The rain ended at last and we had a warm humid day. The buttonbush kept cool in the pond:

It produces these cool spiky flower-bombs:

Also in the pond was a great blue heron, but I didn't get any good shots:

They're pretty great, all right. What a weird-looking bird.

The meadow-sweet is really taking off these days:

This is red baneberry:

Red baneberry leaves:

At first I assumed these were unripe red baneberries (growing in the same spot), but now I think it's white baneberry, with thicker stems:

(Although I've read that red baneberry can also have white berries. Where's the sense in that?)

This is a ... bird:

Yep, definitely a bird. A juvenile ... bird.

I've posted photos of goldenrod galls before, but look at this poor thing. It's gone condo!

If you're interested in Toronto's fruit trees, sign up for Not Far From the Tree's second Edible Tree Tour. I enjoyed last year's tour of the orchards at Spadina House and other edibles in the Casa Loma area.

I just made an interesting discovery as I was re-reading the blog post about my very first stewardship evening, back in 2006: I saw a snapping turtle that night, June 12 -- the same date I saw one this year. They're consistent!

My Beechwood outing was curtailed this morning by another storm. I don't mind rain, but when that first rumble of thunder sounded, I skedaddled. That's no place to be with lightning around. Before it started I saw a Monarch butterfly with a damaged wing, trying to dry out:

I don't know what it did when the latest downpour started. Maybe just closed its eyes and dreamed about a nice sunny day?

I'm posting a ridiculous number of pictures today, so you might want to get yourself a snack or something to drink before you go any further.

The river was surprisingly calm today after a few days of heavy rain. Some of the local residents took the opportunity to get the family out on the water:




There was evidence of high water over the last few days. Here's the view yesterday from the Pottery Road bridge, looking down at the Don River and its waterlogged bank:

More soggy vegetation:

See all the debris caught behind this dead tree? That wasn't there before the heavy rains:

My cup plant runneth over:

I've seen a lot of things along the bike path, but this is a new one:

Someone just left their little pail of yellow plums. Why? Then the rains came and a snail moved in. There's a story here somewhere.

There's no shortage of fruit around here. On the Todmorden property you can find mulberries ...

(Don't eat that one -- it's not ripe yet. Wait until they're deep purple.)

... pears ...


... and a variety of apples:

(Are those crabapples? What are those? They're so big!)

I'm wracking my brain to think of a nursery rhyme or fairy tale about the three little snails who went out on a limb:

Empty nest syndrome:

At Beechwood I declared war on Queen Anne's Lace, and uprooted a good quantity.

The jewel in the crown:

Afterwards I wandered along the bike path and couldn't help noticing how much bugs like the stuff:

(Do those stripes look pink to you?!)

Oh for heaven's sake, you guys, get a room:

Voyeurism:

There were some of those lovely beetles I saw on the path last week:

Whenever the camera got too close this guy would raise a leg menacingly. Talk to the hand! If I was really pushing my luck he'd raise two legs. Eek, run awayyyy!

Earwig lurking:

Meanwhile, over at the murky pond, there were frogs on lily pads:

Ah, I never get tired of the classics. But wait, what the heck is that?!?

I didn't see it at the time because I was holding my camera blindly out over the pond, trying not to scare the froggy away. Here's a closer look at the thing:

What is that?

After yesterday's healthy rainfall the Don is running fast and muddy:

It was wet going but I was glad I'd slogged over to the pond, because the muskrats were out enjoying a break in the weather:

Prepare to say, "Awww ..."

And again ...




Bye!

Anonymous moth:

Purple coneflower by the pond:

Now for a few updates: an anonymous commenter has identified that pretty little bright pink flower as a Deptford Pink, and thinks the hummingbird moth is actually a bee fly. (There are just too many nouns in there for my poor head to sort out.) Don Watcher says my busy beetles are Soldier Beetles and the bee-thing is a wasp or a hornet.

Many thanks to all who suggest IDs here. From now on I'm not even going to attempt to identify anything. I'm just going to say, "Look! Pretty!"

Finally, I'd like to welcome my new blog followers. I can't tell who you are because the Blogger widget is broken and isn't showing me my Followers list. (I checked their Help forum and others are having the same problem -- may have to do with IE 8. So annoying.) Whoever you are, thanks for reading!

(Edit: the Followers list is back! Welcome et bienvenue a tous!)

We had rain recently so I decided to buckle down and remove some invasive stuff while the soft ground made pulling easier. The tansy flew, the Queen Anne's Lace succumbed, the thistles surrendered ... and then I set a new personal record for ant bites, and I gave up and went home. If one of those little demons crawls into your shirt and panics (or, more likely, goes on a suicide mission to inflict as much damage as possible), you're in for a bad time. Now I'll be trying to ignore the itching for a few days.

