Shots from the Lodge - Part 1

It's already been almost 2 weeks since we returned from the Lodge up north... seems like a long time ago already. It was a great week with hot weather made easily bearable by the always perfect temperature of the lake to dip into. There is never a dull moment up at the in-law's "cottage" with 23 kids running around, repair jobs, and tournaments, never mind fishing, boating and swimming to do. Oh, and some time for picture taking too!

I believe (one uncertain still) found 6 new life birds, and got pictures of new butterflies, and other wildlife as well. It was quite a fun week in the photography department too. Seeing as this post is due to come out further and further from the actual week, I'm going to keep my commentary shorter and let you enjoy the pictures. It took a while to weed out the good ones and do my slight editing (I try to only do minimal tweaking).

The first excitement for the week came with two of the older nephews (thanks Nate and John-Michael) reporting they had come quite close upon, and then been momentarily challenged by a deer buck in the woods. They were still willing to go back up with me to try and re-locate it, and after some hunting around, we found it out by Lilly Lake (for those of you who have been there before and know where that is).  With the low lake levels, I was able to follow it for a little ways into what is usually a wet, swampy area.

White-tailed Deer buck

I'm no authority on deer, but it looks like a three pointer buck. From my reading online, I discovered that the number of points on the antlers does not represent the buck's age. This buck looks like it will have three points and it is likely 1 1/2 years old getting it's first rack. Each year they do get more points, till they are about 7 years old and then the number of points will act decrease as it looses health in its age.

White-tailed Deer buck with velvety antlers.

They have huge ears and have very good hearing, with the ability to hear higher frequencies than we can. Their eye sight is very sensitive to movement, but they can't focus on one thing very well because of how their eyes are placed on the sides of their heads, and because they don't have a sensitive centre focus like we do. Their night vision is better than ours though.

White-tailed Deer buck ears.

A new bird for me spent a lot of time along the driveway of the lodge, eating wild raspberries and aspen leaves. An adult and young Ruffed Grouse was life bird number 90, though I have heard its distinctive drumming in the past. The adult bird was not afraid at all. On more than one occasion it slowly ambled over to where I was laying in the sand, jumping up to reach the top berries it wanted, and walking within a couple meters of me. Once it flew down from it's perch in an aspen tree where it had been shredding leaves and landed almost right at my feed.

Ruffed Grouse

Ruffed Grouse

Ruffed Grouse eating Aspen leaves.

The younger, smaller bird was more skittsh and stayed almost always hidden in the raspberry bushes. On the last night, it finally came out once to check me out, and with the clicks of my camera shutter, took off with a flurry of wings and legs, running for cover. I just got a few shots, the one below with the adult being the only non blurred one. I was shooting at ISO 1600 and a shutter speed of 1/60, so any movement meant the bird was just a blur. I was pretty happy to see this bird, as they are usually thick in the brush of the woods, with only its deep, chest beating throb the only indication its in the same woods as you.

Curious young Ruffed Grouse.

Adult and young Ruffed Grouse just before taking off for cover again.

A lake close by has a nesting pair of Common Loons every year, and it often is seen feeding near the edge in a shallow little bay. I headed out there one morning and was rewarded with some nice close shots. I can never tire of seeing these beautiful birds.

Common Loon

Common Loon

Common Loon taking a look-see under
water before diving.

Common Loon.

Just as I was leaving the lake, I noticed this snake swimming across from the other side of the small bay. Researching to find out what kind it was, E-Nature stated that it "glides across water surface instead of diving in like aquatic snakes". That seemed to fit pretty well, including the pattern and identifying marks. It could be a Common Garter Snake too, but I don't think so the way it swam, and the distance it came from.

Eastern Ribbon Snake (I'm pretty sure)

Well, I'm going to split this up into another post. There are more pictures and life birds to share, but you'll have to wait. I'll leave you with this nice Orange Hawkweek shot from near the the lake.

