Wildlife at Home, the Wetlands and Lakeside Park

This morning saw me waiting for the sun to rise and cast some light on a bumblebee that was resting on what I believe was a sneezeweed flower. I'd invested in a monopod on Wednesday, primarily for close up work and this was going to be my first chance to try it out with my older Pentax and my DIY macro lens. It's a full 45 minutes now before the sun rises after I leave my workplace at 6 AM. The nights are gradually closing in, and I am now reluctantly coming to terms with the fact that I soon won't be able to continue my photography at Lakeside Park in the mornings, stopping off on my way home from work. It is simply too dark. I was resigned to my soon-to-be fate and thinking to myself that I probably wouldn't see much of anything before it was time to leave the lake when this beautiful great egret flew in, landing very close to me. I apologize for the blur in this photo, but I simply had to include the egret's flight: Closely watched by myself and the great b...

A change of pace this morning at Lakeside Park. I have lots of heron, hawk and beaver photos now, so I turned my attention to the flower meadow and the flowers and insects therein. I tried a different lens today, actually the AF lens that came with my camera which strangely enough, I've hardly ever used. Two bumblebees on a flower which I believe to be wild mint, there are beds of the mint all over the wildflower meadow. If you know any of the plants to be different from what I have listed, please leave a comment below: I was getting lined up for a photo of this milkweed flower when I noticed something hiding amongst the flower stems:  A really big grasshopper. I moved an obstructing stem to reveal the grasshopper in all of its detail: Another bumblebee on what I believe to be joe-pye weed: Lastly a photo I took on the side of the lake. A funnel-web/grass spider: Copyright  ©  wildlakeside.blogpot.com 2019 Scott Atkinson All Rights Reserved.

My morning was almost a repeat of yesterday at Lakeside Park. The great blue heron was in position and there was again not enough light for anything other than grainy photos when I first arrived. I felt that I had to upload this dark and grainy photo though, because instead of a catfish, the great blue heron pulled what appears to be a crayfish out of the lake, and that is a first for me: I really did not want to take similar photos to those I took of the great blue heron yesterday, so I decided to move further along to where the beaver was busily working on its daily maintenance, clearing channels in the bed of the stream. Moving mud: And also any branches which were obstructing: I walked inland from there to the wildflower meadow and was happy to find a little hairy caterpillar on a leaf, bejewelled by the morning dew: I heard a car pull into the parking area and met up with a fellow photographer. We swapped stories for a while and then spied the young pied-bill...

I believe I have mentioned this before, that the great blue heron is remarkably hospitable as long as you obey the rule of moving really slowly. In fact, observe the heron and then move at the same pace. That was how my morning started at Lakeside Park. I was snapping photos of the great blue heron in nowhere near enough light to capture anything upload worthy. The heron was snacking on little fish, not minding the mallards at all who were feeding at the edge of the reeds, or the guy with the camera moving ridiculously slowly on the bank. One tiny fish after another, as little by little the light gradually improved and the grain in my photos decreased: The heron would catch sight of a fish and then adjust its position before snapping the fish up. It turned and walked to the edge of the reeds and obviously had its eye on something amongst the silt the mallards had kicked up. A split second later, it had caught its prize, a catfish: Normally at this point, the great blue heron ...

A cool morning at Lakeside Park had me waiting for the sun to rise up over the trees. I was watching six arctic terns in the dim light as they searched the lake for their breakfast. Much too dark for any photos, but today I thought I'd try recording them complaining to each other which they often do. Right on cue, a red-tailed hawk flew out from the trees as I started recording and that was reason enough for the arctic terns to complain: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1hCrP0qJ1j98zMWY4MeSlo3-1N9uJf-5j I was waiting and the insects also were waiting for the sun to provide enough heat to get them moving. These pink flowers of which there are many at the moment caught the first rays of the sun and were in great demand by the bumblebees: Concentrating on the flowers and bumblebees with my macro lens, I was completely oblivious to my surroundings until a huge shadow passed over. I spun around, looking into the sun, scanning the branches, and there on the lake's edge was t...

