Stony Swamp Pix
June 13th, 2010
Increasingly, I'm using Old Quarry Trail as a starting point rather than a
destination. That's the part of Stony Swamp that I can get to by bus. But the
trails are all interconnected, so from there, given sufficient stamina, I can
get just about anywhere.
I've been exploring trails 24 and 25 lately, along with bits of the Trans
Canada and Rideau Trails, and loving what I'm discovering. Among other things,
this area is a motherload for breeding Scarlet Tanagers. If you hear what
sounds like a hoarse robin song--or a call like "chick-burr"--stop and scan
the canopy. When you see something so red you can't believe your eyes, you've
found it.
This is the time of year when bird photography becomes frustrating. Especially
in the woods. Spring migration is over, and the birds are settled in to the
business of nesting and rearing young. Most of them are staying hidden, or
(like the tanagers) way up in the branches.
Fortunately, this is also the time of year when butterflies start coming out
in droves!
White Admiral
This female
Rose-Breasted
Grosbeak was cooperative, though.
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As was this cardinal.
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Three Odd Birds
June 3rd, 2010
Lesson learned: When wading through knee-deep grass in early morning shortly
after the dispersal of morning mist, you might as well be wading through a
swamp. Wear waterproof boots. Heck, wear waterproof
pants!
That said, on to the pictures.
The area south of the airport is teeming with
Bobolinks.
I didn't realize just how many it supports until now (with spring migration
completed). They and the meadowlarks duet from the open fields off High Road:
the meadowlarks' wistful "see-yur"s and the bobolinks' resonant, almost
electronic chatter. Those fields are fenced off, but now and then a bobolink
or even a group of them perches on the fence, giving me a photo opportunity.
The meadowlarks, alas, do not perch on the fence. They don't even come close.
Investment: a half hour of wading through wet grass and weeds resulting in
shoes, socks and jeans soaked to the skin. Payoff: my first good picture of a
Common
Yellowthroat!
I got lucky when a
Grasshopper
Sparrow--usually a shy, secretive bird--chose to sing on the fence, and
furthermore, let me get close enough for a few at least half-decent shots,
before he vanished into the ether for the rest of the morning. The hunched
appearance in the first picture is typical of this species, as is the spiky
tail in the second.
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Tiger Swallowtail
June 2nd, 2010
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Hobomok Skipper
May 30th, 2010
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Lovely pictures with a side of heat exhaustion
May 26th, 2010
Another Purple Martin shot from Tuesday.
These beautiful birds are the largest swallows in North America, with flight
skills second to none and a voracious appetite for insects. The mature males,
as above, are all-over black with an indigo sheen. Females and young males
(under two years of age) are light in front with variable splotching and
streaking.
In the east, Purple Martins nest almost exclusively in manmade colonial nest
boxes. The colony at Dick Bell Park (Nepean Sailing Club) is particularly
large and well-managed. They band hundreds of nestlings every year.
Meanwhile, Andrew Haydon Park is overflowing with goslings. The older ones are
starting to lose their yellow hue.
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How they felt about it
May 25th, 2010
Photographs taken at the
Purple Martin colony at
Dick Bell Park, on a very hot day.
These birds are not singing. They are panting.
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A Seven Sparrow Day
May 24th, 2010
Out to the fields and scrubland south of the airport today with
Gillian, who had very graciously
offered to show me around. It was a wonderful morning, with
bobolinks
in full flight display,
meadowlarks
singing in the distance, and sparrows galore. (And, as the morning wore on,
one seriously hot and baking sun.)
In addition to the five I had already met--Chipping, Song, Savannah, Vesper,
Field--today's expedition introduced me to
Clay-Colored
Sparrow and
Grasshopper
Sparrow. Both were neat, but it was the Grasshopper Sparrow that stole my
heart. If you weren't expecting otherwise, you really would think it was just
an insect! Until you notice that tiny, strange, flat-headed brown bird perched
on top of a weed (or a fence post, or an old stump), and he throws his head
back with each "bzzzzzzz." Occasionally they sing from the grass, and if
they're not singing, the grass is almost certainly where they'll be. In which
case, give it up. You will not spot them. They have flat heads for a reason.
And the flight style. The field guide said "flight feeble." That didn't
prepare me for what I saw. The wings barely flap, they seem to just
vibrate--as if he were some sort of overgrown moth.
Speaking of House Wrens (i.e. the gazillions of them at Point Pelee), I have
discovered their enclave in Ottawa. There seemed to be one singing from every
other tree.
