So let’s return to Five Mile Lake…
the second day dawned bright and promising and trails beckoned….
before we started…want to point out a few of the birds that were there…including American Robin (only a couple)
Gray Jays…but these guys acted different from other Gray Jays we’ve encountered…they just never sat still! They would come gliding in, completely silent and move from branch to branch and trunk to trunk…I think I took a dozen pictures and this is the only one where the bird was still enough for the picture to turn out..
and then the squirrels..noticed this guy collecting large mouthfuls of nesting material…
I dropped a tissue and he quickly ran over and inspected it…
shoved it in his mouth….
and ran up to insert it in this squirrel nest…apparently these guys don’t really hibernate but spend the winter in these ‘nests’, venturing out on days when the weather is appropriate.
we set off along the lakeshore trail, headed for the end of the lake where the day use area was…
along the way…
mushrooms and lichens..
I think, after searching on the internet…this is British Soldier Lichen…
and then there was this – the pen is for size comparison. I think it is a Hawk wing Mushroom but it looks like something out of science fiction or Harry Potter!
There is another one that Ernie found…
part way along the trail, or leading off from the main trail…was this ‘lake behind the lake’ – apparently a Sandhill Crane nesting site in season…in fact I imagine the place is alive during breeding season!
we reached the far end just as a big mixed flock of little migrants had landed and were feeding in the willows…here a Black-capped Chickadee…
more of those young Juncos…
and lots and lots of these Orange crowned Warblers! They look different from what we see down south on the coast because these are the ‘Taiga’ variant rather than the ‘Pacific’
the bushes were full of them…some of them looking pretty scruffy!
so one more look at some of the ‘fall colour’ ground cover…the bright red is ‘Bear Berry’ and we’ll be seeing more of this in days to come…
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