We have had adventures at home and away. We are still organizing our new photos. You will see them before long.
In August, we had heavy downpours that left great puddles on the basepaths in the ballpark. The hot, humid August weather gave way in September to mostly sunny weather and cooler temperatures.
As always, the view was dramatic:
New home for our website
We moved to a new web host: Web Hosting Canada (whc.ca) after three years with DreamHost, a popular US company.
We archived all of our old posts and will make some of them available later.
Chimney Swifts
One of the things that kept us busy in August was helping with the release of orphaned Chimney Swifts. Nestlings that fall from nests in chimneys are hand-reared by wildlife rehabilitation specialists until they are ready to take flight on the long journey to their wintering grounds in South America.
When the young birds are ready, the rehab specialists must find a wild flock of Chimney Swifts for them to join. Often, the young swifts are ready late in the season when the swifts have started their migration south. Because of London’s southerly location in Canada, it is one of the few places that still has large numbers of migrating swifts. Our program in London monitors the location of chimneys with large numbers of swifts through the summer. Rehabilitation specialists near Kingston, Ontario and in Hudson, Quebec, travel long distances to release their young swifts in London.
Here are two young swifts in the care of Destined to Fly, a wildlife rehabilitation facility specializing in Chimney Swifts, before they were ready for release.
The rehabilitation specialists from Le Nichoir in Quebec had several young swifts to release. They stopped by our apartment for a final feeding before we headed to the release site. Mealworms were on the menu.
Chimney Swifts have spiny tails that help them perch on vertical surfaces. You can see the spines of their tails coming through the mesh of the travel cage.
Osprey Update
In early September, Beta was still present in the ballpark and apparently being fed by the adult male Osprey. We rarely saw a delivery, but did see Beta consuming fish. Since he was rarely away from the ballpark, we assumed he was not catching fish for himself. There would be no need for him to return to the ballpark if he were catching fish successfully.
We weren’t sure if Beta would still be present when we returned home after some time away. We needn’t have worried! There he was, patiently waiting and sometimes calling from the low platform. He is still present a majority of the time. We wonder if he will ever learn to survive on his own…
A few photos from the neighbourhood
An adult and a juvenile Great Blue Heron landed in the river shallows. After the adult left, the juvenile put on a show, begging for food, we presume.
We later saw the adult farther upriver.
Male Mallards have molted and look handsome in their nonbreeding plumage.
A Double-crested Cormorant rode the current in the river.
We keep an eye on wild and cultivated blossoms in the neighbourhood, looking for pollinators.
Butterfly Bush, Brown-eyed Susan
Black-eyed Susan, Teasel
Two-spotted Bumble Bee, Four-banded Stink Bug Wasp on Culver’s Root
Possibly another Two-spotted Bumble Bee climbing into a Foxglove Beardtongue
Some wasps target specific prey. A Cicada-killer is a type of digger wasp that hunts Cicadas.
Below, an Eastern Cicada-killer Wasp is dragging a Cicada into an underground burrow or nest after paralyzing it by stinging. The female wasp then lays a single egg on the Cicada and seals it in the cell. When the egg hatches, the larva feeds on the Cicada.
Cicada-killers are beneficial because they help control the population of Cicadas that feed on the leaves of deciduous trees.
Flowers from Wandering Bee…
Audubon Photo Awards 2026
https://www.audubon.org/magazine/2026-audubon-photography-awards-winners
Summer = Beach Boys Songs
Before summer is gone, a short playlist.
