Cute, Smart and Funny Animals and Birds

On our many walks, we see lots of creatures, both furred and feathered and even scaled, bumpy and slimy too. I look forward to Spring when again we will see the frogs and toads and fish jumping out of the lake at dusk after bugs. I look so forward to seeing the baby animals and birds again this coming season!

Last weekend, I tried to balance some drawing time with walks and photography time though. Still, however, it was probably 10 - 90 lol! But, it felt awesome to get in some drawing from life, of my partner, in the afternoon on the holiday Monday. Still, we did get out for one long walk and a couple short jaunts.

Lately, we've seen tons of attitude on the animals and birds. Must be the cold weather and the competition for food. We've seen some amazing sights, one just this weekend. There is a pair of ravens that hangs at one of the spots we hike in. They are often heard before they are seen by us. This past weekend, just as we were  reaching the entrance to one of the paths, don't we look up at a large black bird which at first glance appeared to have a white head. What in hell could that be I'm thinking as I whip the camera up and take 2 shots of it as it passes overhead. I see then in my lens that it is a raven carrying in it's mouth an object - a snowball?! But why? When we got home and looked at the 2 images I caught, one clearer than the 2nd, we saw things sticking out of this ball of snow that the raven held in its beak. My boyfriend had read back a bit, when we saw the Kestrels a few times, that Kestrels will save and hide extra mice or voles, freezing them, to later thaw them out by I guess sitting on them, when food seems like it may be getting scarce or harder to catch. It dawned on us that maybe the Ravens had found one of the Kestrel's, who are also in that vicinity, frozen future meals. It is the only conclusion we can think of, unless it is a frozen discarded fries or burger from the nearby McDonald's or Harvey's lol!

Playing with Publisher - How We Got Started "Birding"

Lately, have been getting familiar with areas of MS Office Suite that I've not really had any opportunity to touch. One being Publisher. Not quite as great as InDesign but is actually a very useful program for small businesses or personal use for any number of creative project needs. I began with a template that I liked and altered the elements such as fonts, spacing, objects, photos, etc. and went with a theme from our major leisure undertaking, nature hikes. The intent behind this was to play around and practice using Publisher, using a personal theme to do so.

I went with the metamorphosis which occurred in our what began as simple leisure walks to Whitby Harbour in the evenings and on weekends, to what has become a sort of a beginner's interest in birding, over the past year. If I chose to complete the full newsletter template, the table of contents would indicate what specific experiences that further little anecdotal articles would touch on....with photos of course :-)

Opportunity for Humour

Sometimes, not too often, but on occasion, a bird has been in a perfect spot for a humorous quip opportunity. This was just such an opportunity with this mourning dove we spotted on our walk to Whitby Harbour last night. The swan babies were quite funny in their own right as well.

Birds and Bees

Sometimes, on our walks, we see some pretty funny sights. This morning, we headed along the waterfront path from the park in Whitby that is down the bottom of Brock St., over to Thickson Woods.....a good 3 hours by the time we got back. Not only were the swallows almost hitting us, but it seems spring having sprung is not quite complete yet.

Finally! ........ Baby Water Fowl!

Well, having just moved into an area near Lake Ontario last spring, we kind of were a bit oblivious to the aspects of that season last year, and missed the beginnings of new life. This winter, we waited patiently (lol! maybe 1 of us did) for the spring baby animals and birds we enjoyed seeing in the fall and winter on walks. Well, we got our first look in late April! Another person we run in to off and on, on our adventures, let us know he had just seen the first babies of the season. We headed over to the area he mentioned, and we did see them, but a bit far by the time we got there. Later in the week, on a drizzly day, we went out for what ended up being a short walk, as it began to pour shortly after we got to our usual destination. However, Not before I managed to come up on and grab some shots of the baby geese! Omg are they cute. There are 12. The one parent was hissing continuously so I took a couple shots then left them alone.

The ducks also were startled out of there hiding spot in the marsh, when we went to see what else was around.

The day we discovered the baby geese for the first time, we also ventured back that evening, in hopes of spotting them closer. I had my 105mm manual lens all ready, but alas, no dice. However.... we were treated to a pretty brave raccoon and some muskrat love lol! Too bad the muskrats seem to like privacy or I'd have gotten a better shot lol! Always plenty of animals to see around on our ventures.

Cat Circle

My kids' cat Peaches, she loves sleeping in circles. This was on laundry. Peaches is a diluted calico and is about 10 yrs old now.
Funny or cute shots of Peaches over the years.