Author: New Admin

We were in Peterborough during sweltering days of high heat and humidity. We managed a morning walk in Jackson Park before the heat became unbearable.

The park’s trails descend steep slopes treed with White Pine, Balsam Fir and White Cedar into the wide valley of Jackson Creek. We chose trails that afforded shade and a variety of plant life.

Below: Fleabane, Chickory, Dame’s Rocket, Spotted Joe-Pye Weed, Creeping Bellflower, Tufted Vetch (aka Bird Vetch), Common Selfheal, Bittersweet Nightshade, Orange Day-Lily

Broadleaf Enchanter’s Nightshade, Fringed Loosestrife, Water Forget-me-not, Common Selfheal, Purple Loosestrife, Blue-fruited Dogwood

We heard ten species of birds, but only a Song Sparrow posed for a photograph.

We had a little better luck with insects!

Cabbage White butterfly and Confused Eusarca moth. We don’t know why it’s confused…

Ebony Jewelwing damselflies

Male (left) and female (right)

Widow Skimmer dragonfly

Aquarius, a genus of water striders

Common Eastern Bumble Bee

Back Home

We’ve had changing weather since we’ve been home, including some gloriously warm, sunny days with low humidity. The sky is often clear, but sometimes provides visual interest.

Flowers from Wandering Bee…

Our Ospreys

The pair are still protecting their nest site and repelling other Ospreys that come too close. But sometimes a pesky Red-winded Blackbird disrupts a meal. This video was made on Thursday morning. At least sometimes, the male continues to provide fish for the female to enjoy.

The Gentle Side of Paul Simon

Many of the songs written by Paul Simon fit this category – soothing, romantic, comforting.

Next week will feature upbeat songs written by Paul Simon.

We took ourselves east for family visits during the sweltering hot weather of the past week or so. We had time for a morning walk in the park along the Etobicoke Creek that meanders through the Brampton suburbs.

The meadowlands attracted a variety of butterflies, more than we have seen to date this summer.

Common Wood-Nymph, Essex Skipper, Monarch, Common Blue

There were a few other insects along the way: Valiant Long-horned Bee (beloved just for the name!), Carolina Grasshopper, Four-banded Stink Bug Wasp (a species of sand wasp that presumably predates Stink Bugs), and a member of Leafcutter, Mortar, and Resin Bees. Leafcutter bees are solitary bees that may cut or chew leaves or petals into fragments to build nests in hollow twigs or burrows in the ground where they lay their eggs. According to Wikipedia, there are more than 1,500 species of this genera, some of which are prized as crop pollinators.

A few birds obliged us with photo opportunities, but we missed the Great Blue Heron that flew along the creek.

Northern Cardinal, Cedar Waxwing, Common Grackle, and a drowsly immature House Sparrow..

A few plants that caught our eyes:

Creeping Thistle and Bull Thistle

Teasel

Scarlet Pimpernel is also known as Poor Man’s Barometer, Poor Man’s Weather-Glass, Shepherd’s Weather Glass or Shepherd’s Clock because the petals only open when the sun shines and close when the sky is dark or overcast. It’s an introduced species that has now naturalized the world over, but we have not yet seen it in the London area.

Fragrant Sumac is native to southern and eastern Canada. Its fruit is a source of winter fruit for birds and small mammals. In the fall, the leaves turn an attractive orange, red or purple.

It was productive for a short walk, but we needed to escape the heat and continue on our journey.

Osprey Update

We are content to see our Osprey pair most days, spending time or consuming fish on the stadium light tower. In the heat of the day when the air quality deteriorates, they are nowhere in sight. We assume they have found the shelter of a shaded branch somewhere along the river.

A Friday Smile…

The Eagles and Linda Ronstadt

These two “in concert” videos feature songs from the era when I was very eager for each new album. Yes, the 1970s.

Eagles – Don Kirshner’s Rock Concert, 1974

Linda Ronstadt – a playlist from 1977

We’ve been under another heat warning that has keep us inside more that we would have liked. We often take short walks through Harris Park and beyond, sometimes taking photos along the way. These don’t usually make it into our reports. Here is a random selection through the past few months.

