There is always something different to see on each visit to Mud Lake. This month June is proving that in spades, thus separate posts for each visit.
When we arrived we spotted a female turkey standing very still by the side of the road. We went over to look at her and she never moved. We thought it was likely that she was sick. When we came back to the car a few hours later she was still there, but slowly moved off into the shady undergrowth.
During our walk around the lake we spotted another female turkey, this one with 11(±) pullets that seemed to be maybe a week old.
While looking for black-crowned night herons, in a area where we sometimes see them, we noticed a great blue heron on a dead tree branch, a second heron flew in causing the first one to fly to another nearby branch. A staring contest resulted. (A male wood duck just sat there calmly watching on the branch)
It was a good day for getting in-flight heron shots, both coming and going.
Later on in another location we spotted a heron standing very still, they way they do when fishing. He was rewarded with a good size catfish.
Each visit we hope to spot a common merganser family swimming and fishing as they come down a channel of the Ottawa River, so far we haven't been lucky. However this time we spotted the family on a small rocky "island" about 100 yards away. They had the location to themselves for a short time, then some geese arrived, followed by mallards.
The young wood ducks on the lake seemed to be several weeks old,
But standing on the viewing platform we spotted a row of very young ones on a log. They were a long way away, but it was worth the photos. (Heavily cropped photos that is.)
Two adult wood duck males were admiring their fully molted appearances reflected in the water
While another two still in various stages of the molting process were pulling out feathers
The Canada geese goslings were getting bigger
A mallard family was foraging along the river shoreline
A catbird noisily announced its presence
A muskrat wasn't shy about munching away on water plants very close to us
A mink was VERY active around the culverts by the water filtration plant. It did stop long enough for me to get two photos. one not quite focused, and the second focussed.
Painted turtles were sunning themselves, including a very young one, maybe 2" across
While at least two snapping turtle nests seem not to have been discovered by the raccoons etc yet, at least one has been
A short, about 100-150 yard, stretch of the Ottawa River shoreline was inundated with caddis flies.
Mayflies sometimes assemble in hordes as well, but we only found one tangled in a cobweb, and a 2.5" giant mayfly (real name)
Unlike other locations we had been to, many of the elderberries at Mud Lake were ripe
There are a good number of early summer blossoms out, including a single sweet william plant - likely an escapee from a nearby garden. (Scroll over for ID)
sweet william
Dame's rocket
purple flowerign raspberry
bindwee/morning glory
daisy
hop trefoil
blue flag/iris
blue flag/iris
Several of the cut ends of trees that had been brought down by various windstorms over the past few years were hosting fungus of various sorts
And finally!!! The new bridge was open!!. BUT prematurely and the NCC inspectors were in the process of closing it... But we had a few minutes on it.
