I started doing "dispatches" from Petrie 22 years ago. The dispatches, a summary of what I saw on visits, were weekly for two years then dropped off to bi-weekly and monthly until 2005. Having moved from Orleans, the dispatches became quite infrequent with two in 2006 and 2009, and one in 2010 and 2018........
This dispatch is from July 11, 2023. Arriving much later than my usual sunrise visits in the "old" days we missed any sightings of beaver, raccoons etc. We didn't see any herons at all.
A young robin was chirping heartily when we parked the car by the culverts.
A kingbird and a cedar waxwing were hopping about in the trees. A flicker defied me taking a decent picture of it.
There was a family of three Baltimore orioles playing hide and seek with me along the trail. I managed to get three barely passable pictures of each of them. The first two are the juveniles.
Only two ducks, mallards, seemed to a round. The male was in full molt which is normal at this time of year. The female molts while on the nest.
A juvenile ringbilled gull was more interested in finding something to eat than being bothered by me creeping closer to take its picture.
Unlike the "old" days when there were no Canada Geese, a large flock was swimming in the river just off the sandy shores at the west end of the trails.
They left ample evidence behind of their having been on shore....
With the weather having been so warm the water has warmed up and there is no need for the turtles to come up and rest on logs etc. But we did find two painted turtles enjoying the sunshine. Very different scene than in early June when there are so many turtles sunning themselves.
A small snail was making its way up a tall stem of grass
While walking back east along the shore it was evident a tree branch had been dragged from the river shore, along an informal trail that leads south from the River Loop trail to Bill Holland Trail and into Muskrat Bay. Must have been a busy beaver that morning.
The small maple "seedlings" I used to see each year in the same place along the Ottawa River are still there, they never amount to anything.
I am not sure if the black ants were farming the aphids, or eating them. Ants are known to "farm" or care for aphids as the aphids feed primarily on the sap from plants and secrete a liquid called honeydew. This secretion is very sugar-rich, and quite favoured by ants as a food source.
Aside from the ants and aphids, above, and mosquitoes etc, two other insects spotted were a tiny forktail damselfly and a red admiral butterfly.
There was a massive amount of pickerel weed in bloom.
Lots of other summer wildflowers were in bloom. Scroll the picture to see its name.
Vervain
Fleabane
Sweet pea
Tufted vetch
Goat rue
White waterlily
Yellow waterlily
St John's wort
Bird's foot trefoil
Showy tick-trefoil
Narrow leaf loosestrife
Yellow loosestrife
Meadow rue
Cordgrass
White meadowsweet
Milkweed
White sweet clover
Bladder camapion
Nannyberry
Swamp milkweed
Bindweed
Canada thistle
Flowering rush
Burdock
Dogwood berries and grapes were abundant.
I tread carefully and did not disturb the fairies playing by the FOPI offices.
A few kayaks and stand-up boards had been launched and were exploring.
