The Star Of Yellow Sidecar
June 16th, 2015
I'm back from vacation in Cape Breton. I'll have lots more to say about it
soon, including my four lifers, all successfully photographed. But for now I
just want to share this little beauty.
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He was guarding a hummingbird feeder jealously--his mate was allowed to share
it with him, but no one else. He found the wicker chair a handy perch for
keeping an eye on things. This was at
Yellow Sidecar B&B in Cap Le
Moine, a little house on the coast in the middle of nowhere (to quote another
B&B's proprietor: "
no one stays in Cap Le Moine!...well, except you
guys") with two very active hummingbird feeders and a gloriously overgrown
tangle of a back yard, which I plowed my way into to enjoy the yellowthroats
and alder flycatchers. It was not just a wonderful birder's B&B, it was a
wonderful B&B period. I recommend it to anyone wanting an authentic experience
of Cape Breton.
Next up, nesting seabirds on the Bird Islands!
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A Delicate Beauty
May 30th, 2015
On Monday husband and I are off to Cape Breton! I'm looking forward to
lifelisting the adorable
Atlantic Puffin (a
gimme), and
Bicknell's
Thrush. Bicknell's Thrush will
not be a gimme, but a tantalizing
possibility. It is a very rare bird with a tiny range--so rare that there are
guided tours dedicated to seeing just it. Cape Breton happens to be within
its tiny range.
ETA:
Here's what I'll be listening
for.
We also hope to do some whale-watching, and probably a visit to Fortress of
Louisburg.
I tried for a last-minute twitch on Yellow-Crowned Night Heron, a southern
bird well out of range in someone's backyard in Carp. It too would be a lifer.
(If you've been following along it should sound familiar. It's a close
relative of a heron I just photographed!) The homeowner graciously allowed me
onto her property to look at the pond, but it wasn't there. It was probably
roosting somewhere out of the heavy rain and thus smarter than me :-) I might
try again tomorrow.
I leave you with this Spring Beauty from early May.
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Mud Lake, late spring
May 27th, 2015
Summer is moving in. You can see the progression on the
latest page of my gallery: brown and silver bokehs
predominating at the bottom, and at the top, green, green, and more green!
Mud Lake's Yellow Warblers are back:
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The Black-Crowned Night Herons at Mud Lake seem tamer than in years past, for
some reason. It used to be I could only get good pictures of the (stripy
brown) teenagers--adults would flush at the slightest disturbance. But I was
in clear view of this one and he paid me little mind. Mature Night Herons,
seen close up and in good light, are magnificent birds in my opinion!
Lily-of-the-valley, a garden flower that sometimes escapes into woodlands.
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Dragonflies and Wildflowers at Sugarbush Trail
May 23rd, 2015
I took my mother to Sugarbush Trail in the Gatineau last week, expecting a
nice walk and maybe an interesting bird or two. But despite it being a fairly
cool, breezy day, it turned out to be dragonfly heaven! While Chelsea Creek
was virtually deserted of odes, sunny, sheltered spots in the woods were
teeming with them. And it wasn't the usual "ten bazillion Four-Spotted
Skimmers" that you expect to see in spring--these were, at least for me (a
perennial dragonfly novice), exotic types that I had never seen before.
Most of them I couldn't identify down to species. But there are whole genera
of dragonflies that I'm largely unfamiliar with, and these were they.
Baskettails, for instance:
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And clubtails:
Chris Traynor, a well-known local naturalist, went to Sugarbush Trail recently
himself (perhaps inspired by my post on Facebook) and saw a Moustached
Clubtail, and he thinks my photo may be of the same species. If so it's a
rarity in this region.
I have no idea what it's dining on here--please comment if you do! So far the
best guess I or anyone has come up with is that it's eating a shrivelled-up
fellow dragonfly.
American Emerald. Nothing exotic about this one, but it is beautiful. Emeralds
are called that because of the color of their eyes. I think they should be
called Opals instead.
The woods were full of trillium, and I searched for those elusive "pink"
trilliums--white ones that have turned to pink but not yet wilted beyond the
point of photogenic. My mom pointed out this one, and it ended up being the
best of the lot.
