Sunday, June 3, 2012

On The West Side Of The Vermilon River with Some Protective Moms. A Post To MWT and WBW.

 I hiked the lower River on Friday morning and just missed the rain, which may last until Sunday. This post is divided as usual, dealing with the protective moms, aquatic birds, in the first part, moving onto the small birds. In the small birds section the Yellow-throated Warbler is new this season,although he was here last year,while the Red-eyed Vireo is completely new to me.
 Since the post is long, I'll use captions as much as possible. I split the flowers into non-fruit bearing,  and fruit bearing. The forest is a riot of colour now. All of the fruit bearing trees or flowers do not mature at the same time. In some areas the blueberries are actually out, which will make the bears happy. The pin and choke cherry trees will produce fruit fairly shortly, and this will please all the wildlife. The Goldfinch were shot at my feeders. CLICK ON THE PHOTOS TO ENLARGE, AND SEE THE SLIDE SHOW.
 The whole protective mom sequence was shot in the big wetland when I stumbled onto a female mallard and her ducklings, as well some Canada Geese and their young. Opposite is the female mallard breaking cover. She virtually runs on the water as do the small ducklings.
A post to MWT and WBW. Click to see other entries. Just a note: It's Sunday and still raining. I think we need it disparately as the River is the lowest that I've ever seen it at this time of year.
Moving Them Along.

Continually Prodding.

Almost Out Of Danger.

The Slowest One.

All Safe At Last.

 The Geese have a perimeter guard on the trail, which I normally use. This meant that some goslings were around. There was only one gosling, so they've lost most of the young to predators.
The Guards Circle.

Mom and The Gosling.

Close Up of the Gosling.

Chestnut-sided Warbler.

Front View of Same.

Singing Chestnut-sided Warbler.

Male Redstart.

Male Redstart.

Male Redstart.

Male Common Yellowthroat Warbler.

Singing Male Common Yellowthroat.

Red-eyed Vireo

Side View Red-eyed Vireo

Blue Jay.

Song Sparrow.

Song Sparrow.

Common Grackle.

Female Goldfinch

Male Goldfinch.

Female Goldfinch.

Hi there, doing anything for lunch?

Female Purple Finch.

Butter Cup

Coltsfoot


Goat's Beard.

Honeysuckle.

March Marigolds

Dogwood?

High Bush Cranberries.

Purple Flowering Raspberries.

Close Up of Same. ( These wild raspberries are related to the Rose Family)

Wild Blueberries.

Chipmunk

Red Squirrel

66 comments:

  1. Lovely pictures! Great serie of different birds. We dont have all of them here in Sweden.

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  2. Your birds are fantastic! And teh flowers and the little squireel to. Have a nice sunday!

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  3. Looks like a great walk. The moms and ducklings are cute. Lovely series of images.

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  4. The protective parent shots are great! While driving in the city yesterday we watched a family of geese cross a four lane highway. Traffic stopped in all directions as we watched the little parade pass by. They were lucky they were seen on the busy highway.

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  5. the goatsbeard is really cool! sorry to see loss of goslings. nature is a harsh place for some species!

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  6. Hi Gary

    A lovely post as always lot of nice birds, but I really enjoyed your flower photos.

    All the best.
    Guy

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  7. Hi Gary

    A lovely post as always, lots of beautiful birds and I really enjoyed your flower photos.

    Regards
    Guy

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  8. I always love seeing your amazing photos!!

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  9. Another fantastic post Gary.. The birds have it tough at this time of year trying to raise a family.
    You see some wonderful wildflowers on your wanderings.

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  10. Oh, what beautiful birds, interesting, beautiful photos.

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  11. A premium of objects, but, my fave is the last one, it is superb.

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  12. A great variety of photos here, that goldfinch is my favorite.

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  13. great blue feathers for the male mallard in flight; loving the male redstart; the song sparrow and the goldfinches. Wonderful scenery and photographs of nature's bounty Gary

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  14. ALways a fan of the babies, so cute! love the warblers and vireo too :) All sorts of good bird sightings!

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  15. Beautiful photos as always. I enjoyed all of them.

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  16. Very beautiful picture series! Nature is painting for us. Beautiful flowers, birds and rodents!

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  17. Wonderful to see the duck and geese in action.

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  18. Great pictures!
    Amazing how many birds you see every time!
    Have a nice week!
    Yvonne & Raphael

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  19. A lot beautiful pictures :0) Lovely :0)

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  20. Fantastic post. I love seeing the protective mom shots (mallards and geese). Always great seeing the beautiful landscapes and birds and the flowers were such a treat too.

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  21. What a great collection of nature photos...thanks for sharing them with us.

