Spooked

A much cooler morning saw me rushing through the undergrowth for the perfect vantage point from which to capture photos of the four arctic terns, which were already hunting over Lakeside Park. My clumsy approach scared two night herons and then after a few blurred photos and lots of squawking, the arctic terns disappeared with the osprey they were complaining about. Some you win and that one I definitely lost. The night herons did stick around though, only moving one tree up. More spooked than actually concerned with my presence. I moved as far as I could for a clear viewpoint and took a few photos:


I caught sight of the beaver heading off to its usual sapling trimming area, so I kept my focus on the night herons who were now catching the first rays of sunlight as they lit up the tops of the trees. When I looked away from my camera again, much to my surprise, the beaver was heading straight for me and joined me for a bite to eat. Within 10 feet of me and obviously well aware of my presence as I'm sure it looked right at me while munching. The best I could do with my telephoto lens was to capture its head. The next photo is the original, uncropped:


I missed so many opportunities this morning. I think the old Nikon camera with the auto-focus lens is making me lazy when it comes to using my Pentax with its manual focus.

Here is one which I did catch of the red-tailed hawk who I later saw dive bombing a family of mallard ducks, looking to displace one of the young ones from its mother. That was at the far side of the lake and way too far away for any detailed photos, but I could easily make out two kingfishers who were really giving the hawk a hard time:


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



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

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