Wildlife at Home, the Wetlands and Lakeside Park

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 ...

It has been quite a few days since my last post, and that is partly due to the overcast weather we have been experiencing. I have been taking photos, but I felt them too grainy. Today however grainy or not, I had to upload these photos which are a first for me at Lakeside Park. I first sighted this duck as I sat at the table from the bottom edge of the lake at just after 6:30 this morning. The duck was swimming with the mallards, but even with the low light at that time, its markings were to my eye quite different. There was an obvious white mark on its beak: I quickly set up my camera on my monopod, only to realize that the camera's battery was dead. Not a huge problem, as I always carry a spare which I quickly fitted and then focussed on the mallards. Maybe I was mistaken, there were only mallards in the water. I went over what I had seen in my mind's eye and the duck was definitely a different species, but where was it? I scanned the lake with my lens, but could only fi...