Wood Ducks

Someday I will get a better shot of a wood duck, but for now I'll take what I can get.

Hyperion and I were hiking in a rarely visited area of an island in the Mississippi when I photographed a passing pair of wood ducks.

They were far away and obscured by trees, but with the magic of digital zoom, we can see enough markings to know what we are looking at.

Wood ducks are beautiful little ducks, and the males are iconic for their brightly colored plumage, with green and purple on their heads and white stripes.  They have red eyes, with red and yellow on their bills.

Wood ducks have shorter wings than other ducks, which help them fly though woodlands, where they nest in tree cavities, and in wood duck boxes.  Their claws (rare in ducks) help them grip the bark where they perch.

They prefer shallow, marshy waters and ponds, where they can feed easily.  Besides aquatic food sources, they also eat acorns.

Wood ducks float higher on the water than other ducks, so that is something to remember when trying to identify them at a distance.

Something unique about wood ducks is that they are the only North American duck to have two broods per season.

Wood ducks are also called summer ducks and Carolina ducks.

Blog Contest Prizes

For my 250th post, I held a contest here on the blog.  That was back in February.  There were 10 multiple choice questions, and one bonus question.

You can see the quiz here: http://foundonthetrail.blogspot.com/2014/02/250th-post-celebration-contest.html .)

We had wonderful participation, more than doubling the number of participants from my first contest at the 100 blog post point.  We went from 3 participants to 8!  Huzzah!

It was a wonderful chance for me to see what the contest winners would pick for their prizes, and to see how the nature photos posted here look in different formats.  All the top scores were put in a hat and the winners were picked randomly for fabulous prizes!

2nd place won the photo magnets prize.  This went to my friend Ashley, who is herself a nature guru.  Here are the magnet photos she picked out, now gracing her filing cabinet at work.  Pelicans, the Jack O'Lantern mushrooms, a bumble bee, and a dragonfly:

Photo courtesy of Ashley - thanks, Ashley!

It should be no surprise that among her top choices for photo magnets, one was the lovely and mysterious Jack O'Lantern mushroom, as Ashley is the maven of mushroom identification.  Here's the original blogpost on those fungi:  http://foundonthetrail.blogspot.com/2012/08/night-adventures.html .

Ashley has her own nature blog, which you might want to check out.  It's on the sidebar in my blogroll.  It's called "Amore Feral Natura".  Here's a link:  http://amorferalnatura.blogspot.com/2014/03/mystery-mushroom.html .  Happy reading, and happy viewing!

1st place - a canvas print - went to my friend Coleen, who has been a walking and photography companion of mine.  For her canvas she selected a winter scene with a couple of dozen eagles perched in a tree:

I wish you all could have won prizes!  It was so much fun holding this contest that I want to hold another one soon, so I'd better get to writing in order to hit the next big number!

Snakes Alive!

In all my walks and all my wanderings, since I took up photographing animals and plants, I have never seen a snake on my own.  And then yesterday - I saw two!

The first snake was swimming through the flood waters at Pigeon Creek Park, over, around and under the mass of floating debris.  It was his movement that attracted my attention, with his head just sticking out of the water and his long, narrow body trailing behind.  He pulled up on a log and rested part of his body but kept a wary eye on me:

The second snake was at Eagle's Landing, where there weren't many trees to provide shade.  As a result, you can see more of the pattern this second snake was sporting, unlike the first.

I'm not an expert on snakes, and have only done a little research on these.  There's not much to go on.  My best guess, based on the markings, is that both snakes were the fairly common Northern Water Snake.  They cruise along shorelines and in backwaters eating as they go - fish, crawfish, baby turtles and even worms.  

Northern Water Snakes are vicious, and are known to strike at and bite people repeatedly when disturbed or cornered - so keep your distance!  They are not venomous, so washing the bites is the only treatment needed, but ouch!  Snakes are not my favorite critters, but still - they do play a role in a healthy ecosystem.

Chipmunk!

Finally got my first good clear pictures of a chipmunk at Crow Creek park last month.  They are speedy little critters and always dart out of sight whenever I get a glimpse of them.  This one, however, was brave enough, or curious enough to check me out for a few minutes.  Never would have got these without my zoom lens!

This is an Eastern chipmunk.  The name comes from the Ojibwa word "achitamon", which means "descending head first".  Isn't that cool?!!!

As you probably know, chipmunks store food in their cheeks in order to carry it to a supply depot.  That's why this little lady's cheeks are puffed out so fat!

This post is for my friend, Sarah, who has a particular penchant for some members of the rodentia family.  Hope you liked this cute little critter!

