Wildlife at Home, the Wetlands and Lakeside Park

I had meant to publish these images on my last post, but I felt that it was already getting pretty full. We have had goslings at Lakeside Park for a few days now. They are so cute and fluffy and they do have the ability to make people stop in their tracks to take a photo or two on their cell phone or camera. I am no different from anyone else in that respect, but it seems that every morning I am given better photos, so here are my best and cutest so far. After their breakfast, this group of five goslings huddled together and were soon joined by their mother who snuggled up to them and then covered her goslings with her wing for safety as they took an early morning nap. Not to be outdone by the goslings at Lakeside Park, we also have cute ducklings. The warbler migration is now in full swing, and that can be attested to by the numbers of birdwatchers and photographers who are also migrating to Lakeside Park and who are at times outnumbering the warblers. It is good ...

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...

Something I should have mentioned in yesterday's post but didn't was the circling of Lakeside Park by a cormorant. The cormorant circled the lake 6 times before finally moving on, and I did take a photo of its flight that I never included as it was really blurry. This morning at the same time, the cormorant again circled the lake, but gradually lowered with each lap. It seemed for a moment to change its mind as it started to ascend before finally coming down, landing in the middle of the lake. I stayed well out of sight behind the willow trees and watched as the cormorant craned its neck, looking all around. It seemed to be unsettled, perhaps there was some movement on the trail. Whatever was moving was cause enough for the cormorant to take back to the air after only a minute or two. I was lucky to catch a blurred photo of the cormorant leaving a huge splash behind as it took off on another dark, overcast morning: I have been complaining to no end about the dark morning...

The coldest morning so far heralded a gorgeously clear blue sky. The sun stays much lower now and that is good and bad. It's almost 7 AM before the sun breaks through the trees, but that low light adds so much contrast to our world. Everyone was wanting to warm up. The first to catch the morning sun was this great blue heron who strategically perched on the top of the willow tree, right at the bottom of Lakeside Park, beside Greenbrook Drive: I could have stayed there all morning, as the heron never moved while I was at Lakeside Park, but there was more to see.  After so many overcast days, this morning was very welcome. A young warbling vireo found a secluded perch to warm up in the sun and occasionally be fed by its parents: I often see cardinals at the lake but seem unable to capture any reasonable photos of them. This was a welcome photo opportunity: I never really moved from the bottom edge of the lake. This song sparrow was preening itself in the bushes in the ...