A baby snail is a much friendlier creature:

I realized earlier this season that I've seen snails everywhere my whole life and I know very little about them. I turned to Wikipedia, usually a good first step for quick research, and found the snail entry extremely interesting and informative.

The tansy is forming flowerheads now:

These will soon turn into bright yellow buttons, taunting me from every corner of Beechwood:

Taunting me, I tell you!

The cup plants are beginning to provide a more welcome splash of yellow everywhere:

That "cup" feature still works perfectly:

We're expecting a lot more rain over the next few days, so stay tuned for some soggy posts from your watersoaked wetlander.

I think I've entered my summer dormant period: pictures are being taken but not much work is getting done here at Beechwood. There are too many distractions in the form of insects and flowers.

Katydid:

Hoverflies are not bees. Some hoverfly larvae eat aphids. Yeah!

This one is a bee. See how it has four wings rather than two? No, I don't either. Maybe it's something else entirely.

I'm not sure of the common name for these bugs, but I believe the Latin term is in flagrante delicto:

Never mind all those confusing insects, let's just admire a Black-eyed Susan:

Here's a ripe purple-flowering raspberry, moments before it was eaten by the photographer. I can confirm what all the sources say: they're edible but not really worth your while. Pretty but insipid. Shallow, too: that red berry looks big but it's just a thin layer over a big core.

This cutie-pie was catching bugs on the pond the other day. After some research and consultation I'm going to say it's an Eastern Wood-Pewee -- a new one for me! Or maybe it's a Least Flycatcher. See why I don't get any work done?

Another update: The keys are gone! I hope they ended up in the right hands.

Q: Can you guess what this picture shows?

Here, try a side view:

A: These are the seeds that develop from a cow parsnip flower.

Here's a nice little beetle -- no idea what kind:

(That's my skin! Now you'll be able to recognize me on the street.)

I posted a picture of "a little bee" recently. No doubt you all had a good laugh, knowing that of course it's not a little bee at all -- it's a hoverfly. As punishment for not telling me, you must now endure a set of hoverfly pictures:

And what is this rare, exotic bloom that's attracting them? It's a sow thistle, common as dirt around here.

There was a man putting up posters in the valley this morning, and I took one to post here in case any local readers can help find this missing man:

The text isn't reproducing well so I'll just repeat the details:

Robert James Crouse, 31, was last seen on Saturday, July 11, 2009 at 2 a.m. at his home in the Dundas Street East/Coxwell Avenue area.

He is described as white, 5'8"-5'9", 160-165 lbs, with brown hair and blue eyes. He was last seen wearing green pants and a black sweater with a "Fed-Ex" logo. He usually wears glasses but was not wearing them when he left home. He was last seen wearing roller blades.

Police are concerned for his safety.

Anyone with information is asked to contact police at 416-808-5500, Crime Stoppers anonymously at 416-222-TIPS (8477), online at http://www.222tips.com/, or text TOR and your message to CRIMES (274637).

*********

Update on August 19: I checked online for news of this man, and found that his friends' worst fears were realized. My condolences to everyone concerned.

More photos of this'n'that today.

Chicory, up close and personal:

A little bee on a bull thistle in bloom:

Graphocephala coccinea, the red-banded leafhopper, on a cup plant. These colourful bugs visit my garden sometimes too.

I don't think we can blame this damage on leafhoppers, though. A lot of the cup plants have been munched, and I'm pinning it on the deer.

There were more frogs plopping into the pond today, as well as one big splash and ripple that I think must have been a muskrat. These are muskrat tracks in the mud:

Purple-flowering raspberries in varying stages of ripeness:

Lots of pictures to get to today. Above and below you see some blue vervain in a field of Blackeyed Susans. Some days it's hard to get any work done because I have to stop and marvel at everything.

A few updates: the keys were still on that rock a few days after I first saw them, so I've hung them on a utility pole with a bit of red ribbon. I think I need a bigger ribbon or something to draw attention to them, in case the owner comes by again.

One of my comrades in guerrilla stewardship, perhaps galvanized by my threat of an SOS pad, has cleverly removed the silver paint from the signs with a product called Goo Gone Painter's Pal. Excellent work!

Alas, the yahoos have added new black-markered tags to the signs. I'll keep scrubbing with Vim and vigour.

I've been finding a lot of these white-and-brown downy feathers around the pond for the last couple of days, along with a longer wing feather. I fear there may have been an unfortunate duck incident.