April

In mid-April, although the trees were bare, Scilla and Sweet Violets covered the bank of the river. They both are introduced species and probably naturalized from the gardens at Eldon House that is situated at the top of the riverbank. Daffodils have made their way down the hill as well.

In mid-to-late April we visited the magnolia trees that bloom at Eldon House across the road.

Also in late April, we looked for the trout lilies that bloom on the bank below Eldon House. There were a few Yellow Trout Lilies and a large colony of white Fawn Lilies. These are native spring ephemerals that bloom before the leaves emerge on the trees and obstruct the sunlight. The plants do not produce flowers for the first four to seven years of their lives.

In the same location as the trout lilies, there are Redbud trees that were in bud in late April. The buds emerge all along the branches of the small trees. Redbuds are native to eastern North America. One authority has said that it is likely that Redbuds were initally found in Canada only on Pelee Island in Lake Erie. Because they have been planted as ornamental trees, Redbuds are now found farther north and west of their original range. Again, the trees on the bank appear to have naturalized from Redbuds in the Eldon House garden.

May

By early May, leaves were appearing on the trees.

The Redbuds were in full bloom. This week, we saw the fruit – flat pods that will turn red and produce seeds – hanging from the branches of the trees at Eldon House. The number of pods on each branch might explain how the trees have spread down the bank over the years.

We spent most of May exploring other places during the spring migration…

June

By early June, the canopy was fully green and new plants were in bloom.

Ribwort Plantain with halos of flowers.

Between early and mid-June, Canada Geese goslings were turning into awkward adolscents.

In mid-June, there was a summer snow storm of sorts when Eastern Cottonwood seeds started to disperse.

The rest of June will have to wait!

Flowers…

…not from Wandering Bee, but from our balcony.

Great Music from 1971

All of the songs on this playlist are permanently burned into my memory. Sometimes we are lucky enough to have a great live version. Sometimes the entire audience sings along.

Recently I learned that the first time Kris Kristofferson heard Janis Joplin’s recording of Me and Bobby McGee was after she had died. Kris and Janis were still very close friends at the time and she had been looking forward to seeing his reaction to her version.

After several days of intense heat and humidity, successive thunderstorms cleared the humidity, at least temporarily. We could see the rain coming down in sheets in the distance on June 27.

Despite the heat, we decided to visit Sifton Bog during the hottest days on June 22nd.

Sifton Bog is another of the Environmentally Significant Areas (ESAs) managed by the Upper Thames River Conservation Authority (UTRCA) within the city of London. The bog evolved from a kettle lake that formed about 13,000 years ago as the glaciers retreated. The large blocks of ice that were left behind melted to form an isolated lake.

According to the UTRCA, “sedges, mosses, and other plants gradually colonized the margins of the lake. Due to the lake’s cool, oxygen-poor conditions, when dead plants sank to the bottom, they did not break down fully, but became compressed as peat as layer upon layer built up. In time, the accumulating peat formed a semi-floating mat that crept from the outer edges of the bog towards the open water at the centre. As the mat became consolidated, Sphagnum mosses, heath plants, and spruce trees grew on the drier hummocks.”

Redmond’s Pond at the centre of the bog as it appears today.

Sphagnum moss and other plants that form the bog

In the morning, before the sweltering heat was too intense, we headed to Sifton Bog with a visiting friend. Our theory was that we would have the shade of the Red and Silver Maples, White Pine and White Birch as we walked the boardwalk through the swamp surrounding the bog. We thought we would spend a very little time exposed to the sun on the deck overlooking the pond.

The trees along the boardwalk transition to Black Spruce and Tamarack at the bog’s outer edges. Leatherleaf, Small Cranberry, and Highbush Blueberry bushes also grow in this area.

Our theory was quickly upended when we encountered two young children and their father, a girl of about six and a boy not more than four years old, both toting cameras. They were interested in everything they saw and quick to point out tadpoles, turtles and frogs lurking in the water. The dad admitted that they were new to exploring nature and seemed happy to learn about the Seek app, the simpler version of iNaturalist for identifying any living thing from a photo.

In the water: Green Frog, American Bullfrog tadpoles, Midland Painted Turtle

Dragonflies and damselflies hovered over the water. Dragonflies tend to be larger and bulkier than damselfies and rest with their wings spread out. Damselflies are smaller and slender and rest with their wings folded along their backs.