Orange Hawkweed

Eastern Meadowlark

On my way to work (or, I guess from is the more exciting way to put it given then I'm heading back to my family from work) there is a stretch of road where Eastern Meadowlarks have chosen to nest and raise their young.  Throughout the last weeks there has hardly been a day when I don't see at least one of the birds on a hydro wire, atop the tip of  a spruce, or perched on a fence post.  The bright yellow breast and black bib prominently displayed, is usually joined with a very hearty singing of a whistling melody - only unheard because of my speeding by in the car, mostly in the morning, on the way to work.  

One day a couple weeks ago, I had my camera with me and sighted one of the birds on the hydro line and stopped, approached behind a spruce tree and was able to get quite close before it got too uneasy and flew away.

Eastern Meadowlark

I followed it down the road, and stopped as it perched itself on a farmer's fence.  Across the long grass I noticed another similar shape facing away, tottering a bit in a balancing act on another fence wire.  With my approach from the roadside, it awkwardly fluttered into the grass.  I'm pretty sure it was a recently fledged young one given it's apparently smaller size and awkwardness.

fledgling Eastern Meadowlark

The adult promptly followed and vanished into the long grass.  Though I waited for a bit, I didn't see either of them again.  You can see the characteristic white markings on the outer portion of the tail in the photo below.  They are about the same size as a robin, but plumper and sit on the wire in what looks like an awkward and unbalanced position, almost looking like it will fall forward as its legs seem attached at the rear of its body.

Adult Eastern Meadowlark following
young one into the grass

A morning or so later, left early and saw the lark (actually they are not Larks, but from the blackbird family).

Eastern Meadowlark takeoff

This time with no spruce to hide behind, my approach was quickly avoided and it again flew down to the tall grassy spot from the day before.  The grass is long in a horse paddock which is empty, perfect nesting ground for these ground nesting birds which will build nests in the tall grasses, sometimes even weaving roofs and entrances.  It moved around, often sending out a sounding call, but blending into the grass well, hard to see.

Eastern Meadowlark in long grass

It soon headed to a clump of grass, thicker and greener than the rest, and stayed there for the remainder of my stop.  It sang from the top of this clump and often looked down into the clump, and stayed their, seemingly with a purpose.  Even if I had been tempted to go and check it out, stressing the bird by an apparent nest wasn't a good idea, and the paddock being close to a house and electric fencing on its top dissuaded me as well.

Eastern Meadowlark singing on nest site?

While there, a Goldfinch brightened the same spruce tree the Eastern Meadowlark had left.  They are just nesting now as they feed only on wild flower seeds.  Since this is almost their sole diet, they nest this late timed with the ripening of the seeds to ensure a plentiful supply of food.  A common scene including goldfinches is a perch on a Canadian Thistle.  I'd love to get a shot like that some day, but they are very jumpy and hard to approach.  This picture is a crop for that reason.

American Goldfinch

A parting shot of an unknown bug on a Queen Anne's Lace.

Bug on Queen Anne's Lace

And for those wondering about where the pictures from the Lodge are, these pictures were in the queue first.... they're coming. :)

Long Point Provincial Park 2

Here is the second part of the Long Point post...

I spent one afternoon walking the campground and a bit of the beach in search of birds who were going to stay close enough to be photographed.  I wasn't terribly successful on that trek.  I did get to see a bird I had never seen before - an Alder Flycatcher landed for a brief moment a little ways away, though still quite far away for a 300mm lens (I cropped the picture significantly.)  It's not the greatest shot, but thought I'd put it in anyways.  I should mention that it's possible that it could be a Willow Flycatcher - according to one of the websites I use to figure out what I've seen, you can only really tell the difference by their songs - which I didn't hear and wouldn't have had a clue which one I was hearing.  Because at Long Point it's full of Poplars and Alder trees, I'm going to assume it was an Alder Flycatcher.

Alder Flycatcher a way out there.

I also saw Cedar Waxwing, Baltimore Oriole, Yellow Warbler on this jaunt, but not close enough to get any great shots.  The ironic thing is, the rest of the pictures I got (except for some Oriole shots at the end of this post), were all right by the comfort station.  One of the Park Rangers noted, as I was standing their taking pictures, that every year they have multiple nests around both the main comfort stations at the park.  Interesting considering all the people and pet traffic around.

