Dispatch From Petrie Island #162

In faint hopes of finding a beaver on land perhaps felling a tree, I arrived at Petrie 45 minutes before sunrise. No luck. But there were two beaver swimming around by the beaver lodge on the Turtle Trail.

I was hoping to catch a sudden beaver tail splash they do when warning to other beavers and then dive. It happened twice – when my camera was not looking that way. Obviously the light was very bad, but with the help of digital editing some passable photos worked out. Left photo 30 minutes before sunrise, right, 10 minutes before. (Click on photo to enlarge)

Minutes after sunrise, both beavers disappeared presumably into the lodge

Fall colours are showing throughout the island.

Backlit purple loosestrife leaves

A collection of various leaves including at the end, poison ivy

There were still a few flowers in bloom.

Turtlehead flowers which I was introduced to 25 years ago at Petrie. They seem to have spread throughout the Island now compared to the one place they used to be. One of the plants, left photo, was standing over 6 feet tall, usually they are 2 feet or so tall.

These asters, according to various ID sources, are white panicle asters

My favourite aster, the fall aster

White Sweet clover and white snakeroot

The joe pye weed had a very few blooms left, but lots of flowerlets having gone to seed

Evening primrose, woodland sunflower, nodding beggar-ticks, sowthistle and goldenrod

Various ID sites identified the plant on the left as treacle hedge-mustard or wallflower. The one on the right is horseweed

A touch-me-not (spotted jewelweed) seed pod was hanging there waiting for someone to come along, touch it and watch it snap open throwing its seeds wide and far

A sensitive fern basking in the sunlight

Because of the long lack of rain, I only found one mushroom, but the recent cool nights are providing dew drops on the grass

Groundnut leaves and burrs

It’s that time of year to find spider webs in the tall grass.

(Could have used some dew drops to highlight them…)

Backlit peppergrass and virginia creeper

Coming down from the overlook, the path takes you through a tunnel

THere was a definite shortage of birds (or I missed a bunch).

A chickadee acting like a nuthatch)

An adult male, and a juvenile, wood duck were a distance away in the early morning, while mallards were an easy find later in the morning

A lone wild turkey feather

A rustling in the leaves off to my side caught my attention. Look closely and you’ll see a downy woodpecker’s head. She was eating dogwood berries

Various berries throughout the Island.

Dogwood, highbush cranberry, bittersweet, Virginia creeper, carrion, buckthorn, elderberry, seeds on a ninebark. (I couldn’t find any of Al Tweddles favorite hackaberry trees)

(Scroll over for ID as well)

Dogwood

Highbush cranberry

Bittersweet

Virginia creeper

Carrion

Buckthorn

Elderberry

Ninebark seeds

Frogs were scarce. One was covered with duck weed in the fast evaporating pond on the north side of the trail towards the end. A leopard frog was trying to hide as I spotted him up on land.

A red squirrel gave me the bum’s rush, a groundhog kept his distance and disappeared as I crept closer

I didn’t expect to see any turtles but a northern painted turtle was on a log waving to me

There were tracks in the sand where snapping turtles (?) had crossed the path during the night

Also in the sand was a piece of driftwood that reminded me of a porpoise with wings

The St Lawrence Cruises boat was starting its Ottawa to Kingston via Montreal cruise