Nature Photography (Formally Spring is in the Air)

[Gwangi]

Great pictures as usual Doug. As always I'm envious of all the turtles you get to see. I've spent what little time I can get outdoors lately searching for turtles laying their eggs but with little success. Like you I found some displaced turtle eggs, and I've even seen old egg shells from this spring's hatchlings as well as quite a few painted turtles too. None in the egg laying process though.

I wasn't quite chest deep for those toad pictures but I was sitting on a small folding tripod chair with my butt only inches above the water. Using that and my Muck boots I stayed pretty dry actually. Those toads aren't shy at all, which makes taking pictures easy. Easier than pictures of the Spring peepers and wood frogs.

[Tyto_Theropod]

Yeah, while they don't go out of their way to come out of the woodwork and say hi, our European toads are pretty relaxed about humans - much more so than frogs, who do tend to get nervy when they see you.

[Doug Watson]

I've spent what little time I can get outdoors lately searching for turtles laying their eggs but with little success. Like you I found some displaced turtle eggs, and I've even seen old egg shells from this spring's hatchlings as well as quite a few painted turtles too. None in the egg laying process though.

I think I have only happened upon egg laying once in my life. That was a snapping turtle that laid its eggs on the edge of a campground at Charleston Lake Provincial Park. I got there just as she finished laying and started to backfill the nest. I watched her until she finished and then wandered off back to the lake. I am not sure if I took any pictures, that was BD (before digital) so if I did they would be slides probably and would be tucked away in the closet.

[Gwangi]

I've spent what little time I can get outdoors lately searching for turtles laying their eggs but with little success. Like you I found some displaced turtle eggs, and I've even seen old egg shells from this spring's hatchlings as well as quite a few painted turtles too. None in the egg laying process though.

I think I have only happened upon egg laying once in my life. That was a snapping turtle that laid its eggs on the edge of a campground at Charleston Lake Provincial Park. I got there just as she finished laying and started to backfill the nest. I watched her until she finished and then wandered off back to the lake. I am not sure if I took any pictures, that was BD (before digital) so if I did they would be slides probably and would be tucked away in the closet.

I'm not sure how wide the window is on their egg laying season, you just have to be at the right place at the right time or actively searching for them. Of course it helps to know when they are laying and where they like to lay. This is the first year I've actively searched for them. I've only witnessed a couple egg laying turtles myself, both snapping turtles when I was a kid. One was actually right at the foot of the school bus I was getting off of along the ditch by my house. About 8 or so years ago I came across a dead painted turtle in the road, she was broke open with about a dozen or so eggs exposed. It was one of the saddest things I've ever seen. I tried to incubate those eggs but with no success, I knew it was a long shot at the time but had to try.

[Doug Watson]

A few shots from kayaking on June 27 and July 3.

"Mine! Mine! Mine!" Ring Billed Gulls (Disney fans will get that one)



A Toonie (Canadians will get that one)



Turkey Vulture



Cedar Waxwing



This emerald green moss was on the small island that the Cedar Waxwing was on.



These are the baby Grackles that hatched from the eggs I posted the last time. The next time we went they had flown away, hopefully.



Water Lily with Damselfly nymph exoskeleton.



Young chipmunk



Map Turtle.



Bullfrog

[Doug Watson]

Some more wildlife from kayaking this past weekend at Murphy's Point, Ontario.

This Grey Rat snake was in front of my car at the boat launch I moved it to the side of the road it was headed for. This is the 5th one this year, a record for me. It was around four feet long.



A very striking colour variation of a Green Frog



Common Mergansers



Great Blue heron



This White Tail Deer fawn was lying behind a boulder and popped up when I got near shore.



We came upon two young mink playing outside their den, Mama popped out later and pulled them inside.

The babies.



Mama



Mama grabs one by the scruff of the neck.

[Gwangi]

Great shots as always, particularly that mink and island full of mergansers. Always envious of the black rat snakes, I've been keeping an eye out but no luck yet. I know they're around, just can't find them. I haven't been out much the last couple months and I'm starting to feel summer ticking by. I need to make up for lost time!

