Wildlife at Home, the Wetlands and Lakeside Park

The rain has kept me away from my mornings at Lakeside Park. I have gone but been forced to leave with the torrential rain we have had. Yesterday though after the rain had stopped, my wife and I ventured out for a walk around the park and of course, no walk is complete without a camera. A T-shirt-wearing 16 degrees had everyone out walking too, so we headed off the beaten track, mindful of social distancing. A walk through the grass beside the pollinator meadow would have been uneventful had the grass not moved. I have seen garter snakes at Lakeside Park before but never actually managed to take a photo. They don't usually hang around. This garter snake did though and mindful of my encounter in October of 2019, I decided to keep my distance:  https://wildlakeside.blogspot.com/2019/10/watch-your-step.html . Garter snakes are well camouflaged and I'm sure had it not been for its movement we would not have noticed it at all. The unusually mild weather and the heat o...

A beautifully sunny morning started with a meet-up with my photographer friend from yesterday. I remember leaving him with another photographer, both on the trail of the pileated woodpeckers. He had no photos of the pileated woodpeckers, but he did show me a photo of a sharp-shinned hawk that he took yesterday at Lakeside Park. No sooner had he showed me the photo than a Cooper's hawk flew in, landing high up in the trees. We both scrambled for the best position, but the hawk did not have enough patience to wait for us to get our feet set. It took off to the far side of the lake. My friend wished me good luck and we parted company. I set off on my usual route, wondering what the day would bring. I didn't hold much hope of seeing the hawk again and decided to just enjoy the fresh air and the walk. That walk was soon interrupted though by some familiar bird of prey calls. Looking up into the sunlight amongst the silhouettes of branches, I saw a pair of Cooper's ha...

Today was my first sighting this year of a great blue heron at Lakeside Park. I was, however, unable to get a clear shot, as I was under the cover of the branches of the trees on the far side of the lake when the heron flew up. I did see it though and have a very blurred photo as proof. I also had my first sighting of 2020 of this strange-looking creature. The lake has obviously completely thawed now, all the way down to the stream that runs away from the lake. But what of the mysterious creature with the tail of an eel. It is, of course, a muskrat and not strange at all but beautifully adapted to its lifestyle. A little wash, and then a scratch here and there with those incredible hind feet... so good! And then off into the water. The muskrat may not look like it'd be a good swimmer with that lumpy looking body, but it is a great swimmer. The muskrat's flat tail is used to propel it through the water. And it also has the added advantage of those h...

This spring weather is being fickle. Three days ago at Lakeside Park the swans and ducks were feeding bottoms up on the aquatic plants in the lake, and today it is snowing as if it means not to stop. I shall cast my mind back a day, to Sunday morning, and some cold but sunny weather that once again saw the majority of the lake frozen. I do realize that the title of this post mentions the word pileated and that this bird is a Cooper's hawk that has yet to gain its adult plumage. This Cooper's hawk did have a part to play in the morning's proceedings though. It flew overhead moments before I located the pileated woodpeckers and gave out a fairly weak, "eek... eek" as it passed by. I do like to try to emulate bird calls and so I responded with my own desperate sounding, "eek... eek" as I fired off a few photos, trying to capture the hawk's flight. Surprisingly, the Cooper's hawk glanced down, diverted its flight and landed close by. I continue...