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  22. Beautiful place with such lovely birds and animals.

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  23. I´m impressed! Your bird photos are always amazing. You really inspire me...yesterday I put my 400mm lens on my camera and went down to the sea to catch some birds...

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  24. Thank you for the wonderful walk with the great images.Have a lot of wonderful walks this week.

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  25. You do take us on beautiful walks with so many delightful birds and critters and flowers! And, of course, those happy looking squirrels! Thanks for sharing the beauty, Gary! Enjoy your week!

    Sylvia

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  26. Beautiful Pics of nature ! What a wonderful walking adventure!

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  27. As usual, your post is always full of information, beautiful photos, and such a joy to visit!

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  28. The ducklings are adorable.

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  29. So sad to see the loss of almost all goslings. Love your Marsh Marigolds but the purple flowered raspberries are dog-roses. You have so many beautiful birds in this post Gary.

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    Replies
    1. Sorry Arija, but the Dog-Rose is a native of Europe, Africa and Asia. Some were brought to the US and planted in Victory Gardens (WW2). See Wikipedia. The Purple Flowering Raspberry is a plant native to Canada and the US in short, North America. It is known in the US by the name, Virginia Raspberry. See www.ontariowildflower.com/

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  30. We've also been seeing lots of ducklings and goslings around, although the numbers, as you say, dwindle day by day. Very nice shots of your protective mom. I was interested to know that the wild raspberries are related to the rose family. Had no idea. Also particularly love the chipmunk. They are here but I almost never get a photo.

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  31. Loved the photos of the ducks and gosling. Nature can be so wonderful but cruel.

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  32. great pics...looks like a nice trek

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  33. Hi there - ducks can be very stupid - but when the mothering instinct kicks in, they really do put their minds to it!

    Nice post.

    Stewart M

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  34. you have so many birds and seem to easily get close to them. I envy you.

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  35. Love the beautful Canadian wild

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  36. tes series d'oiseaux sont toujours aussi superbes


    Publicity ;o) Every Friday (and the Weekend), The Challenge "Walk In The Street Photography"

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  37. A great post Gary. That duck family is so cute.

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  38. A wonderful series of shots!I didn't know raspberries are from the rose family. If I hadn't read the cation I'd have thought they were wild roses! I love the bird shots. Amazing, all of them! And thanks for including the blooms. Always a pleasure to see what's happening in your neck of the woods.

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  39. The ducks were really cute and wat variety of birds you post everytime...love it.Thanks for sharing and have a great day!

    Shantana

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  40. wow, what a beautiful collection of birds and ducks!! these are just amazing!!

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  41. Great serie of photos, - lovely to see. It is a perfect post for WBW!

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  42. So many different birds again ! The red squirrel is less red than the once we have here and of course the chipmunk is so cute !

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  43. All great photos but the ducks trying to walk on the water are especially good!

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  44. Beautiful shot, Gary! Love your flowers too!

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  45. Great post and beautiful photos as always.
    Beautiful birds and flowers.
    The Chestnut-sided Warbler looks like he is singing out loud.
    Thanks for sharing.
    Mette

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  46. Great series Gary!
    Sweet shots of the moms and babies!!

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  47. What a great sequence showing mama Mallard rushing those ducklings out of danger! I hope the geese are able to keep their remaining gosling safe.

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  48. Lovely shots, all of them! I think I could appreciate them more if each type of animal had its own post!

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  49. Great series Gary, I particularly like the warbler catches, every picture a reason to celebrate!

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  50. Particularly enjoyed your capture of the song sparrow, the male goldfinch and the female purple finch. The purple flowering raspberries are interesting - I can see how they are related to the rose family. As for the honeysuckle - very different to ours, which looks more like the flower you have labelled 'dogwood?'!

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  51. I think you captured the excitement of spring Gary. Great post.

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  52. Enjoyed them all, but oh my...my favs were of the female Mallard duck and her ducklings...how very cute~

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  53. Amazing pictures you show!

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  54. Wow! What fantastic birds and shots you've captured.

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  55. Love those momma ducks -- they are so bossy! Don't know if anyone else mentioned it, but the dogwood photo is honeysuckle. I have one in my yard. :)

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  56. Love the little ducklings, so cute!

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  57. Thanks everybody for your visits and comments. Boom & Gary of the Vermilon River.

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  58. Phenomenal photos!

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  59. Hi Gary I found your blog today and thought you had some nice photos. First I LOVE your blog photo of your dog (I'm guessing) that is what caught my eye. He/She is beautiful, I'm curious about him. I also liked your wildlife, I think that birds can be hard and I don't have that many in my part of the country, but you have some beautiful shots so I will love following your blog and getting to "know" another blogger.

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