Dominion Arboretum, Ottawa

I traveled to the (Dominion) Arboretum this afternoon to see what the recent warm Spring weather has brought to us in terms of wild fauna and flora.  It was my first time traveling by O-Train and to the Arboretum, and I must say I am quite impressed by train, especially since it only took me about 25 minutes from where I live to the Arboretum.

Map of the Arboretum


A short guide

Crocus flowers!!!  I think these are the first naturally-growing flowers I have seen so far this year.

I almost forgot how beautiful flowers are...


... the different shades of colours within a petal and the placement of petals to form a beautiful floral display.


And of course, the wide diversity of animals that flowers attract.

Whether it be the common but important European honey bees (Apis mellifera),

or the less attractive but just as important flies.


Then there were these white Crocus spp. with slightly different floral arrangements.


From the top.


Hey, that's a moth!  First moth of the year.

Unidentified moth.


There are two lookouts at the Arboretum.


Both provide beautiful views.

Now onto the animals that I saw.

Probably a  Downy Woodpecker (Picoides pubescens).


Another view of the same bird.


I think this is an American Black Duck (Anas rubripes) because it fits these descriptions on All About Birds - "dark chocolate-brown flanks, pale grayish face, and olive-yellow bill".


Then there was this phoebe.  I am guessing it is an Eastern Phoebe (Sayornis phoebe), basing on the fact that someone saw it and reported it on eBird yesterday.


Probably a Song Sparrow (Melospiza melodia).

While I had some ideas identifying the species above, this one below needed a bit of detective work because it was not a species I am familiar with.

The rows of holes in the bark indicate the work of some kind of sapsucker.


It is small like a Downy or Hairy Woodpecker, but its wings are not distinctly checkered like the two woodpeckers.


Based on the distribution, I am guessing this is a Yellow-bellied Sapsucker (Sphyrapicus varius), which makes this the second sighting in almost four years (based on my blog entry).


Chipmunk hiding near boardwalks.

One of the many things that I love about trees is their branches reaching up the the sky.  So I decided to take a photo of a part of the tree and rotated it around the center.

This is the one I took.

And this is the one I get using just PowerPoint.


Another try.

Another different perspective.  Amazing.

There were many people out enjoying the nice weather before the rain (and potentially flooding) comes.

The Arboretum is next to Dow's Lake, so I walked along a part of it too.

And I took some photos of people enjoying this beautiful day.

I must say, this is so far my favourite spot in Ottawa right now.