Anxious Mom
July 31st, 2015
I was on the bike path near Corkstown Road when this doe came walking down the fence line, stopped, and gave me a long, hard stare. Can you see what she's nervous about?
1680x1050 wallpaper
Mating Jewelwings
July 27th, 2015
While I spent most of my walk at Sugarbush Trail photographing butterflies, when I got to Chelsea Creek the beautiful Ebony Jewelwings captured my attention.
1680x1050 wallpaper
Jewelwing courtship antics rival those of birds. I watched two males chase each other around for what seemed like forever, fluttering in endless circles, metallic blue-green bodies sparkling in the sun. Numerous female jewelwings, perched on the nearby vegetation, also watched. Finally one of the males seemed to win the fight.
1680x1050 wallpaper
Sugarbush Leps
July 24th, 2015
Some butterflies and moths from an early-July stroll at Sugarbush Trail.
1680x1050 wallpaper
I assumed by the jagged wing edges that this was an Eastern Comma / Question Mark (a pair of common lookalike butterflies), but couldn't get over how big and beautiful it was. Neither of those had ever struck me that way. When I studied my photos back home, the fine details gave it away as a Compton Tortoiseshell--a new one for me!
A Banded Hairstreak. My first sighting of a hairstreak butterfly (years ago) was surreal. My eyes couldn't make sense of it. It seemed that somehow a bland butterfly had been superimposed over a colorful one, and the bland facade was peeling away at the corner.
1680x1050 wallpaper
A Crescent butterfly, probably Northern Crescent.
I don't know what moth this is--Google suggests perhaps a Maple-Basswood Leafroller Moth--but I'd swear it's trying to mimic a fallen white flower petal. Even the head looks like a plant part! Whatever it is, it's abundant in the Gatineau in summer. Those bits of white debris on the trail might not be debris.
Note the discarded chrysalis in the second picture. I didn't notice it myself when taking the picture.
After six years of trying
July 20th, 2015
'Tis the season of parental hyper-vigilance. Avian parents, that is. Each summer, I experience this phase where birds become noisy and obvious if I stumble into their nesting area. Sometimes, if they have a young fledgling hidden nearby (one who has left the nest but isn't independent yet), they will actually go out of their way to attract my attention to themselves--all the better to draw it away from their vulnerable chick. This can result in stunning views of species that are normally retiring and elusive.
To wit:
An Indigo Bunting at Watt's Creek Trail. The mix of fields and woods there attracts them, and you can always hear them singing in summer. With binoculars you can sometimes see one too, usually perched in a distant treetop. But to get this good a view of one is a rare event!
Bladder Campion
July 17th, 2015
Cape Breton Headlands
July 13th, 2015
Some of Mike's photos from the headlands of Schooner Pond and White Point.
Check out that tree at the back.
I remember trees like this in old Sierra games. If you got too close to them they ate you.
That's about as close as I want that camera lens to me, thankyouverymuch.
Oh no you don't.
This is it for our Cape Breton photos, barring any that Mike may choose to post on his own blog. My triplist follows.
( All the birds )
Highlands Park Vistas
July 11th, 2015
Some Cape Breton scenery shots, taken by my favorite guest photographer (i.e. husband) and developed (i.e. Gimped) by yours truly. This set is from the Highlands National Park. Click on any image for a 1920x1080 version. (I think the last one, a view from the top of Skyline Trail, makes a particularly nice wallpaper.)
Elusive Field Birds
July 9th, 2015
They are who I came to Constance Bay Road looking for. They proved more challenging than the horses!
1680x1050 wallpaper
Near the intersection of Dunrobin and Constance Bay Roads is one of the best spots in our area for viewing grassland birds. The extensive horse-grazed (but not over-grazed) pastures there support an abundant population of various species, many of whom are in decline generally due to the loss of this kind of habitat. Three songs are ever-present in summer, one being the resonant chatter of Bobolinks (pronounced BAHbuhlinks), pictured above. To me it always sounds electronic, like a chattering R2-D2. They often sing in display flight, compensating for the lack of good high perches in their habitat of choice.
It seems like all of my (few) photo ops of Bobolinks happen in late spring and midsummer, when testosterone fever is high. One of these males had been chasing the other and both briefly landed on the fence nearby. You can see that the upper-right bird literally has his hackles up!
The bashful meadowlark--as close as I was able to get to one. I always dream that some day testosterone fever will land one of these beauties on a fence right next to me, but it hasn't happened yet. It seemed to be holding a fuzzy caterpillar, but was reluctant to bring its bounty to the nest with me watching, even from a good distance away.
