Some days...
March 21st, 2009
Took the camera out to Mud Lake Friday. Unfortunately it was one of those days
when my best intentions turned to naught. Saw newly arrived Common Grackles
and Song Sparrows, but no decent pictures of either one. Got a picture of a
House Finch looking singularly ill-tempered, a chickadee picture that didn't
quite work, and a gorgeous Pileated Woodpecker with a
great honkin'
mushroom blocking the view.
But all was not lost. Because I got this chipmunk in glorious hi-res:
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Common Goldeneyes impress the ladies
March 20th, 2009
The goldeneyes on the Rideau are courting in earnest.
Goldeneye courtship generally means a small group of restless drakes swimming
with one or two females. The males crane their necks, arch their necks, and
occasionally, very suddenly (like a tic), pop their necks all the way back.
That last maneuver is often followed by a "squeak-squeak" sound and a splash
of water.
Meanwhile, the females mill around looking quite unimpressed by the whole
affair. But they eventually choose their mates. The choice is made on the
wintering grounds, with each pair migrating back to their breeding grounds
together.
Last year, during which hundreds of them wintered on the Rideau, this was a
downright extravaganza. I remember walking along the shore at dusk, the water
speckled with rafts of ducks, and the air filled with delicate "squeak-squeak"
sounds. I could barely see them, but I knew very well what they were up to. I
called it the goldeneye nightclub.
It's less of an extravaganza this time but still fun to watch.
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Welcome back, Red-Winged Blackbirds
March 18th, 2009
As expected and fondly anticipated, male Red-Winged Blackbirds have once again
taken Mud Lake (and doubtless other marshes and wetlands) by storm. They'll be
working on establishing their territories over the next few weeks. After that,
the females arrive!
Of course, the redwing is one of those birds that anyone in Ottawa who wasn't
born blind has seen many times. Nevertheless, such a beautiful creature
deserves to have its arrival heralded. So:
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Early Spring Waxwings
March 15th, 2009
I went down to Mud Lake yesterday afternoon and was delighted to find nature
waking up all over the place. Crows carrying nest material, robins and
cardinals singing, chipmunks out of their burrows, Red-Winged Blackbirds
freshly arrived from migration, and last but not least, waxwings galore.
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In a brushy area near the outside fence of Mud Lake, a mixed flock of
Cedar
Waxwings and
Bohemian
Waxwings, along with a few robins, had staked out some small trees with
last year's buckthorn berries. They clustered in taller trees and sallied down
by ones or twos to pick the berries. The above was one of the Bohemians.
Another view of him:
Bohemian Waxwings have been here all winter, but these were the first I
chanced to see since spring of 2008. The arboretum is often a good place to
find them (they like crabapples). They'll be on their way out now, heading
back to their breeding grounds in the far north.
Here are a couple of the Cedars:
To me they're even more gorgeous. I love the warm gold of their bellies
blending into brown. Fortunately for me, Cedar Waxwings are common breeders in
our area!
Waxwings, collectively, are among the gentlest and gentlemanliest of birds.
Their social structure is egalitarian. They never squabble. Naturalists have
seen them line up on a branch and pass a berry from bird to bird. Each bird
patiently passes it along, the last bird eats it, and then the ritual repeats
until everyone is fed.
They are also jokingly known as the "party animals" of the avian world. In
their eagerness to stuff themselves with berries in spring, they sometimes
ingest fermented berries by mistake, and become quite drunk.
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Spring migration begins
March 7th, 2009
Spring migration has begun!
The recent warm spell has successfully coaxed a few forerunners of the
early-migrating species into Ottawa. In the Britannia Conservation Area today,
numerous flyovers of 1-2 Canada Geese near the river, plus three of them
standing at the edge of the rapids. In a scrubby field to the southeast was a
twittering all-male group of
Slate-Colored
Juncos. Ring-Billed Gulls are back in force and have begun to colonize the
Lincoln Fields parking lot.
Any day now Red-Winged Blackbirds will return. I can't wait.
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White-Tailed Deer
March 5th, 2009
Photographed at Old Quarry Trail around sunset. This was one of last year's fawns.
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Female Cardinal
February 14th, 2009
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Something in the air
February 3rd, 2009
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Three finches at Hurdman
February 2nd, 2009
At the Hurdman feeders this morning, three closely-related species of finches:
one common, one a winter specialty, and one I'd never seen before.
Among the winteriest of winter birds,
Common
Redpolls breed in the subarctic, and wander south only when food gets
scarce. Some winters Ottawa is teeming with them; others, we scarcely see a
one.
Left: American Goldfinch, Right: Pine
Siskin
After several years and nearly two hundred species, new additions to my
lifelist (especially in Ottawa, at my usual haunts) have become a rare
occurrence. So it often takes me awhile to hoist it in when I get one, even
when the identity should be clear as day. So it was with the Pine Siskin.
"Hmm. A female House Finch with yellow bits? A redpoll without any red? A
goldfinch...wait a minute."
In the first picture above you can see one of the clinchers for Pine Siskin:
the yellow markings in the wing. Another field mark, the very sharp, narrow
beak (for a finch), shows well in the second photo. These, the goldfinches and
the redpolls are all close relatives and often flock together at feeders.
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A rare hawk at Riverain Park
February 1st, 2009
This fellow came and went almost before I knew what was going on.
He's a juvenile Northern Goshawk, a large accipiter (bird-eating hawk) that is
seldom seen in Ottawa. While his smaller relatives hunt songbirds, he goes in
for grouse and waterfowl, plus the occasional medium-sized mammal. He whizzed
by at Riverain Park and swooped low over the river, trying for one of the
ducks (who promptly dove underwater to escape.) Needless to say this took me
by surprise, and I only managed the one shot before he flew out of sight.
Trivia o' the day, courtesy of
All About Birds: Attila
the Hun wore an image of a Northern Goshawk on his helmet.
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