Wood Ducks and Others at Mud Lake

Recently I finally had the chance to go to Mud Lake in Ottawa and boy did it not disappoint. The number of birds I saw was quite impressive, but I think the most impressive thing to me was a section of trail through a wonderful section of maple trees that were all yellow and golden. Sadly I didn't get a good photo of that trail but here are some other photos I did get.

The first photo in this blog post is of a wonderful reflection of some fall colour on the lake.

The next three photos are of the beautiful Wood Duck. The first two photos are of a male Wood Duck while, the last photo is of a female Wood Duck. The male ducks do not disappoint as they are wonderfully colourful. I got these photos on this one section of trail that crosses a portion of the lake. The ducks were up on the railings eating some food that people had left them and sunning themselves. This all made for great photos in my opinion. This was also the first time I had seen a Wood Duck so I was quite excited myself.

This photo is of a Downy Woodpecker who was eating the seeds on this plant. I had just come around a curve in the trail when the woodpecker flew down and started eating off this plant.

This photo is also of a Downy Woodpecker who was quite friendly. He was at a trail access point where I am guessing, he regularly gets fed by people, as he showed no fear of me and nearly landed on my hand at one point as well.

This is my favourite photo that I took all day. This female Wood Duck was resting just on the edge of the water under a yellow maple tree. The lighting was just right and due to all the leaves being yellow, the light that filtered down became a wonderful golden colour.

The final photo in this blog post is of a White-Breasted Nuthatch that was eating seeds on a rock, probably preparing for winter.

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Iain Leitch Photography

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