The frogs are certainly flourishing in the pond:

I don't often spot them out of the water, but the minute I start to walk beside the pond there's a flurry of little plops as they leap to safety. Then they stare at me, and I chat to them.

I found this little stash beside the pond. For a moment I thought I'd discovered some wee eggs, but no, they're berries:

This seems a bit excessive:

This butterfly is a Little Wood-Satyr:

I photographed one a couple of years ago too, but didn't know its name at the time:

This little hot-pink beauty is growing beside the path on the way to Beechwood ...

... and this beautiful thing was right on the path:

Mulberry trees are dropping their fruit on sidewalks all over town. This public service announcement was fastened below a tree on Pottery Road:

(A few items, "cheep" and "organic," have been added since I took that photo. If you have more suggestions, get over there and add them. Take a pen.)

It was a great day to be at Beechwood -- sunny but not hot or humid. There were lots of cedar waxwings, chickadees and cardinals around to keep me company. The waxwings have been busy around the south end of the pond for a while now, and I keep trying to get a good picture of one. This morning's attempt was the best so far, but I'll keep trying. They're beautiful birds but to me they always look a little angry:

Walnuts! Growing on a walnut tree! I guess that's not so unexpected, but it's nice to see:

Normally sumac flower panicles grow upwards like this ...

... but I guess this one's trying for a different angle on things:

There was some serious bug activity going on. Here's another type of damselfly:

A beetle:

I noticed another ladybug pupa. Love that accordion look!

I found a tree covered with these awesome, shiny little beetles. I don't know what they are, but I'm calling them Hematite Beetles. (I Googled that just in case, but no.)

I don't think the tree finds them quite as awesome as I do:

Finally, my favourite bug of the day: I was near the pond when I saw a golden-orange fuzzball hovering above some Blackeyed Susans. Hummingbird moth! It hung in the air for quite a while, seemingly motionless, deciding which flower to land on.

Closeup:

Alighting:

I took a very short video of it:

Coolest. Bug. Evah!!

Another day of death and destruction in the Don. The first, and worst, discovery of the day was a mink that had been killed on Pottery Road. What a perfect, sleek thing a mink is! It was chocolate brown with a lush tail and just a few white hairs under its chin. I wish I'd examined it more carefully but all I could see was the shocking crimson blood from its mouth and nose. I couldn't bear to think what it would look like once a few more cars had connected with it, so I walked on until I found a plastic bag (sadly, that doesn't take long) which I used to lift the body into some grass by the side of the road.

As for the destruction, that was just the usual assortment of tansy, thistles, and Queen Anne's Lace. There's a reason QAL is also known as wild carrot:

Amongst the alien intruders is some white yarrow, which is a native plant. Thank goodness.

A closer look at the flowers:

The leaves are very fancy too:

A cabbage white butterfly:

A damselfly (they hold their wings parallel to their sides when they're resting, unlike a dragonfly):

They eat mosquite larvae. Keep up the good work!!!

Another look at that mystery flower:

And another one I don't know:

That one grows on a tall stalk. It's not in my field guides so I've turned to the internet, but it may take me a while to get an I.D.

Oh, and a coincidence: I got home today and discovered I'd taken ninety-nine pictures again! Clearly I'm channeling Wayne Gretzky.

A glimpse of those poor ants scrambling their eggs:

I couldn't quite force myself out of bed at the crack of dawn today, so I went to Beechwood in the evening instead. It's a different feeling -- more people going by, more heat, no dew, different light altogether. The ground is quite dry and hard at the moment so I didn't accomplish much in the way of pulling plants, but I wandered around and took lots of pictures. (Ninety-nine, in fact. If I'd noticed that I'd have taken one more.)

I saw marvellous things. When I opened the equipment box I discovered black ants had laid a million eggs in a couple of little niches, and the ants were suddenly in a great panic to move them away from this unexpected human threat. I apologized as best I could, but they didn't stop.

See -- black ants! Not those evil little red ones! Last year in early June I found a swarm of flying ants in the same location. Relatives?

Continuing with the bugs, I saw a ladybug larva:

(It's on my hat there.) This is the larva of the "multi-coloured Asian ladybug." Very close to it I found a ladybug pupa:

I don't know what this is, but isn't it stunning?

Have a closer look at that flower:

Apparently it sends out some little purple flowers later:

I'll have to go back and take better pictures of that stage. There were several of these in one place.

