Hurdman: the End of May in Photos

Hobomok Skipper

The weather has been really warm and sunny lately; almost every time I go out it seems new insect species have emerged. I’ve seen lots of butterflies, a few dragonflies, several moths (most of which remain unidentified), Six-spotted Tiger Beetles, and even a few caterpillars. The bird life, however, remains unchanged. I imagine most of the vireos and warblers are nesting now, and while I hear them every time I visit, I seldom see them. The “royal” swans are on the river again; so far I’ve only seen the Black Swans at Hurdman, but don’t have any photos yet.

Mammals, too, have become inconspicuous. I haven’t seen any this past week except for the usual squirrels in the tree tops.

Mer Bleue Part II: Wildlife

Balder’s Arctic

Two unique butterflies and one rare dragonfly call the Mer Bleue bog home: the Brown Elfin, Balder’s Arctic (formerly known as Jutta Arctic) and the Ebony Boghaunter (formerly known as Fletcher’s Dragonfly). When I visited the bog a year ago I only found two of those species – the Brown Elfin and the Ebony Boghaunter. This time I spent a little more time on the southern section of the boardwalk, accompanied by the songs of the Lincoln’s Sparrows and Palm Warblers, both of which breed in the bog, as I rambled along. I saw a number of small moths flying amongst the vegetation, and every time one came close to me I got my hopes up that it was the small Brown Elfin butterfly. Then I saw two larger, darker butterflies battling together above the bog. They flew toward me, too busy pecking away at each other to notice me, coming close enough to touch. I didn’t get a good enough look at them to identify them before they drifted away.

Mer Bleue, Part I: Ecology

Pink Lady’s Slipper

One place I wanted to take my mother and stepfather but didn’t have time was Mer Bleue, the second largest domed bog in southern Ontario and one of the most beautiful and unique parts of the city’s Greenbelt. Featuring a northern ecosystem more typical of the Arctic than the Ottawa Valley, the Mer Bleue bog is the only wetland in Canada’s Capital Region internationally recognized under the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands.

Sphagnum moss, also known as peat moss, forms the heart of the 3,500-hectare bog. This plant thrives in the cool, acidic, oxygen- and nutrient-poor conditions that characterize northern bogs. When it decomposes, it forms layer upon layer of dead organic matter (called peat), the bog substrate. Because the sphagnum moss tends to grow fastest in the center of the bog, the peat accumulates below and the water table rises. The high water table allows wetland plants to keep growing and for peat to accumulate, increasing the size of the dome over thousands of years. The Mer Bleue bog is about six metres thick in the center of the dome and has taken thousands of years to develop.

The Victoria Birding Weekend Part III

On my mother’s and stepfather’s last day in Ottawa I took them to Jack Pine Trail. It wasn’t as sunny as it had been during the rest of the long weekend, and the mosquitoes were annoying. Now that migration is over and the birds are busy nesting and defending territories, they have become harder to see. As usual, we heard more than we saw, including Yellow-bellied Sapsucker, Eastern Wood-Pewee, Great Crested Flycatcher, Red-eyed Vireo, Black-throated Green Warbler, Scarlet Tanager and Purple Finch. We managed to see a Swamp Sparrow in the marsh by the first boardwalk, a Common Yellowthroat at the third boardwalk, and an Ovenbird between the two. The yellowthroat was singing in a small tree right next to the boardwalk and even consented to have his picture taken:

Common Yellowthroat

The Victoria Birding Weekend Part II

Snapping Turtle

The following day my mom and I headed west to Dunrobin. Our destination was the Bill Mason Center, where we hoped to find the Virginia Rails that inhabit the marsh; my mother has never seen one before and needed one for her life list. First, however, we stopped at the bridge on Huntmar to see if the Northern Rough-winged Swallows were there. We found two of them, although we only got a brief glimpse of them flying upstream. We also saw three Turkey Vultures and one Red-tailed Hawk soaring over the ridge, and one Eastern Phoebe wagging its tail near the bridge. Birds heard but not seen included Least Flycatcher, a Rose-breasted Grosbeak singing somewhere across the road, Red-eyed Vireo and Common Yellowthroat.

