Halloween Pennant

Halloween Pennant
Frontenac Provincial Park
August 05, 2006
This picture was an experiment in digiscoping dragonflies.
This dragonfly was at the top of a fairly tall dead tree in the middle of a swamp.
Turned out not too bad considering the distance involved.

Common Whitetail

Common Whitetail, Male

Frontenac Provincial Park
August 05, 2006
Arkon Lake Trail

Slaty Skimmer

Frontenac Provincial Park
Arkon Lake Trail
(August 05, 2006)

The Slaty Skimmer has a long season, ranging from June to September in Ontario.

Red-tailed Hawk at the Point

Found this Red-tailed Hawk at Lemoine Point near the boardwalk in the swamp. At first he was perched at the top of one of the dead trees but when he spotted me he moved to this higher perch in the big tree nearby. When he left the lower perch he swooped on a duck that was sitting in the swamp. The duck put up a racket but the hawk just flew off. The chickadees of course are always glad to pose for a picture.

Blue Dasher

This photo was taken on August 5, 2006 on the Arkon Lake Trail at Frontenac Provincial Park. The male and female are quite different. I always recognize the male (above) but the female (below) just doesn't seem to fit the name. The Blue Dasher can be seen right into September in Ontario.

Halloween Pennant

This picture of a Halloween Pennant was taken on August 5, 2006 on the Arkon Lake trail at Frontenac Provicincial Park. This is a mature male as you can see from the red dorsal markings on the abdomen. Juveniles and females would have yellow colored markings. The Halloweens begin to disappear about the middle of August and are usually all gone by the end of the month.

Lemoine Point

Beautiful, warm, sunshine at the Point today. The rest of the weekend and next week calls for rain. Sun and moon shared the sky this morning and provided a backdrop for the gathering of flocks of birds preparing to head south for the winter.

The trees were full of flocks of birds. This one contained a gathering of House Finch, a few trees down was a large flock of Red-winged Blackbirds who were finished with their work in the swamp but not quite ready to leave town.

Odonates in Kenya

These were the only Odonates I saw in Kenya. Our elevation was 6000 feet and there was very little water around so I didn't expect to see many Odes on this trip. I didn't have a net so was unable to photograph them in hand. I saw these on a number of occassions in a couple of different locations, always flying in the sunlight. They are vertical perchers and you can see from the pics they have a read stigmata on each wingtip. I don't have any field guide for Odes in Africa so I'll have to see what I can find on the internet.

The Island of Lamu, Kenya

Our Room at the Jannat House Hotel
(A two star hotel featuring electricity (when it was on), water (no hot water), mirrors in the bathroom that would be very useful if you were three feet tall, three tiny bars of soap for five men, strings across the ceiling to keep the bats from coming down into the room, and, of course, lots of mosquito netting. Air conditioning? What's that? Not even a fan!) The Hotel itself was very attractive and offered a beautiful view from the roof. If you want to order lunch be prepared to wait at least an hour and a half - it takes time to buy all those ingredients!

The view from the roof of our Hotel

Another view from the roof.

The Donkey Sanctuary in Lamu.

The waterfront was beautiful.

Some Lizards at Lake Nakuru National Park

Lake Nakuru National Park

Warthogs

The Land Rover we travelled in.
Yes, it goes off road! In fact many of the roads we travelled on were technically off road by North American standards. With the right driver Wonderland has nothing on a trip in a Land Rover in Kenya.

Dik-Dik

Hadada Ibis

Flamingo

Giraffe

Rhino

More Rhino

Leopard

Rock Hyrax

Thompson's Gazelle

Lion

Waterbuck

Zebra

Buffalo

Around Kijabe, Kenya

Common Bulbul

View from the back porch in Kijabe.
The Rift Valley in the distance.

African Paradise Flycatcher

Sykes Monkey

Red-faced Crombec

Colobus Monkeys