With all the rain and heat in the last few weeks Petrie Islands, along with other areas in Ottawa, are very green and lush. Some trails are growing in. A number of plants seem ahead of themselves compared to other years.
The "find" of the visit was a common gallinule and two chicks. I've never seen a gallinule, common or otherwise, in Ottawa. I am used to seeing them in Florida. Checking their range map, we are just on the northern border of their breeding range
Canada geese families are growing up and leave their poop everywhere. This family with 7 teenagers were down by the canoe dock. The father was off-camera to the right hissing at me as he thought I was getting too close.
A female adult wood duck and two juvenile males were swimming in Turtle Pond
While a mallard family was busy eating not far away
A catbird was calling, a yellow warbler hide in a tree plus an adult and juvenile flicker were high up in a tree. I missed getting photos of the male baltimore oriole and a great blue heron as they each flew by me unexpectedly.
The bull frog chorus was more subdued with only a few calling. I thought the water pattern around the frog on the right was different
A few turtles were up on logs soaking up the very warm sun
A rabbit was checking out the lush grass. It was nice to see that it didn't seem to have ticks on him. At Mer Bleue a number of rabbits have fully engorged ticks on their ears and face. A chipmunk was scrounging for a meal.
A muskrat was having its breakfast of weeds, doing his best to hide from the photographer
It didn't look like the beaver thought he needed to make any home improvements to the lodge this year.
What I think was a ichneumon wasp resting in a shrub
Dangling on a thread, a hickory tussock moth caterpillar swayed in the breeze. These guys can give you a bad rash if you touch them
Many summer flowers were in blossom
Purple loosestrife and fringed loosestrife
St John's wort (complete with Japanese beetles), golden rod and an orange daylily
A bee of some sort heading for a pickerel weed blossom
Canada Thistle was starting to go to seed, but there were still blossoms attracting insects. First photo: a male green sweat bee and, bottom right, a hoverfly. Second photo: a rear view of a bristle fly
Yellow bird's foot trefoil lined the lower sides of the trails, while the reddish showy tick trefoil stood tall along side the path
A mining (?) bee headed for some swamp milkweed blooms. Joe-pye weed is often mistaken for milkweed
Burdock was starting to bloom, after the flowers die back, the velcro-like spikes will dry and be ready to attach themselves to your clothes.
A few morning glories were blooming as were white waterlilies
Plenty of white sweet clover was in evidence, but only a few virgin's-bower
Queen Anne's lace blooms were everywhere, some had a very pronounced red-purple centre small blossom. The red-purple centre supposedly represents Queen Anne's blood when she pricked her finger doing lacework
Goat's rue vetch-like blooms were quite profuse along parts of the trail. The red spike of cardinal flowers are more easily found than in the "old" days.
Some of the plants were producing their berries with their flowering have ended. Left to right: Buckthorn, carrion, dogwood and highbush cranberry.
Some of the shoreline maple trees had sprouted interesting twin coloured berries😊😊
While milkweed was still in bloom, some plants had developed their seed pods already. A few grasses had gone to seed
The rain had brought out mushrooms and fungus
In addition to the human tracks along the sandy shore of the river, there were some (possible) coyote tracks and plenty of goose tracks
As usual, kayakers were enjoying the inland waters as well as the river
