WTF is this?! UPDATED!

On  walk, we saw this weird hairy white stuff on the branch of a tree. NOT sure what it is. Googling did no good. My best guess would be some sort of mold or fungus. A big fluffy white catepillar is out as an option lol!

NOTE: On Oct 5th, we discovered what this white fuzzy stuff was that we saw a few weeks ago. It is a mass of woolly aphids!!!

We saw on Oct 5th, while walking at Second Marsh, the east most side, near the GM plant in Oshawa, little fuzzy lavender coloured tiny tiny moths, the size of about double a fruit fly, flying lazily in the air. Apparently, this insect, considered a pest, despite being just adorable to see up close, it a species of aphid that was occidentally introduced in the southern US around 2004. Well, we also appear to have them in Ontario, cause I was catching them on my arm.

The photos on top and bottom are mine. The second image is From This Website with info on this insect..

Little Beautiful Things

Often when we go on walks, it is the tiny little things that are the most visually exciting to run across. We've found teeney little interesting pieces of bone, itsy bitsy little coloured pebbles, and lots of tiny little things that are just so cool! When birds and animals are scarce, the plants, leaves, flowers and rocks draw your attention. I've always loved small little textures, neat cast shadow effects, and gorgeous texture and color on stones. If one really looks close, the smallest little thing that would normally go unoticed jumps right out and excites the eye!

If I had a macro lens, my walks would probably be 10 hours, I'd get about 10 feet and I'd have 1000+ pictures to download! It'd be obsessive pic taking here we come lol! So, maybe not but it is tempting and I often say' "I wish I had a macro for this!" I think it'd drive me nuts though, I'd be manic lol! And that is just on our local walks, I could Imagine if I ever got to go on a vacation Outside my area lol!


There are just so many really beautiful little things out there :-)

Yesterday at Halls Rd.

We went for a short walk yesterday beofre heading to visit friends nearby. Halls Rd. is always fun, you are always guaranteed to run across something fascinating, even if your visit is short.

Today we saw a Rose-Breasted Grosbeak, a Black and White Warbler, some pretty fat ass Gold Finches, lots of crazy Chipmunks collecting food for the impending winter, and the highlight were the 3 or 4 pairs of Hummingbirds. Some of the dragonflies we spotted were almost as large as the hummers so we kept getting mixed up every time they whipped by. They like those little orange flowers called Jewelweed, which give them lots of energy. Those flowers also can soothe itchy bug bites and stinging nettle irritations, etc. You take the flower right off the plant and rub it on the affected area.

There were a whole bunch of Cormorants in the marsh today too, seemingly bathing or maybe fishing. Egrets and seagulls also seemed to be everywhere, looking like they were hunting. So maybe a whole group of fish hatched lately. All the Bluejays were efatherless on the head too lol! Must be molting time again.

We also got lucky and spotted the Belted Kingfisher out in the marsh perched right on a reed in the open. Too far to get a great shot without a 600mm lens, which I don't possess, but still cool :-)

A weird site we stumbled across, admiring little stones at the water's edge, were Lady Bugs all over the stones, crawling around. Not sure where they all came from.

A few weekends back we ran across the baby turkeys. Again on this walk we ran across them, now bigger. They were so cute! The parent turkeys were chasing them off the bird seed, survival of the fittest I guess, even between parent and young lol!

Gotta Love It!

Looking for examples of terracotta and blue used in rooms, I ran across this. So gorgeous!!! Warm Mexican or Morrocan spaces are so uplifting and positive in nature, the colours just make you feel good.

Colourful Morrocan Outdoor