Wildlife at Home, the Wetlands and Lakeside Park

I had meant to publish these images on my last post, but I felt that it was already getting pretty full. We have had goslings at Lakeside Park for a few days now. They are so cute and fluffy and they do have the ability to make people stop in their tracks to take a photo or two on their cell phone or camera. I am no different from anyone else in that respect, but it seems that every morning I am given better photos, so here are my best and cutest so far. After their breakfast, this group of five goslings huddled together and were soon joined by their mother who snuggled up to them and then covered her goslings with her wing for safety as they took an early morning nap. Not to be outdone by the goslings at Lakeside Park, we also have cute ducklings. The warbler migration is now in full swing, and that can be attested to by the numbers of birdwatchers and photographers who are also migrating to Lakeside Park and who are at times outnumbering the warblers. It is good ...

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...

This morning was special, Lakeside Park gifted me with so many photo opportunities. Photos of an animal that I have not seen at Lakeside Park for a long time and also of some elusive birds that I had wanted to better my previous photos of. It was a cold but gloriously sunny morning, everything crunched underfoot from the nights low of -2 degrees. I followed the sunlight along the bank of the lake and was preoccupied, focusing on a northern flicker that was drumming on a hollow dead tree when I noticed a distraction off to my left as it climbed its way up a tree. The last time that I saw a raccoon at Lakeside Park was back in March of 2018, and that was a young raccoon ( https://wildlakeside.blogspot.com/2019/07/a-wet-and-cold-raccoon.html ). This raccoon was a large adult. I took a few photos before moving along. The northern flicker's drumming and calling had attracted a mate. It presented itself to its partner, tail feathers spread out in an orange fan, fri...