Lakeside Park has always felt welcoming, and it was an unscheduled return on a dull, misty morning in September that saw me tracing my steps from a year ago. I wondered what would be different and what would be unchanged. The black-crowned night heron's willow tree was uncustomarily empty. The long outstretched branch of the willow which reached out over the water had been a favoured roost, but it held nothing. Perhaps I'd catch sight of the beaver out amongst the lilypads, bobbing up and down as it dabbled in the shallows with its feet, searching for tasty roots. But again, there was nothing ..read more

 A primordial soup filled with twisting limbs and rotting carcasses, a mosquito-infested swampland more likened to the time of the dinosaurs than modern-day Kitchener and only a few steps away from a road. What could be more enticing! The carcasses that I was referring to are of course the rotting tree trunks that still stand in the waterlogged ground, doomed to reach skyward until their demise. The Wetlands are far from dead though, they are brimming with life, which attracts me and also predators. Hawks are suited to open woodland, and in the morning that I decided to go to the Wetlan ..read more

Have you ever had one of those days when you were just in the wrong place at the wrong time? Well, that is exactly what happened to me this morning. It was a misty morning. The pale blue that was barely visible through the mist was a hopeful reminder that the sun might eventually break through the veil.  I was biking to the lake with my camera safely packed in my backpack and I'd already missed one good photo opportunity of a young red-tailed hawk who had just missed its strike on a squirrel that was bounding across the grass. By the time I'd unpacked my camera the red-tailed hawk was alr ..read more

Since I first saw the black-crowned night heron on the third of August it has become a regular early morning acquaintance. But only very briefly before it disappears among the high branches of the trees that edge Shoemaker Lake. A lone Caspian Tern has also been a welcome visitor to Lakeside Park every morning. It circles with seemingly effortless flaps of its wings, it swoops, stalls motionless in midair, it folds its wings and then dives headfirst. More times than not, it comes up with nothing more than wet feathers, but when it does hit its target the Tern leaves Lakeside Park with its p ..read more

Watching the kingfishers, enjoying the cool morning breeze blowing over Shoemaker Lake. It was blissful! I'd missed a few mornings at Lakeside Park with the much-needed rainfall we'd had. I returned to the lake for the photo of the black-crowned night-heron that I included at the end of my last post. On Thursday though, the temperature was a little cooler than of late and the light breeze was just perfect. Mallards were feeding at my feet in the shallows, painted turtles had pulled themselves out onto the dead branches poking through the surface of the water, and the kingfishers were calli ..read more

Viewing the expanse of Shoemaker Lake from the bottom edge of the lake is a great way to start a morning's birdwatching. The whole of the lake is visible and with the aid of binoculars or a camera equipped with a telephoto lens, it's easy to pick out the great blue heron, the kingfishers and on the odd occasion even an osprey. I'd already located the kingfishers and this really is a great time to watch them hunt as the young have fledged and are busy honing their fishing skills. They are numerous and at times present all around Shoemaker Lake. Scanning further around the lake, I located a ..read more

The belted kingfisher is a bird that I regularly see and hear every morning at Lakeside Park. They give off flashes of white from their flight feathers that contrast against the shaded trees on the far bank of Shoemaker Lake, as they swoop from perch to perch,. They call when they approach anywhere near, warning others that I'm there. I feel at times that they are mocking me... I see you! Their eyesight is so keen that it is almost impossible to get close enough for a photo, from any angle. The only time I have been able to photograph them was when the fledglings appeared last year and had ..read more

What on earth was the beaver doing out and about at this time in the morning? That was the question running through my mind as I noticed the deep ripples running over the surface of Shoemaker Creek. It was hard to tell from the distance I was at, but the beaver appeared to be diving repeatedly in the same area, which was really unusual behaviour. It submerged again and so I moved closer watching the trail of bubbles. The thought of the beaver being caught on one of the fishing lines that I regularly pull out of the creek flashed through my mind. The beaver surfaced. This was no beaver, it w ..read more

I started this morning sitting on the bank of Shoemaker Creek waiting for the beaver to appear. I waited and waited. I kept one eye on its lodge and the other on the surface of the water. My imagination kicked in, I visualized the coyote stepping out on the beaver's lodge as it had one week ago. I remember that in total I saw the coyote three times that day: Driving home from work was the very first time when I glanced left across to the trail as I passed and there it was, a coyote, backlit with the sun streaming along the pathway. I wanted to stop but knew that I shouldn't and what was the ..read more

Commonly known as the bullhead lily, and the yellow pond-lily, Nuphar Variegata's leaves are now well distributed over the surface of Shoemaker Lake and Shoemaker Creek in carpets of floating green. They provide shelter for underwater insects, snails, crayfish and fish. A convenient place to hide from the keen eyes of aerial predators like this Caspian tern. On the surface, the lily pads act as a resting place for insects and occasionally frogs. The plant is also a host for several species of beetles and their leaves and seeds are also eaten by the painted turtles in Shoemaker Lake ..read more