Wildlife at Home, the Wetlands and Lakeside Park

We have experienced some really changeable weather of late. From grey overcast days with cold winds that made everyone wrap up again in their winter clothes to warm and beautifully sunny days which gave the illusion that summer is finally here. There has been plenty of activity at Lakeside Park, but I am falling a little behind with my posts and that is purely down to how much time I have to process the images I have been taking. I'll try to recap, starting from the second of May with a pair of Canada geese flying down from the lake to Shoemaker Creek. As you can see it was really overcast. And from the same grainy day, a swamp sparrow sang out at the edge of the reed beds at the top of Shoemaker Lake. Now on to the third of May which really contrasted to the previous day in regards to temperature and visibility. The bright sunlight added a splash of colour to this female red-winged blackbird. Not that it was needed at all, but the strong morning sunlight also l...

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...

I did mention in my previous post that I observed a common grackle at Lakeside Park, although I was unable at the time to obtain photos of any worth. One day later though, as I walked back from the Borden Wetlands and through Highbrook Park, I came across lots of grackles. They appeared to be singing to the sun which had barely ten minutes left before it dipped below the horizon. When the sun is this low, it paints everything with a glorious warmth. The grackles kept to the highest branches, eager to stay in the sun's golden hue. The low sunlight, combined with the iridescent qualities of the grackles feathers, painted the grackles in gold. Here is a male displaying to the world with a familiar pose: I'd normally expect to see a male red-winged blackbird displaying in that fashion with its epaulettes blazing. These photos were taken at Lakeside Park, the morning after the grackle photos. The grackle and red-winged blackbird are shown displaying similarly and...