06-APR-2010
Dark-eyed Junco
This little junco was one of about 5 in the BYG. There were another 3 or 4 over by the Ash Woods.
06-APR-2010
Red squirrel eating sumac
This squirrel, or one of his buddies, had placed sumac cones all over the place. There was one on the downed Manitoba maple over the pond, three in the Manitoba maple above the pond (in which he is sitting), and two in the walnut tree at the west end of the pond. Earlier, I had seen a red (maybe this one), running along the top edge of the pond with a sumac cone in his mouth. There isn't a lot of food available yet for animals, so squirrels such as this, are still relying on last year's sumac, any buried nuts they may find, stores of cones (if any are left), and seeds at the feeder. They do, however, have fresh tree sap and buds to eat.
06-APR-2010
Blandings turtle (Emydoidea blandingi)
The Blanding's turtle was the star of the pond on April 6, for several people were able to see it. Ben Mancini took this photo.
6-APR-2010
Blanding's turtle (Emydoidea blandingi)
In addition to the red-eared slider and painted turtle in our pond, today Sandy found this Blanding's turtle. I assume it is the one that was there last year, but if we see another one of a different size, well, we will know we have two. Isn't it amazing all the life that our small pond supports.
05-APR-2010
Sedge (Carex pedunculata)
One of our early blooming native sedges.
05-APR-2010
Bloodroot (Sanguinaria canadensis)
One of the earliest native spring ephemerals to appear in woodlands in Ontario. They are out in force in the Ash woods. Typically I see this plant blooming at the FWG in late april. In 2006, 2007 and 2008 the dates I first saw them were between 22 and 27 of April, while last year, I saw them on 17 April.
05-APR-2010
Scilla
Every year the clumps of Scilla in the garden slowly expand. A few here and a few there... We didn't plant these garden flowers, but they must have come in with the leaf mulch we use from people's gardens.
05-APR-2010
Black-capped chickadee excavating nest hole
There were two pairs of chickadees excavating nest holes. Both the male and the female were working on the excavation. Sometimes they'd chuck out the soft wood with their feet, but mostly they gathered mouthfuls and flew a short distance where they deposited it on branches from where it would disperse in the wind. Every year they do this at FWG, and invariably one or two of the snags they choose fall over. One year, after this happened, they moved to a nearby nest box.
There were lots of house finches and goldfinches singing, many robins, red-winged blackbirds, a few song sparrows, starlings singing, a raven circling the garden, crows harassing the raven, etc. I hadn't been to FWG for five days and fully anticipated seeing tree swallows as I've seen them in good numbers elsewhere in the city. But then, they usually do take a bit longer to arrive at FWG! Nor did I see any eastern phoebes, another bird I was expecting, for again, I've heard and seen them elsewhere in the city. No doubt phoebes were around and I just didn't see them.
05-APR-2010
Painted turtle on turtle raft
It was very nice to see this turtle making full use of the raft we built for him and his buddies!
05-APR-2010
Red-eared slider
To my surprise, the red-eared slider (a species indigenous to the southern US, but popularly sold in the pet trade), survived the winter, and was sunning himself not far from the painted turtle. Also in the pond a few, very few, wood frogs were calling. Nowhere near the chorus of a few years ago. I went down to the pond a couple of nights ago, on one of those warm evenings, but again, only a few wood frogs calling.
05-APR-2010
Mourning cloak (Nymphalis antiopa)
I saw two mourning cloaks today, and two spring azures, the former expected, but the latter quite early. I would have been more surprised if I hadn't heard that someone else had seen a few elsewhere in Ottawa! No chance of a photo as they were moving constantly, sometimes low across the ground, other times twirling around each other high into the trees. In addition to the butterflies, there were good numbers of bees (Nomada, Andrenids, a few big bumblebee queens), flies, Asian ladybeetles, and a tiny, tiny Braconid wasp,
05-APR-2010
Asian ladybeetle (Harmonia axyridis)
This little beetle was covered in pollen dust from the willow flowers. A few beeflies and dozens of Andrenid bees were also swirling around the willow, as they do every year, but none were landing for more than a second.