Dot-tailed Whiteface dragonfly

Amber-winged Spreadwing and Eastern Forktail damselflies. The Eastern Forktail was depositing eggs in the water. Nymphs will hatch from the eggs and spend one to three years in the water before emerging in adult form.

We were particularly happy to find Bog Copper butterflies in flight. These butterflies exist only in acid bogs with cranberry plants. Adults nectar almost exclusively on this host plant. After mating, females lay their eggs on the underside of cranberry leaves near the water. The eggs overwinter with the larvae fully developed inside. Larvae emerge to feed on cranberry leaves before forming a chrysalis. The pupation period is brief so that adults can emerge at the time the cranberry plants bloom in June.

Our only other butterfly sighting was this Least Skipper.

Birds were few, but we were delighted to hear a Wood Thrush calling near the trail head. We might have caught a glimpse of it near a distant fallen log in the woods. At the pond, this Song Sparrow lived up to its name.

The pond and the bog hosts plantlife adapted to the habitat.

Watershield covers part of the pond.

Two tiny orchids bloom at this time of year.

Grasspinks

Rose Pogonia

A variety of sedges and rushes and fungi grow in the dampness of the bog.

Ferns grow in the wet soil of the bog and woodland.

Insect sightings along the way:

There was so much to see that we ended up staying much longer than expected…

Osprey News

Our Osprey pair continue to spend time together on the nest or the neighbouring light tower. Fish are shared on the nest or tower. Ospreys that venture into their space are quickly chased away.

Flowers from Wandering Bee

A Musical Detour

Bluegrass is not for everyone. It took me years to start loving it.

Most of the time around 1970, I was listening to CHUM-FM (what would be called classic rock today). But there were whispers of country music reaching me. The songs on this playlist will be with me forever. We first heard “Fox on the Run” sung by The Good Brothers, a Canadian hippy bluegrass band. “Will The Circle Be Unbroken” is so monumental, it appears twice.

The 1972 album, Will The Circle Be Unbroken by The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band was a huge success. The band of young musicians collaborated with many famous bluegrass and country-and-western players, including Roy Acuff, “Mother” Maybelle Carter, Doc Watson, Earl Scruggs, Randy Scruggs, Merle Travis, Pete “Oswald” Kirby, Norman Blake, Jimmy Martin, and others, to produce the album of traditional country songs.  Some of the songs appeared in the soundtrack for Oh Brother, Where Art Thou?

June finally brought us some seasonal summer weather until the past few days (June 22nd to 24th) when we endured sweltering temperatures above 30 C and humidex equivalents above 40 C.

June 16, 2025 and June 20, 2025

The humidity culmninated in a series of thunderstorms on June 24th that haven’t yet cleared the area.

Meadowlily Nature Preserve & Meadowlily Woods ESA

Meadowlily Nature Preserve is a 5.9-ha (14.5 acre) property that was donated to the Thames Talbot Land Trust (TTLT) in 2002. The site is an integral component of Meadowlily Woods, an Environmentally Significant Area (ESA) in the City of London that is manged by the Upper Thames River Conservation Authority. The properties are mainly on the south side of the South Thames River and are comprised of floodplain woods, deep ravines, mature woodlands, and some active and retired agricultural fields that are now meadows. TTLT has worked to re-naturalize manicured areas to encourage the growth of native species adapted to the local conditions.

Wildflowers bloomed in the sunny patches along the edges of paths and the open meadows. Many of the plants in bloom were introduced and have since naturalized.

Oxeye Daisy, Fleabane, Meadow Hawkweed, Red Clover, Dame’s Rocket

White Campion and Bladder Campion were both in bloom.

White Campion and Bladder Campion

White Campion is a dioecious flowering plant, meaning that there are male and female flowers on separate plants.

Male flowers have 10 stamens, female flowers have 5 (or 6) styles that project beyond the calyx.

Common Ninebark was in bloom, as were Multifora Rose and a Beautybush that must have escaped from a garden or been the remnant of a former garden.

Bees and flies are both important plant pollinators.

These are all flies!

Bees come in many varieties as well.

The few butterflies we saw did not stop moving. The Ebony Jewelwings were more cooperative.

