Wildlife at Home, the Wetlands and Lakeside Park

I made a claim in my last post in regards to the timing of the snapping turtles nesting and the full moon. With the benefit of hindsight, perhaps I was a little presumptuous in that assertion, or maybe I was correct in that it was the full moon that triggered the initial nesting. Anyway, as always it was awesome to see the snappers out and about and here is one more photo from that morning and an explanation of why I now believe I may not have been completely correct. A few mornings have come and gone since the snapping turtles left Shoemaker Lake and made their walk up the bank to nest. There were, unfortunately no more sightings of the snapping turtles since that morning. I'd taken an assortment of photos during that time: A series of shots of a great blue heron as it lifted itself clear of the lake. And also this beautiful little killdeer feeding; taking full advantage of the waterlogged ground at the base of Shoemaker Lake. Then a storm hit us on Tuesd...

I had a much-needed return to Lakeside Park yesterday. Some free time away from work and a beautifully sunny morning took me to the far side of the lake, way off the beaten track and out into the reed beds, keeping well away from all the extra human visitors we are currently seeing at the Lakeside Park, and also as I had seen some ducks with different markings than I had ever seen before. Not ducks like our resident mallards who will come over and peck at my boots, these were more in tune with the pied-billed grebe and very wary of humans. I needed to be smart if I was going to return home with some useful photos. First up we have the common mergansers; underwater hunters with a hooked bill to help latch onto fish. Mergansers peer through the water to locate their target. And then they dive, chasing their prey. First one, two and then three out of the four mergansers came up with fish. The closest merganser appeared to have caught a large goldfish. In addi...

I have posted a few photos of the white-throated sparrows at Lakeside Park already and now find myself posting one more. I seem unable to not take a photo of these colourful sparrows: This bird is a brown creeper. I don't believe I have posted a photo of a brown creeper before, but it is not a new bird for me. I am well acquainted with these birds from my time birdwatching in England, although we do call them treecreepers in the UK: Squirrels appear to be everywhere at the moment. In the canopy dropping walnuts and on the ground hiding their stash: The red squirrels appear to be very aggressive towards their larger cousins, driving them off their walnut tree: I see painted turtles all the time at Lakeside Park, and I guess that is why I don't really take any photos of them. This is October though and for that reason alone, I took this photo of a painted turtle basking in the sun: Copyright  ©  wildlakeside.blogpot.com 2019 Scott Atkinson All Rights Re...