woodpeckers, swallows, American bitterns
and the occasional predator, such as an os-
prey or hawk. In terms of mammals, the list
includes beavers, fox, deer, minks, weasels,
groundhogs and the more elusive moose
and black bears. Other creatures to observe
include butterflies, a variety of colourful fly-
ing insects and snakes.
Viewing and photographing from a kay-
ak has the unique advantage of being very
quiet, plus you’re at eye level with the
water. This allows you to capture natural
behaviour as it unfolds in front of you.
One of the more incredible sights I wit-
nessed was when a visiting loon came to
an area where there was already a family of
loons living, including two young ones. The
adult loons prompted the babies to hide,
which they did by heading to shore and
making their bodies flush with the water,
so they were hardly visible. The adults thenswam over to greet the visitor. What start-
ed as a friendly gathering rapidly shifted as
one of the adults made a series of aggressive
dance-like moves toward the visitor who
subsequently fled the area. The adults then
swam back toward their young ones, which
were suddenly visible again. It was a truly
extraordinary scene!
Other opportunities to see natural be-
haviour are everywhere as long as you have
the patience to seek them out and wait for
events to unfold. For example, in all these
years, I had never before seen a mallard eat
a frog. I never even knew they did that. Then
one day, I saw a duck moving its head furi-
ously. As I moved closer, my camera at the
ready, I noticed that the mallard was strug-
gling with a frog. Though dicult to watch
at times, it was a remarkable display of the
life cycle in the natural world.
For the most part, I believe people are
respectful of nature. Occasionally, nature
becomes curious about their strange-look-
ing neighbours, we humans. One morning
as I was kayaking, a duck began swimming
toward me. Normally, it would do a swim-
by and keep moving, but on this morning,
it jumped up onto the front of my kayak! At
first, I thought it would jump right back into
the water, but it didn’t. It was very curious
and stayed for a while, admiring its new
vantage point. Then it suddenly decided it
had had enough and preferred swimming to
kayaking.
While it’s true that there are some far-
flung locations with higher concentrations
of wildlife, some very exotic, Canadians are
blessed to have access to an amazing vari-
ety of wildlife wherever you live. If you don’t
know where to go, an Internet search is the
best way to discover areas to explore. TryClockwise
from above: a
beautiful belted
kingfisher; a
butterfly sipping
flower nectar;
a common loon
dancing across
the water; a frog
nestled in
the weeds.
12 Our Canada AUGUST / SEPTEMBER 2019