An Afternoon At Mud Lake
July 29th, 2008
Since this was one of the few nice days we've had in awhile, I left work an hour early (I'll make it up on a rainy day) and went birding at Mud Lake in Britannia, and was treated to the sight of a Cooper's Hawk by the Ottawa River, perched calmly in a tree full of angry chickadees and angrier starlings, and having dinner. Raptors are one of my favorite kinds of birds, and even though I love songbirds too, when I see a hawk at the chase or having a meal, for whatever reason my sympathies always lie with him. I silently cheer when he makes the catch, and silently empathize when it gets away. Maybe it's because I have some idea of how challenging his lifestyle is. (According to a study, a good percentage of Cooper's Hawks have healed chest bone fractures.)
Other highlights include: all three of Ottawa's common breeding herons (Great Blue, Green, Black-Crowned Night), Chimney Swifts, a Mallard with three surprisingly young (for late July) ducklings, and a small flock of Bonaparte's Gulls on the river. I gather that last is an early migration event, since Bonaparte's Gulls generally breed well north of here.
By the end of this year I'll have a telephoto lens so I can give you pictures instead of just hyperlinks!
July 29th, 2008
Since this was one of the few nice days we've had in awhile, I left work an hour early (I'll make it up on a rainy day) and went birding at Mud Lake in Britannia, and was treated to the sight of a Cooper's Hawk by the Ottawa River, perched calmly in a tree full of angry chickadees and angrier starlings, and having dinner. Raptors are one of my favorite kinds of birds, and even though I love songbirds too, when I see a hawk at the chase or having a meal, for whatever reason my sympathies always lie with him. I silently cheer when he makes the catch, and silently empathize when it gets away. Maybe it's because I have some idea of how challenging his lifestyle is. (According to a study, a good percentage of Cooper's Hawks have healed chest bone fractures.)
Other highlights include: all three of Ottawa's common breeding herons (Great Blue, Green, Black-Crowned Night), Chimney Swifts, a Mallard with three surprisingly young (for late July) ducklings, and a small flock of Bonaparte's Gulls on the river. I gather that last is an early migration event, since Bonaparte's Gulls generally breed well north of here.
By the end of this year I'll have a telephoto lens so I can give you pictures instead of just hyperlinks!
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