Interestingly, meadowlarks camouflage really well--on the ground they keep their breasts down and all you see is the brown back that looks like a patch of dead grass, not the vivid yellow that is revealed when one perches upright on a post to display and sing. They sing a sweet melody that to me epitomizes the feeling of a lazy, hazy summer day.
A Savannah Sparrow and its trademark yellow eyebrows. Their song has two trills, the first insect-like, the second like a dissolving mist. Often this song seems to rise right out of the grass. Sometimes it actually does; other times they're in plain view on the fence but you just don't notice them.
A fourth, rarer sound you might hear on Constance Bay Road is the surpassingly strange "wolf whistle" of the Upland Sandpiper. This is a declining species throughout North America. I'm very happy that there is still a place near Ottawa where I can go and have a chance of hearing it.
1680x1050 wallpaper
In the not-so-elusive category, this Red-Winged Blackbird. He must have had a fledgling or two hidden in the tall growth. Every time I walked past that spot he and his mate went nuts!
A set for ilanikhan
July 7th, 2015
...taken, appropriately enough, on Constance Bay Road! I had gone there in search of meadowlarks and bobolinks, but these horses stole the show.
1680x1050 wallpaper
1680x1050 wallpaper
1680x1050 wallpaper
1680x1050 wallpaper
( Click for more )
Glace Bay Lifers
July 3rd, 2015
Early in our stay at Cape Breton we went to a place called Schooner Pond that I had found out about on the net--very much off the beaten tourist track, but known for good birding among the locals. It consisted of a couple of freshwater ponds as well as a long trail hugging the edge of sea cliffs. I will say, as an aside, that those sea cliffs are where I fell in love with Cape Breton. I will never forget the patchwork of vivid multicolored mosses nor the way the scent of juniper mingled with the smell of the sea. I will not forget the stunted trees bent 45 degrees back, and the gnarled, bleached-white skeletons of trees that finally gave up the fight. I remember thinking that I could camp out the rest of my life on those cliffs, those bleak and beautiful cliffs, and be happy. (Spiritually speaking, that is. Perhaps not physically speaking. It was a mite nippy.)
At any rate, we had good birding, including a mature Bald Eagle getting harassed by nesting blackbirds, a great view of a Black Scoter group swimming close to shore, and a pair of Northern Shovelers. As we were about to leave we ran into a fellow who gave us the universal sign--lifted his binoculars at us--and asked, "see anything good?" (No, the Bald Eagle didn't count. Cape Breton locals are about as blase about Bald Eagles as I am about Double-Crested Cormorants.) We were surprised to learn that the shovelers were a rarity in Cape Breton. In fact he had come looking specifically for them, chasing a report on eBird.
After some thought ("what would an Ottawan be interested in?") he suggested Glace Bay to us as a birding destination, and listed off some of what we might find there. He was not half-through with his list before I was sold. We went there about five days later and I hit pay dirt: two lifers in quick succession!
The first:
The above do not do justice to the sheer cuteness of a Piping Plover. I wish I'd taken video! It's a highly endangered species with only some 6500 of them left in the world. Unfortunately Piping Plovers nest on sandy outer beaches, a habitat that humans also love and tend to wreak havoc on (from the birds' point of view, anyway.) It doesn't take many beach-roving ATV's, or many pet dogs, before a Piping Plover nursery is defunct.
Glace Bay has one breeding pair. The individual we found could not have been more cooperative. I walked down the beach to the big "Piping Plovers nest here" sign, and (s)he was right in front of it! However, since I was dealing with an endangered species, I did not make any attempt to get closer to it to get better pictures.
Nelson's Sparrow, my fourth and final lifer of the trip. This shy skulker breeds in salt marshes of the North Atlantic, as well as some freshwater marshes out west. Usually every autumn, in September and October, small numbers of Nelson's Sparrows migrate through Ottawa, but every year they've eluded me. A breeding Nelson's Sparrow is somewhat easier to uncover! It has an explosive little song like radio static ("kshhhhhhh"). [ETA: one website compares it to the sound of hot metal immersed in water, which is probably a better analogy!] Every time it sang, that explosive sound stood out amidst the soft, lispy voices of the Savannah Sparrows that surrounded it. I stalked it by the sound and eventually managed to get a clear view. I was surprised to then see it do a skysong: fly straight up in the air, "kshhhhhhh", then drop back down into the grass.
That's it for my vacation photos. Once I've developed some of my husband's many scenery photos, I may be able to show you why I fell in love with those cliffs at Schooner Pond.
|