Wildflowers and booming nighthawks at South March
June 18th, 2017
On May 27th I hiked the west loop of South March Conservation Forest. With the
filling out of the trees, the spring ephemerals had faded--just a few
lingering and wilting White Trilliums. But a fresh crop of beauty had sprung
up to replace it.
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Pale Corydalis grows in rocky clearings in places like South March (especially
the rugged west side of it) and the Carp Ridge barrens. It is one of my
favorite wildflowers. The blossoms are very small and delicate, though--you
have to really get down close to appreciate their beauty.
Wild Columbine, wallpaper available
Wild Columbine
Canada Mayflower, wallpaper available
A male Rose-Breasted Grosbeak surveys his territory. South March is one of the
best places in Ottawa to see these beautiful birds in their nesting habitat.
(
More (Common Nighthawks, birding the tracks) )
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Spring On The Rideau
June 13th, 2017
On the 19th of May I hiked the Rideau from Billings Bridge to the Hogs Back
falls, photographing as I went. At Mud Lake a few days prior, I had noticed
Canada Geese acting nervous and expectant around their nests. So I wasn't
surprised on Friday to see this!
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The surprise of the day was a different kind of goose, a Brant. It is normal
to find this small, coastal/tundra goose in Ottawa in migration, but I'd never
seen one on the Rideau before. It was near Carleton university.
A drake Wood Duck--although you all probably know this one by now :-)
Northern Cardinal,
wallpaper available
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I love tulips. Who needs a composition when you have colors like that?
(
More (Ring-Billed Gull, Red-Eyed Vireo) )
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Living Color on the Eardley Escarpment (part 2)
June 4th, 2017
(
Part 1)
As I was hiking back I heard the distinctive "chick-burr" of a
Scarlet
Tanager. Scarlet Tanager is an amazingly red little bird (the males are
red, that is, females are yellow) that, frustratingly, spends almost all its
time at the tops of tall, leafy deciduous trees. I enjoy them through
binoculars every year, in places where they breed (South March Highlands,
Gatineau Park, and even parts of Stony Swamp), but never once have I gotten a
photo worth showing. But as I reached the spot where the "chick-burr" was
coming from, I was delighted to see a male tanager swooping down low...and
then amazed when he came lower, and lower, until he was actually on the
ground! I think that he was likely guarding his mate as she gathered nest
material. I can think of no other reason for a Scarlet Tanager to go to
ground.
Of course I took pictures. He was distant and tricky to get in focus--and
photos never entirely do justice to this bird (ideally you need to be there,
with a good set of binoculars, looking up at the reddest thing you ever saw, a
bird that honestly seems to
glow red, thinking "my god, am I in
tropical South America or am I still in Canada?") But these are certainly the
best adult male photos that I've ever obtained.
Surprise number two happened further back down the trail, when I came to a
spot where the underbrush was just positively alive with very tiny, very
fast-moving creatures. There were many small openings in the brush, at the
base of a tree trunk, under logs, etc., and they darted in and out of those
openings at the speed of light, never in view for more than a fraction of a
second. I struggled to even see them clearly, much less photograph them.
Finally, I pointed my camera at one of the tree holes that they were scurrying
in and out of, and rapid-fired my shutter, producing about twenty pictures of
an empty hole and one picture of this! (To give an idea of scale, the hole was
maybe an inch and a half wide.)
That's a shrew--one of the tiniest mammals in the world, even smaller than a
mouse. Shrews aren't rodents, but miniature carnivores, most closely related
to moles, who eat insects, spiders, amphibians, small rodents, and even other
shrews. Their frenetic activity and voracious appetites are supported by a
super-charged metabolism which rivals that of a hummingbird: a shrew can
starve to death within a few hours without food.
Sadly, there are a number of lookalike shrews in Ontario so there is no way to
determine the exact species of this one. The likely candidates, I'm told, are
Smoky Shrew, Common Shrew, and Short-Tailed Shrew.
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Living Color on the Eardley Escarpment (part 1)
May 29th, 2017
On May 17th I went hiking in the Gatineau, taking the old McCloskey Road trail
to McDonald trail and up to the Western Lodge. The display of spring
ephemerals was even more outrageous than it was at nearby Wolf Trail last
spring! The woods were like a garden. An endless profusion of Red Trillium,
White Trillium, Trout Lily and Bellwort, with a little Bloodroot here and
there, swampy spots overflowing with Marsh Marigold, and more besides. I came
mainly to photograph the flowers--the birds of Eardley Escarpment are
multifarious and good, but usually too far up in the trees for my lens to
capture. But, as it turns out, there were a few surprises.
