Andrew Trundlewagon's photos

Brighton, fish and chips on the seafront, going in style.

A tight cluster of recently hatched garden spiders.

A duskywing butterfly.

A bullfrog tadpole. Quite large but still no legs.

A bridge over the mill pond, St Bruno Park. Somewhere there is a Dalmatian dog hiding in the photo.

This is the flower of the mayapple (Podophyllum peltatum) that grows mostly in shady woodland and produces an attractive white flower. The problem, though, is that the flower is so well hidden below the large umbrella-like leaves that it is not often seen. It grows in colonies that spread through rhizomes, and it has been suggested that some large colonies might be over a hundred years old. The plant is poisonous to humans, although the fruit (the May apple) can be eaten when it is ripe (but I have never tried it). Many animals consume the fruit, and the box turtle is thought to be the main seed disperser. Podophyllotoxin, which is the major toxin of the mayapples, can be used topically to remove warts and was, in turn, used as the basis for the development of an anti-cancer drug called etoposide. Found in the East Don ravine parkland, Toronto. (P.S. I only noticed when I got home that there was a lot of dust on the lens, hence the small black spots, sorry about that!)

A plant behaving badly. This is the one flowered cancer root, or one flowered broomrape (Orobanche uniflora). It is a small parasitic plant that lacks chlorophyl and obtains its nutrients entirely by parasitizing the roots of other plants, notably saxifrages, asters and sedum. This colony was growing by the side of a stream (German Mills Creek) in the East Don Mills ravine parkland in Toronto. It is a member of the Orobanchaceae, or broomrapes, and occurs widely throughout Canada and the US, but is not often seen (this is, in fact, the only time I have seen it). Despite its rather anti-social lifestyle, it made a very pleasant surprise between the early spring ephemerals that are almost finished and the summer wildflowers that have yet to arrive.

Flowering branch of a serviceberry tree (Amelanchier) over water.

A slightly nervous looking raccoon (same animal as the last raccoon I uploaded).

An azalea flower, one of the pleasures of spring.

Near sunset. The neighbourhood raccoon chased up a tree by one of the neighbourhood dogs.

A misty morning at the protest camp on the grounds of McGill University in Montreal, protesting against the war in Gaza.

Cannabis has been fully legal in Canada since 2018, but I still find things like this rather disconcerting. Seen near the airport on a recent visit to Toronto. To avoid misunderstanding, the Subway Sandwich shop wasn't selling cannabis but the shop nextdoor to it was. (Called Runway Pot if anyone is interested).

An assemblage of Eurypterid (sea scorpion) fossils in the Royal Ontario Museum Toronto.

Close-up of a robber fly trapped on a windowpane and trying to find a way out. (The details are best seen when the photo is enlarged).

A local rabbit in the garden, well camouflaged. They are so used to humans that it allowed me to approach quite close. But there is a limit, this far and no further. One step over the invisible line and it was away like lightening.

The eclipse April 8th 2024- just South of Montreal. The orange images were taken using an improvised eclipse filter, the centre image, the eclipse at totality, was taken without the filter. The eclipse began at 14.14 (top) and ended at 16.36 p.m, with the total eclipses lasting only two minutes. The partial eclipses are lined up in order (beginning the top), but other than that there is no accuracy in terms of timing or position.

The April 8th, 2024, eclipse seen from near Montreal using a different camera setting from the other eclipse photo. An interesting experience. It got darker slowly, and cold and the wind picked up. Then the sun disappeared completely and suddenly leaving only a black hole where the sun had been and the disk of the corona. Everything gets dark, even the streetlights turn on, and rather eerie. It's very impressive. The eclipse began at 14.14 in the afternoon, but totality, when the sun was covered entirely and we could look directly at the eclipse with the naked eye, lasted only two minutes, from 15.26 and 40 seconds to 15.28 and 42 seconds.