Working on it !!

Birding was a little flat at my usual spots in North Dumfries - I tried 3 or 4 different spots but it was poor and almost no birds showing - other than the Ruby-crowned Kinglet (and there were several) .

It was a slow start for the first 45 mins this morning as I checked out a couple of spots that quite often produce fall migrants, but not this morning, As I left my second spot I noticed anther likely habitat about a kilometer from that spot. Almost immediately I was seeing songbirds - first there was a flock of Black-throated Green (about 10 birds), then a few Parulas showed up, then it was the turn of the Blackpolls ... an exciting 45 mins ... then nothing !!

I have been seeing a few posts and some reports of a Roseate Spoonbill being in the area. After a couple of false starts (outdated information) I managed to get to the latest spot that it is being seen - Springwater Conservation Area near Aylmer. Luck was on my side as just as I got to the spot it was hanging out, it landed on a stick about 50 feet from the shore and stayed there for a half hour or so. This bird is way of course as it usually found only in the southern states (eg Florida), so it was a very rare sighting for Ontario.

Things have been a little quieter over the last couple of days with almost no Warbler activity. Thankfully still some macro available, so it has been something to photograph ..

There can be no question that fall migration is a lot slower than it has been in previous years, One thought was that maybe the widespread forest fires that occurred up north during the summer has had a negative effect on nesting birds, such that fall migrating birds are somewhat down - I hope I am wrong.

Checked out a few spots in and around North Dumfries - first decent sightings this fall of Swainsons Thrushes - in fact I had 4 ... 

First thing on the morning of day 1, I headed to FWR Dickson Wilderness Area, which, now that fall migration is underway, has been a hit & miss for the migrants,  Unfortunately my Day 1 was on the miss side, but I did see a Cape May. The rest of the morning I did a bug hunt, which turned out to be a little more successful with a couple of interesting species to photograph

Spent the last couple of days doing some looking for Praying Mantis's . I was lucky to find a spo, which was close to home, that had several of them fluttering about... which is the easiest way to find them. I work my way through long grass on a wasteground type of area - they take flight then I can home in on them.

Day1: was very quite bird wise - I headed to FWR Dickson, which over the last few days has been quite lively with a few birds popping up., but not today. The only bird I saw was the Reed-eyed Vireo, but I suppose Fall migration has barely kicked into gear so it is to be expected that sightings would be hit and miss.
Day2: was a little better but not much. Highlight for me was the Brown Creeper which gave me some good views. Another highlight was the Grosbeak - this was one of about 12 birds in a flock that passed by my location, so it was all go for about 10 minutes or so, then they were all gone !!
The only Warbler I saw all day was an American Redstart, and the only Vireo was a Red-eyed Vireo, both of whom were fleeting pass through views, so no shots !!

Birds were a little less easy to find today, so nothing too exciting as subjects go, but at least I managed something. On the plus side I found a dead dragonfly on a leaf next to where I was shooting, so I put it in a container for a shoot later, at home. 
I mentioned a few days ago about how I go about doing insect photo stacking.  The dragonfly was used as a subject, and since it was dead I was able to easily do a little setup. The setup I show below was one I did a few days ago, but the setup I did use for the dragonfly was almost identical.
Basically I mount my camera and macro lens on a focusing rail, which in this case is a WeMacro. The WeMacro links to my cell phone and allows me, via the WeMacro software control the increments and the distance travelled for each shot.
Photo Stacking is a process whereby a series of shots are taken, with each shot a little closer to the subject (controlled by the software), so that each shots focus point is a little deeper. So  as per the software in this case I have it set at 0.5mm between shots, for a total distance of 8mm - therefore 16 shots total.
Next step is to load the frames into my computer, then using Photoshop to load the files into a stack, which analyses each of the 16 images and then takes the sharpest part of each image and combines them into a single image, creating a depth of field which is generally impossible with a single shot.  The bug shot below is an example of the finished result.

Dickson has good days and bad days, but today there was quite a bit of activity. Nothing overly rare or unusual, but  a nice selection of birds, some along the boardwalk. some on the trail and even in the parking lot there was movement of birds.

As you can see from the images below, over the last few days, it has been a mix of Bird Photography and Macro Photography. Birding has up until now been a little flat, but with Fall Migration getting under way, I am seeing a few birds .. which is nice. In the coming few weeks as migration kicks in properly there will be a bit more of of opportunities to see and photograph my favorite kind of bird ie Warblers.
A few comments on my macro images ... My personal technique for shooting insects is to first collect them using a butterfly net and transfer them to a small container. I then take them home and prepare a setup in my home studio, which is 100% geared to doing image stacking (which I will explain later). I then place the container with my subject in the freezer for about a minute (which slows them down) and then place it on a perch (a leaf or twig or ??), then either take a large aperture image or if I am doing stacking, I use a slow shutter speed with a low ISO (usually 100) and an aperture around 7.1. (a typical setting would be 100ISO, f7.1 and 1/30). After I am done and happy with my shots I will release the insect, usually in an area similar to where it was found, and none the worse for its little adventure.

