What caught my eye

While we seemed to be out almost everyday, seemed there weren't as many photographic ops as in other months. But between Mud Lake and Parc Omega, and other miscellaneous spots, there were things to catch my eye.

All but two of the avian pictures are from Mud Lake.

A black-crowned night heron was juggling/flapping a catfish for a long time trying to entice his offspring to come and eat the catfish. Seemed the juvenile would have no part of it.

But three weeks later, the juvenile seemed able to fend for itself.

Baby wood ducks were abundant.

The background story behind the first two pictures, "Mean Auntie", is after the heron pictures.

The northern flicker nest was still active, a crow (I had hoped was a raven) sat for a quick portrait and the sap was oozing out of holes that pileated woodpeckers had made in a pine tree.

The last bird pictures (first one a little fuzzy) are a great blue heron snatching a dragonfly off a rock at Parc Omega. They must have excellent depth perception to not damage their beaks hitting the rock.

The two very short videos following are an "after the fact" experiment in time lapse played at slow speed and then regular speed. I did not set out to make a time lapse, I used short bursts to try to catch a nice stop action still.

Parc Omega

We didn't get to Parc Omega as many times as planned this spring because of inter-provincial border closures due to Covid-19, but there were new arrivals with the elk, buffalo, fallow deer, cinnamon bears (see March), mountain goats etc.

The deer and elk horns were covered with soft velvet which made car damage must less likely.

One of the Arctic wolves is blind (fogged eyes), but otherwise in good health. He's 17 years old.

(Note the eyelashes on the black bear.)

elk toll keepers

elk

velvet covered elk antlers

Fallow deer

Fallow deer and fawn

Buffalo losing winter coat

young buffalo at play

coyote

arctic wolf

blind arctic wolf

Mountain goat and kid

cinnamon bear and cub

cub with an itch

eyelashes on black bear

When we were in Africa (a few years ago) the impala were nic-named "fast food" because of the black "M" (Golden Arches) on their backside. I hadn't noticed it before but the fallow deer have similar markings.

impala

fallow deer

"If pigs could fly" immediately came to mind when I looked at these two shots.

The facial expressions of the raccoon, lying in a bed of sunflower seed and dried corn, changed very quickly from a snarl to a happy face.

A red squirrel was working hard on a fresh fine cone, stopping once to play his double base.

Non-Parc Omega four legged animals.

The snapping turtle on land was looking for a place to lay eggs. The five squirrels were quite enjoying the dried corn spread on the ground for the geese. The cat is a Bengal cat out for a walk on a leash.