Another New Hairstreak

Coral Hairstreak

After getting my day off to a late start and running some errands, I decided to skip the Queensway traffic and stay close to home. It was already 27°C by the time I was ready to hit the trails at 10:30, so I decided to do a short trail; the Beaver Trail is small and has a nice variety of habitats, which made it a perfect choice. Fortunately, a nice breeze was blowing, which made the heat tolerable; however, the breeze was strong enough to keep the insects from flying, so butterflies and dragonflies were difficult to find. I found two butterflies right near the parking area, a Question Mark resting on the dirt surface of the parking lot and a large fritillary (likely a Great-spangled Fritillary) zooming back and forth above the Common Milkweeds beneath the hydro towers.

Luskville Falls

Delta-spotted Spiketail

On June 24th my friend Melanie and I spent the morning at the Luskville Falls trail in Quebec; it happened to be Saint Jean Baptiste Day, a well-known Quebec holiday. Originally celebrated as the feast day of St. John the Baptist, the connection between Saint Jean Baptiste Day and French-Canadian patriotism was born in 1908 when St. John the Baptist was designated as the patron Saint of Quebec.

Melanie and I originally intended to spend the early part of the morning at the Champlain Lookout and Pink Lake in Gatineau Park, but as the only road up to these two places was closed to vehicular traffic until 11:00 a.m., we decided to make the drive to Luskville Falls instead.

Return to Mud Lake

American Robin

The next day I stopped by Jack Pine Trail on my way to Mud Lake where I hoped to relocate the Winter Wren. I wanted to head there first, but as Jack Pine Trail gets quite busy later in the day I figured I should make it my first stop so I would have a chance of seeing some wildlife!

This strategy didn’t pay off. Even though there were few people on the trail, I didn’t see any mammals other than squirrels. There were lots of deer tracks and even some Snowshoe Hare tracks, but no sign of the animals themselves. The diversity of birds was better: one Mourning Dove, a Downy Woodpecker, and two male Cardinals were all in the vicinity of the OFNC feeder; along the trail I encountered about four Blue Jays, both nuthatches, and a pair of juncos.

New Year’s Day Birding

I couldn’t let New Year’s Day pass without going out and attempting to find some birds for my brand new year list. My plan was to head south along Eagleson and Moodie to look for hawks and gulls and Snow Buntings, but as the day was incredibly foggy I had to give up the idea of birding in any open areas. Instead, I stopped in at the Eagleson Ponds, where I found a couple of House Finches, about ten mallards, and one Canada Goose…an excellent start to the year.

Next I went to the Jack Pine Trail, figuring the fog wouldn’t be as bad in the woods. There I found a couple of Blue Jays feeding on some peanuts near the parking lot and a single Mourning Dove by the large OFNC feeder. I was very surprised not to see or hear a single chickadee or nuthatch along the way, and as I continued down the trail I soon discovered why. While walking toward the back of the trail a large, grayish hawk flew up off the ground almost right in front of me, landing on a fallen tree not too far away. Fortunately he was quite visible from where I stood on the trail, allowing me good look at his long tail, the dark cap on his head and bright white supercilium. There was no doubt in my mind that it was an adult Northern Goshawk. Not only was the goshawk only the eighth bird on my year list, it was my first life bird of the year!