Wildlife at Home, the Wetlands and Lakeside Park

The belted kingfisher is a bird that I regularly see and hear every morning at Lakeside Park. They give off flashes of white from their flight feathers that contrast against the shaded trees on the far bank of Shoemaker Lake, as they swoop from perch to perch,. They call when they approach anywhere near, warning others that I'm there. I feel at times that they are mocking me... I see you! Their eyesight is so keen that it is almost impossible to get close enough for a photo, from any angle. The only time I have been able to photograph them was when the fledglings appeared last year and had not quite developed their sense of what to be aware of,  https://wildlakeside.blogspot.com/2019/07/kingfishers-at-last.html . I was quite happily photographing bumblebees and sweat bees, as they busily worked on a group of buttonbush (Cephalanthus Occidentalis) shrubs on the sunny side of Shoemaker Lake when I first heard the belted kingfisher this morning. The kingfisher was ...

The photo you're about to see appears to show a bumblebee clinging to a beautiful goldenrod flower, but look closer: The bumblebee was actually lifeless and was being prevented from falling by the vice-like grip of an ambush bug. There are two mating ambush bugs in the photo, the larger female is feeding on the bumblebee! I had wondered where all the frogs had gone. I hadn't heard any croaking for weeks now. A little attention to detail on my part and I found the frogs were all around me, although not croaking: A close-up of another green frog: This photo was not taken at Lakeside Park but at my home. I took the opportunity to bring out my oldest Pentax camera with only 6 megapixels onboard while I barbecued a little something to eat. It's an old camera, but it can still perform in the right light. The bird in the photo is a house finch: Copyright  ©  wildlakeside.blogpot.com 2019 Scott Atkinson All Rights Reserved.

The coldest morning so far heralded a gorgeously clear blue sky. The sun stays much lower now and that is good and bad. It's almost 7 AM before the sun breaks through the trees, but that low light adds so much contrast to our world. Everyone was wanting to warm up. The first to catch the morning sun was this great blue heron who strategically perched on the top of the willow tree, right at the bottom of Lakeside Park, beside Greenbrook Drive: I could have stayed there all morning, as the heron never moved while I was at Lakeside Park, but there was more to see.  After so many overcast days, this morning was very welcome. A young warbling vireo found a secluded perch to warm up in the sun and occasionally be fed by its parents: I often see cardinals at the lake but seem unable to capture any reasonable photos of them. This was a welcome photo opportunity: I never really moved from the bottom edge of the lake. This song sparrow was preening itself in the bushes in the ...

This morning saw me waiting for the sun to rise and cast some light on a bumblebee that was resting on what I believe was a sneezeweed flower. I'd invested in a monopod on Wednesday, primarily for close up work and this was going to be my first chance to try it out with my older Pentax and my DIY macro lens. It's a full 45 minutes now before the sun rises after I leave my workplace at 6 AM. The nights are gradually closing in, and I am now reluctantly coming to terms with the fact that I soon won't be able to continue my photography at Lakeside Park in the mornings, stopping off on my way home from work. It is simply too dark. I was resigned to my soon-to-be fate and thinking to myself that I probably wouldn't see much of anything before it was time to leave the lake when this beautiful great egret flew in, landing very close to me. I apologize for the blur in this photo, but I simply had to include the egret's flight: Closely watched by myself and the great b...

A cool morning at Lakeside Park had me waiting for the sun to rise up over the trees. I was watching six arctic terns in the dim light as they searched the lake for their breakfast. Much too dark for any photos, but today I thought I'd try recording them complaining to each other which they often do. Right on cue, a red-tailed hawk flew out from the trees as I started recording and that was reason enough for the arctic terns to complain: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1hCrP0qJ1j98zMWY4MeSlo3-1N9uJf-5j I was waiting and the insects also were waiting for the sun to provide enough heat to get them moving. These pink flowers of which there are many at the moment caught the first rays of the sun and were in great demand by the bumblebees: Concentrating on the flowers and bumblebees with my macro lens, I was completely oblivious to my surroundings until a huge shadow passed over. I spun around, looking into the sun, scanning the branches, and there on the lake's edge was t...

I had no plans to go to Lakeside Park this morning. It had been raining, and my google assistant assured me that the rain would continue. I'm not a big fan of the rain, but more importantly, the dense cloud cover at that time was really cutting down on the available light. I checked later at 7 AM and the rain had not started again. Perhaps my google assistant had got it wrong and even if the rain did start, I could always turn around and come home. I packed up my cameras, including the macro lens and off I went. I've been on holiday this past week, and when I ride to the lake this way (from home), I always dismount before walking slowly to the main seated area, trying not to scare anything away. I have the best view of the lake from there and can then decide where I should go. As I walked my bike along to the seated area, it was clear that someone else had already taken my vantage point: I kept my distance, and after shooting off a few photos, I looked around to see if...