2nd, 3rd, 4th Grass Lake

Grass Lake 2,3,4

Finally another post after a long time.  Sorry Bri for not using this blog like you wanted, though I did warn you this would happen.  It's not always my first choice to spend my free time to sit at the computer.  I'd usually rather be out enjoying the outdoors, or I'm busy with the inumerable other things that take up a lot of our lives.  I am expecting alot of my next posts will be quick with very little commentary although that(the experience) is really half of what makes alot of the pictures.  We will see... I have a year of pictures to catch up on.  So here goes...

Sandhill Crane on Nest

 

Sandhill Crane turning eggs

 

 

 

American Bittern call sequence.  Very interesting sound and very neat to watch.  I cropped the picture just to make it easier to see.  The photo quality is not very good as will be the case in a couple of other shots.  Some I have simply put in to show the birds etc. that I have seen.  Generally though, I have tried to avoid cropping.

 

 

Redwinged Blackbird showing its colours

This guy let me get fairly close

Tree Swallow

Western Kingbird Great Crested Flycatcher .

Brian had a number of his birding friends check this out and it turns out this is not a Western Kingbird but a Great Crested Flycatcher.  Apparently quite the sightsing if it had been.  Ironically I saw another one yesterday and Brian linked me to a sight where I could listen to the bird call and the one I saw yesterday was definetly a Great Crested.  I saw it at Sudden Tract in North Dumfries whereas this one was seen at Grass Lake last year.  Thanks for the help from your friends Bri.  Slowly learning....

Eastern Kingbird Grey Catbird(cropped)

This one I knew but somhow typed it in wrong.  I had an Eastern picture to put on but missed it.  Thanks again Brian.

Eastern Meadowlark(cropped)

 

One of the stangest and loudest bird calls.  Often one will start calling and then others from around the lake will start responding.   Not sure what they are saying but it is quite the interesting and loud conversation

Sandhill Crane and baby running to catch up

Feeding together





 

What a great place Grass Lake is to go.  It seems every time I go I see something differant.  It has also been great to be able to go with my brother Brian as well as our kids. One of the times unfortunately Brians camera was being repaired so he missed the shots with the baby.  Maybe this year.  I have been back several more times but I will include those in another post.

 

First trip to Grass Lake...

Below are a couple shots of my first trip to Grass Lake this spring with brother Brian and my new camera.  Brian had seen some talk on a nature blog about Sand Hill cranes that were nesting in a swampy area not far from our house and he thought I might like to come along.  By the time I had arrived Bri had already located one of the birds and we began taking shots.  We searched for the nest that we had seen pictures of on the internet but to no avail and Brian had to go home.  I had about another hour so I decided to do some exploring in the far right of the lake since we had heard some calling from there. I found nothing here except for a scared Canada Goose and some malards but enjoyed the treck none the less.  As I made my way back something caught my eye through the trees.  Sure enough,  there through the trees I could just see a sandhill crane sitting on what appeared to be a nest.  Was I ever excited but a little disapointed that Brian missed the first opportunity since he was the one who had gotten me to come.  As I approached I got a few shots of what I thought was the male, before he flew away.  Moma flattened out and tried to hide but eventually raised her head and relaxed.  What an amazing first trip to grass lake. But many more were to come as I will share in future posts...

Red winged blackbird singing his heart out

Hey, where'ed ya' all go?...

This seemed to be the general practice of the Canada geese here.  We are so used to the tame city ones we forget that they are wild animals.  This may have also been because they were nesting at this time.

Presumably male sandhill crane in flight

Scared moma

Sandhill Crane

Creatures...

Found this guy shivering on the shore in Collingwood while on our yearly anniversary trip a couple Aprils ago.

Dock spider at the lodge

Took a detour on the way home from Rock Lake Lodge to check out this osprey nest and were rewarded with these shots.  Not the clearest zoomed in all the way with our old camera but acceptable.



On a walk this spring I found these acorn caps which fell or "grew" with a newly sprouting plant. A bug also thought it would be a great resting spot. I, thought it was a great photo opp...

Flowers etc.

A couple misc. flower shots...





Hoar Frost

One morning several years back, I got up to everything covered in hoar frost.  I had about half an hour of picture taking and about 15 minutes after, the frost was gone.

Mushrooms etc.

Though some of these are not the best photos, I thought I'd include them just to show the many shapes, sizes, colours and textures of mushrooms there are.