Recent Arrivals At Mud Lake
April 25th, 2010
To me, Northern Flickers are the most beautiful of all Ottawa woodpeckers, beating out even the magnificent Pileated and the rare Red-Headed. They're also one of our few migrant (rather than year-round) woodpeckers. They're quite skittish--it's not often I get a close-up like this one!
I only regret the bird's undertail is in shadow. It's actually a strikingly vivid yellow, as are the undersides of his wings.
As warming temperatures bring large numbers of insects out of hibernation, the spring migration floodgates open. Soon they'll open even wider, as all the dedicated insectivores--flycatchers, vireos, and last but not least, umpteen species of warblers--stream back into Ottawa.
Warblers are the crown jewels of Canadian songbirds. Small, often colorful, insectivorous, needle-billed birds, 21 species of them breed right here in the Ottawa Circle. Unless you visit quite specialized and outlying locations (e.g. Gatineau Park, Larose Forest), though, you will usually only see a few of those species in summer. That's why birders go into high gear in late spring and early autumn, when a huge diversity of warblers can be spotted at easily-accessible "migrant traps" such as Mud Lake.
Yellow-Rumped Warblers are already here. Because this particular warbler can subsist on berries, if need be, it typically migrates earlier in spring and later in fall than any others.
Female Red-Winged Blackbirds are building their nests.
Black-Crowned Night Herons have returned. I saw my first of the year yesterday morning. This is one of the three heron species who breed at ML, and it's fairly easily seen there, especially (as you might guess) in the evening.
Ruby-Crowned Kinglets are moving through.
Ladies and gentlemen, one of Ottawa's rarest and strangest species: the Tire Swallow.
...or not. Actually, those are Tree Swallows. Swallows are usually seen circling high in the air, too far away for even a good set of binoculars to show much detail, and much, much too far away for my camera lens. So I was delighted to find a flock flying very low over Cassels Rd. yesterday morning. Occasionally they perched on small trees, in bushes, and even on peoples' cars!
April 25th, 2010
To me, Northern Flickers are the most beautiful of all Ottawa woodpeckers, beating out even the magnificent Pileated and the rare Red-Headed. They're also one of our few migrant (rather than year-round) woodpeckers. They're quite skittish--it's not often I get a close-up like this one!
I only regret the bird's undertail is in shadow. It's actually a strikingly vivid yellow, as are the undersides of his wings.
As warming temperatures bring large numbers of insects out of hibernation, the spring migration floodgates open. Soon they'll open even wider, as all the dedicated insectivores--flycatchers, vireos, and last but not least, umpteen species of warblers--stream back into Ottawa.
Warblers are the crown jewels of Canadian songbirds. Small, often colorful, insectivorous, needle-billed birds, 21 species of them breed right here in the Ottawa Circle. Unless you visit quite specialized and outlying locations (e.g. Gatineau Park, Larose Forest), though, you will usually only see a few of those species in summer. That's why birders go into high gear in late spring and early autumn, when a huge diversity of warblers can be spotted at easily-accessible "migrant traps" such as Mud Lake.
Yellow-Rumped Warblers are already here. Because this particular warbler can subsist on berries, if need be, it typically migrates earlier in spring and later in fall than any others.
Female Red-Winged Blackbirds are building their nests.
Black-Crowned Night Herons have returned. I saw my first of the year yesterday morning. This is one of the three heron species who breed at ML, and it's fairly easily seen there, especially (as you might guess) in the evening.
Ruby-Crowned Kinglets are moving through.
Ladies and gentlemen, one of Ottawa's rarest and strangest species: the Tire Swallow.
...or not. Actually, those are Tree Swallows. Swallows are usually seen circling high in the air, too far away for even a good set of binoculars to show much detail, and much, much too far away for my camera lens. So I was delighted to find a flock flying very low over Cassels Rd. yesterday morning. Occasionally they perched on small trees, in bushes, and even on peoples' cars!
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