A Beautiful Spot
July 31st, 2011
A view of Chelsea Creek in the Gatineau, from Sugarbush Loop. Michael and I
went there yesterday, sat at the waterside and watched jewelwings perch on the
rocks.
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Steeplebush
July 29th, 2011
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Ebony Jewelwing
July 28th, 2011
Sugarbush Loop is becoming one of my favorite hiking spots. Foremost of the
reasons for this is its population of Ebony Jewelwings, a magnificent odonate.
When you first see one fluttering around, it looks like a dark butterfly. Then
it perches, revealing its vivid metallic blue-green body and its eponymous
delicate ebony wings. Jewelwings prefer wooded streams and creeks, which is
perhaps why they're not a common sight in Ottawa--our greenspace has a lot
more marsh and pond than it does fast-flowing water. But in appropriate
habitat, they occur in good numbers.
I was delighted to find one hunting for food on Chelsea Creek. He perched on
grasses leaning over the water, and periodically sallied forth to snap up
insects from the surface. He had a habit of returning to exactly the same
position on exactly the same perch after one of his sallies, which was
fortunate for me! Once I'd set the focus on my lens, it stayed good for some
time.
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The females and juveniles are duller-colored, and have pale spots on the tips
of their wings. My favorite female picture of the day is this rather startling
flight shot.
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A Selection Of Odes
July 21st, 2011
No, not poetry. "Odes" is shorthand for odonates: dragonflies and damselflies.
Here are some I've come across recently.
Four-Spotted Skimmer (
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Mosaic Darner (
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Cooper's Hawk
July 18th, 2011
Cooper's
Hawks have nested in the tall pines at Mud Lake for a few years now. These
long-tailed raptors are voracious consumer of songbirds. The Mud Lake pair
also seem to enjoy, and have helped temper, its bountiful squirrel population!
Before the hawks took up residence, squirrels used to follow hikers down paths
looking for handouts, or come out when you were sitting on the platform and
just stare at you. The Black Squirrel Mafia, I called them. They've since
learned to make themselves a little less conspicuous.
This Cooper's, judging by eye color, is a young'un--likely fledged from this
year's nest.
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Eastern Kingbird
July 17th, 2011
Eastern
Kingbirds are common throughout Ottawa, but Mer Bleue is an especially
good place to watch and photograph them. They perch on the boardwalk and make
flycatching sallies over the bog.
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Hexagenia Limbata
July 16th, 2011
...which is to say, a mayfly. I like mayflies--both the pale waxy subimagos
that cling to windows in spring, and the colorful adults.
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Blue Mud Dauber
July 14th, 2011
I'm still enough of a novice at insect-watching that things can take me
completely by surprise. Example: I had no idea we had metallic blue wasps in
Ottawa! This one caught my eye at Mud Lake while I was watching the heron
struggle with his lunch.
Many thanks to the folks at
What's That
Bug for their help. I was disappointed that it didn't turn out to be the
badass-sounding Steel Blue Cricket Hunter--that is, until I learned that the
Blue Mud Dauber is far more badass. Its favorite prey is Black Widow spiders!
The adult actually lives on nectar, but captures and kills spiders to feed its
young. As there aren't many (any?) Black Widows in Ottawa, I'm guessing this
wasp is not particularly common either.
The second photo shows off the violet highlights in the wings:
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Biting off more than he can chew
July 12th, 2011
This Great Blue Heron looked mighty proud of himself having caught a large
catfish...until it occurred to him that he was going to have to swallow it. I
watched him struggle with the thing for upward of fifteen minutes.
The final picture looks like success but wasn't--it managed to flop its way
back out of his mouth! When I left he had the thing sitting on shore,
apparently waiting for it to die so it would go down without a fight.
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Bitter Nightshade
July 7th, 2011
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One of my favorite wildflowers. Look for these little purple and yellow
beauties on vines intertwined with other plants. Later in the year, the flower
clusters turn into berry clusters. The berries are poisonous to mammals, but
birds eat them without harm.
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