Saturday's Critters

Today, in an effort to see if anyone can identify a mystery duck, I'm linking up with Eileen's Saturday Critters!

As mentioned in my last post, I was down at our local marsh on Wednesday and was taking photos of the local troops of birds. There were a lot of mallard ducks, the turkeys are back, along with the Canada Geese. There were even three deer bounding back and forth across the path. But when I saw this unusual, yet quite pretty duck, I was stumped! Anyone have an idea of it's name? I checked a few online birding sites, but can't find him. I only saw one, and assume it's the male with his bright colouring.

As you can see, he's a bit bigger than the mallard, and here he is out of the water. I assume he's a "dabbler" since he was in with the mallards. Doesn't he have lovely markings?

Other birds I saw that day ... I love the friendly little chickadee and really enjoy taking photos of this cheeky little guy ...

Post marker for "Chickadee Trail" ;)

Even though I didn't have any birdseed with me (I know, everyone at this trail brings a bag!), the chickadees were curious (or hungry) enough to come to my hand. They would land, have a look around, but seeing nothing ... off they flew!

The turkeys seemed to disappear over the summer months, but yesterday I noticed they're back again and looking for that free handout. Last year they made me quite nervous when I first saw them running towards me on the path, but they were only looking for handouts, and weren't nasty at all. But those beaks are very sharp looking!

Such beautiful markings especially when the sun hits them just so.

And the three deer, first back in the woods keeping an eye on me, and then braving the dash across the path and back to thicker brush and safety.

One ...

... two ...

... three!

You can see the entourage that follows us around the beginning of the path!

Nuthatch

female Mallard duck

female Mallard duck

male Mallard duck

Cormorant

pigeons or doves? in the parking lot

Thanks for stopping by today!

Wendy

Five on Friday

Joining up at long last with Amy of Love Made My Home today for Five Seven on Friday!! (ha ha!)

On Thursday morning I visited a local marsh down along the shores of Lake Ontario. It was a rather damp and chilly morning with a sharp breeze coming off the lake, but there was lots of feathery activity in the woods. 

How well do you know North American birds? 

For today's five, I'm only going to show some feathers of birds I saw at the marsh, 

and you can see if you recognize the birds.

ONE:

TWO:

THREE:

FOUR:

FIVE:

SIX:

 SEVEN:

(who's really counting?!)

Could you guess them all? Well, just because I'm the sort of person who hates unsolved mysteries, here are the answers:

ONE:  Male Mallard Duck

TWO:  Canada Goose

THREE:  Turkey

FOUR:  Black-Capped Chickadee

FIVE:  Nuthatch

SIX: Female Mallard Duck

SEVEN: Well, this one I don't know! 

Does anyone know the identity of this quite beautiful duck?

A bit larger than the mallard (top).

Thanks for stopping by today!

Wendy

Rushed!

My apologies for not being around very much in these pages. I've been doing a lot of sewing and such, and have had to watch my computer time very closely! Even my morning walks have been limited so that I can continue with my projects. I did snap a few pictures one morning with the frost gilding all the fallen leaves. Our weather has still not produced any snow ... well any that will stick to the ground. I'm okay with that for now though. I don't like to worry about highway driving on top of all the other Christmas stuff.

The sewing has been for Christmas presents, so I can't even show you what I've been working on. I will show what I made after Christmas though.

I thought I'd just pop in quickly this morning to say I'm still here. I've been reading as many blogs as I can, but don't always have time to leave a comment, for which I apologize. I hope everyone is having fun days as we head into the Christmas season. 

This week I'll have to drag my decorations out and get the house in order. Everyone on my street has so many lights on their houses and in their yards! I don't have any outdoor lights any more. I try to put things up that I can do from our big step ladder and that's it! We can only get lights across our roof line if we climb on the roof as our ladder doesn't reach ... and then they remain up there far longer than I like! I hate seeing neglected Christmas lights and decorations in late January and February.

My family did our annual big Christmas shop in downtown Toronto this past Saturday. Canadians have now adopted the American tradition of Black Friday for an excuse to rally the crowds to come shopping and hopefully pick up some bargains. We make sure we arrive at the Eaton's Centre pretty much at the opening hour and shop until lunchtime. The mall isn't very crowded until after lunch ... and then the shoppers are packed in the hallways like sardines!! We've been doing this shopping excursion since our oldest child was about two and I worked downtown. The kids really like the day, and my daughter came home specially to come with us. We won't see her again until Christmas Eve.

Anyway, enough prattling on and on! I have more items to get in the mail this week for my dear brother on the far side of Canada (hi Joe!!), and some cards to get out for my tea & card exchange (hello ladies!!). Once these things are out, I can enjoy the decorating part and will hopefully be here a bit more!

Thanks for stopping by!

Wendy