Three Hunters
May 13th, 2015
My mother is visiting from Virginia. I took her to Mud Lake this afternoon,
and Mud Lake brought out all its charms for her! It was the birdiest I'd seen
it (or heard it) this spring. Near the trailhead were two surprisingly tame
adult Night Herons, one of them actively fishing.
The action was so good I had to go back home, get my camera, and come back.
Fortunately one of the Night Herons waited for me.
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Down the trail, the Eastern Screech-Owl was out of his hole. (I've decided to
give up trying to keep this secret, since it's very much an open secret, and
really, the owl doesn't seem to care the darndest about people watching him.)
He was perched low down and close to the trunk of an old snag. From a
distance, he did a convincing imitation of a broken off branch:
While the bunch of us (my mom and I and other photographers) were watching the
owl, a Cooper's Hawk got into a noisy fight with a couple of crows, which
ended badly (though not fatally) for one of the crows! Most of us went over to
photograph the hawk, perched low after the altercation and looking completely
unruffled.
When we got back, my mom regaled us all with how the fight had woken the owl
up, and how it had its eyes wide open, looking all around. We got back just in
time to see it falling back to sleep.
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Shine For A Day
May 11th, 2015
South March Forest has dense carpets of trout lilies right now--most of them
peaked and wilted, and soon to disappear. But this one was still perfect.
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Spring Beauty
May 9th, 2015
An early-blooming, ephemeral wildflower. It disappears once the trees above it
have leafed out.
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In Praise Of Common Birds
May 4th, 2015
It's a good time of year to appreciate the beauty of common birds at their
breeding peak. This mallard was looking particularly gorgeous in the late
afternoon light.
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Ring-Billed Gulls are one of those birds where familiarity breeds contempt,
and I'm sure most birders seldom bother to train their binoculars on one.
They're actually quite striking in breeding plumage. Their gapes and eye rings
become such a brilliant shade of orangey-red, it looks fluorescent to me. When
a Ring-Billed Gull calls on territory, he's not just declaring himself by
sound, he's also flashing that gape the way a Red-Winged Blackbird flashes his
epaulets.
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Closeup:
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Sunset Wood Ducks
April 30th, 2015
Testosterone fever at Mud Lake yesterday evening, with drake mallards and
drake wood ducks putting on a show. Actually most of the ducks are paired up
already, but that's not stopping hopeful third parties doing their best to
wedge themselves in! At one point, a pair of male mallards swam around a lone
female, bills raised, going "quack. quack. quack." with the most exquisite air
of self-importance. It was enough that I and the photographer next to me,
formerly too engrossed in our work to pay much attention to each other, had to
look at each other and laugh.
People feed the ducks at the north shore, to draw them closer in. I have mixed
feelings about it--on the one hand I prefer seeing birds wild, but on the
other hand, the photographer in me loves it! (Also on the other hand, it's
been a hard, slow spring, and I'm sure they need all the extra food they can
get.) You need only kneel down on the rocks, and soon the throng approaches in
anticipation of cracked corn. If you don't feed them, they go back to their
business, but stay close for awhile just in case, making for some nice photo
ops as the drakes pose, preen, dabble, and occasionally tear off racing each
other across the water.
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Crest fully poofed-out. I only ever see them like that in spring.
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Sleepy Screech Owl
April 28th, 2015
These little guys can be remarkably well-camouflaged if you don't know to look
for them! Eastern Screech-Owls roost and nest in old woodpecker holes. They
look very cute and innocent when you catch one by day. By night, they prey on
small birds and mammals, and
make a
sound that raises goosebumps on your skin.
This is an Ottawa-lister for me (i.e. the first time I've found one in Ottawa.)
I'd previously seen screech owls a few times on birding trips to Point Pelee.
Here's a
higher-res
version.
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Oil Beetle
April 25th, 2015
I couldn't tell much about this beetle by naked eye. It just looked like it
was clambering around in the grass. But it took on a lot more personality
under the zoom lens. I have seldom seen a creature eat with as much gusto as
it was eating on that grass stalk--you could almost hear the "OM NOM NOM"
sounds.
Oil beetles (also called blister beetles) have a fascinating start to life.
Once they hatch, the larvae will climb up a flower stalk and gather in a mass
that roughly approximates the shape of a bee, while also emitting a fake
female-bee-pheromone smell (which species of bee depends on which species of
oil beetle.) When a male comes and attempts to mate with this trojan bee, the
larvae separate and climb onto him, and then when he finds a real female bee
to mate with, climb onto her. They finally end up in the underground nest
where she lays her eggs, where they will proceed to eat the honey and pollen
she provisioned her young with, and then eat the eggs too.
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Spring Display
April 20th, 2015
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Return Of The Night Herons
April 18th, 2015
Black-Crowned Night Herons are back at Mud Lake. These stocky red-eyed herons
have been some of my favorite birds since I saw my first at Vincent Massey
Park almost eight years ago. It was the bird that told me I had outgrown my
beginner's field guide--the first one I found that was too uncommon to be in
there.
This one had been foraging in the east swamp around sunset (their favorite
time of day), but took to the trees as I approached. Those white things draped
down its shoulders are breeding plumes.
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Springtime Strut
April 13th, 2015
Spring has finally sprung (for real this time?) and birds are coming back to
Ottawa in numbers. I went out to Shirley's Bay after sunset on Saturday
searching for woodcocks. When I spotted
Gillian Mastromatteo out of her
car at the side of the road, I knew something interesting must be afoot! I
pulled over, and sure enough as soon as I stepped out of the car I heard that
telltale buzzy "peent!"--the same one I heard in the Algonquin tract three
days prior.
As is typical for woodcocks, we couldn't find him. Though he sounded like he
was just off the road, and there was still plenty of light in the sky, we
stood there for some fifteen minutes poring over every inch of the scenery
without success. But then he took off, and there was no missing him! We both
watched as he flew a wide circle high in the sky above us, wings twittering.
("He looks like a big hummingbird!" Gillian said. "He looks like a big bat!" I
said.) Then he descended steeply back into the brush whence he came. Having
seen his descent, we were quickly able to spot him on the ground, and watch
him "peent" around for another five minutes before his next flight.
The skydance, they say, stokes the interest of female woodcocks, and
eventually, one will land in the brush next to the peenting male and he'll
court her, bowing and strutting. I've never yet seen that for myself.
The subject of strutting birds leads me to my latest springtime excitement, my
first-ever sighting of a male Wild Turkey in full display. Michael's keen eyes
are to thank for this one. We were driving down Sixth Line when he saw
something big in the farmer's field--either livestock or Wild Turkeys, he
figured. It was turkeys, and the lone tom was strutting around in front of the
hens, fanning his tail. He was resplendent. Compared to the bland-looking
turkeys I'm used to seeing (hens and nonbreeding males), I couldn't believe
how colorful he was. Electric blue face, cherry red wattles, and all-over
iridescent.
After a long hiatus from nature photography, I now have a new camera (Nikon
D3200.) I think it's about time to start breaking it in.
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