There were five arctic terns hunting over Lakeside Park this morning with barely enough light to see by, let alone take any photos. The tern's eyesight must be so much better than ours. The young pied-billed grebe was still performing its miniature submarine trick, diving its way to the far side of the lake as soon as I was sighted. It is still possible to follow its movement underwater by watching the triangular-shaped ripple on the surface. I spotted the beaver among the lily pads eating a favoured treat: Joining the dots between lily pad flowers, the beaver made its way across the lake, heading for home: I found the perfect spot to stay out of sight and catch the beaver as it surfaced. I remembered the technique I used last year to catch the beaver in-focus by setting the focal point just ahead of its movement, and as soon as it came into the depth of field, click: This spotted jewelweed or touch-me-not was host to some bumblebees this morning, moving around the p...

Lots of concern among the birds as I arrived at Lakeside Park this morning. I came from my home as I'd had to be back early. Arriving off the trail crossing Greenbrook Drive, I skirted around the path at the bottom of the lake. I heard crows cawing and just caught sight of one of the crows being chased by a large hawk over Stirling Avenue. I followed but completely lost the birds while crossing the busy road. I made my way back to the lake and was just about to go to the seated area when I again heard the crows. The crows were loudly complaining about something high up in the gnarled old willow tree, which is at the lower end of the park beside the junction of Greenbrook and Stirling. A catbird which was really close to me was also making alarm calls with its attention fixed on the willow tree. I heard the calls of a bird of prey and finally spotted it. A young cooper's hawk was attracting all of the attention, but it also seemed to be complaining about something else in the t...

Only one lonely photo of the wildlife at Lakeside Park this morning. The subject of the photo, however, was not lonely, as the beaver had the ducks and me for company. I arrived at the lake a little after 5 AM with the moon reflecting just enough light to see by: I had to push my bike from my workplace to the lake as my back tire was experiencing a general lack of air. I waited for just enough light (which wasn't much) to snap one photo of the beaver on my fastest ISO as it surfaced right in front of me: The beaver was busy with its weed and mud moving activities, but I, unfortunately, had to leave Lakeside Park early, as I had a long push home. A trip to Canadian Tire, one worn-out innertube replaced and I am back in business. Copyright  ©  wildlakeside.blogpot.com 2019 Scott Atkinson All Rights Reserved.

I had no plans to go to Lakeside Park this morning. It had been raining, and my google assistant assured me that the rain would continue. I'm not a big fan of the rain, but more importantly, the dense cloud cover at that time was really cutting down on the available light. I checked later at 7 AM and the rain had not started again. Perhaps my google assistant had got it wrong and even if the rain did start, I could always turn around and come home. I packed up my cameras, including the macro lens and off I went. I've been on holiday this past week, and when I ride to the lake this way (from home), I always dismount before walking slowly to the main seated area, trying not to scare anything away. I have the best view of the lake from there and can then decide where I should go. As I walked my bike along to the seated area, it was clear that someone else had already taken my vantage point: I kept my distance, and after shooting off a few photos, I looked around to see if...

No sooner do I mention a grebe (yesterday) than one visits Lakeside Park. At least that is what I thought the small bird was. Looking through my lens from the main seated area, I could tell that it was much smaller than the mallards and it was also diving. It had to be a grebe. It kept diving and surfacing, moving to the far end of the lake: I followed the path around to the top of the lake and found a good place to chain my bike. Looking out over the lake from the side bank, I should have been able to see the grebe, but there was nothing other than mallard ducks and a great blue heron on the far bank. I waited for the grebe to appear, and waited, nothing. I looked around for something to busy myself with and found this curiously striped and spotted caterpillar on the stem of a grapevine. A good chance to use my DIY macro lens. A later google search came up with an eight-spotted forester moth caterpillar: I had given up any thought of seeing the grebe. It must have lef...