We heard only seven bird species and saw only two. American Robins often forage along the paths and on the forest floor. They are still feeding young, possibly their second brood.

We couldn’t tell if this Song Sparrow had been bathing or was moulting.

Chipmunk! Now you see it, now…

Osprey Update

We continue to see our Osprey pair sometimes together and sometimes separately, either on the nest or on the neighboring light tower. Once, we saw one consuming a fish on the light tower. For now, they are sticking to home base.

Wandering Bee Flowers

Double pleasure again this week!

So Much Great Music in 1970

I took many lesser great songs out of this playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLhsgho1ap5irhSCavK1vtkOa4Kv7HdjcF

In late May, we went to Pond Mills, part of a larger Environmentally Significant Area (ESA) in London that encompasses several kettle ponds. These ponds were formed when large blocks of ice from retreating glaciers melted and made depressions or kettle holes that collected water and sediment. The Pond Mills trail circuits the South Pond through wet lowlands, open fields and forest.

Several species of ferns grow in the damp conditions. The most numerous were American Royal Ferns, but there were also Wood Ferns and Sensitive Ferns.

There was a variety of shrubs in bloom. Some are introduced species that have become invasive, including these honeysuckles (Tartarian and Morrow’s), Autumn Olive and Guelder-Rose.

Native bushes were also in bloom: Red Osier and Alternate-leaved Dogwood and Common Ninebark, still in bud.

Some native bushes had already bloomed and were setting fruit: Black Raspberry, Chokecherry, Riverbank Grape

Aside from Jack-in-the Pulpit, the early spring flowers had disappeared, replaced by plants that bloom into the summer.

Philadelpia Fleabane, Oxeye Daisy, Herb Robert, Meadow Buttercup, Bitter Wintercress, False Solomon’s Seal, Jack-in-the-Pulpit, Dame’s Rocket, White Campion, Bird’s-eye Speedwell, Ground-ivy (aka Creeping Charlie), Dandelion (gone to seed), and Dwarf Raspberry (aka Dewberry).

The birds that remain for the summer are now busily tending nests and feeding young. They are often furtive in their attempts to conceal the location of their nests from predators.

Here is a Gray Catbird foraging in the underbrush and a Common Grackle carrying food to young. American Robins seem less concerned about being seen…

The ponds attract other birds. This Great Blue Heron might have been on a fishing expedition.

The Mallard pair were moving through water that was clogged with Eurasian Water-milfoil, an invasive species of aquatic plant that can crowd out native species and disrupt fish habitat.

Osprey Update – not the best news…

We are very disappointed to report that there will be no young Ospreys on the nest this year. Last weekend, the Osprey pair began standing on the nest or on a nearby light tower, rather than sitting in the nest. This confirmed our growing fears that the eggs had not hatched and the pair had finally given up efforts to incubate them. We had counted the 35 to 42 days expected for incubation from the time we saw the birds sitting constantly low in the nest. We knew it was well past the time hatching was expected.

Although they are no longer trying to incubate whatever eggs were in the nest, the Osprey pair have not abandonned the site. We see them regularly standing on the nest or the neighouring tower, usually together. From time to time, they have added sticks and branches to the nest. Another observer of an Osprey nest that Glenn found online has also seen this behaviour in Ospreys whose nests had failed. If we were to anthropomorphise, we might conclude that the birds are holding a vigil for their lost breeding opportunity.

We’ll see how long they stay. We don’t know, but we imagine that the pair is still dedicated to the location and wish to protect it for future years. Since fish are abundant here, there is no incentive for the birds to migrate so early in the season.

Photos from June 14 and 15, 2025

This Week’s Flowers

Peonies, Sweet Peas and Cornflowers (Batchelor’s Buttons) – what could be better!

Videos – Remembering Brian Wilson

I bought my first album by The Beach Boys through my Columbia Record Club subscription in 1966. One year later, I saw The Beach Boys live in Kitchener. I don’t remember the show, but I recognized every song they sang. In 1998, I saw Mike Love and a touring band in a small hotel ballroom. One hightlight was his version of “Back in the USSR”, the song he said was written by The Beatles for the Beach Boys. It was only later on that I realized Brian Wilson was the genius behind The Beach Boys.

Here is a tiny sample of performances by Brian Wilson, The Beach Boys, and cover bands.