Wildlife at Home, the Wetlands and Lakeside Park

The 9th of May saw the temperature drop down to freezing! The soft and squishy waterlogged ground surrounding Shoemaker Lake that could previously only be traversed with the aid of rubber boots had now been transformed into a soft toffee type substance with a thin icy crust. My first thoughts were, what is going to happen to all of the birds that depend on insects to feed? Well, this American Robin had a backup plan. I'm guessing that the seeds of Staghorn Sumac are not the favourite food item for American robins, but in times of need, they are always there. The yellow-rumped warblers were still somehow managing to find insects to feed on. The kinglets also, although they are more adapted to hunting for food in much colder temperatures. And quite to my amazement I actually saw a hummingbird. We had a mixture of snow and hail over the course of the day. The next photo shows a hermit thrush with snowflakes falling around it. Moving on to Sunday which was almost a...

We have experienced some really changeable weather of late. From grey overcast days with cold winds that made everyone wrap up again in their winter clothes to warm and beautifully sunny days which gave the illusion that summer is finally here. There has been plenty of activity at Lakeside Park, but I am falling a little behind with my posts and that is purely down to how much time I have to process the images I have been taking. I'll try to recap, starting from the second of May with a pair of Canada geese flying down from the lake to Shoemaker Creek. As you can see it was really overcast. And from the same grainy day, a swamp sparrow sang out at the edge of the reed beds at the top of Shoemaker Lake. Now on to the third of May which really contrasted to the previous day in regards to temperature and visibility. The bright sunlight added a splash of colour to this female red-winged blackbird. Not that it was needed at all, but the strong morning sunlight also l...

I must admit that I am no expert when it comes to thrushes in Ontario. I am well acquainted with thrushes in the UK, but these guys have completely different names. I will do my best to hopefully identify correctly. There are I believe two possible candidates,  Swainson's thrush and the hermit thrush. Very similar-looking birds. One outstanding difference between them appears to be a white ring around the eye of the hermit thrush compared to a buffy eyering on Swainson's thrush. Another distinguishing detail is the colour of their tailfeathers. The hermit thrush has more of a cinnamon colour to its tailfeathers, and this photo does show that. A white eyering and cinnamon tailfeathers, I'm going with a hermit thrush. This photo also shows both the cinnamon tailfeathers and the white eyering. There were many of these thrushes working their way through the leaf litter of the woodland on the far side of Shoemaker Lake. They were very sensitive to any movement. I h...