More Insects

This Ladybird Beetle (aka Ladybug) only had spots on the back part of its elytron (front wing).



I thought it was early for Monarchs to be back here in Ontario, but we have been seeing them for over a week now.



Églantine caught this Spreadwing Damselfly by our pond. I'm not sure if its a Common or a Slender Spreadwing. Any ideas?

Record Heat

We had record high temperatures yesterday and look how the sun came up today.



It looks better than it feels!

The plants are liking it however. See my Wildflower Watch web site for a list of 93 plants in bloom in or near Hamilton, Ontario, Canada last week and a photo of a surprise flower that showed up where we live.

Little Things

Following are a few little things that Églantine and I have seen in the last couple of days.

Found

All of my photos are a bit fuzzy or out of focus today. There are three different reasons. This first photo is of the Field Sparrow nest. I only took one photo and then got out of the way as I have been watching this nest for about two weeks. All that has happened so far is that two eggs have disappeared. I expect young birds any day and did not want to disturb the nest any more than necessary. Perhaps it's been too much already?



The next nest is one of a different sort. It is fuzzy because that is the nature of the subject. It's a nest of baby rabbits:



This last photo is fuzzy because I was shooting with the telephoto lens, while holding an umbrella in light rain. The only reason I offer it here is because I have only seen Wood Ducks in trees about four times in my life and never have I had a camera in my hand at the time. I know that Wood Ducks nest in tree cavities, but still, seeing a duck in a tree is an odd experience. Catching both the male and female in the same tree was a stroke of real luck in my opinion.

Early Morning Photos

Having a digital camera certainly has changed the way I take photos. We had another great sunrise this morning and I celebrated by taking 45 photos in 25 minutes.



The first photo was black as I was in too much of a rush, some of the others are over exposed, some under exposed, and some are very blurry. Sometimes the exposure and/or blur was accidental and sometimes it was on purpose. I took a few at slow shutter speed and moved my camera when the shutter was open to get some interesting effects. I usually post my "art" shots on Flickr so have a look there in a couple of days if you are interested in seeing them. Meanwhile, here are two of the sunrise shots. This one is looking to the east-northeast:



And for this one I was pointing the camera east-southeast. (I have photos from every direction this morning as there was colour everywhere.)