Mountain Visit

Églantine and Ontario Wanderer spent much of the first third of June in Italy walking, hiking, and climbing in the Dolomites which are part of the Italian Alps. Please have a look at our Flickr sites for photos posted after June 18. There will be more photos on Flickr from our adventures for the next week or two at least. Our first photos on Flickr are at the following URL's.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/eglantine/565945441/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/ontario_wanderer/564462667/

Green Frog

Green Frog 2, originally uploaded by Ontario Wanderer.

Most times, when I approach a frog, the frog jumps quickly and disappears. This one did not jump until I was only a few centimetres away with my camera.

Night Photo

Not Quite, originally uploaded by Ontario Wanderer.

Trying my camera at night photography.

Slug Colours

Slug Colours, originally uploaded by Ontario Wanderer.

I have not spent too much time on blogs lately. Yes, I am sure you noticed. So much to do in the yard and so little time. (Did I mention energy?) Anyway, my plan is to put up some of my Flickr photos and a brief note for those of you that read blogs and don't go to Flickr. There just is not enough time in the day to do everything, is there?

Geo Blitz Thoughts

As much as I enjoyed the Bio Blitz fieldwork, the paperwork at the end is getting me down a bit. I have over 800 plants on my database that I have identified over the years but only at the genus/species level. All the other information (family, order, class, division) I have to look up. And then there are the birds, mammals, amphibians, reptiles, insects, spiders that I only know by their common names that need lots of research for even the genius and species information. Oh well, even if I don't get the information sent in, I still had a good time out in the field and now I am learning more about plants. Today, while I was at the herbarium at the Royal Botanical Garden, I found out that there are over 700 lichens in Ontario. (I don't know any of them.) There are over 540 mosses. (I keyed out one last year, but I don't remember the name.) There are over 130 liverworts. (Again I cannot identify any of them.) There are only 4 hornworts. (But I would not recognize one if I tripped over it.) There are 15 native conifers. (I think I can sort these out fairly quickly.) There are just over 170 trees and 340 shrubs. (I know more trees than shrubs.) There are 1900 herbs. (OK, my 800 is not looking too good here either.) Notice that I did not even mention the 270+ grasses and 360+ sedges and rushes. I guess what the Bio Blitz has shown me, is how much there is yet to learn. Back to the books . . .