they aren't careful, the Egret will make a meal of the fish. As the saying goes, "Eat or be eaten"!

The Lake Huron shoreline was a good spot for a family of American Crows to search for food. They spent time digging between the stones for invertebrates.

Chicken of the Woods is considered to be an edible mushroom. (I will not be tasting it.) It is growing on a dead tree that several years ago was used by a grey Eastern Screech Owl. When allowed to grow, the mushroom will continue to break down the wood fibre, eventually turning the tree into soil. The nutrients in the tree provide excellent growing conditions for more plants to grow...all a part of the circle of life!

The "famous" Owl tree in Canatara (source of many photos) came down in last week's storm. The yellow circle shows where the owl would sit. I found it interesting to look at the space below the hole where the owls would shelter from the weather and predators. Luckily there are a few other cavities in nearby trees for the Owls to use providing they get to them before the squirrels.

In the warmer months, Eastern Screech Owls often roost on branches and can still be well hidden!

Virginia Creeper is one of the first plants to show signs of fall colour. The plant provides shelter for many songbirds and warblers. Insects hiding on the stems provide food for the birds and other animals.

 

 A Very Windy Wednesday!

Birds were difficult to photograph during the storm, but a pair of Sanderlings stood still as the waves receded back into Lake Huron.

Waves crashing onto Canatara Beach.

Wave action on the St. Clair River.

This Common Tern was flying so erratically in the wind, that I missed capturing his whole body.

Strong north winds brought all 3 Jaeger species to Lambton County. These fast flying relatives of gulls breed in the Tundra but can be found on the Great Lakes during migration. Wednesday was my first ever opportunity to see these "Kleptoparasites" who steal food from other birds. Normally they are flying too far out over the lake to see with binoculars. Although still distant, I was surprised to watch them occasionally float down the St. Clair River!

In addition to watching the birds, I was fascinated by the manhole cover on the path between us and the river. Water was pushed up the pipe by wave action causing the cover to "burp". It was rather startling to hear when we first got there. 

We also had some inland damage when a neighbour's tree crashed down onto the back fence. Luckily there was no other damage! Still lots of clean up to do!