Four images of The Pine Marten - a lucky find.

Two of us went to Algonquin Park, a three hour drive from Ottawa. We hoped to find most, if not all, of the following: Boreal Chickadees, Pine & Evening Grosbeaks, Gray Jays and Three-toed Woodpeckers, all of which had reportedly been sighted there recently. We got there at around 8:30 AM. By noon, we had seen none of the expected birds. It didn't help to be told that " you should have come yesterday, there were all kinds of birds here then." Even at the feeders, all we saw was one Blue Jay and a few B-c Chickadees.

After lunch, we went down a short road to where Gray Jays had been reported. We put out some sunflower seeds along the side of the road, but struck out again as only a few Blue jays and some B-c Chickadees appeared. Then along came a car filled with a family including three little girls. The girls piled out of the car with hands full of bread crumbs. Wouldn't you believe it, within a minute three or four Gray Jays appeared and took the bread from the extended hands. Thus we got some good shots of the Gray Jays (another first for me)

When we had finished with the Jays, we turned back to where we had placed the sunflower seeds and where pleasantly surprised to find this cute little Pine Martin helping itself to a meal. An other first for both of us. The Marten was reluctant to leave its lunch; hence, we were able to get many good shots of it.

We then ran into an elderly couple who told us about a Mink they had seen back along the road a ways. We went to check it out but couldn't find the Mink. Instead we found some Beavers and were able to get some nice shots of them before they noticed us. After that it was time to go home.

So, even though the birds mostly eluded us, we had a good, if somewhat lucky, day.