Wildlife at Home, the Wetlands and Lakeside Park

This morning started well enough at Lakeside Park. An encounter with an endearing chipmunk who, as the weather had taken a turn for the cooler, was catching the first rays of sunlight on the chipmunks favoured log pile. My morning then took a turn for the worse, and suffice it to say that I felt the need to keep one eye on my car. I did not want to backtrack, so I decided to take the long trek along the rough path on the far side of Shoemaker Lake. From that side of the lake, I could easily keep watch over the parking area. I took the shortest route that I could, cutting across the boggy wetland now hidden by the ever taller reeds and grasses at the top edge of the lake. A route I had taken many times in the past. My mind was not focused on photography as I hurriedly stepped out from the cover of bushes and reeds, and then became instantly aware that I was being watched. I was surely heard long before I was seen as I was not being that mindful of my approach. Two eyes caught ...

I rode my bike to Lakeside Park this morning. It was a cold start to the day with a heavy frost on the low lying grass. There was not a great deal of activity. The sun was low in the sky, providing beautiful contrast to everything it touched, but where were the birds? I could hear the squirrels complaining and this chipmunk was keeping well out of sight as it had a little nibble: I walked further up the lake, near the top edge where I noticed the reason for the bird's inactivity. Sitting on its favourite perch was the merlin: It surveyed the world around it: Basking in the sun as it did so: And also keeping one eye on me: I was happy for the photo opportunity but the merlin soon took to flight in search of its next meal. In the merlin's absence, the birds now started to appear. Finches, song sparrows, white-throated sparrows, a ruby-crowned kinglet: And a cardinal which was silhouetted with the sun behind it: A number of ring-billed gulls st...

There is no escaping the fact, chipmunks are undeniably cute. I took this photo towards the end of my excursion to Lakeside Park this morning, but I felt that it deserved pride of place in my list of photos. I found this chipmunk on their favourite log pile, sitting there beside the trail, waiting, looking all forlorn. Waiting I think for the sun, which was nowhere to be seen: This morning I decided to pick up where I was forced to leave off yesterday. With my batteries charged up, I was ready for some macro shots. These black hornets with white markings are always busy hunting. They very rarely pause for a moment and are therefore very hard to photograph. I found this hornet on a leaf in the cool of the morning, unable to move without first warming in the sun which had yet to rise over the trees. It is a bald-faced hornet: From its underside, this spider looked just like a smaller version of the black and yellow garden spider or zig-zag spider: From above though, it...

No Lakeside Park for me today. With contractors coming in the early hours to replace a bathtub, I'd be house sitting for the best part of the day. A good opportunity to capture what wildlife my feeders are attracting in our garden. I set up a tripod with a good view through the patio doors. I also wanted to try out the second hand Soligor 350mm lens which I'd upgraded with a lens hood to hopefully reduce flare. I'll post the pictures as taken. First off is a house finch, which we have many being attracted to the sunflower seeds in the feeders: We also have house sparrows, and you'd think they'd dominate, being larger, but not at all. They actually wait their turn after the house finches. Here's a male house sparrow, waiting: Lots of chickadees, and I do love them as they are a close relative to the blue tits, great tits, coal tits and my favorite, the long-tailed tits from the UK. Here is a chickadee with the bath all to itself: A few you...

I'm getting a little behind with my posts, so I've decided to merge two days into one post. I'll start with yesterday, which was so overcast that many of my pictures did not turn out. The morning started with a family of wrens at the stream end of Lakeside Park. The wrens and a great crested flycatcher were complaining like crazy about something in the undergrowth which I never saw, but which was obviously cause for concern. The great blue herons were there in numbers. It didn't seem to matter where I was at the lake, the herons were there. Two in the branches of a tree on the opposite side of the stream caught my attention. One with its neck fully outstretched, which looked really bizarre among all of the dead branches: Here is one of the better photos which (as my subject was too close for my telephoto lens) was taken with my go-everywhere camera, a Canon Powershot SX 720: Of most interest that morning was a little green hummingbird which was being attracted...

Berries are the theme for this post. Partway up the kingbirds tree, this little chipmunk decided to take a break. Seemingly out of no'where, it produced a red berry. One second its hands were empty and the next it was munching on the berry. Perhaps from its cheek pouch: One of the chipmunks cousins, a grey squirrel was also enjoying the bountiful supply of berries around at the moment. The mulberry tree is still attracting a lot of attention from the birds and squirrels: This young Baltimore Oriole was also in the same mulberry tree when I first saw it, before it moved over to this maple tree: I have decided that it is an oriole and not a flycatcher. The colors are way too strong and it lacks the obvious head crest of the flycatchers in these photos: Lastly, no berries, but a night heron hiding out in a willow tree. I really like how well hidden it is, with just its eye peering out: Copyright  ©  wildlakeside.blogpot.com 2019 Scott Atkinson All Right...