A day up along one of my favorite roads  ... Guelph line , just off the 401, which encompasses Currie Tract and Robertson Tracts. Generally I kept to the back road alongside Robertson, where there were several obliging migrants.

Over the last few days, which have been a little unproductive generally, I have cruised along some of the back roads close to home in the North Dumfries area. Right now it's between summer  and fall and generally it can be a little unproductive. However what I cant get in birding I can supplement with a few bug shots (Bugs are quite productive right now).

I spent the last couple of days checking out some of the wet areas close to home. My targets were any interesting birds, and the same for the insects. The highlight was the Cicada Killer Wasp ... he was huge !! had to be close to a 1 1/2" The name sounds scary and predatory, but in reality they are quite harmless, and have no sting.

.. later (busy right now)

Along with a couple of friends we visited a couple of spots down near Lake Erie in Elgin County. Our first spot, and the primary visit location, was Corner Corners a privately owned and managed nature area. The owners welcome public access and they have done an amazing job planting and keeping up the 25 acres with lots of wild flowering plants, trees and ponds around the property. Lots of great butterflies and moths, as well as a few Dragonflies. One highlight sighting was a Yellow-billed Cuckoo (which unfortunately I didn't manage picture of, but the first I had seen this year).
Next spot was a few km away at Solitude Nature Reserve - another privately owned wilderness area with lots of trails, ponds, boardwalks, and again a ton of bugs and butterflies.

Another day at Urquhart Butterfly Gardens. This location is very productive when it comes to Butterflies - they have planted and manicured the area with wild flowering plants so to provide a natural habitat for Butterflies and bees etc. 

Locally (near Kitchener) was quite interesting but nothing species wise to write home about, Day 2 however, was a another day spent at the Urquhart Gardens in Dundas and quite a few nice butterflies around. One of the main targets was the Hummingbird Moth, and was delighted to see quite a few around, but on the negative side they were really hard to get a good shot of. They are quite small and move constantly. At the speed they move (especially the wings), you need to shoot at a very fast shutter speed .. at least 1/1600 and preferably even faster to catch and somewhat freeze the movement of the wings.
​

Headed out this morning with a target in mind ... I really wanted to see and photograph a Marsh Wren. I knew of a couple of ponds in the Brantford area that are known to host at least one of these little beauties, but after a bit of time I was coming up empty handed, so on impulse I headed to Urquhart Butterfly Gardens in Dundas to see if I could get a few decent macro shots. It was the first time this year going there and I wasn't disappointed, as there were several interesting species hanging out in this awesome wild garden location next to the Desjardins Canal in Dundas. A bonus was seeing a couple of Black crowned Night Herons along the Canal a bit.

Back to taking a few images after a break of over a week to work on a home project, All these shots were fairly close to home and mainly found and photographed in the mornings. 
The Milk Snake images was the exception to the location description. Interesting story - a photography friend actually found the snake in her back yard, and was able to capture it. So with that friend a couple of other friends, we did a couple of setups using the mossy log. The snake was quite cooperative and so we were all able to get some pretty good shots. After we were finished with the photographs the snake was released in the exact same spot it was found, and apparently none the worse for its day in the limelight.

With lots going on and with me procrastinating, I have had little time to keep the blog up to date, so just a few images, but all from the dates mentioned.

Day1 - Started out along the gravel road near Blair and was delighted to find several Grasshopper Sparrows, Strangely this was the first one I had seen in this area this year, and ended up seeing a total of 5 birds ... ?? 
On Day2 my target was to find and photograph a Marsh Wren ... I did eventually find a local pond where one was calling and after a bit of a wait one popped up, but I wasn't quick enough for a good shot (I did get a bad shot though)

Headed back to the Huron Natural Area to see if we could get a few shots of the semi resident Red-headed Woodpecker. Although we saw it it a few times - it didn't sit around long enough for a shot :(
On the plus side there were a few other species around top make up for missing out on the Red-headed 

With my opportunities diminishing almost daily for decent bird sighting, I find myself staying close to home (no point in travelling too far), but still the odd sighting that was worth shooting .. especially the Brown Thrasher.
A few Dragonflies and other misc bugs around, and for the most part I capture them and bring them home to photograph in my home bug "studio". Generally I do a setup and position the bugs to suit my mood.

