After dropping off my father following our earlier outing to Ashton, Ontario, I decided that a stop at nearby Sarsaparilla Trail might yield some photo opportunities. I rather hoped that I might get some nice shots of the white-breasted nuthatches and the red-breasted nuthatches that are frequently in the same area as the Chickadees. Instead, I found a female Hairy Woodpecker hammering away on an old paper birch.
To photograph this female hairy woodpecker, I had to position myself almost directly below her to get a clear shot though the branches. As she hammered away at the tree, the chunks of wood were raining down on me and on the camera. Even had to stop photographing to remove chips of wood from the front element of the lens! Quite the experience! After awhile, I started to think that she was flinging them at me on purpose!
I watched this bird for quite awhile and then headed out to the pond to see what was happening in that area. Although the air temperature was still quite nice. the breeze over the frozen marshland had a bit of a nip to it. That didn’t seem to bother Sarah (wearing shorts) and her friends, Mike and Cory (short-sleeved tee shirts). Oh well, still glad I was wearing a coat!
We were joined by another couple who had brought along their coffees. A couple of Mallards wandered on the ice, Canada Geese shared some of the open water and a few Ring-Billed Gulls flew overhead.
Then, on the way back to the car, I met a photographer from Brockville who was hoping to see some deer. I had never been lucky enough to see any deer along this particular trail but shortly after leaving her to go her way, I looked off into the woods and there were some deer looking back at me. Boy, was I surprised.
A FEW MORE BLOG ENTRIES FROM PREVIOUS SARSAPARILLA TRAIL OUTINGS.
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