The most fun, but hardest to get a good shot of, was a tiny Yellow Warbler nest with four little ones.   No matter which side I tried to take the picture from, angling to get a view where the delivery of the meal would be in view, the bird would choose the other side of the little spruce the nest was at the centre of.  I did manage to get a few shots, but nothing straight on.

Yellow Warbler with plenty of bugs trying to stay just out of sight.

Somehow they know food is coming and jostle for position.

Two of the four young ones. They're about 50cm small at this point.

I did get this shot of a baby getting fed by a Yellow Warbler.  Only thing is, I'm not completely convinced this is a Yellow Warbler fledgling.  It seems bigger than the adult, and later on, I'm wondering if I saw a Baltimore Oriole trying to feed the same chick.  Anyone care to enlighten me who knows?

Yellow Warbler feeding .... ???

At the same location near the comfort station was this male Baltimore Oriole.  Although it was a day later, as I just noted, I believe it was feeding the same chick that I saw in the picture above.  I know that Cuckoos and Brown-headed Cowbirds are known to lay eggs in other bird's nests, leaving the nest owner to raise their young.  I don't think Baltimore Orioles do this though - I couldn't find anything on the internet which made me think so.

Baltimore Oriole with caterpillars.

One of our friends noticed a Baltimore Oriole nest high above in the trees near their site.  I have never seen one before.  Baltimore Orioles weave a hanging nest, the bottom a nice round ball, hollow in side with an opening on one side on top.  It's usually near the end of long branches for added protection.  Baltimore Orioles song sounds somewhat like a cardinal's, both in tone, and sometimes, somewhat in it's melody.

Baltimore Oriole nest.

The nest was quite high up in the tree. Having been treated to getting close at the Yellow Warbler nest, I tried to get closer by standing up on a picnic table - likely looking foolish to the rest of the group.  Oh well.  At least I stopped at only one table, and didn't stack another.  Amazing though how such a little bird has been given the ability to create such a masterpiece with pretty much a completely round nest.  I wonder how they get it started.

Male Baltimore Oriole feeding young - you can
just see the beak of one on the bottom of the nest.

Female Baltimore Oriole

I made one trek into the long grass lands towards the inner bays where there are acres of marshy areas, to see what there was to see.  Pretty dumb of me though.  Long Point is known for its ticks.  Lyme disease is known to be spread by female Deer Ticks which are found there.  Although it's apparently not quite the certainty that some make it out to be that you'll get it easily, get sick, and die; it's quite easily treated if you catch it early....  I went out and thought, as long as I keep moving, surely they won't have much time to climb up my shoes and legs, etc.  Well, as you can see from the two pictures below (no birds, only flowers), I obviously did stop, and though not for that long, it was long enough.  At one point I looked down and found, without exaggerating, at least 10 ticks climbing up my legs.  They all came off rather easily, and I was confident they were all Wood Ticks (or dog ticks) as earlier that day we had found one similar on one of my sons, and the Rangers assured us it was not a Deer Tick but the former.  Deer Ticks are half the size, and easy to distinguish with a reddish body and black near and including it's head.  However, you should still be careful, and even though I was walking on a mown path, obviously they still were getting on quite easily.  Lesson learned.

At the price of 10 Ticks... some shots of flowers which I cannot name.  My dear mother is the wild flower expert in our family. Maybe she will be able to identify these.  The first one looks like almost an orchid they way the flowers are arranged on the stem, and the long leaves in the background of the picture.

Wild Sweet Pea.

(Thanks to Karen for the info on the flowers!)

I'm guessing this is some sort of wild iris?

Wild Iris

Even though we were by the beach, I saw absolutely no shore birds other than the very common Ring-billed Gull.  The beach there has shrunk considerably with what must be higher water levels and possibly some erosion from some storms?  Didn't leave enough room for some good beach volleyball.  

A great weekend - till next year?