More Strange Skies of the Vermilon River. A Post To SWF.

Sure looks like rain.

 The sky gave me and the weather man a rough time this week. Despite the need for rain these black clouds would not build up to a rain. Finally we got a thunderstorm, really not what we needed, nor was the rain of sufficient  duration. The heat has broken much to Boomer`s relief, and probably mine. In fact right now it's about 16C or say 62F and feels cold.

The little clouds didn't grow.

Starting to brighten.

Cedar Waxwing.

My own bird feeders became more active with visits from Song Sparrows, Chickadees, and this male Downy who balances on the feeder using his tail. The Cedar Waxwing and the Turkey Vulture are from the forest. If the Vulture was sitting in my tree, I`d sure need to check my pulse, wouldn't  I?

Of course, no local grouping would be complete without Huegy, the Crow. A Post to SWF@http://skywatch.blogspot.com/

Black-capped Chickadee.

Male Downy

Male Downy.

Song Sparrow

Song Sparrow

Turkey Vulture In Flight.

Huegy, the crow and his peanut.

A Hike to the Long Lake Wetlands. A Post to My World Tuesday.

Lower Long Lake Wetlands.

I laid this post out exactly as the hike took place except the scenes are the final destination of the hike. It really wasn't too far today for a few reasons. It's Sunday and the first nice day in four or five days of rain. This means the bugs will be bad, and gloves, netting and heavy clothing will be necessary, but it's also hot, and sunny so you really feel it in all the gear. The first nice weekend day will also bring out the ATV morons and I don't feel like even seeing them.




Wetland.




Tree Swallow




Tree Swallow.



I was really lucky to catch this male  Tree Swallow at the start of the hike.



Female Red-Winged Blackbird.





Female Red-Winged Blackbird.




Same Female.




Male Red-winged Blackbird.





I literally bump into this pair of blackbirds when I take a shortcut to start my hike. I'm going to post more photos of these guys on Wednesday to WBW with the full story. As for the crow I'm not sure its mine,but it sure is strange that there is always one around.


My Crow.




Male Goldfinch.




Male Yellow Warbler in Flight



Same Yellow Warbler.

All these fellows were in the same area, and I chased the warbler around a pine tree getting some good shots.

The photo of the Cedar Waxwing is not great but where there is one there will be a whole flock. These guys like their relatives, the Bohemians, are social and hang out in flocks, stripping the trees of berries. This is my first sighting.

Northern Flickers are a ground woodpeckers feeding on ants, but I caught him in the trees so something must have frightened him.


Male Northern Flicker.




Cedar Waxwing.




Bladder Campion




Coltsfoot.




Wild Daisy.




I always leave the flower photography until the end of the hike as I have to change lens and usually crawl around on the ground.


Devil's Paintbrush.




The First Tree Berries.




Johnny-Jump -Ups




Long-Headed Anemone?




Lupin Patch.




Purple Lupins.



You can see the size of the lupin patch and this isn't the only one. So you easily understand the colour impact in the forest clearings.


Red Clover




Red Clover.




Mountain -Laurel.




Viper's- Bugloss.




Close Up.




The Bugloss is another electric colour in the clearings of the forest. Interesting flower isn't it?


Eastern Swallowtail.



Dragonfly.

With all these blooms the butterflies are pretty busy, and I hope the dragonflies are eating their weight in biting insects. Today I missed shots of Black Swallowtails, and a couple of birds that I had never seen before. Also in the creek where the berries were, there was a four legged creature that I couldn't catch sight of because of the thick bush.

 I was trying to give you an impression of a normal if somewhat short hike, because many of you have expressed interest. This is a wilderness,not a park. There are no rangers or guides. You're on your own. The trails are snowmobile trails, RR right of ways, abandoned tracks, or maintenance roads.  The hike duration was about three hours and maybe a mile there and back, as I said short. I shot about 350 raw photos, and garbaged about 10 percent, which explains my storage problem.



A Post to My World Tuesday @http://showyourworld.blogspot.com/

Birds of the Vermilon River, Canada. A Post to Camera Critters



Northern Crow.




Close Up Northern Crow

Hope you're not getting tired of these guys. But have you ever seen such a majestic fellow?


Male RedPoll




Female RedPoll

My own RedPolls are gone, and Boomer and I miss the constant activity, sort of one long feeding cycle.










It's the same woodpecker that's how I know he has the male red patch.


Male Hairy Woodpecker



Male Hairy Woodpecker



Black-capped Chickadee




Black-capped Chickadee

Some shots of my favourites, the Black-capped Chickadee.


Chickadee




Chickadee

 A Post to Camera Critters @ http://camera-critters.blogspot.com/




A note to Hilke: You once said you transferred to your hard drive directly from your camera. Did you mean external hard drive and how did you do that?

Blogger's preview on my set up is all distorted and
missing the header. Anyone else having the same problem?