<
More exciting was our discovery of a red (a.k.a. purple) trillium. This is a
separate species, and one I've rarely seen. In fact I think this is the first
time I've found a red trillium in full bloom. There were more along the trail,
but they were all wilted already.
I tested the claim that red trillium is ill-scented. The claim is true! They
pollinate themselves with the help of flies, and attract the flies by smelling
like carrion. The liver-red color of the flower is also part of that
subterfuge.
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Three Hunters
May 13th, 2015
My mother is visiting from Virginia. I took her to Mud Lake this afternoon,
and Mud Lake brought out all its charms for her! It was the birdiest I'd seen
it (or heard it) this spring. Near the trailhead were two surprisingly tame
adult Night Herons, one of them actively fishing.
The action was so good I had to go back home, get my camera, and come back.
Fortunately one of the Night Herons waited for me.
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Down the trail, the Eastern Screech-Owl was out of his hole. (I've decided to
give up trying to keep this secret, since it's very much an open secret, and
really, the owl doesn't seem to care the darndest about people watching him.)
He was perched low down and close to the trunk of an old snag. From a
distance, he did a convincing imitation of a broken off branch:
While the bunch of us (my mom and I and other photographers) were watching the
owl, a Cooper's Hawk got into a noisy fight with a couple of crows, which
ended badly (though not fatally) for one of the crows! Most of us went over to
photograph the hawk, perched low after the altercation and looking completely
unruffled.
When we got back, my mom regaled us all with how the fight had woken the owl
up, and how it had its eyes wide open, looking all around. We got back just in
time to see it falling back to sleep.
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Shine For A Day
May 11th, 2015
South March Forest has dense carpets of trout lilies right now--most of them
peaked and wilted, and soon to disappear. But this one was still perfect.
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Spring Beauty
May 9th, 2015
An early-blooming, ephemeral wildflower. It disappears once the trees above it
have leafed out.
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In Praise Of Common Birds
May 4th, 2015
It's a good time of year to appreciate the beauty of common birds at their
breeding peak. This mallard was looking particularly gorgeous in the late
afternoon light.
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Ring-Billed Gulls are one of those birds where familiarity breeds contempt,
and I'm sure most birders seldom bother to train their binoculars on one.
They're actually quite striking in breeding plumage. Their gapes and eye rings
become such a brilliant shade of orangey-red, it looks fluorescent to me. When
a Ring-Billed Gull calls on territory, he's not just declaring himself by
sound, he's also flashing that gape the way a Red-Winged Blackbird flashes his
epaulets.
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Closeup:
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Sunset Wood Ducks
April 30th, 2015
Testosterone fever at Mud Lake yesterday evening, with drake mallards and
drake wood ducks putting on a show. Actually most of the ducks are paired up
already, but that's not stopping hopeful third parties doing their best to
wedge themselves in! At one point, a pair of male mallards swam around a lone
female, bills raised, going "quack. quack. quack." with the most exquisite air
of self-importance. It was enough that I and the photographer next to me,
formerly too engrossed in our work to pay much attention to each other, had to
look at each other and laugh.
People feed the ducks at the north shore, to draw them closer in. I have mixed
feelings about it--on the one hand I prefer seeing birds wild, but on the
other hand, the photographer in me loves it! (Also on the other hand, it's
been a hard, slow spring, and I'm sure they need all the extra food they can
get.) You need only kneel down on the rocks, and soon the throng approaches in
anticipation of cracked corn. If you don't feed them, they go back to their
business, but stay close for awhile just in case, making for some nice photo
ops as the drakes pose, preen, dabble, and occasionally tear off racing each
other across the water.
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Crest fully poofed-out. I only ever see them like that in spring.
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Sleepy Screech Owl
April 28th, 2015
These little guys can be remarkably well-camouflaged if you don't know to look
for them! Eastern Screech-Owls roost and nest in old woodpecker holes. They
look very cute and innocent when you catch one by day. By night, they prey on
small birds and mammals, and
make a
sound that raises goosebumps on your skin.
This is an Ottawa-lister for me (i.e. the first time I've found one in Ottawa.)
I'd previously seen screech owls a few times on birding trips to Point Pelee.
Here's a
higher-res
version.
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