I must confess that when I saw this bird briefly at a distance, I assumed that it was a Goldfinch because there were many Goldfinches about. One glance at the photos at home though made me realize that this is a female Scarlet Tanager.

The male is much more familiar:

This is the more demure female:

Other birds:

Bird Species list: double-crested cormorant, Canada goose, mallard, American black duck, Cooper’s hawk, red-tailed hawk, ring-billed gull, downy woodpecker, red-bellied woodpecker, hairy woodpecker, northern flicker, blue jay, American crow, black-capped chickadee, white-breasted nuthatch, red-breasted nuthatch, American robin, scarlet tanager, house sparrow, common grackle, northern cardinal, American goldfinch, white-throated sparrow. (23 species)

Today’s group:

Lambton views:

Some botany:

MAILBOX

Early Monday morning I saw something white at the back among my perennials, and thought it might be a plastic bag that somehow blew in. It turned out to be this puffball- here is a photo taken right after I collected it. I didn’t look carefully at the garden the day before (Monday) but it was very clean, no wormholes, and white throughout, so must have been quite fresh. We fried it after dipping it in egg and breadcrumbs, and had quite a substantial dinner, using only a fraction of it (so far).
 I have had one or two large puffballs appear, over many years here- it isn’t an annual predictable event though. I’ve also often seen small white and sometimes small brown puffballs there, not this year, and  big ones like this, but not so unblemished, at Windfields park up near York Mills.

NATURE POETRY

The asters twinkle in clusters bright,
While the corn grows ripe and the apples mellow.     – Celia Thaxter  (1835–94)

Miles Hearn