An Osprey Day


I had a small window this morning to visit Lakeside Park. I had to be back home before 9 AM, and it looked like it was raining outside. Perhaps I should just stay home. I was undecided and so let my google assistant decide for me. Was it going to rain this morning? No, came the reply. I hurriedly got my things together and set off on my bike. It was really humid this morning and the ground still showed signs of the rain which had passed through. Lakeside Park seemed quiet, with not many ducks or geese. I spotted the great blue heron on the far side of the lake, preening its feathers. The kingfisher was perched high up in the willow tree. A large bird flew over from my left, perhaps another heron, but the markings on the wings looked different; it was an osprey. It landed at the other end of the lake in the far left corner on an outstretched branch. I made my way on foot, up the trail and then down through the undergrowth, doing my best to keep out of sight while I looked for a good vantage point. The osprey had what appeared to be one of the goldfish grasped within its talons:


The osprey paused occasionally in between bites to look around:


It soon finished its goldfish snack and then went about the business of cleaning up. The osprey used an upward-pointing branch to rub the debris from its face and beak:


The osprey, now clean, took off from the branch and I thought that was the last that I would see of the osprey. I was very thankful for my visit to the lake this morning:


I made my way through the wet undergrowth and out into the open where I was surprised to see the osprey perched precariously on the tip of a branch. It had its wings held open and I guessed that was to help dry its feathers:


The osprey soon flew off, leaving Lakeside Park, and I decided to switch to my macro camera in an attempt to take whatever I could find as I walked back to my bike. I do take photos of slugs and snails, but don't normally include them. This photo, however, with the bright red of the leaf that the slug was feeding on, had to be uploaded:


I am really not good at identifying insects. I think this is a katydid, but the exact kind of katydid, I am not sure. I found it resting on a sneezeweed flower that had lost all of its petals. There is a big patch of sneezeweed beside the second seated area next to the trail. I actually had to double-check this photo after I'd uploaded the image as I noticed a black line running off to the top. Perhaps the software which processes the raw images had glitched, but on closer inspection, it is the antenna of the insect:


The insect in this photo is easily identifiable as a ladybug:


This much larger insect which resembles the ladybug is, in fact, a beetle, a swamp milkweed leaf beetle:


Another member of the tussock moth family. This is a banded tussock moth caterpillar:


One last photo before I left, of a grey squirrel which had found the perfect place to sit as it munched on a walnut. It was sitting on a bat box :


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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