[Halichoeres]

Yeah, not easy taking pictures of mink! Very nice shots. Do you find that things are less flighty when you're on the water rather than tramping around?

[Doug Watson]

Always envious of the black rat snakes, I've been keeping an eye out but no luck yet. I know they're around, just can't find them.

It's been a weird year, normally my rough Rat Snake to Water Snake sightings ratio runs in the 1:50 ratio for the year but this year I have already seen 5 Rat Snakes and only about the same number of Water Snakes. Hopefully the Water Snakes will rebound.

[Doug Watson]

Yeah, not easy taking pictures of mink! Very nice shots. Do you find that things are less flighty when you're on the water rather than tramping around?

Most definitely even more so now that we use kayaks instead of canoes. Being on the water and in a very unhuman like pose they often seem more curious than scared, mind you Mama is trying to teach them to beware.

[triceratops83]

A trio of kangaroos that had been hanging around in my backyard all day.

[tyrantqueen]

You have kangaroos in your back garden!? Only in Australia...

[triceratops83]

You have kangaroos in your back garden!? Only in Australia...

It'd be great if they'd stay, roos actually eat grass, unlike goats who just eat everything else. A whole herd of kangaroos might save the hassle of mowing the lawn...

[Doug Watson]

A trio of kangaroos that had been hanging around in my backyard all day.

Wow! That is cool. If you live in a similar local up here and have a vegetable or flower garden unless you have a really high fence or dogs, deer will come in just like this and raid your garden. So kangaroos don't touch the gardens, you are lucky for white-tail deer you need at least an 8 foot high fence.

[triceratops83]

I only ever see them eat grass, but if they wanted to eat out of our garden a fence wouldn't stop them - they really can bound clear over the cow paddock fences you see behind them. Are deer not wary of approaching houses? Kangaroos and wallabies are pretty laid back and I've seen them in the early hours of the morning right outside the glass door, but they won't let you approach within say, twenty metres.

[Doug Watson]

I only ever see them eat grass, but if they wanted to eat out of our garden a fence wouldn't stop them - they really can bound clear over the cow paddock fences you see behind them. Are deer not wary of approaching houses? Kangaroos and wallabies are pretty laid back and I've seen them in the early hours of the morning right outside the glass door, but they won't let you approach within say, twenty metres.

In the country if you don't have dogs the deer will hit your gardens at night. I know some hobby farmers that try hanging aluminum pie plates, spinners, CDs to wave in the wind and clang together but it only works for a couple nights and then the deer figure out that it isn't a real danger and help themselves once more. I have a small fence around my garden that I put to keep my dogs out but now that I don't have dogs it keeps the wabbits out. I am in suburbia so deer aren't a problem.

[triceratops83]

It's rare to see wabbits where I live, but the wascally pest here that eats our potted herbs (including chillis!) is a fat possum named Russell that lives in the garage. It climbs down the chains on hanging plants and goes to town.

[stargatedalek]

Count yourself lucky Doug, here we get whitetails wandering the streets broad daylight even in downtown Halifax!

[Halichoeres]

Maybe cars drive faster where Doug lives...

[Doug Watson]

It's rare to see wabbits where I live, but the wascally pest here that eats our potted herbs (including chillis!) is a fat possum named Russell that lives in the garage. It climbs down the chains on hanging plants and goes to town.

I feel your pain I am dealing with a skunk living under my front step. My name for it isn't as nice and can't be printed here. You aren't allowed to kill them and if I pay $500 to have it trapped they have to release it near bye so it will just come back. I have to wait until it vacates on its own and then make my step skunk proof. It is stopping me from fixing some path stones that the chipmunks destabilized with their earth moving so it is fun all around. The skunk itself doesn't do much damage to our property but it raids my neighbours garbage who hasn't figured out that we live next to a greenbelt and have wild animals that require you to use garbage cans or at least don't put your bags out the night before. Here is a shot of my little darling raiding the neighbours garbage one morning.