FIELD TRIP
Ottawa River, Parc du Lac Leamy opposite the Rideau Falls
The Ottawa River has two lives: the one most people see, and the one that happens down at the water’s edge in the shallows. These photos are from that second life: urban wetlands, slow water, sometimes ice, looking for the kind of light that shows up when you're awake early and not in a hurry.
The Ottawa River runs along the Ontario-Quebec border. As it flows through the Ottawa / Gatineau area it borders many green spaces. The river's edges do a lot of quiet work. White-tailed deer pick their way through the shallows at the wood line. Raccoons wade, forage, and stare back with characteristic indifference. Great blue herons hold their ground in the reeds or stand in open water as if they have nowhere else to be and know it. Beavers and muskrats tend their lodges in the margins where the river loses its shape and becomes something more like a wetland. It's a place I return to through every season.
Pregnant white-tailed deer at the base of a tree on a grassy bank, reflected in the Ottawa River, Gatineau
Two white-tailed deer standing close together in shallow water, Ottawa River, Gatineau
White-tailed deer facing the camera among trees at the water's edge, Ottawa River, Gatineau
White-tailed deer on a grassy bank beside fallen branches, Ottawa River, Gatineau
White-tailed deer wading through the shallows with its tail raised, Ottawa River, Gatineau
Double-crested cormorant spreading its wings on a bare branch, Ottawa River, Gatineau
Canada goose swimming in warm morning light, Ottawa River
Two river otters on a tangle of driftwood at the water's edge, Ottawa River
River otter crossing pale driftwood on a beaver lodge at the shoreline, Ottawa River
Raccoon standing in shallow water, looking at the camera, Ottawa River
Raccoon feeding the shallows with its front paws, Ottawa River
White-tailed deer side-lit in tall grass at the forest edge, Ottawa River
Beaver swimming with its head above calm green water, Ottawa
Beaver jumping out of the water with a stick in its mouth, Ottawa
Great blue heron standing in shallow water among reeds, Buckhams Bay, Ottawa River
Great blue heron walking along a half-submerged log, Ottawa
Great blue heron perched on a bare branch over the water, Ottawa
Ring-billed gull flying low over the Deschênes Rapids, Ottawa River
Double-crested cormorant perched on a bare snag above the water, Ottawa
Double-crested cormorant drying its spread wings on a rock, Morris Island, Ottawa River
Double-crested cormorants nesting in a dead tree, Deschênes Rapids, Ottawa River
Eastern kingbird perched on the edge of a rusted, riveted steel structure, Ottawa River, Gatineau
Female common merganser standing on a weathered log, Ottawa
Young hooded merganser swimming past reeds, Ottawa River