Turtles Galore

A walk along a quiet lake shore turned up turtles galore:

There are over 30 turtles in this photo, big and small, basking in the spring sunshine!

Here are some close-ups:

This is either a turtle convention - possibly met to plot the destruction of human-kind, or there is a whole lot of poikilothermism going on.  What's that, you say?  Yes, poikilothermism, which means the state of being cold-blooded.  Now, did they have murderous intent, or were they simply sunbathing in order to warm themselves up a little?  We may never know.

What we do know, however, is that "poikilos" comes from the Greek and meshes with "thermal" to indicate these kinds of creatures (fish and reptiles) that cannon maintain their own body temperature the way mammals can.  

Spring Sunset

We met at the park recently, with our scout troop, and the spring sunset was absolutely gorgeous!

The colors changed so rapidly.  Here are 3 shots:

8:17 p.m.

8:30 p.m.

8:33 p.m.

Geometric Designs

These geometric designs on the marsh fascinated me.

A Loon

I was taking my usual walk and saw two pelicans across the LeClaire channel from Smith's Island.  They were pretty far away, and I knew photos of them wouldn't do justice to their beauty.  Still, there was something in me - there always is, that wants to photograph every animal I see.  As I stood on the shore and watched them, I noticed something else moving in the water near them.  It was so low in the water and so far away that I could not tell what it was.  

The bird in question is 4 pelican body-lengths to the left of the left pelican, against the shore.

I knew it was not a Canada goose, because it was not big enough, and it wasn't brown.  I put the camera up to my eye and zoomed in as far as I could on it.  I could see that it was grey, and had a long bill, but everything else was pretty indistinct. 

Because the mind wants to match what you see with what you are already familiar with, the thought crossed my mind that maybe this was a heron, down in the water, floating.  I've never seen a heron do that before.  I don't even know if they would be able to fold up their long legs and do that.  But that is all I could come up with on the first pass.  At the same time, I knew it was not a heron.  Too many things didn't seem fit.  But what was it?

I snapped a several pictures, even as the bird seemed to appear and disappear.  I was so far away I couldn't tell if it was diving and reappearing, or if it was just so well camouflaged that it seemed to disappear against the opposite bank.  

I knew it was something I was completely unfamiliar with, and that was exciting.  A new bird!

Thanks to the power of the editing capabilities of Photo Gallery, I was able to zoom in on this bird on my computer at home, and get my first up close look at it.  

The first thought that came into my head was, "It looks like a loon."  How that could be, I didn't know, but that is the power of field guides.  

I had never seen a loon in the real life before - never expected to see one.  They just don't live around here.  But I have looked at dozens of field guides over the years.  I've done more than look.  I've poured over them, examining the picture carefully, absorbing details about beaks, body shape, color patterns, and postures.  I've read the descriptions relating typical behavior for the various species.  And somehow, as this bird came into focus, I just knew it was a loon.  

It didn't look like a loon - not the gorgeous black and white kind you see in slick magazines about the north woods, but that's where I learned something new.  The classic picture of a loon with it's black and white checkered back and red eyes show a loon in its mating plumage - stunningly beautiful.  This one, in our humble little LeClaire channel, was wearing it's non-breeding feathers, and so looked very plain.  It was just passing through, migrating back to it's home in the north.  I'm so glad I got to see it, and photograph it, and learn a little bit more about loons.  This is a real first in my book!

Lily of the Valley

Lily of the Valley is a charming little plant with tiny white flowers that look as if they were little bells that could be rung.  It has a most delightful scent, and seems to be a fairly beloved plant.  It is native to North America, but is also grown domestically.

I came across a large colony of them on one of my walks:

Despite it's sweet fragrance and beauty, this plant is highly poisonous.

Other names for this plant include Our Lady's Tears and Mary's Tears stemming from a legend that they sprouted from tears shed by Mary, the mother of Jesus, at the crucifixion.  Another legend references the tears shed by Eve after being cast out of the Garden of Eden.

Pterodactylish

Pelicans in the air are a totally different bird than pelicans floating placidly on the water.  In flight, you see the black underside of their wings, which are normally wrapped sedately about them when not in flight.

They are massive birds, and you get a real sense of their size when they fly by with their 9 foot wingspan.  And then there is something prehistoric in their shape and motion.  On the water, they look almost like swans.  In the air, they look like pterodactyls!

Pardon Me!

I interrupted this squirrel in the middle of his fine repast of organic walnuts.  

He stopped and gave me such a look as if to say, "How gauche!"  Then he proceeded to pretend not to see me.  

He could not believe my effrontery in stepping closer and closer to him!

In my turn, I pretended not to see the crumbs still lingering in his whiskers, and I went my way.