Wildlife at Home, the Wetlands and Lakeside Park

It rained last night and then rained a little more this morning. A stay at home day I thought. But the day brightened up and the clouds became broken. Time for some fresh air and a walk with my cameras around the Borden Wetlands. I took a shortcut this time, through the undergrowth, along a steeply sloped drainage ditch. I saw two small birds, one which I was unable to identify or photograph had a speckled chest, the other was this ruby-crowned kinglet: The walk took a fraction of the time. I stood at the edge of the trees and looked past the shade, into the dappled light. The wetlands seemed more inviting today: The sunlight lit up the fall leaves in stark contrast to the tall, slender tree trunks: An unusually warm day for October which brought the insects to life. These dragonflies were everywhere: They jostled for position to bask in the sun: I'm not one to stay on the beaten track really, and it was during my walk through the undergrowth that I came ac...

This morning started off quite cold. I tucked my camera under my arm, keeping my hands warm in my jacket pockets. Everything was covered in the morning's dew including this banded garden spider in the pollinator meadow: And this dragonfly whose wings were bejewelled in water droplets: Where there are insects, there are birds, and the warblers came through Lakeside Park in waves this morning, seemingly blown by the colder easterly winds. At times it was hard to pick out the warblers from the swirling fall leaves; both seemed to merge in one fluent colourful movement. Not just warblers, but blue jays, crows, robins, northern flickers and starlings appeared to be amassing in their own individual groups. It was at times difficult to know which way to look for the best photo opportunity. I decided to concentrate on one area of bushes and managed to pick up where I left off on my last post, with a much better photo of a white-throated sparrow as it moved through with the warb...

I had to venture out again today, just to pick up a little something from a local grocery store. It's a short walk which crosses Highbrook Park and the edge of the Borden Wetlands, so a good excuse to take my camera. Highbrook Park is a small pond with a path running alongside. It has the usual, ducks, geese, muskrats, etc. Lots of  butterflies and dragonflies, so I snagged a dragonfly (male widow skimmer) photo on my way: A song sparrow's singing caught my attention. After a few choruses, it flew to the ground and then did its best impersonation of a pufferfish: Looking nothing like a song sparrow at all. It was of course sunbathing! I crossed the busy Fischer-Hallman Road, taking the shortcut along the edge of the Borden Wetlands, not expecting to see much of anything and of course, there right in front of me was a coyote. No time to focus, just raise the camera and a few quick clicks as it disappeared into the wetlands. This is obviously not in focus, but I...

I have a truly scary, creepy photo for you today. This looks as if it came straight out of one of Sir Ridley Scott's Alien movies. I was actually expecting to take a photo of the nymph which was steadily climbing up the reed when I first saw it. I turned to switch cameras as it was too close for my telephoto lens and I would have got my feet very wet if I'd tried to use my macro DIY lens. My trusty Powershot SX720 came out of its holder and when I zoomed in for the photo, this is what I saw: That was a little unexpected to say the least, but also very cool. I hope you like the photo as much as I do. Here's another unexpected photo, and nothing creepy at all about this, more unexpected in the fact that female red-winged blackbirds don't usually catch anyone's attention, they're not really that pretty, and for good reason, as they need to hide from predators. But this female red-winged blackbird is definitely looking at her best: Lastly, nothing unexpec...