We went by the pond on Earl Armstrong Road, where I'd never been before. In
terms of diversity, it was definitely the most swallowy place I've been.
Barn,
Bank
and
Cliff
Swallows all circling over the water and perching on sand banks, and Tree
Swallows on the power line behind us. Cliff Swallows in Ottawa is a first for
me; I'd previously only seem them at Dutch Gap in Virginia.
The two most interesting birds--a
Mourning
Warbler which would be a lifer for her, and a Cuckoo (
Black-Billed
or
Yellow-Billed)
likewise for me--went heard but unseen. We bushwhacked our way into the woods
where the Mourning Warbler was singing, but he stopped singing before we could
find him. Then, once we'd painstakingly bushwhacked our way out, he started
singing again. Figures!
An abundance and diversity of butterflies in this area, too. American Copper,
Common Ringlet, Silvery Blue and Tiger Swallowtail, among others.
On Wednesday, I'm going back with camera.
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Point Pelee Part 6: Killdeer - Wild Turkey
May 23rd, 2010
Killdeer:
The adorable common breeding
plover. Though they're shorebirds
by definition, killdeers often live inland: in Virginia and Carolina, I see
them on commercial lawns and at the edges of parking lots, even with their
young. The ones I saw during the trip, though, were mostly near Lake Erie.
They nested on the shore and in the grass just beyond it.
Northern
Rough-Winged Swallow: This species apparently breeds in Thickson
Woods. They were a common sight and sound there. Rough-Winged Swallows nest in
burrows, often dug into stream banks.
Orchard
Oriole: Practically the first bird I saw, when we got off the bus at
Point Pelee, was my first Orchard Oriole. I'd been looking forward to them.
They're closely related (congeneric) to Baltimore Orioles, with similar
patterning, but in place of the vivid orange breast, the male Orchard Oriole
has deep chestnut. Quite handsome. The juvenile males are striking too: bright
yellow with black throats.
Orchard Orioles are common at Point Pelee. They're one of the comparatively
few species who actually breed there, as opposed to just passing through.
Unfortunately they seem to be much less common in other nearby areas: I never
had the opportunity to photograph one.
Red Admiral: This migrant butterfly has been moving through in unusual
numbers this spring, both at Point Pelee and here in Ottawa. I photographed
this one at Rondeau Provincial Park.
Scarlet
Tanager: Seen and thoroughly enjoyed at both Pelee and Rondeau.
Scarlet Tanagers are the birds who are redder than red, who
blaze red,
who put cardinals to shame. They are in our area--they breed in the Gatineau,
for instance--but I seldom chance to see them.
The Scarlet Tanager's southern cousin, the
Summer
Tanager, is also bright red and also occurs in far-south Ontario, but I
don't think any of us found one.
Trumpeter
Swan: A pair of them was in the distance at the Oshawa Marsh, viewable
only by spotting scope. Their white plumage was heavily stained with rust,
which apparently is common in this species because of the mineral-rich
wetlands in which they forage. Lifer.
Veery:
A tawny brown thrush with a beautiful, musical waterfall of a song. I and
another photographer attempted to shoot him through a chain fence, and both
found it tricky. I finally managed to get a half-decent shot by putting my
camera on manual focus.
Wild
Turkey: Saw a female on the nest at Tilden Woods! Very well-hidden in
the underbrush, barely visible. Also had two toms walk by in the same area.
Thus ends the saga of Point Pelee. My next big extravaganza will be my
parents' annual summer trip to Cape Hatteras, which Michael and I are taking
part in. I'll be bringing the zoom lens there for the first time.
Black-Necked
Stilts, here I come :-)
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Point Pelee Part 5: Blackpoll Warbler - House Wren
May 22nd, 2010
Blackpoll
Warbler: Sort of a chickadee lookalike, the Blackpoll is among the
most northern of the warblers, favoring, for its nest sites, stunted spruces
and firs at the far edge of the boreal forest. It undergoes an impressive
long-distance migration: all the way from South America to northern Canada
(and Alaska), and back again in fall. Its song is so high-pitched that some
people can't hear it.
This is me taking another liberty. I couldn't photograph the one that showed
up at Point Pelee, but got an excellent shot at Mud Lake on Wednesday.
