A morning at Bill Mason Centre (part 1)
July 29th, 2013
I had a wonderful morning at Bill Mason Centre last week, and got enough good photos to make three posts out of it.
This Common Yellowthroat obviously meant to feed his young, but was unwilling to go to his nest while I was watching. Instead he hopped from perch to perch, watching and scolding me while holding the insect in his mouth. In the wallpaper version, you get a good view of the lush bushy vegetation that characterizes this wetland. The crop shows three of the alder catkins which look like mini pine cones.
Lots of fledgling Swamp Sparrows were about, still streak-breasted in their youth.
I gather the boardwalk at Bill Mason Centre is not so much maintained in summer, when the schoolkids aren't around to use it. Because eventually I came to this:
Whereat I made the mistake of attempting to push through the huge overhanging reeds. I gave up and turned back halfway, and once I was out, found myself covered head to toe with hundreds of little bits of greenish debris. I didn't mind it so much until I noticed that the hundreds of little greenish bits were moving. Because I was in fact covered head to toe in aphids.
...but it was worth it to have seen this adorable mink scampering down the boardwalk!
(Continued in next post...)
July 29th, 2013
I had a wonderful morning at Bill Mason Centre last week, and got enough good photos to make three posts out of it.
This Common Yellowthroat obviously meant to feed his young, but was unwilling to go to his nest while I was watching. Instead he hopped from perch to perch, watching and scolding me while holding the insect in his mouth. In the wallpaper version, you get a good view of the lush bushy vegetation that characterizes this wetland. The crop shows three of the alder catkins which look like mini pine cones.
Lots of fledgling Swamp Sparrows were about, still streak-breasted in their youth.
I gather the boardwalk at Bill Mason Centre is not so much maintained in summer, when the schoolkids aren't around to use it. Because eventually I came to this:
Whereat I made the mistake of attempting to push through the huge overhanging reeds. I gave up and turned back halfway, and once I was out, found myself covered head to toe with hundreds of little bits of greenish debris. I didn't mind it so much until I noticed that the hundreds of little greenish bits were moving. Because I was in fact covered head to toe in aphids.
...but it was worth it to have seen this adorable mink scampering down the boardwalk!
(Continued in next post...)
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Mustang Sallie
July 30th, 2013 at 12:54 pm
Quite an adventure.....can't wait to hear the rest of the story.
Gillian
July 30th, 2013 at 6:46 pm
Wow! That's so awesome that you saw a mink there! I usually don't see many mammals along the trails...just porcupines and Snowshoe Hares, though none recently. He is so cute!
Suzanne
July 30th, 2013 at 6:57 pm
I think the boardwalk was so overgrown that it just felt like home to him ;-) Not something I see often, certainly...I can count my mink sightings on one hand, and one of them was on that Amherst Island trip.
Mike
July 31st, 2013 at 9:55 am
I quite like the full-screen yellowthroat pic... the proportions and colors work well.
The mink is indeed cute!