Now that migration is well and truly over, and songbirds are getting quite hard to find, I, as I do every year, flip to shooting more macro than birds (although I do keep looking when I am out and about for interesting birds.
Probably about 75% of my macro shots are focus stacked - this allows me to capture massive depth of field, as you can see from the images below. I plan to add a Focus Stacking How to in my menu item "How To" in the coming week or so, so stay tuned :)

​** As always ... click on any image to show full size. Also by hovering your cursor over any image will provide a title"

There is a gravel road close to home and just outside Blair that often produces a few decent sightings. There was one species, though I could hear it most days, wouldn't pop up for a pic, but today it di ... the Brown Thrasher

A couple of days on the north side of the 401 in Wellington County produced a few decent birds, and while there I picked up a few bugs for photographing later.
While photographing the tiny spider, I posted below, I noticed a tiny spec on the same leaf, so I switched to my 65 MP-E lens that allowed me to get an image at 5x. I still cropped the image to get this shot. He was maybe 0.5mm total ... this is the plant hopper I show below.
Oddly enough as I was looking through the viewfinder at 5x , another minute mite
​scurried past - it was about the size of this guys eye ... incredible !!
Single shot

As the bird migrations draw to a close I find myself, as I do every year, moving to more macro type subjects.

In the morning I took a drive around some of my favorite spots in Nort Dumfries. Over the years I have found several locations in this township where songbirds can be found - not always at the same time of year, but you never know what might show up on any particular day. While waiting for birds to surface | often browse along the side of the road for any interesting insects (mainly dragonflies and butterflies right now). When I get home I do a setup on my macro rig. Just s0 you know all insects are kept alive and released unharmed after the shoot.

For the last couple of days I didn't venture too far - I did a little macro work, so I collected a few little fellas from the local woodlot, then did a setup in my garage "bug studio".
On Day 2 I headed over to the Huron Natural area where for the last few weeks Red-headed Woodpecker has been hanging out. In fact a pair of them, and they have nested in a spot which is almost reachable by photography.

Always excellent to meet up with my long time birding partner - Helen. We toured the trails and gravel roads off Guelph Line, and as usual in that area there was quite a bit of activity. Highlight was the Hooded Warbler sighting at Currie (which is well documented in the local Facebook Groups, but nice to see anyways, In Ohio last month we saw quire a few, but that was the first of the season for me in Ontario.

​Tip of the Day: As the hot weather is now here be aware of ticks !! Here’s what you can do to avoid getting a tick bite. Wear: ....

• light-coloured clothing, so it’s easier to see ticks
• closed-toed shoes
• long-sleeved shirts
• long pants, tucked into your socks
• special clothing designed to repel ticks

I took one of my regular drives between Cambridge, Ayr & Paris - it never fails to disappoint. On the way around I picked up a few Dragonflies for later so that I could photograph them using a photo-stacking technique, but that generally has to be done in a controlled environment to keep things rigidly still. 

Weather wasn't too good, so picked a few insects locally and done a series of image stackings in the comfort of my "macro studio" ie my garage.

Over the last couple of days I did a little exploring in and around Guelph Line. Merlin sure picked up lots of bird calls and songs, so with a little patience and whole lot of luck I was able to get a few shots. Highlight for me I suppose was the Clay-coloured Sparrow .. I don't see too many of these little fellas so pretty happy.

A few days ago we went to the Bruce area, mainly hoping for Golden-winged Warblers, but unfortunately we didn't find a single bird .. so the other spot I knew off that has some Goldens is the Carden area, so off we go !!
An early start for 2.5 hour trip up the Kawarthas (left at 4:00am) and arrived to find I had the Wylie Road area to myself. It didn't take too long to find my first Golden-winged, but it wasn't keen to come out into the open, and thast was pretty much the order of the day with the other 3 or 4 birds | came across .. oh well !!
As far as the other birds were concerned - there were several sightings of Grasshopper Sparrows, lots of Bluebirds, several Easter Towhees and lots of the other plains birds you would expect - Savannah Sparrows, Bobolinks, Song Sparrows etc etc.

With lots do around home I didn't venture very far over the last few days. Birding highlight was a very cooperative Veery that I found along Beke Road. With the warmer weather there is a few butterflies starting to show up, so I dug out the macro lenses and managed a few pics.

A late start, but as the weather seemed to improve (clouds rolling in, making it less of a pure sun kind of day) - as it ended up the clouds were very thin and making little difference  .. oh well!! Arrived near noon and spent the next several hours patrolling the back roads looking initially for Golden-winged Warblers, but unlike previous years in the same area, there was no sign of a single bird anywhere. However, there was a few other subjects to photograph ...as per below.