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.