Low-key Wildlife at Dusk

At dusk the wildlife around here gets a bit complacent. Knowing they blend into their surroundings that much more, they don't take off quite so quickly as in the daytime (you hardly ever see much of them other than ducks and geese and the occasional turtle in the daytime). Here's some low-contrast sights I saw on my walk the other evening.

The elusive muskrat. There's a big family of muskrats swimming around the lake at dusk but they're very hard to photograph because they duck under the reeds near shore. This one was sitting nearby in the canal, not noticing me for a while until a couple of walkers came by and startled it away. I tried to explain to them that there was a muskrat two feet away that I was trying to photograph but they just smiled and said, "Oh, yeah?" really loud. Way to go, nature lovers.

A large group of finches were picking apart these thistles. Another pair of walkers scared them all off, except for this loner, who fearlessly plucked away at his thistle feast, tossing it about while I snapped away. Looking for bugs in there? Don't know. The air was fluffy with downy plant matter.


I'm not including my blue heron shots because that blue heron is stealthy and managed to blend into the surroundings so well, you have to squint to see him. And that doesn't live up to my exacting photographic standards around here (ahem). I'll get you yet, little heron, even though you're the shyest creature in the lake.