Portrait of a Life Bird
May 9th, 2013
I'm back from a weeklong visit in Virginia with my folks. I had been hoping to catch the peak of warbler migration, but I either overshot or undershot the window of opportunity, or possibly both. The southern warblers were already in place on their breeding grounds (and, like so many warblers on their breeding grounds, difficult to see and impossible to photograph), while the northern ones were nowhere to be found except for Yellow-Rumpeds.
However, my mother and I had a great two-day trip to Cape Hatteras, where I got to experience spring shorebird migration, and found three lifers. Here's one of them.
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Lesser Black-Backed Gull had eluded me for almost six years. This is an Old World gull that winters along the east coast of North America. (Specifically, the Iceland population winters there.) Each winter we get a few of them in Ottawa. But the drill is always something like, "go to the Trail Road landfill, get out your spotting scope--oh, you don't have a spotting scope? Sucks to be you."
So imagine my surprise when I walked out on the beach and this fellow was right in front of me, as tame as can be!
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Even when he flushed, it seemed more out of annoyance than fear, and he only flew ten feet away before carrying on with his business. Maybe he was just worried I would steal his lunch of mole crabs.
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The crashing wave caught fire in the sunset and made for a rather dramatic shot. I call this one "confidence" :-)
For ilanikhan
April 22nd, 2013
Shot at Shirley's Bay where the trail runs alongside a small farm. It's a Highland cow, I think.
Hoodies At Sunset
April 17th, 2013
A pair of migrant Hooded Mergansers made my evening today. These are usually fairly skittish ducks--indeed, the other three on the pond immediately took off when I arrived--but this pair stayed, and cordially ignored me. The longer I lingered the tamer they got.
As usual, these are all available at higher res on my gallery site, by clicking on the thumbnails.
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Male hoodies flash their oversized white hoods to impress the ladies--although this particular female seems sufficiently impressed already!
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Three more coming in for a landing (perhaps the same three who flushed when I arrived?) The golden eyes and black bills on the first and third betray them as yearling males, not females. These may well be siblings. They probably won't breed until their second year, when the young males will acquire their mature plumage.
There's a special pleasure for a nature photographer when your subjects are relaxed enough to fall asleep in front of you.
Welcome back, Red-Winged Blackbirds
March 27th, 2013
A ton of snow and below-freezing weather have not stopped them from returning to their breeding grounds, and singing their hearts out. I never tire of them.
March Valley Grosbeaks
February 23rd, 2013
A flock of Pine Grosbeaks have been regulars at the March Valley Rd. bird feeders all winter, delighting nature-watchers. I often drive down there to look at them since MVR is right next to where I live. Whereas the flock I found in front of my husband's work in November was all drab, olive/gray females and juveniles, this flock has a large percentage of beautiful rose-red mature males.
These are best appreciated at high res, so click on the wallpaper links if you want to enjoy all the details.
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Take a closer look and you can see a Common Redpoll giving one of the grosbeaks a piece of his mind:
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That's a female grosbeak on the top right.
Turkey Crossing
February 13th, 2013
I went to Trail Road looking for a wintering cowbird. Apparently people have been sprinkling birdseed at the landfill gates for him. I found this eating the seed instead!
A Feast Of Birch Bark
February 10th, 2013
A little group of porcupines has entertained nature-watchers along Carling Avenue for the last few weeks, eating one of their favorite winter foods, birch bark. The peeling outer layer of birch bark allows them easy access to the inner bark, which is the part they savor. View the first photo at high res to see where patches of bark have been nibbled away.
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Life bird #322
February 9th, 2013
Discovering this guy was a treat. At long last, I'm starting to get a respectable amount of owls on my lifelist!
Northern Hawk-Owls are aptly named. They are among the few fully diurnal (active by day, sleeping at night) owls. They tend to perch less upright than other owls, they flick their tails like kestrels, and they're even known to hover over fields to search visually for prey. (Great Grey Owls, by comparison, use their keen hearing to detect the sound of tiny feet scurrying under the snow.) The rusty barring on this bird's breast, combined with his checkered wings, very much reminds me of a Red-Shouldered Hawk. Not to mention this is the first time I've seen an owl on a power line.
Like Great Grey, this is a boreal species that is seldom seen in our area. It was probably driven south by a lack of prey. And it may well be eating birds rather than mice. I noticed the local chickadees were not pleased with its presence.
Preening:
My First Great Grey
January 22nd, 2013
Saw this magnificent fellow in a field along Rockliffe Parkway--a new bird for me.
Great Grey Owls are the tallest owls in North America, and arguably the world. (Some give that title to Eurasian Eagle-Owls instead.) But despite their imposing presence, they're really just big fluffballs. Much of their size comes from the dense plumage that insulates them in the northern climes where they live. And though you'd think that birds that grow up to nearly three feet tall would hunt large prey, their favorite food is tiny voles.
Sightings of this species are normally very rare in Ottawa. But about once every 4-5 years, when the rodent population in the boreal forest crashes, numbers of Great Grey Owls move south in winter in search of food. This is one of those years!
Don't Mind If I Do
January 11th, 2013
A red squirrel helps himself to the birdseed I scattered on a rock. As you may guess from the amount of green and the strength of the sun, I didn't take this photo very recently!
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