Stages of Life
August 5th, 2009
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Purple Coneflower, aka echinacea. This is a native North American wildflower, although I don't think it's native to Ontario. I've only seen it in or near gardens.
Great Crested Flycatcher
August 4th, 2009
Great Crested Flycatchers seem to be moving through. Mud Lake was teeming with them yesterday.
This one must have decided that flycatching was too much work.
Black-Crowned Night Herons
August 3rd, 2009
The Night Herons at Mud Lake have fledged their young, and both adults and young are becoming a common sight. This one is molting, I think, thus the somewhat dishevelled appearance.
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Carrying lunch, maybe a catfish:
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A handsome adult. This is certainly the most classic Night Heron shot I've ever taken--a much more typical shape and pose than in the one pictured here.
Things Best Not Messed With
August 2nd, 2009
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Bald-Faced Hornet in a milkweed plant.
July 30th??
July 30th, 2009
Unlikely as it seems, July 30th and songbird fall migration is underway!
There were flocks of them on the ridge. Umpteen Yellow Warblers, Warbling Vireos and Cedar Waxwings, a few Eastern Phoebes, an adult male Yellow-Rumped Warbler, a Nashville Warbler, and last but definitely not least, a juvenile Canada Warbler (pictured below). That's a new species for me.
I also got a good Cedar Waxwing picture:
And this cutie of a Wood Duck duckling:
Wildflowers
July 29th, 2009
Daisy Fleabane
Goldenrod
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Peaceful Wallpapers
July 27th, 2009
This female Mallard seemed rather satisfied with life. That's one of her nearly-grown young behind her and to the left. This was in a shallow, slow-flowing part of the Deschenes Rapids, a popular nursery area for both Mallards and Wood Ducks.
Great Blue Heron at Dominion Arboretum.
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Another view of the Brant at Andrew Haydon Park, looking meditative.
My backlog of photos is dwindling. I would like Ottawa to please stop thunderstorming all the time so I can get out and take some more. After all, fall migration is coming!
Nothing To Hide
July 23rd, 2009
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This is a wildflower called Yellow Goat's Beard. It closes around noon (and on cloudy days), which explains, I guess, why it took me so long to see my first one :-)
A Brant at Andrew Haydon Park
July 19th, 2009
I saw my first-ever Brant goose at Andrew Haydon Park today. This is an arctic-breeding goose and it's highly unusual for one to be in Ottawa in summer. He's been feeding on the park lawn along with Canada Geese (his close relatives) for about a week now.
Comparison with Canada Goose:
He was playing "follow the leader" with the Canada Geese, which made him, probably, easier to approach than he normally would be. When they went into the water, he went into the water. When they came onto land, he came onto land. If they acted like something was okay, he said, "well, um, if you guys say so." And about the only thing the Canada Geese at AHP don't consider "okay" is dogs.
I spent the afternoon photographing him, not so much because Brant are intrinsically glamorous, as that the opportunity to photograph one so close-up might not come around again for years, if ever. As I was winding down, another photographer showed up looking for him, so I pointed him out to her where he was cleverly hiding himself amidst a raft of mallards. When I left about 40 minutes later, she was still crouched on the grass snapping shots.
I always enjoy finding people as fanatic as I am.
Quebec Cottage Photos
July 16th, 2009
I recently stayed the weekend at a friend's cottage in Quebec, not far from the Gatineau, where I was treated to loon calls on a pristine mountain lake, beautiful but difficult-to-photograph warblers, and other avian treats. Here are some of the pictures I did get:
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The lake's resident loon pair. They swam surprisingly close to the dock. Due to the overcast lighting they came out monochrome, but as birds go, Common Loons work better in monochrome than most.
The Rose-Breasted Grosbeak was one of my early thrills as a birder. I saw one in spring migration by the Rideau River in 2007, and he, along with the orioles, was what convinced me to buy binoculars and a field guide. And as with the orioles, it still amazes me that a bird this beautiful breeds in Canada, when it looks like it belongs in the tropics! (In fact Rose-Breasted Grosbeaks do belong in the tropics, roughly eight months out of the year.) This one was actually perched right beside someone's cottage.
My favorite subjects of the weekend were the Common Merganser family, who shared the lake with the loon pair. Unlike with loons, duck fathers usually don't do any child-rearing, so it was just the mother and the ducklings (merglings?) They swam close to shore on my last day. These fish-eating ducks show up each year on Dow's Lake in spring and fall migration, and on the Rideau River in winter, and I'd seen them other times and places as well, but the one way I'd never seen them before is with young!
They were backlit at first...
One or two of the ducklings occasionally rode on their mother's back:
Then they swam into better light.
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Adult males look very different from females and young. Here are some photos I posted of them back in March.
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