Wildlife at Home, the Wetlands and Lakeside Park

I posted a photo of one of these white hickory tussock moth caterpillars yesterday. They appear to be everywhere at the moment, fattening up before overwintering in a cocoon which will be hidden in this fall's leaf litter. As I mentioned yesterday, do not touch them; they are beautiful but also poisonous: It appears to be becoming something of a morning ritual. This cormorant will circle Lakeside Park at approximately the same time every morning and occasionally touch down for a snack. The cormorant dived a few times and caught what looked like a goldfish this morning before moving on: I wanted to concentrate on insects this morning, using the flash on my camera, but unfortunately, the flash drained my batteries as I was taking photos of a striped bug. I turned to my telephoto camera, but the warblers and finches were still not cooperating. The great egret was hunting in front of the reeds to my left, but a little too far away for anything of any detail. Disappointed, I d...

Something I should have mentioned in yesterday's post but didn't was the circling of Lakeside Park by a cormorant. The cormorant circled the lake 6 times before finally moving on, and I did take a photo of its flight that I never included as it was really blurry. This morning at the same time, the cormorant again circled the lake, but gradually lowered with each lap. It seemed for a moment to change its mind as it started to ascend before finally coming down, landing in the middle of the lake. I stayed well out of sight behind the willow trees and watched as the cormorant craned its neck, looking all around. It seemed to be unsettled, perhaps there was some movement on the trail. Whatever was moving was cause enough for the cormorant to take back to the air after only a minute or two. I was lucky to catch a blurred photo of the cormorant leaving a huge splash behind as it took off on another dark, overcast morning: I have been complaining to no end about the dark morning...