Wildlife at Home, the Wetlands and Lakeside Park

The title of this post is not misspelt, Sunday was a really grainy day for taking photographs. There was very little available light and it was attempting to rain in spits and spots. But, just because my camera was using a faster ISO and the photos are grainy, it does not mean they are unusable. From the reed beds on the far side of Lakeside Park, we have this angry-looking bird. It is, of course, a grackle and not angry at all, just displaying. Let's take a closer look at that display in action. Grackles puff out their feathers from head to tail when they display. And from the side, they look just as impressive. I've been keeping an eye on a pair of red-bellied woodpeckers who have gradually chipped out the perfect nesting hole for themselves way up at the top of a dead tree. This photo shows one of the woodpeckers apparently admiring its work, but there was a problem. Prime nesting holes are at a premium at Lakeside Park, and the red-bellied woodpecke...

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...

I have not been to Lakeside Park since the 2nd of April and I must admit that I am missing my walks around the lake and my observations of the wildlife there. Work has kept me too busy to even go through my photos, but I feel I should make an effort. The last time that I observed this bird at Lakeside Park was in October of 2019. From the front, it is a strange-looking creature with its black bib and those eyes that appear to see everything from every direction. It is remarkably hard to get close to. From the side, it is easily identifiable as a pied-billed grebe. It was extremely cautious, and the slightest suggestion that there may be something human-looking and it moved off, and out of range. I circled the lake a few times in my rubber boots attempting to sneak up unawares, but this grebe was way too canny for me. After my initial photos, the best that I could do was to take shots from a good distance away, and while being not very detailed, they do show what ...

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...