Hillside Park, Waterloo, ON

19 August, 2022

     It was a beautiful morning, sunny, not too hot, with a light breeze - a perfect day for a nature walk.

     Hillside Park is about a ten-minute drive from our home and one of our favourite spots.

     It was not long before we saw a juvenile Brown-headed Cowbird (Molothrus ater) learning to make its own way in the world, having been reared by surrogate parents of another species.

     A young Rose-breasted Grosbeak (Pheucticus ludovicianus) was similarly occupied.

     Strangely, as best we could tell it was feeding on Himalayan Balsam (Impatiens glandulifera) but whether it was actually eating the flowers or trying to access the nectar we were not sure.

     Himalayan Balsam is a beautiful flower, but it is highly invasive and doesn't belong here.

     It is so widespread I don't think it could ever be eradicated now.

     At least it is used extensively by pollinator insects. Curiously, I have never seen it patronized by a hummingbird.    

     Purple Loosestrife (Lythrum salicaria) is another aggressive invasive species that reduces space and nutrients for native plants and degrades habitat for wildlife.

     It was originally introduced in the ballast discharges of sailing ships in the 19th Century.

     Eastern Grey Squirrel (Sciurus carolinensis) is one of our most common mammals and this individual seems to have an inordinately long tail.

     Cup Plant (Silphium perfoliatum) endows the landscape with beauty and brilliant colour.

     Fleabane (genus Erigeron) is equally prolific.

     In the picture above, almost at dead centre, you will note a crab spider in the family Thomisidae, and an enlarged picture is shown below.

     It is a species in the Ambush Hunter Guild, and while I am not a hundred percent certain I am inclined to identify this species as Misumenoides formosipes, lying in wait for an unsuspecting pollinator to claim as its victim.

     Fruiting Dogwoods (genus Cornus) seemed to be everywhere.

     A Red-legged Grasshopper (Melanoplus femurrubrum) is an exceptionally handsome insect.

     Joe-Pye Weed (Eutrochium purpureum) is a native species that attracts many insects to feed on the nectar produced by the flowers.

     It is also the host plant to the larvae of several species of moth.

     The fruit of American Black Elderberry (Sambucus canadensis) is harvested for pies, jams and  Elderberry wine.

     I don't think I am being even a touch hyperbolic when I state that Cabbage Whites (Pieris rapae) were seen everywhere, sometimes more than a dozen at a time. This individual, at rest on Bird's Foot Trefoil (Lotus corniculata) seems a little the worse for wear.

     Seven-spotted Ladybug (Coccinella septempunctata) is yet another alien invader, now well established in Ontario.

     Thistles (genus Cirsium) were casting their seeds to the wind having provided excellent nutrition for late-breeding finches.

     We saw a couple of families of American Goldfinch (Spinus tristis) and House Finch (Haemorhous mexicanus), far too mobile for picture-taking, however.

     A Black Paper Wasp (Polistes fuscatus) went about its business unchallenged by others!

     If one were to spend a lifetime studying flies, identification of a small percentage of species would still only be possible, so I will content myself to stating only that a member of the order Diptera is resting on a teasel.

     Sometimes, the wings of butterflies have been so shredded that it seems impossible that the insect could still fly, as is the case here with this seriously compromised Eastern Tiger Swallowtail (Papilio glaucus).

     But fly it did, or perhaps more correctly fluttered from flower to flower.

     Eastern Tailed Blue (Cupido comyntas) is both small and mobile, with a tendency to visit flowers swaying in the wind, and it was difficult to get a clear picture.

     As we crossed back over Laurel Creek, we were reminded that before too long other cautions will be necessary.

     We passed an extensive stand of Bur-Cucumber (Sicyos angulatus).

     Friendly Black-capped Chickadees (Poecile atricapillus) were not hesitant to pay us a visit.

     It almost gives me goose bumps to contemplate the number of people on my walks who have thrilled at their first experience of having a chickadee land on their hand. Jonah and Walter especially spring to mind, to say nothing of the joyful faces of countless children.

     The first Ebony Jewelwing (Calopteryx maculata) we saw was a female.

     It was not long, however, before a male came to join in the fun.

     Permit me to leave you with a few more pictures of the ubiquitous Cabbage Whites.

     My son-in-law, Andrew, has been a keen astronomer since I first met him when he was a teenager, and recently he took this jaw-dropping picture of the Milky Way.

     The Milky Way is a barred spiral galaxy around 13.6 billion years old. Our solar system orbits the centre of the Milky Way, taking approximately 250 million years to complete a single revolution.

     In all of this unfathomable expanse, it bears remembering that this tiny blue dot we inhabit is the only home we have, the only place we know where life exists, where the conditions necessary for our survival are found. All the kings, rulers, dictators, emperors, peasants, serfs, soldiers, rabbis, bishops, priests, criminals, poets, composers, painters, prostitutes, prophets, chefs, sign painters, doctors and charlatans, all the people who have ever existed, have done so on this one speck in the universe. Every lion, every lizard, dinosaur, bacterium, amphibian, whale, squirrel, chipmunk or racoon, every chimpanzee, every serpent, every leaf on a tree, every blade of grass in a prairie.

     You'd really think we'd want to take a little better care of it, wouldn't you?