September seemed to give the cameras a good work out what with visits to Calgary, Montreal, plus local spots.
It was five months ago that the derecho hit with very brief but devastating winds. The clean up is still continuing. These pictures are from the Pine Grove Trail that only just re-opened for walkers/hikers. It used to be solid forest where these two pictures were taken. But note the new growth already happening in the second picture.
Someday I will stop taking pictures of wood ducks, but I couldn't resist this photo op...
It seemed to be wing-stretch day at Mud Lake. First a great blue had a good stretch, then a rarely seen green heron decided it was his turn.
Another day was "egret day" with four egrets visiting. They were all close by each other, but I only managed to get three heads up at one time in a picture.
A few insects caught my eye in various locations.
First picture are black ants "farming" aphids. The aphids secrete a sweet liquid which the ants like, so the ants bring the aphid eggs to particular juicy parts of plants, the aphids hatch and go to work.
The second picture: When is a bee not a bee? When it is a hoverfly.
In the last row, the first fly is a bristle fly, the last two are of a face fly.
With a damp few weeks, mushrooms were everywhere you looked.
A few seed "pods" had matured what with fall being just around the corner.
Thistle, cotton grass, cat tail.
There were still a few flowers blooming. A few tea roses and several turtle head plants had blossoms. The deep purple/blue fall asters were in abundance.
Our visit to the Biodome in Montreal was in the afternoon. We normally are there first thing in the morning. The change in time seemed to bring out a few different animals - beavers and otters out patrolling their enclosures, and we missed others who were having their afternoon siestas.
One of beavers either is blind or has very bad cataracts. The blue eye was very distracting, so I changed the eye to black.
That might not be the most ethical thing to do, but it lets the viewer go beyond the blue eye to see more of the animal and it's movements.
For a short video re the beaver and otters (and a few others) see:
The golden lion tamarin monkeys have delicate fingers and long finger nails.
Normally it isn't recommended that a frog get near a snake, but as this is an emerald tree boa snake, I guess the poison dart frog was safe.
A number of the birds were posed photogenicly.
(Scroll over the picture for identification.)
eider ducks
black black guillemots molting to winter plumage
Tern
roseate spoonbill
The Biodome's subpolar area is always a cool 😊 place to visit with its ice walls and several types of penguins (as well as puffins and murres).
A gentoo penguin brought a rock to his mate for the nest. The king penguins were standing around pretending to supervise.
The scarlet macaws seemed quite amorous.
It's the time of year for the Gardens of Lights display at Montreal's Botanical Gardens.
On the way back from Montreal we dropped by Parc Omega...
The wild boars seemed active, but after lunch we had to smile as about 30 of them were sleeping very soundly in one small area. Presumably the groupings were by family, but in some cases it was a very tight, piled on group.
The bull frog* tadpoles were jumping out of the water in one small pond. Surprisingly they were doing it under the watchful eye of a green heron looking for lunch.
(* I am saying bull frog tadpoles as there are a few internet articles about them behaving like this.)
