A somewhat relaxing month spent at cottages and local day trips.
Please note that some people might find the video at the bottom of this webpage disturbing.
A mid afternoon walk around Mud Lake early in the month was very quiet with most of the animals resting.
The mallards had settled down for the afternoon, I didn't even see the third one until I got home and started editing the pictures. Just the one cardinal was in evidence, and he was either a juvenile, or an adult coming out of moult.
There seemed to be an abundance of frogs:
leopard, bull and green frogs.
Green frogs look like bull frogs, but have ridges down their backs, while with the bull frogs, the ridges turn down and surround their ears.
The neat looking orange coloured spotted jewelweed blossoms were everywhere. A few had gone to seed and ready to violently spring open at a slight touch (for which they are also called "touch me not" flowers).
The white arrowhead flowers were much in evidence and a few Queen Anne's Lace flowers were curling up to go into their seed stage. A few maple leaves were turning colour already.
And last but not least, two fungi caught my eye
Another Mud Lake visit towards the end of the month, but this time in the earl(ish) morning, was not quite so quiet.
The wood ducks were out and about, a few showing a little post-moult colour.
A few other birds showed up, including an Osprey, some hungry chickadees and nuthatches and a friendly female downy woodpecker.
A few more that caught my eye.
And another trip to Parc Omega, this time on a very hot day. The gate-keepers/toll collectors/moochers were still very much around with some of the young ones now comfortable approaching cars.
Arctic and black wolves relaxed while the alpine ibex climbed to the top to have lunch.
With the heat several animals headed for the water to keep cool.
The bear was low enough in the water that he had scrunched up his nose to keep it above water.
The Parc obtained two orphan moose young last year. They have been quite shy and hard to find, but now fresh tree branches are put out for them each day in an open area, and the water attracted them on this hot day.
Despite offerings of carrots, a few of the elk headed for the water by noon hour.
Some of the elks' antlers were starting to shed/shred the velvet, losing the nice soft velvet look.
And then there was the one who seemed to enjoy a good scritch behind the ear.
Out and About
Various birds of a feather
Ruby-throated hummingbird
Mergansers
Mute swans: the pair had 5 cygnts - two white morphs and three the usual grey.
Oddly placed great blue heron warming himself
Colourful starling and curious screech owl
Mushrooms and fungus (plus a lookalike😊)
Florals (plus)
In your face
Miscellaneous
We spent a few hours at Old Fort Henry in Kingston. There was not much activity due to Covid restrictions.
A heads up.
Some people might find the following video disturbing. It deals with an alternative food source for chipmunks.