Blue-Gray
Gnatcatcher: a tiny, sprightly insectivore. This is a southern bird,
rare in Ottawa, but much more common just a few hours south of us. (Also
common in Virginia: I've seen bands of them in my parents' back yard.) We saw
the species most abundantly (or at least most visibly) in the woods of Oshawa
Second Marsh. We also found active nests in a few places. Gnatcatcher nests
are really well camouflaged--they just look like tree burls.
Blue Jay: Flocks of these hovered in the air right over the tip of the
point. Just
hovered, not seeming to go anywhere (maybe because of the
strong wind). It was weird--pleasantly surreal. Not sure what they were doing
up there since Blue Jays aren't migratory, maybe flycatching? Maybe having
fun?
Cape
May Warbler: Found a beautiful male, close up and in plain view at
Point Pelee--lifer! This warbler, a boreal species that nests in spruce, is
seldom seen even in migration--there just aren't that many of them. I managed
to get a picture of one at Thickson Woods, although it was kind of far away
for my lens.
Chestnut-Sided
Warbler: A common but pretty breeding bird in scrubby habitats.
Common Nighthawk: We noticed a large group of people with scopes at
a particular point along the trail at Rondeau Park, joined them, and found
they were enjoying the sight of a Common Nighthawk resting high up in a tree.
Not a lifer, but a bird I seldom see, and the first time I've seen one
perched. Nighthawks are semi-nocturnal birds who come out at dusk and dawn
(seldom when the sun's up) to hunt insects on the wing. They're identifiable
in flight even at a great distance thanks to the white bars across their wing
tips (
picture).
Despite the name, nighthawks aren't raptors. They're in the same family as
Whippoorwills.
Eastern
Towhee: One of the handsomest of sparrows, with rufous flanks and deep
reddish-brown eyes (see
Part 3 for a
photo.) Rare in Ottawa, common further south. We only saw one, though.
House
Wren: A common species in woodlands everywhere. Lifer! (One of them
even fooled me into thinking it was a
Brown
Creeper, at first. Around these parts, when you see a little brown bird
scaling a trunk it's a pretty safe assumption that it's a Brown Creeper. In
far-southern Ontario, not so.) I believe I found House Wrens in every location
we visited, and I quickly ramped up from knowing very little about them, to
recognizing them instantly by sight and sound.
According to the Ottawa checklist they're not rare here, but I'm beginning to
wonder if the checklist needs updating, because not only had I never seen one,
I don't think I'd ever heard that song either.
To be continued...
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Point Pelee Part 4: Baltimore Oriole - Blackburnian Warbler
May 21st, 2010
I'm leaving out a lot here, obviously. I'll list any birds of particular
interest, and any that I have photos of.
Baltimore
Oriole: Ubiquitous--more so than in Ottawa, where they're already a
pretty common sight. People put up orange nectar feeders to attract them, and
halves of oranges stuck on posts. (Apparently Baltimore Orioles are attracted
to the color orange when feeding. Perhaps it helps them attain the pigments
they need for their brilliant plumage.)
At Point Pelee itself, Baltimore Orioles are (or were, at least, on Friday)
unbelievably common, the trees teemed with them, their songs filled the
air. Between them and the Orchard Orioles, it was oriole central, and finally
on Friday afternoon Ken snapped and reacted to a sighting with "another
wretched oriole." ("Aren't we becoming jaded!" one man laughed.)
Barn
Swallow: A very abundant species anywhere that was close to Lake Erie.
At Point Pelee, they nested right under the roof of an open-sided building by
the park entrance. The building was small and had people constantly streaming
in and out of it, but the swallows didn't seem to mind in the slightest. I
guess they're used to it.
At Rondeau, I found a group of them at a mud puddle. Barn Swallows frequent
mud puddles in spring to gather material for their mud nests, which they
build, usually, on ledges and ceilings in man-made structures.
Black-And-White
Warbler: An atypical warbler who creeps along trunks and branches like
a nuthatch. I photographed this one at Rondeau.
Black-Throated Blue
Warbler: A striking deep-woods warbler. Depending on lighting, the
male's back can look anywhere from grey to a fairly vivid blue. I've seen them
on breeding grounds on the forested mountains of Gaspé, only
infrequently in migration, but enjoyed several sightings at Point Pelee. I'm
cheating with the photo, though--I actually took it at Mud Lake on Wednesday
:-)
Blackburnian
Warbler: The "flamethroat." IMHO, the most beautiful songbird in North
America (click the link to see why.) A male graced us with his presence at
Point Pelee.
To be continued...
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