Red Trillium, wallpaper available
Red Trillium, wallpaper available
Trout Lilies
Bellwort
Bloodroot
These Marsh Marigolds formed thick golden carpets in swampy spots. I can't
remember seeing them in such profusion before. I guess our very wet spring
created good habitat for them!
Next up, the day's two surprises.
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Upstaging The Warblers
May 23rd, 2017
I continue to be cursed for warbler photography at Point Pelee.
On the first day of our outing, there were lots of warblers, but almost none
of them were out on the tip (where you can sometimes get extreme close-ups as
these exhausted birds, having just flown across Lake Erie, drop into the low
vegetation and, well, veg.) They were in places like Tilden Woods, flitting
around high up in the trees. It's great for them that conditions were so good
they could just breeze right past the tip and into the woods, but not so great
for photography, especially not with my modest 300mm lens. I had a much better
time (and saw more birds) once I finally stowed my camera away and went back
to just binoculars. I saw seventeen types of warblers all in all, of which the
highlights were a nice view of a
Blackburnian,
and an excellent view of a
Northern Waterthrush.
The second day was much better, or so I'm told. Unfortunately I wasn't there,
for reasons I won't go into.
But the trip wasn't a complete loss for photos. When we arrived at the tip of
the tip, I was thrilled to see a number of Red-Breasted Mergansers, males and
females, swimming close to shore. My group was eager to move on and find a
rumored Tufted Titmouse, but I see all the titmice I need when I visit my
folks in Virginia, and I don't see nearly enough of this unusual, charismatic
duck--especially the drake in his full nuptial plumage. So I lingered behind,
missed the titmouse, and got some photos of the nearest drake as he showed off
for the ladies.
I also think this early-morning Barn Swallow came out rather well. A whole
colony of these swallows breed in an open shelter near the tram stop, building
their mud nests on ledges beneath the ceiling. They are completely habituated
to humans, whizzing back and forth to and from their nests right over our
heads.
Gathering nest-building material.
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Our disaster, their wonderland
May 19th, 2017
I went birding at Mud Lake on Wednesday the 10th. It was like no visit to Mud
Lake ever before, and probably none hence. (For those of you in Ottawa, you
maybe heard in the news about "flooding in Britannia"? Yeah. Britannia is
where Mud Lake is.) I felt quite confident heading down the trail with a pair
of knee-high rubber boots on. But even thus equipped I was unable to complete
the loop.
The pond (connected with the swollen Ottawa River) had simply taken over. For
large swathes of the trail, there was no trail. There were ducks paddling and
fish swimming where there had once been a trail. And the Rusties, oh my god,
the Rusties. Rusty Blackbirds, as I mentioned in my last post, are a species
of icterids who love foraging on flooded ground. The rich brown coloration
that gives them their name is only seen in fall and winter. By this time of
year, females are charcoal and males are glossy black, with striking pale
eyes, like miniature short-tailed grackles. In good light they show a
steel-blue sheen. They are largely birds of the boreal forest and muskeg,
breeding north of us, and their population is in decline. Normally if I see a
few of them in a year I'm happy.
Mud Lake was dripping with Rusty Blackbirds, far, far more than I'd ever heard
or seen. To them it was a wonderland. Anywhere there was water where there
shouldn't be, there they were, strutting along the margins of the flood or
perching over it, and filling the air with their
odd, stuttery, gurgling songs. As
I splashed my way down the "trail" I could see the flocks retreating before
me--but now and then a straggler granted me a photo op. I was in heaven
seeing, hearing and photographing so much of a bird that is usually elusive to
me.
That was a trail once.
The west entrance to the ridge.
Another sign that we're not in Kansas anymore: a mated pair of Greater Scaup
on Mud Lake. These are diving ducks who prefer fairly deep water. They show up
mainly on large rivers (like the Ottawa) in migration, and breed on large
lakes--
actual lakes, which "Mud Lake" isn't. But in its flooded state,
it must have looked like decent habitat to them!
(
Continue (Rusties galore, a couple of warblers, trout lilies and more!) )
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Of floods and falcons and other spring adventures
May 3rd, 2017
It's been a weird, wet, interesting spring.
In early April I made the traditional Ottawa birder's trek out to Cobb's Creek
floodplain, near Bourget. Each spring Cobb's Creek floods and turns the
surrounding fields into a shallow lake, attracting migrant waterfowl. I went
twice, first solo and a few days later with Mike. On my solo trip I found the
water mostly iced over, although that didn't dissuade the tens of thousands of
Snow Geese! Few ducks to be seen, though.
