Wildlife at Home, the Wetlands and Lakeside Park

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...

I was all set to leave Lakeside Park this morning without many photos. I'd seriously underestimated the weather and how cold it was going to be. I was literally shivering in my rubber boots and heading to the warmth of my little car when the smallest of movements caught my eye. You'd be forgiven for thinking that a small piece of bark was moving up this tree. This bird's colouring is designed to seamlessly blend into the surface on which it hunts. I'm more used to seeing brown creepers moving through the trees in groups of other small birds, for safety during the winter months. This brown creeper, however, was hunting over the jigsaw puzzle of cracks and crevices in this tree's bark all on its own. Only when a brown creeper is silhouetted on the side of a tree's trunk does it really stand out to the naked eye. It appears I'm writing this post last first, so I'll continue in reverse with this photo of a northern flicker. T...

Having moved from the UK to Canada almost 19 years ago, I have to say that I do at times miss some of the native British birds. For example, the different finches with their bold colours, the kestrel which can hover motionless in the strongest winds, the dipper from the rivers and streams which swims under the water as it hunts for food and is aptly named for its bobbing motion. But on balance, what I miss has been replaced by birds that are just as captivating. One definite plus in Ontario is the cardinal with its flamboyant head crest and its ridiculously bright red feathers. These photos were taken on a gloriously mild and sunny February the 3rd. The contrast of the bright morning sunlight really brought out the vivid red of this cardinal's feathers.  But why are cardinals so red? Well, they do say that you are what you eat, and cardinals do love red berries. Cardinals do actually create the redness in their feathers from the red foods in their diet. Without ...