"Out & About" Photo Blog: 2nd Marsh -- September 24th, 2011

Though the majority of the marsh is looking brown, there are still spots of color. I was there in the harsh midday light so a lot of the images are way too contrasty.

This is a new kid on the block... Jerusalem Artichoke. It's in the sunflower family and is not an artichoke nor does it have anything to do with Jerusalem. Go figure. It towers over everything else... some of them are 7 or 8 ft high.

Another new kid but I only saw 2 or 3 of these... vs dozens of the Jerusalem Artichoke.

An old friend... Himalayan Balsam. Still lots to be found.

Some bangles for an added touch.

The next two shots are of Viceroy Butterflies, very close in appearance to Monarchs. The line on the lower wing distinguishes Viceroys. Thanks to John & Gerry.

The Wild Cucumber leaves are mostly faded and tattered but the pods are large and the curlicues have formed.

I find that pretty much anything in big bunches is attractive... here it's some sort of Aster... John has ID'd them as Purple-stemmed Aster.

Common Reed Grass (a very boring name for a beautiful grass) is widespread in Ontario & elsewhere. We used to call it Pampas Grass before we knew the proper name for it. I call it Northern Pampas Grass. Many plants have several common names so I make one up now & then. :-) I imagine that's how common names get started.

An odd one but it sure stands out. It has lots of buds so maybe we'll see some fall blossoms soon. The spikey ones are Slender Nettle. Thanks John.

No Great Blues on the raft in the bay... but a couple Swans and a Cormorant drying its wings before its next dive.

Though there weren't any Great Blues in the bay, there were a couple in the channel.

Pick a color... all the same berry but at different stages. They were peeking through the boardwalk.

My favourite shot of the day, a fungus with a gorgeous golden hue.

Nothing particularly exciting today but any day at the marsh is a good one. I like to see the changes from one visit to the next. Like they say about Scotch, "There's no such thing as bad Scotch, it's just that some is better than others." The same holds true for me for visits to 2nd Marsh.

The Friends of Second Marsh web site...