I decided to go hiking down the old railbed trail. Not far down I found a
long-tailed, light gray bird, singing away. Its song was a rather
random-sounding series of phrases, some repeated. Well, I figured I knew what
that had to be: my first Ontario mockingbird! I see mockingbirds galore
whenever I visit my parents in the southern states, but it was still exciting
to see one close to home, where they are quite rare.
But then I twigged to something...what was with that dark streak through the
eye? Mockingbird doesn't have that. Then the "mockingbird" flew and alit on
another tree in much better lighting, flicking its tail, and my mistake became
clear. Black mask, hooked bill, faintly barred breast: not a mockingbird but a
Northern Shrike. Though this was not an Ontario first, it was just as
exciting, simply because I'd never found a shrike singing before. Shrikes are
oddities of evolution, carnivorous songbirds that actually catch and eat other
birds (and rodents.) Lacking sharp talons to hold onto their prey, they have
developed the grisly habit of impaling it on barbed wire or a thorny branch.
Chickadees dread them. It seemed so surreal for this fierce raptor (well,
pseudo-raptor) to be singing cheerily!
A few days later I went back with Mike, and all was changed. The ice was off
the water, and the water had swelled to become the most impressive flood I'd
ever seen. It actually had waves. It had positively overshot the water level
preferred by dabbling ducks, so again, there were few to be seen. Instead of
duck-watching we ended up muskrat-watching! Hard to believe how many of them
were paddling around in there.
In mid-April, around the time when Michael and I were contending with our
flooding basement window well, I went hiking at Shirley's Bay and came to a
spot where the river had simply swallowed the trail whole. Rubber boots would
not have sufficed, hip-waders
may have sufficed, but frankly, I'd put
my money on a canoe. So I turned back, but not before having seen a wealth of
migrant birds, including the largest group of Rusty Blackbirds that I'd ever
found in spring. Rusties are grackle-like blackbirds (but smaller and
shorter-tailed) who forage for food on swampy, flooded ground. Is it a
coincidence that
this is the spring when I see my biggest spring group
of Rusties ever? I doubt it.
At the end of April, we hiked the Rideau from Billings Bridge to Hog's Back
Falls and back. Highlights included a male Red-Breasted Merganser acting
surprisingly pair-bonded with a female Common Merganser, and a Double-Crested
Cormorant in resplendent breeding plumage, with an all-over indigo sheen and a
gular pouch so strikingly yellow it looked painted. (Cormorants only look like
that for a short time each year. In fact, seeing this bird made me realize
that much of what I admired about the
Great
Cormorants in Cape Breton was due to finding them at peak season, and not due
to their particular species.)
But the big highlight came near Billings Bridge, as we were walking back
through the park lawn and a long-tailed light gray bird flew into a bush,
flashing white wing patches. "I'm pretty sure that was a mockingbird," I told
Mike.
"You're kidding," he said.
Since I had recent experience of mistaking a shrike for a mockingbird, I
didn't want to be cavalier. So we waited patiently until the bird finally flew
out, perched in a tree, and gave us a good look. There was then no question.
Ontario-first Northern Mockingbird, for real this time! I reported it on
Ontbirds, and about an hour later, it had been re-found by Paul Mirsky. Two
others reported it early the next morning. This was exciting for me, as I
don't often get to be a first finder of rarities, and the last time I was (the
European Goldfinch at my feeder in 2015), the bird split before anyone other
than me and my husband got a chance to enjoy it.
That brings me to this morning at Mud Lake, where I found the trail flooded in
places it has never flooded before. (This is going to end eventually, right?
We're not going to need an ark?) It was a cold morning with very few spring
migrants to be seen, but one sighting from Cassels Road made my day by itself.
All the Red-Winged Blackbirds in the vicinity began making alarm calls, and
then a large raptor swooped in and started circling. When you see a raptor
flying over Mud Lake you expect a Cooper's Hawk or an Osprey, maybe a Merlin
(a small falcon) if you're lucky. This bird was definitely a falcon by shape,
but it outsized any Merlin and had the thick black sideburns of the Merlin's
more famous relative, Peregrine Falcon! And now that it was overhead the
blackbirds were making sounds like I had never heard them make. (If you are
familiar with the redwing's usual piercing alarm call, imagine that, but
furtive and muted instead of piercing, with a certain "oh shit" quality about
it.)
