Signs Of Spring
March 25th, 2015
Many signs of spring lately in Ottawa, despite the continued wintry weather. A
porcupine in a tree along Carling (every March it seems they come out there to
gnaw on birch bark), two Red-Winged Blackbirds at the Hilda feeders,
Ring-Billed Gulls back in the parking lots, and a lone Turkey Vulture soaring
about Kanata.
...and, at my balcony feeder, goldfinches molting out of their drab winter
colors into fluorescent yellow breeding finery!
This guy seems to have molted his tail feathers all at once.
Common Redpolls at left and top. The two species have been faithful
customers at my feeders all winter, often visiting by the dozens. The feisty
and very hungry redpolls often edged out the goldfinches, but with spring
coming, they will soon be heading back north and leaving our resident birds in
peace.
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A morning at South March (part 4)
July 27th, 2014
My last set of photos for awhile. If you should ever want to visit this
beautiful forest,
a
trail map is available online. The main entrance is at Second Line and
Klondike.
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Generous sprays of Wild Columbine bloom in the exposed rocky areas of South
March. It's one of my favorite wildflowers, and not one you see just anywhere.
Northern Flicker.
That's white trillium behind the chipmunk--it positively blankets parts of
the forest in spring.
Unique vegetation on the sandstone barren north of Heron Pond. Nighthawks dive
over this area in spring, and wild (edible) wintergreen berries grow in
abundance. Unfortunately, this part of the forest, as well as a large chunk of
the pond, is owned by a developer and could easily be lost.
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A morning at South March (part 3)
July 22nd, 2014
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Another sapsucker. You can see some old sap wells in this tree, as well as
larger holes probably created by other woodpeckers. Sapsuckers are
distinguished from their more common cousins, Downy and Hairy Woodpeckers, by
their bright red chins (only on adult males) and by the broad white stripes on
their sides. Their call is a nasal mew.
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Wood Thrushes are
one of the most
beautiful songsters of deep woods, but to actually see one is a rare
treat. They are often elusive, and this is my first-ever photo. I think it's a
female, actually. I could hear her mate singing nearby.
A Veery in veery heaven: rich, mossy wet woods. Veeries are thrushes with a
descending waterfall of a song. In the wee hours of morning and evening, they
and the Wood Thrushes duet in South March Conservation Forest. If you're
lucky, a Hermit Thrush might join in and make it a trio (usually a distant
Hermit Thrush as they have different tastes in habitat from the other two.) I
feel anyone with even a passing love of nature should hear a thrush symphony
at least once in their life.
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I tracked this "Baltimore Titmouse" (a Baltimore Oriole with a titmouse-like song)
a ways into the woods, following his song up a hillside and into a sunny clearing,
where he stood resplendent in the morning light.
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A morning at South March (part 2)
July 17th, 2014
In most of Ottawa, Rose-Breasted Grosbeaks are something you see passing
through in spring and fall, but South March has a robust breeding population.
I'd never seen them like this before, though: both males and females were
foraging on ground--not merely on the ground, but
on the trail--right
in front of me.
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So were they looking for food? On a cold morning like that one, it makes sense
that the only insects they could find would be on the ground. Or were they
looking for nest material? Or were they gritting, perhaps--eating small
pebbles for their gizzards? (Some finches come right out onto roadways to do
that.) It was on a later day, walking through the same woods with my husband,
that I discovered the answer by kneeling down and studying the earth where a
grosbeak had been foraging: someone has been scattering birdseed on the
trails.
And I'm of two minds about it. On the one hand it's making for some stunning
views of songbirds that usually stay well up in the trees. (That day with
Michael I saw a
Scarlet Tanager, of all things, come to ground!) On the
other hand, it seems questionably ethical to deliberately attract birds onto
trails where fast-moving mountain bikes are the norm.
The more soberly attired female:
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A morning at South March (part 1)
July 13th, 2014
This is it. A grand finale of sorts.
This post and the following few will contain the photos I took the day
the
music my camera died. It was a beautiful spring morning at South March
Conservation Forest, with songbirds and wildflowers abounding, and I'm happy
to say I captured much of it before the camera breathed its last. Once these posts
are done, there will be a lull of at least a few months. So enjoy!
My day began at sunrise with this fellow, a Yellow-Bellied Sapsucker, at the
entrance gate. To recap, sapsuckers are specialized woodpeckers who drill rows
of tiny holes in living trees, then lick up the sap that wells out--they are
not just a joke insult used by Yosemite Sam against Bugs Bunny :-) They're
comparatively shy woodpeckers. Only in the early morning, I think, could I
have chanced to see one in such an exposed location. He began to play hide and
seek with me, as woodpeckers do (skittering around the post to try to stay out
of my sight), and eventually flew off.
It was the sound that had announced him: a very loud, resonant clanging.
Classically, woodpeckers drum on trees to declare territory, but if they can
find something noisier to drum on, they might use that instead. This cheeky
fellow got good results by banging on the "stoop and scoop" sign at the trail
entrance!
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Living Color
July 7th, 2014
Some photos that I didn't get around to posting before.
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Blue Jays don't get their colors from pigment, but from the way their feather
structures refract light. (In other words, if you crush a blue jay feather
down to powder, it won't be blue anymore!) They can look amazing when the
light strikes them just the right way. View at full res to appreciate--you can
actually see a moire pattern on his tail.
A breeding Red-Winged Blackbird in the Nortel wetland, photographed earlier
this year.
Birdsfoot trefoil. I think this very common wildflower brightens the
landscape even better than dandelions.
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A pair of foraging Willet sandpipers. This one goes back to our Cape Hatteras
vacation in summer 2012.
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Wood Duck Pair
July 3rd, 2014
On the shore of Mud Lake, with a first-year male Red-Winged Blackbird foraging
nearby. The drake was about to scratch an itch.
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Carp Ridge
June 29th, 2014
Every year I'm struck anew by the strange beauty of Carp Ridge. It seems
almost otherworldly to me.
This rocky, lichen-encrusted landscape is one of the best places in Ottawa to
find rare breeding birds, including towhees, whippoorwills, and nighthawks.
It's also unfortunately one of the best places in Ottawa for finding deer
ticks. I've often wondered if there is a connection between these two facts.
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April's Kinglets
June 25th, 2014
I managed to capture a few Ruby-Crowned Kinglets on their way through this
spring. Here they are, somewhat belatedly! This flock was along the trail at
Nortel wetland. Notice the filaments on the feet and rump of the first bird: I
think that's cattail fluff. They were foraging right next to the marsh and
occasionally in it.
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Trout Lily
June 9th, 2014
It deserves a better name, don't you think?
This close-up makes it look huge, but it's actually a delicate miniature lily,
one of the first wildflowers to appear in spring. It soaks up the sun before
the tree leaves above have unfurled and cast it into shade. Trout lilies grow
in often dense colonies in rich woods--but I've never caught more than a few
of them blooming at the same time. So I look for the leaves first (green and
mottled brown), and then I search for a flower.
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