12 days after burn

The prairie starts greening up very quickly after a prescribed burn.  The most common question I get after a burn in the prairie is "What are those big mounds scattered everywhere?" These are ant colonies that are built by several species of mound building ants. An ant colony can take six years to produce these large mounds and the colony can be active for 12 years or more.

Spring Burn at Ojibway

A prescribed burn was carried out in the Ojibway Prairie Provincial Nature Reserve on April 15, 2010. 

Dramatic flame height as fire burns through a dense patch of Phragmites. 

Bird Cam (cont'd)

After many hundreds of photos of squirrels the remote bird cam finally captured this image of a Groundhog in the backyard.  There are a couple of burrows on the property but I hadn't seen any activity so far this spring. What a nice surprise!

Timberdoodle, Bogsucker, Night Partridge

One personal sign of spring's arrival that I enjoy is the spectacular display of the American Woodcock coming from the prairie meadow behind my home.  This year was a bit later than normal, more an indication of my indoor habits of late as opposed to the weather. Although we have had some mild weather in mid March it was just last night at dusk that I heard the familiar call.

  March 23, 2007

A couple of year's ago I took my camera out and managed to get a few images of the woodcock as he performed in the meadow. The technique I used to get close was fairly simple. First, I'd do my best to figure out where the calls originated. When the bird flew up to do his aerial song, I would rush over to be near that spot, crouch, and wait for him to return.  I found that woodcocks usually have a favourite spot on the ground that is fairly open and will return to that spot when they finish their flight display.

The Owl Box (continued)

As posted back in January I have been waiting for a day when the screech-owl is away from the nest box so I can replace the old structure with the nice new box.  Last week I noticed that the owl wasn't looking out the box at dusk so I planned to check the box on the weekend and hopefully install the new box. Sunday I climbed the ladder and took a quick photo to see if the owl was present.

At first I thought that the presence of an Eastern Gray Squirrel in the box was excellent news as I now I could take the box down, trim back some surrounding branches,  install the new box, and wait for the owl to move back in to a fresh box. The squirrel could have only been present for a few days at most so I hoped the owl would move back in quickly.  

  

However, much to my dismay, I heard the distinctive sound of a baby squirrel coming from inside the box. A quick peek in the box showed something tiny and hairless so the young are just a few days old at most. It will be about two months before the young are weaned and ready to leave the nest. Hopefully I'll get the new box up before next winter.

Wild Sumaco, Ecuador

Many-spotted Hummingbird

Napo Sabrewing

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Wild Sumaco Lodge is in the foothills, at about 1400 ft in elevation. The most memorable bird seen here was a small understory species that represented a new family for me, Chestnut-crowned Gnateater. Wild Sumaco also had great hummingbird feeders. In addition to the two species pictured above we also had great looks at Gray-chinned Hermit, Violet-headed Hummingbird, Golden-tailed Sapphire (very common), Ecuadorian Piedtail, Black-throated Brilliant, Gould's Jewelfront and five other species!

This small Ornate Snail-eating Snake was found high in a tall shrub one night.

We almost caught a caecillian along one of the forest trails but it was so slippery that I couldn't hold on to it as it burrowed into the leaf litter. The +30 inch long individual pictured above had been hit by a vehicle. Legless and almost blind these weird amphibians spend most of their time underground.

This small snake was caught along the Piha Trail but I have not been able to identify it.

Parrot Clay Licks along the Napo River

Yellow-crowned Parrots and a Mealy Parrot scraping clay off the bank of the Napo River.

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The sight (and deafening sound) of hundreds of spectacular parrots feasting on dirt was certainly a highlight of the trip. We visited two large clay licks along the Napo River and a small muddy pool in the forest and saw nine species of parrots (Orange-winged Parrots were often seen in flight but few were near the licks). One lick was observed from the boat and the other two had large shelter/blinds so the birds would not be disturbed.

Mealy Parrots 

Mealy and Blue-headed Parrots. Dusky-headed Parakeets were also present near the river lick but stayed in nearby trees.

Orange-cheeked Parrots, Cobalt-winged Parakeets and Scarlet-shouldered Parrotlets crowd into a muddy pool while Scarlet Macaws perch overhead at this interior forest lick.