Then it actually went into a stoop: it dove down at the water, veering up at
the last minute. But I couldn't see anything there that it would have been
stooping at. Maybe a young falcon practicing its moves?
Coming soon, rain with more rain and a side of rain. And coming hopefully
after all that is over with, my big four-day trip to Point Pelee with Jon
Ruddy.
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Living Sunshine
April 15th, 2017
Grill season has arrived, and alas, that means that bird-feeding season is
over, at least for me--the husband generally prefers not to get crowned with
finch droppings while cooking our dinner :-) And I prefer to only feed birds
in the coldest, most difficult months so as not to create dependency.
I got this photo just before I discontinued feeding. These two males were in
almost perfect breeding plumage (compare with the more dishevelled appearance
in my previous post, and then with the bare winter plumage in the post before
that.) Goldfinches are so shy out in nature--I had never before been able to
approach them closely enough to get a picture like this. But at feeders they
can become a good deal more tame, and these had all winter to get used to me.
I was right across the window from them.
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Tiding Us Over
March 30th, 2017
In mid-May, Michael is joining me for a four-day bird-watching trip to Point
Pelee, led by birding dynamo
Jon Ruddy. This
will be my third time in Point Pelee at the height of spring migration, and
I'm thrilled to be going back. Hopefully, for the first time, I can get good
photos of the warbler extravaganza. (The first time I got some photos, but
mostly not of warblers. The second time my back gave out and I had to stow the
camera away. This time, I'm planning to buy a camera harness to help with the
back issues.)
In the meantime, here are a few recent and not-so-recent photos. This first
one is the last of my summer 2016 backlog. I call it "Reaching For The Sun",
which is rather what I'm doing around now in Ottawa!
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This young male Harlequin Duck (the brown one in the middle) spent the winter
on the Rideau River, often near Hurdman Bridge. On this day in mid-January he
was keeping close company with a group of young male (the leftmost duck) and
adult male Common Goldeneyes. The large majority of Harlequins live in the
west, breeding on turbulent mountain streams in places like Banff. The
Atlantic population, which is presumably where this one strayed in from, is
small and endangered.
The adult male Harlequin is spectacularly handsome; unfortunately we seldom
see one of those here in Ottawa. However, we might if this guy sticks around
long enough! I saw him again just today, and while he wasn't showing much
color yet, the markings on his face were a lot more well-defined and striking.
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It saddens me that birders snub so many interesting birds because they're
common, or non-native, or otherwise uncool. I've made it my mission to keep
seeing the beauty in what some call "dirt birds." Today's exhibit: a
resplendent Rock Pigeon, sharing birdseed with another pigeon and a Red
Squirrel along the Rideau River.
Photographed just a few days ago, goldfinches at my kitchen balcony feeder.
These two males are molting out of their drab winter plumage and into their
dazzling yellow summer plumage. The one on the left was further along in his
molt and looking very pretty, I think!
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Winter in Algonquin: Visitor Centre and Opeongo Road
February 7th, 2017
At the Visitor Centre I had some welcome hot food, then headed to the viewing
platform to check out the famous feeders. They usually have a flock of Evening
Grosbeaks in winter, but on this afternoon it was goldfinches, plus the odd
redpoll and siskin.
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I enjoyed the sight of goldfinches crowding into the surrounding trees waiting
their turns.
Another interesting but very distant (too distant for pictures) sight from the
platform was a moose carcass being fed on by a red fox. The moose had been
road-killed, and park staff put it out in the valley for the benefit of
scavengers. So far a fisher, a marten, the fox, ravens, wolves, and a Bald
Eagle have all been seen at the carcass! The scavenger-fest (if it's still on
by the time I post this) can be viewed on live webcam at
the Algonquin
Park website.
After lunch we headed to Opeongo Road, where, at the junction where the road
is gated off, we were met by another friendly, hungry group of Gray Jays. This
time I decided to photograph the action. I found this kind of photography very
rewarding--capturing the joy on peoples' faces as birds alight on their hand
with complete trust.
That's "WOSLROWR" (white over standard left, red over white right), the just
one-year-old territorial female of Cameron Lake Road.
Her six-year old mate.
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"GOBLBOSR" (green over blue left, blue over standard right) - an unrelated
male in the same territory. He was probably originally evicted from his natal
territory. A pair may be willing to "adopt" an unrelated jay if they have no
surviving offspring. He will stay with them for a little while until he can
find a place to call his own.
Don't forget the chickadees!
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