The Victoria Birding Weekend Part I

Male Wood Duck

My mother and step-father spent the Victoria Day long weekend with us to do some birding in Ottawa. As we will be heading out to Alberta this summer for my sister’s wedding, we decided to skip our annual birding trip to southern Ontario; not only was it cheaper to spend the long weekend at home, but there are a number of breeding birds in Ottawa that mom needed for her life list. Mom and Doug arrived on Friday, and Saturday morning we were out the door early to head to our first spot: the Ottawa airport for sparrows and open grassland birds.

Eastern Tailed Blues

Eastern Tailed Blues

I returned to Hurdman later in the week to see if I could catch up with the Eastern Tailed Blues I had seen on Monday and to look for the Eastern Kingbirds. I didn’t find the kingbirds, but I did come across a few more small Eastern Tailed Blues as well as two larger Silvery Blues. In fact, I saw no new birds on my walk, but the songs of the Yellow Warblers, American Redstarts, Warbling Vireos, Red-eyed Vireos and Gray Catbirds were still fresh to me. I saw a Yellow Warbler land in what appeared to be a nest in the fork of a tree well off the trail, and kept my distance. It occurred to me that I haven’t seen or heard any Least Flycatchers around, either, except for the one near the entrance to the feeder path several days ago. I usually hear them calling in the open areas around the bike trails, but not this year. Perhaps they – and the kingbirds – are nesting in a different part of the park.

First Dragonfly Photo!

Springtime Darner

On Monday I went back to Hurdman Park during my lunch hour. There were even fewer migrants around than there had been on Friday; the only non-breeding birds I saw were a single Yellow-rumped Warbler in the trees beside the river and a couple of White-throated Sparrows foraging in the woods. Everywhere I went I could hear the songs of American Goldfinches, Song Sparrows, Warbling Vireos, Yellow Warblers, and American Redstarts; I saw a pair of Baltimore Orioles chasing each other and at least three Cedar Waxwings sitting in a tree. New arrivals included Gray Catbird and Red-eyed Vireo, both of which were singing and both of which I managed to see. I was surprised that the Eastern Kingbirds hadn’t arrived yet, especially after seeing a pair at the Beaver Trail on Saturday. This is the only regular breeding bird that hasn’t shown up yet at Hurdman.

Commas and Question Marks

Eastern Comma

On Sunday my fiancé and I attended Ottawa’s first ComicCon, so I wasn’t able to go out until late in the afternoon. This time I headed over to the Bruce Pit, hoping to find some shorebirds, marsh birds, and maybe even some early odonates. I didn’t see any shorebirds (though I did hear a Spotted Sandpiper calling “weet, weet, weet” at one point) and the only dragonflies I saw were Common Green Darners, but a pair of Virginia Rails near the bridge helped to make up for their lack. I didn’t hear or see any other migrants or unusual species, although one very distant duck looked suspiciously like a male Green-winged Teal to me. By the time I walked around the pit to where I had spotted him, he was gone.

Butterflies and Migrants at Hurdman

Silvery Blue

I returned to work after enjoying an extra-long weekend in Nova Scotia, and I couldn’t wait to visit Hurdman at lunch on Friday to see what had changed in the days since I had last visited. Another large wave of Red Admiral butterflies had migrated north while I was out of the province, and this wave contained a larger proportion of Question Marks, American Ladies and Painted Ladies. I was looking forward to seeing whether any new butterfly species had arrived and/or emerged, and whether any of the usual breeding flycatchers, warblers and vireos had returned to Hurdman while I was away. I was also hoping to find some more migrating warbler species, as the Hurdman woods have been very productive for warblers these past two springs.