A trip to the lake

We spent last weekend in a cottage at the lake with my husband's family. It was a wonderful, relaxing weekend. As you might have already guessed, I took a few pictures. Despite the number of bug photos I have posted on this blog, my favorite thing to photograph are birds.

With every click of the camera, I wished for a digital SLR. Perhaps someday. . .

The Great Blue Heron is one of my favorite birds.

I had never seen a Black-crowned Night-heron before, so I had to include this. Here is an immature night-heron with a Great Blue Heron flying behind. The photo is grainy because it was about 6:15 a.m. on a cloudy morning.

a Herring Gull

This small flock of Canadian Geese was enjoying this quiet cove almost as much as we were.

Having been a birdwatcher as long as I can remember, I'm fairly familiar with the common birds in our area. The same cannot be said for my knowledge of insects. For insect identification, I rely on eNature.

And now for the requisite bug pictures:

This is a Great Blue Skimmer. It is the biggest dragonfly I have ever seen. He was posing on the cottage as we were packing the car to leave.

After the dragonfly left, this butterfly landed right by the car. Despite it not looking like its name sounds, I believe this to be a Red-spotted Purple.

Here you can see the "red" spots on the undersides of the wings. I'd call them orange though.

Here are a few miscellaneous lake pictures.

I just love pretty rocks. I wish I had paid more attention in geology.


Beautiful sunset. Sailboats are so picturesque.

I hope you've enjoyed my lake pictures. I'm already planning another trip soon.

-Susan