July seemed to come and go very quickly. It was a VERY active month photographically.
We started with a week by a lake north of Gananoque, and finished with a 10 day drive of the Côte Nord to Havre Saint-Pierre. In between we had a two day visit to Montreal.
This page deals with the "local" aspects _ Ottawa, Gananoque and Montreal. A second page deals with the Côte Nord.
Mosquitoes were out in force, along with deer flies in some areas, so we welcomed dragonflies which helped to keep the numbers of pests down.
dot-tailed whitefaced dragonfly
dot-tailed whitefaced dragonfly
blue dasher dragonfly
widow skimmer dragonfly
The many dragonflies around meant there had to be dragonfly nymphs about as well. We found a few, but found more that had "hatched".
The picture on the right is a close up view of the one on the left. You can see how the back splits open and the dragonfly emerges, unfolds a bit and dries out before heading after the mosquitoes.
There seemed to be lots of frogs - leopard and bull frogs, including one golden bull frog. I've always wanted pictures of frogs on lily pads; this year (and this month) I have been lucky. Also fortunate to find a frog, in amongst some well developed tadpoles, still working his tail off.
Frog with small portion of tadpole tail remaining
leopard frog
golden coloured bull frog
bull frog
bull frog
There were no shortage of eye-catching flowers, some with extra interest. The hoverflies in the last flower were multi-tasking.
swamp milkweed
swamp milkweed
rosinweed blossom
lilies
heal-all
cabbage white butterfly on vipers blugloss
hoverfly on herb robert flower
hoverfly eating the sulphur cinquefoil flower nectar while multitasking....
Both wild and captive snakes were captured through the viewfinder; there were 5-6 garter snakes on the property near Gananoque. This one didn't seem to be disturbed by an ant crawling across its mouth. Meanwhile an emerald tree boa was hanging in its usual position at the Biodome in Montreal.
The Biodome also had several eye-catching monkeys and birds.
As special as the puffins and razorbills are at the Biodome, they are nothing compared to seeing them in the wild at Ile aux Perroquets - see "July Côte Nord"
golden tamarin monkeys
Goeldi's marmoset
puffin
razorbill family
roseate spoonbill
Which leads into local wild birds....
Black-crowned night herons were at Mud Lake and Hog's Back Falls. (The fourth picture is a closer-up view of the third.)
A recently fledged downy woodpecker was being watched over, and fed, by his parents. While a kingbird was with her about-to fledge triplets.
A pigeon was busily making a nest in one of the gates at the Hogs Back Falls dam.
Wood ducks, parents and juveniles, were doing their thing, including staring down a snapping turtle (which might have eaten some of their hatchlings).
female juvenile wood duck
male and female wood ducks, snapping turtle
juvenile wood ducks
juvenile male wood duck
A female cardinal stopped for a quick portrait, while overhead a flicker was working a dead tree for treats. Not far away an uncommon rose-breasted grosbeak (female) was spotted.
Blue jays were joining the chipmunks in collecting peanuts left by visitors to the Dewberry Trail.
A few miscellaneous pictures. I kept the last two small as some people might not find the nature story pleasant. Subject description available by scrolling on picture.
Turkey feather close-up
goat portrait
slug
storm clouds
mink with fresh killed squirrel
