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...

You'd be forgiven for thinking that this ring-billed gull was having a leisurely stroll across the surface of the water at Lakeside Park. It does appear to be doing just that. The ripples on the surface of the lake were in evidence, but the water was completely frozen. I have no idea how water can freeze so fast as to preserve ripples, but as they say, the camera does not lie. I have seen ring-billed gulls diving for fish at Lakeside Park in warmer weather, but what was so enticing to this gull and its friend, on a frozen lake? Frozen hard-boiled eggs! That's right, hard-boiled eggs that two city workers discarded when they took an early morning break. The gift of a free meal did not go unnoticed for long, and the gulls were soon joined by another scavenger. These American crows were not going to miss out. That gave me the perfect opportunity to get close enough to the crows for some detail. There has been so much activity at Lakeside Park recently. ...

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...