Wildlife at Home, the Wetlands and Lakeside Park

I have not been to Lakeside Park since the 2nd of April and I must admit that I am missing my walks around the lake and my observations of the wildlife there. Work has kept me too busy to even go through my photos, but I feel I should make an effort. The last time that I observed this bird at Lakeside Park was in October of 2019. From the front, it is a strange-looking creature with its black bib and those eyes that appear to see everything from every direction. It is remarkably hard to get close to. From the side, it is easily identifiable as a pied-billed grebe. It was extremely cautious, and the slightest suggestion that there may be something human-looking and it moved off, and out of range. I circled the lake a few times in my rubber boots attempting to sneak up unawares, but this grebe was way too canny for me. After my initial photos, the best that I could do was to take shots from a good distance away, and while being not very detailed, they do show what ...

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...

Let me introduce you to a red squirrel named Flick. A mischievous character who I met on this beautifully sunny, first day of March. I dubbed this squirrel after his namesake in the movie, "A Christmas Story". The boy who, after taking a triple dog dare, got his tongue well and truly stuck to a flag pole. Here is Flick with his predicament. It looks hilarious, but no, Flick isn't really stuck. This behaviour is brought on when the caches of food for winter have all but run out, and it also coincides with the rising of the sap in trees, particularly maple trees as they have the highest sugar content. Here is Flick on a different tree, first giving the branch a little hug. And then chomp, in go the incisors. A bite deep enough to tap into the tree's xylem tissue. The sap then starts to flow from the wound, and Flick will return to lick off the sugary residue when most of the moisture has evaporated. The male red-winged blackbirds have return...