Stroll along Rideau Canal & Yellowjacket & Knifefish

Here are some photos I took last weekend while walking along Rideau Canal.  Originally I was hoping to take some more photos this weekend but ended up too busy working.

A kaleidoscope image of water reflection.

Remnants of Autumn

I finished grading a bunch of lab reports yesterday, and when I woke up this morning, the weather was so nice that I decided to visit the Arboretum for a long overdue nature walk with my camera.

I have been so busy lately that autumn is slowly disappearing in front of my eyes and yet I haven't got any free time to take some photos with my camera.  I was very happy today when I got to the Arboretum and saw there were still some trees with their fall leaves.

Tree on fire

Went back to BC for 10 days

I went back to BC for reading week from Oct 11th to 20th.  Aside from going out twice nature-watching and five times for food, I spent most of my time indoors working.  Such is the life of a busy PhD student.

On the second day back, I went to Richmond's Sharing Farm for an hour or two with my mother.  The sky was cloudy and cool temperature - typical Vancouver.

Dew

Ottawa Butterfly Show, Carleton University

Before flying back to BC early tomorrow morning, I went to a free butterfly show at Carleton University this morning, an event I heard from my landlord last year and wanted to go ever since.  The daily show begins at 9 o'clock, and when I got there after 9:30 today, there was already a long line with parents and kids (I was the only single adult waiting in line).  About 30 minutes later, I was inside the greenhouse and enchanted by the diversity of butterflies.

I think none of the butterflies are native to Canada and are raised purely for shows like this.

Ecology labs and autumn colours

I have been incredibly busy this school semester demonstrating labs for the ecology course, grading lab reports, as well as preparing for my PhD comprehensive examination.  I tried to take some pictures whenever I am outside, otherwise I am indoors working away.

The ecology course consists of two field labs - first on the effects of abiotic factors in the stream on benthic macroinvertebrate biodiversity and second on tree diversity in different successional stages - both of which take place at Gatineau Park.

Last month (September 12th), the teaching assistants and lab demonstrator went out to familiarize ourselves with the study area.

Old Chelsea Stream (upstream)

Culture Days at National Gallery of Canada

This weekend (September 26 to 28) celebrates a national event called Culture Days where activities took place throughout the country to promote art and culture in Canada.  Here in Ottawa, one of the activities is visiting the National Gallery of Canada for free, which I partook today.

My first time inside the gallery.

Flowering plants of Gunnison National Forest, Colorado

Even though my summer field season has finished, I still have three blog posts about Colorado in draft mode that I want to share.  Here is one about most of the flowering plants that I photographed during the summer (and then I will post photos of insects and birds).  I have arranged these images mostly by the time I saw the plants (i.e., phenology) and/or genus.

One of the earliest flowering plant that I saw.  I couldn't identify it at the spot, but it is in the Parsley family (Apiaceae).

2014 Ottawa Folk Festival

This past few days (Sept 10 - 14) I have been attending shows at the Ottawa Folk Festival - my first time attending this event and it is fantastic!  Here are some photos I took from this event.  Note: most of the shows were during night time and my camera is not good with high ISO, thus I turned most of these photos into black-and-white images.

Laurent Bourque

Bug Day at Canada Agriculture and Food Museum

There was a free event today at Canada Agriculture and Food Museum called "Bug Day", which consisted of various activities introducing insects to the public, e.g. insect zoo, cockroach races, insect collecting, etc.  I went there mainly for the free admission into the museum, a place that I haven't visited yet here in Ottawa.

Ornamental Gardens at the Experimental Farm

Mud Lake, Ottawa revisited

Given that school begins tomorrow and I now have a valid bus pass, I decided to go to Mud Lake today to do some wildlife-watching before the hectic school semester begins.  The last time I was there was almost nine months ago, so everything are different now, especially temperature-wise.  To read more about the different types of wildlife one can encounter at Mud Lake at different times of the year, read this post at the blog The Pathless Wood.

A true summer (sunny, hot, and humid) day today.