A butterfly enjoying the sun:

Back on Marnie's Point, I pulled up that thistle and a few other things. Hm, the loosestrife seems to have had its flowers mysteriously cropped. Perhaps a local expert came by to offer a diagnosis? Inquiring minds want to know. I also saw some butter-and-eggs:

Isn't that delicate? Isn't that exquisite? You know what's coming, right? It's an alien, and I'll have to think about removing it. Later.

This goldenrod had a lot of gall:

A cup plant's flower bud nestled like a green marble in those leaves:

I like the reddish edging on the leaves:

Most are still at that stage, but for some reason this one has raced ahead of its friends and opened already:

I ended my evening by scrubbing more graffiti off the signs. This was just proper graffiti that was no match for Vim and a wet rag. I discovered the other day that an SOS pad takes the silver paint off without apparently damaging the finish, but it's very slow. Next time I have six hours to spare I'll get right at that.

Finally, a public service announcement: if you've lost your keys, they're sitting on one of the rocks that mark the Beechwood wetland area. Someone must have found the keys and put them there, but I'm not optimistic that the owner will notice. Maybe I could tape a colourful sign on the rock?

I wandered over to Marnie's Point this morning for a look-see. It takes a lot more effort to get around the site now that things are growing thick and fast. There aren't any convenient gravel paths or boardwalks at this wetland! I don't mind stomping on the invasive stuff, but I try not to inflict too much collateral damage on the plants I want to encourage.

Some things are doing very well on the point:

(Uh-oh. I'll get that one later.)

Oh crap, another loosestrife:

Swamp? Purple? This stalk looks like swamp loosestrife:

Andy's wildflower pages are often helpful, but having looked at the two pics of purple loosestrife on that page, I still can't make up my mind. The flower spike in the first shot looks quite dense and even, and in the second there seem to be those separate rings of flowers. His pictures of swamp loosestrife show those rings quite spaced out. Hm, what to do, what to do. Kill the evil alien purple loosestrife or cherish the attractive native swamp loosestrife? I think I'm probably dealing with purple loosestrife here, and will go ahead and uproot it unless I get a last-minute call from the governor.

Something's eaten the tops off a few of the cup plants:

Broad-leaved arrowhead in the pond:

Aren't those leaves cool? According to Wetland Plants of Ontario, "The seeds and tubers (especially the tubers) are valuable food for waterfowl and marsh birds, such as canvasbacks, mallards, scaups, teals, wood ducks, geese and rails. Muskrats and porcupines eat the leaves and tubers."

Joe-Pye weed is beginning to bloom beside the pond:

Dig that crazy grapevine:

There's also some viper's bugloss on the point:

Same old story: it's a joy to behold but it's on my list of alien plants, so it must go. Look at it batting those long eyelashes:

Another crowd favourite that's actually an alien is Queen Anne's Lace. I like the way they're tinged with pink in the beginning, before ending up as the familiar white flower:

It was a mixed bag today: mostly motherwort (eek, it's taking over the whole northern part of the site), a few thistles, and a bit of tansy. I topped some burdock and some mullein. I made the mistake of taking a few minutes to survey the corner by the phragmites, and discovered a wasteland of tansy, DSV, and motherwort. And burdock, and mullein, and ... I guess I'll just write off that whole part of the site for this year and focus on clearing what I can from, say, the bur oak down to the south end.

The northern part does have a good berry crop going on, though. I'm glad we don't have bears in the area.

This cardinal worked hard to pry something off the path:

Then he decided he's really a water bird at heart:

A bull thistle in bloom:

And a Canada thistle for comparison:

An adorable little fungus growing on a dead branch of the bur oak:

There was a great blue heron in the pond today, along with several ducks. And oh, look:

More loosestrife. The funny thing is, I do think this one is purple loosestrife. Compare its flowers ...

... to the ones I pulled out last week. I think this one is swamp loosestrife:

Sometimes I wonder if this sort of thing is happening while I'm taking pictures at Beechwood.

Ah, milkweed, I never get tired of you.

I had one more round of thistle-pulling this morning and now feel I've pretty much conquered the worst of it. In that one little area. For now. I've read that the seeds can remain viable in the soil for 22 years. *needs to go lie down for a minute*

Most of it was Canada thistle, which is pretty wimpy as far as thistles go, but this morning I tackled some bull thistle. This is a beefier thistle, and takes its job pretty seriously. The prickles pierce leather gloves as if they weren't even there. The flower heads are much bigger than those of Canada thistle:

Add a few ornaments to this one and you'd have yourself a nice Christmas tree:

Canada thistle spreads via its root and its seed, but bull thistles spread only by seed, so I can just cut the flowers off any more I come across without pulling up the whole plant. I just wanted to show off this big one.

