More Ottawa Wildlife

This is page two providing information about some of the wildlife that can be seen in and around Ottawa, Ontario - Canada!

Page one about Ottawa wildlife can be found here.

Do you have a picture of Ottawa wildlife that you would like to share with the world? On page one you can upload your own Ottawa wildlife photo and provide sighting details so that people from around the globe can see your photo and comments. Help yourself!

And now, here's more photos of Ottawa's wildlife for your enjoyment.

Just in...An Elk Sighting...Absolutely Incredible!

This is unbelievable!

This photo was taken by my partner and wife, Suzanne, late in the afternoon on October 6, 2009.

The location was about 2.25 hours west and south of Ottawa.

Let me make this absolutely clear!

This creature, commonly a denizen of the tundra, found in Canada's north and down the west coast, was photographed on a fall Tuesday afternoon in a field, south and west of Ottawa.

That's a first for us, folks.

Are you going to see an Elk in downtown Ottawa during your visit? No, not a live one, certainly.

Yet, if you get the chance to drive the suburban and country roads around Ottawa, particularly to the west and south of Ottawa...hey, you never know.

We now live near where Suzanne saw the Elk. Though I haven't yet, I sure hope I get to see him one day soon. What a magnificent animal.

It's hard to believe you might see this incredible creature during your visit to Ottawa, Ontario Canada. When you are here, why not take a drive in the country around Ottawa, and you just might!

Mallard Duck

Mallards used to migrate in the fall, and return in the spring. Now, they can sometimes be seen perched on the ice adjacent to an open stretch of water almost all winter. It helps that users of Ottawa's kilometers of bike and walking trails, much of them parallel to the waterways, feed the birds year round.

The photo is of the female. The male mallard duck has an incredibly green head, light body colour, and assorted color feathers. I didn't get the chance to photograph the drake, unfortunately.

Mallards are not unique to North America. I can recall wandering the shores of Lago del Garda in Italy some years ago, and seeing the mallard hens and drakes there tugged at my homesick heartstrings.

Turtle

The one in the photo had just finished laying her eggs in a sand pile in June, and was heading back to wherever it is that turtles go when they've completed that task.

I believe the one in my photo is a Box Turtle. Harmless creatures, they spend their days sunning on logs and rocks near water, munching on earthworms, insects and small amphibians if they can catch them.

Due to their ponderous and slow-walking nature they easy prey out of the water and many of them are killed each year by cars and trucks as they meander across the roads in an around Ottawa.