After a few days of relief from the sweltering heat, the humidity began to climb. On Tuesday, a thunderstorm rolled in just before sunset.
You can see in the photos above, and the one below, that some trees have already started to fade from green to yellow and others are turning red. We are told by arborists that our wet summer contributed to this early colour change in the leaves.
There is much to see in our walks along the river and through the community allotment garden.
Mourning Doves often perch on overhead wires. As unlikely as it seems, Great Blue Herons often perch in trees overlooking the river.
On sunny days, turtles bask in the sun, on rocks, or just below the surface.
Spiny Softshell turtles and Map turtles.
Again, we have seen few insects on the plants we inspected. We’ve had few insects on our balcony as well, but a moth landed on the screen recently.
There – Royal Botanical Garden, Hamilton, Ontario
Thanks to dear friends, we were introduced to some of the many gardens that comprise the Royal Botanical Garden. Amidst our time to chat and stroll the gardens, Susan took a few photos.
We explored some of the more formal gardens and a woodland trail a short way into the ravine.
We particularly enjoyed the Rock Garden in a former quarry with its lily pond and hidden waterfalls trickling down rocky steps.
The water lilies and other exotic blossoms and foliage caught our attention.
Although there weren’t many insects in evidence, we were happy to see a few butterflies. Monarchs flitted around a Butterfly Bush and Glenn later spotted a swallowtail at a distance. This Wild Indigo Duskywing stayed put long enough for photos, as did this Eastern Carpenter Bee.
This week’s flowers
Osprey Update
On our Sunday walk, Glenn spotted two Ospreys being chased by a third. We assumed that the male Osprey from Labatt Park was chasing intruders. We had seen the juvenile Osprey on the nest earlier that morning. Since Monday, we have have seen little of the juvenile or adult male, perhaps because we have not been as vigilant as usual this week. Today, the adult male was consuming a fish on a light tower and the youngster was perched on the nest. No fish was delivered to the juvenile before it left the nest. We later saw the juvenile on the low platform without a fish.
We are wondering whether the adult male is withholding fish to encourage the youngster to fish. The old TV commercial, “Stop feeding them cheese!” came to mind. (The premise of this advertisement for cheese was that when adult offspring continued to live at home, it was because parents fed them cheese. Thus, parents were admonished to “Stop feeding them cheese!”)
In support of this theory, we did see later the juvenile perched on a set of lights where he could overlook the river. From there, he was staring intently at the water and waggling his head to see below the surface. This is the first indication of hunting behaviour we have witnessed. We hope to see more…
Intruders flying over the river
Drivin’ in my Car
Yes, the heading is from the opening of “Fire” by Bruce Springsteen. The song was a hit for The Pointer Sisters. I enjoyed several versions on YouTube.
Here is a lightweight set of car songs that finishes with The Beach Boys singing a trio of cars songs.
I listened to several versions of “Paradise by the Dashboard Light” by Meatloaf. Their angry and operatic style did not fit the tone of the list.
