We dropped by Petrie in the last week of August.
Coming down Tweddle Road we spotted an egret, then a second egret and then a great blue heron in the marsh on the west side of the road
Later, one of the egrets (or a third?) was on the far side of Turtle Pond
As we were leaving later in the morning an egret flew up from the marsh, circled around in the far trees and settled on a branch. Shortly after the heron flew in and felt it had the rights to the branch. The egret took off, but a few minutes later came back to the same tree, but a different branch.
Mallards, one on the Ottawa River shore, two on a stump and a pair of black ducks swimming
A pair of black ducks, and a male wood duck in molt, were on a branch on the far side of Turtle Pond. Not far away was one of Bill Bower's wood duck nesting boxes that the Ottawa Duck Club put up over 25 years ago.
There were some bird nests under the roof of the small sheds.
The one on the left was likely a robin's nest, the other one a phoebe's. One of each bird was close by to "home"
The last of the birds was a fly-over of four juvenile ring-billed gulls
The water was very mirror-like, except for ripples caused by surfacing fish
There are signs of fall around the corner with spots of colour throughout the island
People were making their way around on the water in various conveyances
Stand-up boards
Sit-down, lie-down boards
Kayak, blow-up boat, canoe, canoe/kayak and catamaran
One of my early memories of Petrie was the turtlehead flowers. I had never seen them before. There were a few blossoms in various spots, but none where I originally saw them.
I have seen them in a few other nature areas.
Another flower I first noticed at Petrie 25 years ago (and have never seen anywhere else) is the ground nut. I used to see them in just one spot, but they have spread out to a few areas on the Island. Although again, there were none where I originally found them.
There were a good many other flowers blooming: arrowhead, aster, white waterlily, bread and butter, bird's foot trefoil, St John's wort, touch-me-not (aka impatiens, spotted jewelweed), water smartweed, purple loosestrife, showy tick-trefoil, bull thistle, hog-peanut, pickerel weed, tufted vetch and vervain
arrowhead
aster
white waterlily
bread and butter
bird's foot trefoil
St John's wort
touch-me-not/impatiens/spotted jewelweed
water smartweed
water smartweed
purple ,loosestrife
purple ,loosestrife
showy tick-trefoil
bull thistle
hog-peanut
pickerl weed
tufted vetch
vervain
Surprisingly some dogwood was blooming, while the berries were ripening on other bushes
Other plants in berry stage were buckthorn, bittersweet and highbush cranberry
Some grasses were in seed, including wild rye grass on the left
The milkweed pods were getting ready to split and spread their seeds
As we edge towards fall, spider webs become more prevalent (or at least more noticeable), burdock make a handy hitching post for them
The water temperature is warm enough that the turtles don't need to come out to bask, but one came up to admire the view anyway
One of the young map turtles that had recently been released was still hanging around
The iris in their eyes are a bit different
Bull frogs, large and small, plus leopard frogs in the grass
A cotton-tail rabbit stopped on the trail between snacks
There are deer still around as fresh droppings were on the trail
While most of the mosquitoes are gone, there are still enough to feed a meadowhawk dragonfly
There weren't many mushrooms to be seen
The cool mornings produce dew drops on many plants such as ferns and blades of grass (and the touch-me-nots in the flowers above)
The beavers seem to be busy dragging things from the River. Perhaps starting to gather branches for the winter larder
Turtle Trail certainly had some needed rehabilitation done to it. The over-grown encroaching brush had been cut back to the trail's edge and stone dust to improve accessible has been laid down
