Tag Archives: Rideau River

Mallard hen with duckling

Sole survivor

By mid-July on the Rideau River this mallard hen has only one of her brood left. She will have started out with a brood of six to eight newly hatched ducklings in May-June, but ducklings fall prey to seagulls, snapping turtles and other predators very easily. Chances are the surviving duckling will not survive its first year of life. This is the reality in the natural world: 85% of the birds and animals born in spring do not last a year, but enough do last long enough to breed the following spring and perpetuate their species.

Photographed and posted by Geoffrey

Hera at nine months

Hera wallowing in a muddy puddle

Hera after a run on a hot, humid afternoon saw fit to plop down in a muddy puddle rather than kennel up when we returned to the car. She had cooled off in the Rideau River during the run. She looks quite pleased with herself.

Photographed and posted by Geoffrey

Eastern kingbird

Eastern kingbird

Eastern kingbird keeping a wary eye on us as we passed by its nesting site in a shrub next to the Rideau River, July 1, 2013.

Photographed and posted by Geoffrey

Brown-headed cowbird

Trio of male brown-headed cowbirds

Three male brown-headed cowbirds perched in the treetops next to the Rideau River, June 30, 2013. The brown-headed cowbird is unusual in that it practices nest parasitism. Cowbirds do not rear their own young. The female lays an egg in another bird’s nest and the cowbird chick hatches and is reared by the other birds. It pushes the chicks of the host birds out of the nest so it does not compete for food. Some species of songbird have adapted to this threat in building dummy nests to lure the cowbird to leave its eggs, leaving them free to rear their own broods.

Photographed and posted by Geoffrey

Gray catbird

Gray catbird

Gray catbird perched in the treetops at the edge of the Rideau River, June 30, 2013. The gray catbird is so named because of its call that sounds like a cat meowing. You can usually hear the call of the gray catbird in shrubs and wooded areas near bodies of water. If you meow back at a catbird, often it will respond and show itself.

Photographed and posted by Geoffrey

Mallard hen with ducklings

Mallard ducklings

Hen mallard with a brood of newly hatched ducklings on the pond next to the Rideau River, June 20, 2013.

Photographed and posted by Geoffrey

Green heron

Green heron

After seeing a pair of green herons on the pond next to the Rideau River where I photographed ducks, turtles, red-winged blackbirds over the past several weeks, one of the herons was good enough to pose for me at last on June 18, 2013.

Photographed and posted by Geoffrey

Eastern kingbird

Eastern kingbird viewed while out for a run with Hera, my friend Jason Quinn and his dog Nos, June 17, 2013. The eastern kingbird is a plucky species of flycatcher common in the area. I see a few mated pairs every spring nesting in shrubs along the Rideau River. They are usually successful at rearing their broods as they mount a spirited defense of their nest and young, driving away crows especially. The often perch on the wires in the background, watching for the insects on which they prey, snatching them out of the air.

Photographed and posted by Geoffrey

Egg shells are all that remain of the clutch recently laid by a turtle in the soft earth next to a pond by the Rideau River that were dug up and eaten by a predator, likely a hungry raccoon. Life in the natural world is typically short and comes to a sudden and grisly end.

Photographed and posted by Geoffrey

Vireo

Vireo, possibly a warbling vireo seen and photographed June 15, 2013 in a wooded area next to the Rideau River.

Photographed and posted by Geoffrey