Bath time

Took the dog down to his favourite park this afternoon for a walk and some sniffs. We were entertained by the antics of the Canada geese. They've paired off and have staked their territories, hanging close to their nest sites to ward off intruders. One pair was revelling in the warm sunshine, splashing, rolling, flapping, preening and just enjoying a good bath.

Along the trail we saw our first mourning cloak butterfly, and in another small pond we spotted our first turtle of the season, a painted turtle, who was basking in the sun at the edge of the cattails.

Elk

There have been elk sightings in our area the past couple of years, but so far I hadn't seen them. My neighbour has been telling me of one that has shown up just down the road, it comes out at about sunset and munches on the leftover corn that was harvested in a farm field this winter. This evening I finally got the chance to see it, and managed to get a few pictures of it. These are about as sharp as they get, it was getting dark and I had the camera set at IS0 1600. Even then the speed was very slow. There were about 50 geese in the field around the elk, apparently the corn leftovers are good pickin'. In spite of about 20 cars pulled over and people standing at the fence, the elk seemed undisturbed, in fact came over closer to get a look at us, then went back to eating.