November update

I apologize for not posting anything until the end of the month, but life is getting too busy for me to take breaks just for photographs.  During this month, I bought a year-long student membership to the Museum of Nature (and went there twice already), took up swimming during lunch breaks, and went out bird-watching three times.

Early November when the temperature was still pleasant enough to sit outside.  I was sitting on a bench and studying for my biological modeling midterm before taking this photo.

One of the reasons I bought a membership to the Museum of Nature is because of its latest exhibit - Bugs: Outside the Box.  My favourite parts of the exhibit are the giant insect sculptures by Italian sculptor Lorenzo Possenti, these sad but beautiful displays of insect specimens, and the live insects.

 

One of the live insects - an Elephant beetle (Megasoma elephas).

One day at my place, I noticed a ladybug (Family Coccinellidae) hiding at the corner of the carpet.  I left it alone for a couple of days, but then I realized it might be near the end of its short life.  I took a couple of photos, and it was dead a few days later.

Rest in peace.

Last weekend, I went birding with a friend along the Ottawa River.  We saw some waterfowls on the river, but the birds were too far away and it was too cold to motivate me to take photos.  The whole trip was kind of a letdown until towards the end when a Red-tailed Hawk swooped in front of us and flew across the street.  That was definitely the highlight of the day.

I took a photo of this squirrel eating an apple core while waiting for my friend at the bus station.

The only other photo I took of the day was of these rock sculptures at Remic Rapids.

I went out bird-watching by myself yesterday (at the Arboretum) and today (at Mud Lake).  Here are some of the birds that I saw:

Unknown finch at Fletcher Wildlife Garden.

House Finch (Haemorhous mexicanus).  I found this blog post that provides good information on how to distinguish House Finch and Purple Finch.

While I was looking at a Downy Woodpecker on a feeder, a hawk suddenly flew towards the woodpecker and tried to catch it.  The hawk (I think it was a Sharp-shinned Hawk) failed and then it flew away.  The whole incident caught me totally by surprise, and my memory was the only evidence that it happened.

Common Goldeneyes (Bucephala clangula) on Dow's Lake.

Common Mergansers (Mergus merganser).

Black-capped Chickadee (Poecile atricapillus) at Mud Lake.

Next month, I will be participating the Christmas Bird Count at Ottawa (on December 20th) and then flying back to BC for Christmas break (on December 22nd), so I will definitely have some interesting photos and topics to blog about next month.

Take care.