Last year I embarked on a new odonate project: to study the species found at one tiny park along the Jock River. This park, originally named Bow of the Jock Park before it was changed to Terry Carisse Park in 2006, consists of a narrow strip of green space that runs perhaps 500 or 700 meters along the shore of the Jock River on an elevated bank about two meters above the water. The park itself consists mostly of manicured lawn with a wooded swamp at the north end where Mahoney Creek empties into the Jock River, two launching areas for canoes and kayaks, a playground, and a thick band of riparian vegetation that almost completely blocks all views of the river from one end of the park to the other. The Jock River itself is smaller than the Rideau River, much more sluggish, without a lot of rocks or rapids that would attract the clubtails and spiketails found in Gatineau Park. It hasn’t been surveyed for odonates as well as the Ottawa River has, mainly because much of it runs through private agricultural or residential land, with only a few small parks with even smaller access points in Richmond and Ottawa.
Continue reading “Elegance and Rainbows at Terry Carisse Park”
OdoNotations 