The Great White Whale got to enjoy some later afternoon sunshine this week. A young friend of ours graduated Grade 8, and he requested to be delivered to the ceremony in style. And of course, do a little photo shoot with ol’ Bonne before hand.

We arranged to meet up at a park in Petrolia (a town about 25 minutes west of us). There’s a lovely little park there that I’ve been dying to explore. So Dave and I headed out a little early, and while he did a little last minute detailing (mostly cleaning bugs off her grill, I wandered around the park with my camera.

Bear Creek (A norther branch of the Sydenham – the river that runs through our town) runs through the park… and part of it widens into a large, lake-like area. I wandered along the edge, trying to get shots of the little blue dragonflies that were flitting about. No luck there. The flock of geese were a much easier target.

And I got a nice shot of a red-winged black bird.

These guys visit our yard, but they are quite hard to get pictures of. This guy was more compliant.

Native (but aggressive) Hedge Bindweed, and Non-Native (ironically named) Canada Thistle. It’s a shame about that thistle… it’s actually considered invasive. If it wasn’t I’d be going back for some seed because it was so pretty.

I did surprise a beautiful garter snake, but it was very shy and very fast, so no pictures.

But it took Dave’s eagle eyes to spot the best discovery….

He was on the other side of the lake and stood so still, I don’t know how Dave spotted him. Even when he pointed him out, I needed the help of the long lens to see him. Happily, I was able to get closer for a lovely close-up with the long lens

I tried to move even closer… but he took offense and decided the other shore had better fishing anyway.

What a wonderful sight!

Sadly, I ran out of time to explore, as our young friend had arrived, and we were on a schedule! But you can bet I’ll be bugging Dave to return and spend more time there!