Andrew Trundlewagon's photos with the keyword: quebec

It snowed last week in the middle of April. I went back to look at old photos just to remember that summer will eventually arrive.....

A Bohemian waxwing (Jaseur boreal). They are migrating back to their breeding grounds in the North and just passing through here near Montreal. A flock stayed for a week or so eating all fruit remaining on the trees after winter or fallen on the ground. This picture shows the red markings in the wing quite well, which is supposedly where the name waxwing came from as it resembles the red wax used in seals. This was late in the afternoon and the birds seemed to show a strong preference to remain in the shadows.

A white-breasted nuthatch on a twig

A nuthatch on a twig

The summer has irretrievably slipped into the first days of autumn, the trees are still full of leaves but they are slowly starting to yellow.

The bright orange viceroy butterfly (Limenitis archippus) resembles the larger Monarch butterfly. The caterpillars of the viceroy feed on plants in the willow family and accumulate salicylic acid (similar to aspirin). This makes them bitter and unpalatable to predators. Their similarity with the equally orange and black Monarch butterfly, which is also poisonous is an example of Müllerian mimicry which (from Wikipedia) “is a natural phenomenon in which two or more poisonous species, that may or may not be closely related and share one or more common predators, have come to mimic each other's warning signals”. Fortunately, I am not planning to eat butterflies so I can just enjoy their beauty.

A Junco, these migrate south from the arctic in winter. Taken near Montreal, Quebec.