Muskrat!! And other animals I've seen.
Walking back to my apartment from school takes me along the canal, and as I am walking I like to look at the ducks swimming in the water. Today I was surprised to see an animal swimming in the water. It was treading a V-shaped trail of water behind it like a duck would, but the animal was smaller and brown.. I got excited at this point because I had just finished a Natural History lecture where we talked about beavers, and I thought this might be one!
By this point I had stopped to look at the animal in question, and another girl noticed too and we both wondered aloud what it was. We guessed that it was a muskrat. I am pretty sure of this now after looking at some pictures.
Muskrat
It kind of looks like a beaver, but it has a smaller body and thinner tail.
Ottawa is great for animal sightings, and many of the ones I have had did not even involve leaving the city. I have seen deer, turtles, woodpeckers, loons, frogs, a wooly black bear caterpillar, Great Blue Herons, and a hawk. And of course, groundhogs and rabbits everywhere. There are also swans here, but they're not native to the area and are only here because they were a gift from the Queen and are the Royal Swans of Ottawa. (How grand!) I would never be able to see all these things in Toronto, but in only four years of living in Ottawa I have gotten to see all of those.
My favourite that I've spotted so far are:
The Great Blue Heron
I've seen these a few times along the Ottawa river. They are such majestic and handsome birds. I love how they look in flight.
The Wooly Bear Caterpillar
Normally caterpillars are a little creepy, but this one looks like a fat little pipe cleaner.
Plus, when I saw this, it was raining really hard so I felt that I should protect it by moving it away from the puddles onto a dry tree trunk.
Black Capped Chickadee
So common, but they are the cutest little birds I have ever seen. They look like the birds that put Cinderella's dress together.
I learned in class that they like to mob owls with other chickadees as a defense mechanism.
Wood Duck
I also saw some cool animals in my backyard this summer. (Toronto is not totally lacking in wildlife that interests me.)
American Goldfinch, eating some thistle
A rabbit that lived in my backyard for a while! It was tiny and very cute. I had pictures but they're on my computer that crashed. (Yes, my computer died and I am on a different one.)
Various types of butterflies attracted to the buddleia plants in my parents' backyard.
A ginormous Grackle.
Note: My simple point and shoot isn't really suitable for wildlife photography, so none of these pictures are my own,. But I think if I pursue nature photography as a hobby sometime, I would want to invest in a camera with a big-ass lens.
This post and assortment of thoughts about animals are brought to you by my interest in animals and nature, summers spent in Ottawa, a former co-worker who liked to birdwatch, and lots of Natural History on the brain because I have an exam on the topic this Saturday!
By this point I had stopped to look at the animal in question, and another girl noticed too and we both wondered aloud what it was. We guessed that it was a muskrat. I am pretty sure of this now after looking at some pictures.
Muskrat
Click to viewIt kind of looks like a beaver, but it has a smaller body and thinner tail.
Ottawa is great for animal sightings, and many of the ones I have had did not even involve leaving the city. I have seen deer, turtles, woodpeckers, loons, frogs, a wooly black bear caterpillar, Great Blue Herons, and a hawk. And of course, groundhogs and rabbits everywhere. There are also swans here, but they're not native to the area and are only here because they were a gift from the Queen and are the Royal Swans of Ottawa. (How grand!) I would never be able to see all these things in Toronto, but in only four years of living in Ottawa I have gotten to see all of those.
My favourite that I've spotted so far are:
The Great Blue Heron
I've seen these a few times along the Ottawa river. They are such majestic and handsome birds. I love how they look in flight.
The Wooly Bear Caterpillar
Normally caterpillars are a little creepy, but this one looks like a fat little pipe cleaner.
Plus, when I saw this, it was raining really hard so I felt that I should protect it by moving it away from the puddles onto a dry tree trunk.
Black Capped Chickadee
So common, but they are the cutest little birds I have ever seen. They look like the birds that put Cinderella's dress together.
I learned in class that they like to mob owls with other chickadees as a defense mechanism.
Wood Duck
I also saw some cool animals in my backyard this summer. (Toronto is not totally lacking in wildlife that interests me.)
American Goldfinch, eating some thistle
A rabbit that lived in my backyard for a while! It was tiny and very cute. I had pictures but they're on my computer that crashed. (Yes, my computer died and I am on a different one.)
Various types of butterflies attracted to the buddleia plants in my parents' backyard.
A ginormous Grackle.
Note: My simple point and shoot isn't really suitable for wildlife photography, so none of these pictures are my own,. But I think if I pursue nature photography as a hobby sometime, I would want to invest in a camera with a big-ass lens.
This post and assortment of thoughts about animals are brought to you by my interest in animals and nature, summers spent in Ottawa, a former co-worker who liked to birdwatch, and lots of Natural History on the brain because I have an exam on the topic this Saturday!