On a Gossamer Thread

Last comes first in this post. The last thing which I took a photo of this morning, were these hairy, white caterpillars which I almost rode into on my way back from Lakeside Park. They were suspended from a black walnut tree, right over the trail, at head height. There were lots of gossamer threads strung from that tree, all with their own abseiling caterpillars, which were wriggling a dazzling dance in the sunlight:


If there is such a thing as a deluge of birds, then I experienced it this morning. I was literally surrounded at one point, with woodpeckers, the northern flicker, a nuthatch, chickadees, young robins etc. And as usual, I missed more photo opportunities than I took. Here is another photo of a juvenile baltimore oriole with what looks like a grasshopper in its grasp:


A female rose-breasted grosbeak, which I had to include even though the pose and photo quality are not that good:


This young bird, which I had to use my Merlin app to identify as a young warbling vireo:


Of course, I had to end with a heron. This green heron completely caught me off guard. I was not expecting to see it, perched where the male red-winged blackbirds normally like to display. It also quite surprisingly, let me walk right up to it.
I am now more confident after looking at this photo, that it is a green heron. The chestnut coloration on its neck is more noticeable:


Copyright © wildlakeside.blogpot.com 2019 Scott Atkinson All Rights Reserved.




Location: Lakeside Park, 206 Lakeside Dr, Kitchener, ON N2M 4C5, Canada

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

A Coyote, an Osprey and a Goldfish

Image
I never know what I'll find when I go to Lakeside Park, and sometimes it isn't what I find, rather what finds me. Partly hidden behind the woodland's latticework of twigs and fallen branches, this coyote knew I was there. It could definitely hear my clumsy rubber boots and with the wind coming from behind me, it also had the advantage of scent, but it hadn't seen me yet. I knew that I only had a few moments, if that, to capture some photographs. My autofocus struggled, as did the coyote's sight, to cut through all of the obstructions between us, but I did somehow manage a few shots before the coyote disappeared into the undergrowth.  The unexpected often catches me unprepared. A little earlier in the morning, I was attempting to take a photo of the first migratory warbler that I have seen this year, a yellow-rumped warbler. The warbler would not sit still for an instant, and in the course of attempting to relocate the warbler, I was entirely ta...
Read more

Thrushes and Blue-Winged Teal

Image
I must admit that I am no expert when it comes to thrushes in Ontario. I am well acquainted with thrushes in the UK, but these guys have completely different names. I will do my best to hopefully identify correctly. There are I believe two possible candidates,  Swainson's thrush and the hermit thrush. Very similar-looking birds. One outstanding difference between them appears to be a white ring around the eye of the hermit thrush compared to a buffy eyering on Swainson's thrush. Another distinguishing detail is the colour of their tailfeathers. The hermit thrush has more of a cinnamon colour to its tailfeathers, and this photo does show that. A white eyering and cinnamon tailfeathers, I'm going with a hermit thrush. This photo also shows both the cinnamon tailfeathers and the white eyering. There were many of these thrushes working their way through the leaf litter of the woodland on the far side of Shoemaker Lake. They were very sensitive to any movement. I h...
Read more

Kingfishers and a Green Heron

Image
Viewing the expanse of Shoemaker Lake from the bottom edge of the lake is a great way to start a morning's birdwatching. The whole of the lake is visible and with the aid of binoculars or a camera equipped with a telephoto lens, it's easy to pick out the great blue heron, the kingfishers and on the odd occasion even an osprey. I'd already located the kingfishers and this really is a great time to watch them hunt as the young have fledged and are busy honing their fishing skills. They are numerous and at times present all around Shoemaker Lake. Scanning further around the lake, I located a heron much smaller than the great blue heron. Not a night-heron as they have sadly been missing from Lakeside Park this year, this was a young green heron perched on the dead branches of a black walnut tree. It was way over to my left, standing out, highlighted in contrast to the shade of the black walnut's leaves behind it. Some kingfishers were also on that side of the lake, and so I...
Read more