The Long Walk
October 2nd, 2010
Wednesday was notable for me in being, I think, the longest hike I've ever done. Certainly the longest uninterrupted hike I've ever done--there were brief stops for the purpose of bird-watching, of course, but no long rests, no meal breaks or snack breaks. Somewhere on the order of 12-13 kilometers. It was good for me psychologically as well as physically. Not to mention the pleasure of extended nature-watching.
The hike took me through Beaver Trail (after a 1.5km hike from the nearest 166 bus stop), Jack Pine Trail, Lime Kiln Trail, and portions of the blue and red Rideau Trails, all within Stony Swamp. Ironically, Jack Pine Trail--considered the creme de la creme of Stony Swamp birding by many--produced exactly zero of the many interesting sightings that day!
Six different species of warblers--Yellow-Rumped, Magnolia, Nashville, Tennessee, Black-Throated Blue and Pine--a little surprising for late September, when warbler migration is supposed to be thinning out. Bands of Golden-Crowned Kinglets everywhere, which was not at all surprising. I was pleased by the tameness of the birds along Lime Kiln Trail (which I'd never been to before). They were foraging low in mixed flocks, and even species I normally expect to be fairly shy, like creepers and warblers, were allowing me close-up views. This is a great place to go if you want to feed birds by hand. Even the Red-Breasted Nuthatches were acting ultra-tame, hovering in front of my face to try to get my attention.
One of the biggest pleasures of the day was a Snowshoe Hare. I see them seldom and it's always a treat when I do. So different from dainty cottontails, as soon as they see me, they tear through the woods at breakneck speed to get away. They're much wilder and much warier.
I'm on a break from photography, so the pictures you'll be seeing in the next week or so (and the ones you've been seeing for the past few days) are all old--though new to you. I seldom process all my photos at the time I take them. A backlog builds up, and so I go sifting through it and pulling out the winners on rainy days.
Little Wood Satyr
October 1st, 2010
1680x1050 wallpaper
Security
September 30th, 2010
1680x1050 wallpaper
Radiant Robin
September 28th, 2010
1680x1050 wallpaper
Rainy day pictures
September 27th, 2010
Some photos that I took back when and didn't get around to posting.
Female Black-Throated Blue Warbler
Photographed in last year's fall migration. The field mark for a female Black-Throated Blue is subtle but a clincher: it's that little whitish spot on her wing. The male, of course, is all field mark!
Viceroy, wallpaper available
The monarch mimic. Real monarchs lack the two lines across the rear wings.
Lesser Yellowlegs
September 26th, 2010
A few pictures of the fall migrant Lesser Yellowlegs at Shirley's Bay last week. The tameness of this species is such a pleasure for photographers.
Wow!
September 21st, 2010
Starting at 10:30 tonight, and continuing for about twenty minutes, multiple migrant flocks of killdeer passing over our apartment building, their calls--killydee, killydee, killydee--echoing in the night sky. Some of the flocks sounded huge!
I know people in rural areas hear this sort of thing all the time, but it's a pleasure I've never had here in our humble, five-minutes-from-downtown apartment.
The Egret Invasion
September 20th, 2010
The Great Egret is historically very rare in Ottawa. But as of this year there's been a surprising influx of them into our area. Over thirty have been sighted lately foraging and roosting at Shirley's Bay.
1680x1050 wallpaper
They mingle freely with the more common Great Blue Herons, the two species often foraging right next to each other.
Swamp Sparrow
September 19th, 2010
Swamp Sparrows were abundant at Shirley's Bay yesterday morning--migrating through, perhaps. The bushes below the dike teemed with them, and they joined the shorebirds in foraging on the drier, weedy part of the mud flat.
PLOVER FIGHT!
September 18th, 2010
Have you ever played Adventure? If so, remember the reference to plover eggs? Did you, like me, assume that there was really no such thing as a plover's egg, and that you'd find out later in the game what sort of fantastical creature a plover was supposed to be (but you never did)?
Well, they exist. They're shorebirds related to sandpipers. Their primary field mark is that they are cute. Okay, I lie. Their primary field marks are their comparatively short, stout bills (as opposed to sandpipers' long, thin ones), and their habit of running in short starts and stops. But the cuteness definitely takes third place. Our breeding plover is the Killdeer, which you've heard me describe before, if you've been following along. In spring and fall a small variety of others move through in migration.
I photographed this pair of Black-Bellied Plovers at Shirley's Bay this morning. It seems one of them intruded into the other's personal space one time too many.
|