An Afternoon at Jack Pine Trail (part 2)
April 4th, 2010
In terms of friendliness of wildlife, Jack Pine Trail is Mud Lake and then some. Ducks, geese, chickadees, nuthatches, chipmunks and squirrels have all learned, from repeated contact, that the humans there are no threat to them and may provide food on request. Even species I normally expect to be quite skittish, such as hares, grouse, and juncos, are more trusting in this area. (I once had a Ruffed Grouse at Jack Pine Trail step out from under a bush and walk right up to my feet. Alas, I didn't have a camera with me then, and I have yet to re-encounter him.)
The White-Breasted Nuthatches will stalk you, the way chickadees do at Mud Lake. Flitting from trunk to trunk as you walk by, at eye level, doing their game best to catch your attention. This makes for some excellent photo opportunities.
1680x1050 wallpaper
The woods that day were absolutely teeming with migrant Golden-Crowned Kinglets. The most kinglets I've ever seen in one place--and that's saying something. These tiny birds, barely larger than hummingbirds, are among the forerunners in songbird spring migration. They're apparently more tolerant of cold than warblers, because they migrate earlier in the spring and later in the fall, and also winter in the states, while most warblers continue on to the tropics.
The Golden-Crowned Kinglets were doing what they usually do, which is to say, mocking me. I've told this story before. It's like a big game of keep-away. The kinglets must never give me an opportunity to photograph their little selves without ten intervening branches, or motion blur, or poor lighting, or, if they do, they tilt their heads away so I can't catch those beautiful bright yellow crown stripes. Or, if I get all those things--a Golden-Crowned Kinglet out in the open in good light showing his crown and not moving a muscle--then my camera will mysteriously fail to auto-focus on it. And then it flits away.
"Oh, you mean this golden crown?"
Slate-Colored Junco
These are the other birds that the woods were teeming with. They hopped in front of me on the path in little foraging flocks, and sang from up in the trees: an unmusical but resonant trill. Like kinglets, this is their time for moving through Ottawa on their way to their breeding grounds.
Song Sparrow
Song Sparrows are one of our most common and widespread breeding sparrows, and the first to come back in migration. They're everywhere now, singing their song of 2-3 distinct whistles followed by a trill.
Mallard
"Do I hear the sweet, sweet sound of visitors to Jack Pine Trail? And do the visitors have food for me?"
April 4th, 2010
In terms of friendliness of wildlife, Jack Pine Trail is Mud Lake and then some. Ducks, geese, chickadees, nuthatches, chipmunks and squirrels have all learned, from repeated contact, that the humans there are no threat to them and may provide food on request. Even species I normally expect to be quite skittish, such as hares, grouse, and juncos, are more trusting in this area. (I once had a Ruffed Grouse at Jack Pine Trail step out from under a bush and walk right up to my feet. Alas, I didn't have a camera with me then, and I have yet to re-encounter him.)
The White-Breasted Nuthatches will stalk you, the way chickadees do at Mud Lake. Flitting from trunk to trunk as you walk by, at eye level, doing their game best to catch your attention. This makes for some excellent photo opportunities.
1680x1050 wallpaper
The woods that day were absolutely teeming with migrant Golden-Crowned Kinglets. The most kinglets I've ever seen in one place--and that's saying something. These tiny birds, barely larger than hummingbirds, are among the forerunners in songbird spring migration. They're apparently more tolerant of cold than warblers, because they migrate earlier in the spring and later in the fall, and also winter in the states, while most warblers continue on to the tropics.
The Golden-Crowned Kinglets were doing what they usually do, which is to say, mocking me. I've told this story before. It's like a big game of keep-away. The kinglets must never give me an opportunity to photograph their little selves without ten intervening branches, or motion blur, or poor lighting, or, if they do, they tilt their heads away so I can't catch those beautiful bright yellow crown stripes. Or, if I get all those things--a Golden-Crowned Kinglet out in the open in good light showing his crown and not moving a muscle--then my camera will mysteriously fail to auto-focus on it. And then it flits away.
"Oh, you mean this golden crown?"
Slate-Colored Junco
These are the other birds that the woods were teeming with. They hopped in front of me on the path in little foraging flocks, and sang from up in the trees: an unmusical but resonant trill. Like kinglets, this is their time for moving through Ottawa on their way to their breeding grounds.
Song Sparrow
Song Sparrows are one of our most common and widespread breeding sparrows, and the first to come back in migration. They're everywhere now, singing their song of 2-3 distinct whistles followed by a trill.
Mallard
"Do I hear the sweet, sweet sound of visitors to Jack Pine Trail? And do the visitors have food for me?"
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