Mud Lake

It has been a very busy week so I did not get any chances to get out shooting. On Sunday April 20th I decided I needed a fix of photography so headed out to Mud Lake near the Britannia filtration plant. Last time I was there the trails were still snow covered and walking was too difficult, but Sunday the trails were good for walking. There were a few wetter spots but these were easy to go around. It was such a beautiful spring day and many of the forest denizens took advantage and came exploring. While walking the trail with my head looking up for birds I heard a sound from the forest floor. Kind of a buzzing sound. I first thought it was bees but then I noticed this cute little one. Fortunately when it noticed me it froze long enough for me to approach and get this shot. While many people do not like or are actually afraid of snakes I think they are extremely beautiful reptiles. Mind you I am not about to run to the pet shop and start purchasing every snake I see, but in their own environment they are an important part of the ecosystem.

After the little Garter snake slithered off we continued on our trek around the South Western end of the lake. The small bay is quite often the home of turtles and various ducks. Earlier on in the spring I got pictures of a pair of Wood Ducks. It seems they moved into the small bay area as the area by the road is getting quite busy with people coming to see the spring birds and the greater number of Canada Geese that have moved into the lake to breed. But while in this area we spotted another of the lakes reptiles. This medium sized snapping turtle at first had just it's head in the water maybe looking for food to swim into range of its jaws. But I know they could not hold their breath forever so I waited for it to come up for air. I say it is a medium sized turtle even though its shell was probably a good 1.75 to 2 feet from end to end. But on a previous trip last year we had the opportunity to see the granddad of snapping turtle. I have pictures of it on my website. This one's shell had to be a minimum of 3 feet across in width. The head was like the head of some prehistoric creature.

We spent about 2 hours wandering around Mud Lake that day. Other creatures we saw and photographed were Wood Ducks, Canada Geese, Painted Turtles, Common Flicker, White Breasted Nuthatch and a male Cardinal. There are still many more spring birds that have not arrived, but the walk is well worth taking.

The Elusive Wood Duck

Many times while shooting water fowl I have seen the very beautiful Wood Duck far out in the middle of Mud Lake. Yesterday I decided to do another tour of the birding areas in Ottawa. The Duchense Rapids were fairly busy last week with the usual Mallards, Canada Geese and Ring Billed Gulls. While I was there a group of about 8 Pintailed Ducks flew in and settled on the open water. Unfortunately this week the water was pretty much free of ice to the Quebec shore, so the number and variety of birds was greatly diminished.

Moving on to Mud Lake I finally got a chance to get some very nice pictures of the elusive Wood Duck. Like most birds the female of the pair are fairly plain in colour. This is to make camouflage easier for them when sitting on their nest. The male on the other hand looks like it has been painted by a master artist.

Hopefully these tamer Wood Ducks will stick around the close shore areas and I will be able to get more photographs.

After touring the west end of the city I decided to go out to the Wall Rd area in Orleans. Wall Rd is a very good place to see Northern Harriers and Rough Legged Hawks during the summer time. I did see a couple of Harriers in the fields but they were too far off to get good shots so late in the day. What got me the most was the amount of water running along the road side. They were like small rivers, complete with rapids. One area even had a foot wide whirl pool. With the amount of snow still in the fields I imagine this draining of the fields will be going on for a while yet.

St. Lawrence area

On Thursday March 27 I returned to the St Lawrence area to see how the spring migrants were going. The river was still well covered in ice. This allowed me to get close to the thousands of Canada and Snow Geese that have stopped over on the journey north. When I had a chance to return to the area yesterday the geese had either moved on or moved to another location. There was alot more open water than before so this may have had something to do with it.

While driving along the parkway one has to go slow as any number of interesting animals and birds could be missed. I have seen Turkey Vultures circling over head many times but Thursday I was given the opportunity to observe one closely. This one was perched in a tree just over a Raccoon carcass. It did not seem too interested in it as it was pretty much intact.

I knew they were large but did not realize just how big they were until this one took off as I was moving towards it to try to get a better shot.

Further on the road very close to the Turkey Vulture I had another opportunity that does not happen very often. Sitting all by itself taking in the territory was a juvenile Peregrin Falcon. This was my first time seeing a Peregrin for any length of time. I could not see the feet under the feathers so its hard to tell if this is a wild birthed one or a baby from the ones that were banded in Ottawa or another city close by. I was hoping to get closer but a couple of local people came by and asked me what type of bird it was, this led to a pleasant conversation but the Pergrin flew away while we were talking.

I find the St. Lawrence region to be a good area for nature shooting during this time period as not many people are around and the animals are closer to the roadside. Every day is different and this summer should be interesting to see what summer birds are around.