A few updates:

- nail polish remover had no effect on the silver paint

- a couple of Beechwood stewardship alumni returned to pull some tansy the other day. They claim to have missed the smell of it. :/ Unfortunately, they didn't quite get it all, so I'll be continuing my efforts. All visitors welcome here at Beechwood, especially if they want to uproot stuff!

- we're beginning week three of the garbage strike. The pile near Beechwood that I mentioned earlier remains unchanged, but this has appeared at Pottery Road:

More tags, but this time Vim didn't do a thing on the thick, silvery paint. Neither did an alcohol swab. Any suggestions? Maybe something grittier? Sand?

I spent a solid hour and a half just pulling out thistle after thistle, with some motherwort for variety. Thistle on the right, motherwort on the left:

A lot of the thistles are about my height, or maybe a little taller:

See how they're beginning to flower? I got here just in time. I carted them off by the sheetload. ;)

After:

Better, but I'm not done yet.

(It was hard to capture that in pictures. Trust me, there's a lot of thistle added to that compost pile.)

Daylilies with motherwort and grapevine:

The lilies aren't supposed to be there either, but I have bigger fish to fry at the moment.

I see that Rick Bébout has died. I didn't know him, or anything about him, but I came across his history of the Don River very recently, and enjoyed reading it. You might too.

There's always been poison ivy alongside the path on the way to Beechwood, but I haven't seen any on the site yet. Today, however, I found some getting dangerously close.

I pulled tansy and Queen Anne's lace for an hour or more, stopping to talk to several people who wondered what I was up to. This peachy little moth was resting on a tansy stalk:

Looks like a leafcutter bee (or a bunch of them) has been busy. I saw several little roses like this one:

After I'd hauled away a few loads of tansy I decided I'd wrap up my visit by having a look around the site. I've spent so much time in one spot lately, working on the tansy invasion, that I have no idea what's going on anywhere else. (Beechwood doesn't seem like a very big place when I describe it to people, but just try to keep on top of it by yourself!)

Near the equipment box I spied a few motherwort plants (wonderful pictures on that page, go have a look) and thought I'd pull them out while I had a moment.

This one was engaged in a struggle with a grapevine:

Motherwort is not a big problem at Beechwood, but it doesn't hurt to stay on top of these things. It's easy to pull, with the roots coming out smoothly along with a clump of earth. I pulled the few I saw, then looked around and saw a few more. That led to a few more, and another little clump over there, and oh, there's a whole stand of it, and that brought me to the base of our big old bur oak, where I discovered a whole forest of thistles. The number of thistles was unbelievable, unimaginable, unprecedented, ungodly, unheard of ...

I fell to work at once and pulled steadily for half an hour or so, making only a small dent in the thistle patch. This is a particularly ant-infested area, making invasives-removal even better exercise than usual due to the amount of dancing around and foot-stamping required. I hauled a few bedsheet-loads of thistles to the dumping pile and resolved to return another day. I also found a number of burdock plants here, so I'll be cutting the tops off those to keep them from reproducing. The tansy will just have to wait a while, as will my walkabout to see what's going on everywhere else.

Another plant I've tackled lately is crown vetch:

As usual, this is a lovely thing, but if you let it get established ...

We don't have much at Beechwood but I've noticed more this year than in the past, so I thought I'd better deal with it now. The plan was to spend a few minutes pulling it out before I got back to my "real" work. Ha! I spent one whole visit ousting crown vetch and there's still more waiting for me.

On my way home this morning I noticed the mystery steward has been to the Pottery Road hill again. Some more DSV has been removed and this burdock has been topped:

Way to go, mystery steward!

Happy Canada Day! The weather is nicer than predicted, so I took advantage and got some work done at Beechwood. A few cedar waxwings were also working, flying back and forth with bits of nesting material. The kingfisher was rattling around as usual, but it left when I went over to the pond to evict a lone spike of purple loosestrife I'd spotted:

Such a beautiful thing:

Such a tragic end:

But now, a confession: having got home and looked up some info about purple loosestrife, I'm afraid I may in fact have uprooted a nice specimen of the native swamp loosestrife in my stewardship zeal. *Hanging head in shame* Any experts care to weigh in here?

While I was by the pond I pulled a big armful of thistles -- they sure do love that pond -- as well as a load of ... anyone? Yes, more tansy. It may keep me busy for the rest of the summer.

This ant was exploring a black-eyed Susan ...

... while these were cleaning out a snail shell left on a fencepost, probably by a bird:

A bumblebee getting acrobatic on some cow parsnip:

This cow parsnip is under attack from dog-strangling vine: