Birds are tricky to find and even more difficult to catch in the open and photograph. Calling birds using recorded calls, as an attracter,  is almost a waste of time for those that use this technique, and BTW I am not against calling birds myself, when the conditions are right. 

It was really quite over the last couple of days with no bird photography opportunities, so yet again it's down to bugs to fill my day ... as little as it was.

Tip of the Day: (Insect) Ebony Jewelwings are quite easy to sex - the female has a white spot at the wing tips, and is a little browner wing wise, The male has a fluorescent green body and blackish wings.

Not too much to say - it was a pretty slow day where birds are concerned, but a few bugs gave me a few shots.

I read some reports about a couple of locations that might have a Red-headed Woodpecker. I have seen them many times in the past, but so far this season they have eluded me. So researched a couple of spots where I might one, and along with Tim, headed out on day1 to the first spot. Almost immediately we had 4 of them flying back and forward, so managed a few shots and was really happy. We decided to head over to the other spot that was about 15km away, and would you believe it ... there was another 3 birds there as well.
Next day I headed back down on my own to an area closer to Drumbo, but habitat wise was pretty impressive, so I was curious as to whether an early morning visit might yield a few decent birds. Unfortunately on the bird side of things it was pretty quiet, but on the insect side it was pretty good.

Not a bad day with a few decent sightings. 

Quite a nice day with a decent variety of species showing up - both birds and bugs. I was really happy with the Grasshopper Sparrow that sat nicely for me. Funnily enough it wasn't at Grass Lake where I normally expect to find them but near the quarry next to Blair.

Today I went back to the Grass Lake area - I like this general area as there are so many spots along the gravel roads and alongside some of the swamps and wetlands. Grass Lake itself has superb prairie type habitat where lots of bugs and birds can be found. Today the highlight was finding a Marsh Wren that came into the open for a few seconds - I had been looking for one of these guys all season, so I can now check him off my list so to speak.

The dull lighting today was perfect for photographing birds, so I headed to Grass Lake to see what I could find. Surprisingly it was quite birdy today and I spotted lots of birds, and managed to even photograph a few as well. Highlight for me was the Scarlet Tanager, who was one of 4 birds foraging together in the same corner of a woodlot next to a swamp.   Once or twice one of them would venture close so I was able to get a couple of decent frames.
While hanging around some of the swampy areas I also managed to find some butterflies and some dragonflies. Highlight in this genre was the Baltimore Checkerspot  ... a FOS for me, so I was delighted .

Today was a bug day ... and they were a little hard to find for some reason, but it's the nature of the bug .. so to speak, I suppose. 
The one insect I did have fun photographing was the leafhopper. He was tiny and no more than 1/8" long tip to tail, so for this I brought the little fella home and set it up in my "studio" layout in my garage. I managed to get him sit still and so I was able to use my 65mm MP-E lens, set at 5x1, and did a 15 image stack, which I then processed in Photoshop to create the final image. Each image of the stack was taken 0.125 mm apart over a total distance of 2mm (approx).
For lighting I used two flashguns, each with a diffuser, triggered remotely and automatically.
The camera & lens were mounted on a Wemacro motorized rail, to provide that 0.125mm incrementation.

...later :)

A local day - I headed out to some waste ground close to home that I have found that can have a great flying insect population. The area is populated with lots of flowering weeds and plants eg thistles etc, so a great habitat for butterflies, dragonflies & damselflies. 

It happens every now and again .. I procrastinate and don't keep the blog up to date, so here yet again I am almost two weeks behind, so rather than try to remember individual days I thought I wou;d just put a gallery of images taken in that time slot. 
Now that birds are more difficult to find many of us nature photographers switch to photographing insects. In many ways bug photography is almost as much fun as finding and photographing birds. (almost :) )

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

Another "Birds first then Bugs" day. Initially started off in the North Dumfries area then as I drifted closer to home I picked up a few insects.

I always keep an eye on one or two of the rare bird alerts for southern Ontario, and  sometime something will pop up that tweaks my interest. Yesterday a report came in of a Dickcissal being reported along a side road just inland from Kincardine, so it's only a two hour drive, so off we went. Unfortunately after a few hours we were still without a sighting or even hearing their distinctive call. Oh well luck of the draw so to speak. 

Headed down to Sweaburg Swamp with the thought that this area might be worth checking out. It had been a few years since I had visited, but it was a tad disappointing.

The weather looked very promising, with cloudy skies, and a little cooler, and not too much wind, so it was very much the kind of day to go birding. The Guelph Line area has always been pretty good to me over the years, so it was a fairly easy choice of location for the day.
Almost immediately on getting there I am picking up several warblers on Merlin (I have no high end hearing, so I rely so much on Merlin).  Over the period of the next few hours I was able to get a few decent shots of my favorite bird genus ... Warblers. There was a even a few species I ignored .. ie Redstarts and Yellow Warblers.

The last few days have been "Bug Days", which is what we bird photographers often revert to when birds are slow, and getting harder to find.  We unclip the large telephotos and snap in the macro lenses. Macro has it's own magic, and I think I like shooting insects almost as much as birds ... almost :)

As you see from the pics below the trip was pretty successful. My main targets (again) were both the Bay-breasted Warbler and the Cape May Warbler. I did hear a couple of Cape Mays, but I never once caught a glimpse, so a tad disappointed in that respect, but very happy with my captures overall.  
On the, other than birds, side of things I did see a couple of interesting mammals - First thing a Wolf ran across on front of me, then a bit later a Fox wandered past. Mid morning on Day 1 I had a Moose stand in the middle of the road for a couple of minutes.
Season is most certainly advancing as many of the bird sightings were with food in their beaks, so chick rearing is well under way.
Most common sightings were Magnolia Warblers, Red-eyed Vireos, Northern Parulas and Blackburnian Warblers. Merlin also picked up a lot of Ovenbirds, but only a couple of sightings. The one singly most common call that Merlin picked up was the Winter Wren (at almost every stop), but even after making lots of calls I saw, or glimpsed movement, approximately zero birds  ... strange, I thought.

Over the past few weeks I have been seeing things that I have never really noticed before. As many of you know my hearing is pretty poor especially at the higher frequencies ie bird calls, so over the years I have compensated by watching and observing, and to some extent playing a few calls to attract birds.
So with the advent of the Merlin app it has opened up so many more opportunities for me. Anyways ... I have noticed that a couple of birds that show up on Merlin eg the Philadelphia Vireo are not what they seem, and although this species has been a target bird for all this season, the calls are in fact those of the Red-eyed Vireo. It would seem that the Red-eyed is mimicking the Phillie ... This hasn't been an isolated event as it has happened several times. 
Another bird that seems to have a tendency to mimic is Yellow Warbler. Several times Merlin has popped up an unlikely Warbler (eg Cape May or similar) and the next thing I see is a Yellow Warbler. 
I wonder how many other species has this trait ?? 

Luther is quite a well known area where the Sedge Wren can be found and so we headed up there with this target high on our wish list. Unfortunately, although the Merlin app was picking up the call in several spots, we never did see one, even for a split second. Oh well sometime it doesn't work out. However, what we did find were several Canada Warblers, so the day was still a success.

I headed down to the North Dumfries area again, but for these two days I did a little exploring on some of the other roads and trails in the area, that I don't usually go to. I am certainly glad I did, as I found some new spots that I now have added to my "go to" spots. The Yellow-throated Vireo was at one those locations and it was a real nice surprise to come across him. 

Another Bird and Bug day. Day 1 we headed up to one of the Halton tracts, as I had been hearing about a Hooded Warbler that is hanging out there. A few years back I remembered about one we had been seeing quite a ways along the track next to a swampy area, so off we went. Unfortunately we came up blank after a significant amount of time so we gave up and headed back to the parking lot, and would you believe it .. we spotted the bird right in the parking lot (could have saved some shoe leather <wink> )

As you can see from some of the images it is getting in to macro season, which is something that I do as the birding starts to slow down., so for the next few weeks you can expect to see a mix of both birds and bugs.
On the birding side I drove around some off the back roads fairly close to home and spotted a few birds, but the highlight was the Vesper Sparrow, which was a FOY (first of year) for me.

It was a nice day ... cool and little or no direct sun. This road always seems to be quite birdy, and today we managed to find a reactive and inquisitive Blackburnian Warbler. Always nice to see this beauty not too far from home.

Up by 2:15 am and out the door in Kitchener before 3:00am. It wasn't easy to get the butt moving this early, but the anticipation of catching a few Warblers during the best part of the day (ie before 7:00am) made it a little easier than I thought it would be.  The drive to this most awesome songbird area was generally easy enough, other than a very dramatic drive through a severe thunder & lightning storm. 
Arrived at my destination and was looking at Warblers very soon thereafter. I had a list of birds in mind and other than a couple of species that eluded me a bit - the Cape May Warbler and the Bay-breasted Warbler. I did actually see them, and even managed a coupe of absolutely terrible shots, so I suppose I reached all my targets.
This was a two day trip so after a decent sleep at a local Hotel I was back out there at the crack of stupid. Day two was pretty good, but not quite as active as the day before.  
Now I cant wait for the next trip up these, which might end up being pretty soon. 

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

Basically the same route both days, and with very similar results (not too surprising I suppose)., but still a great set of locations. Day 2 was a bit on the hot side, with the first fiery day of the spring at approx 32C, so ended up calling it a day quite early. 

Birds are pretty much settled in to their breeding spots and the males doing some chasing of females around their respective areas (I remember those days myself <wink>). It is my favorite time, and where its almost the easiest time to get a good looking bird on a nice perch. It still takes a lot of pre-work and effort and whole SL of patience, but that effort can pay great dividends. Foe the last few weeks I have been relying so much on the Merlin app - knowing what's in the vicinity makes it a tad easier, that's for sure. I think this app was developed for people with terrible hearing like me. 

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

Day 1 was a short one for me as I had things to see to at home, but still managed some decent shots of the Scarlet Tanagers, both male & female, before hitting the road home. Row 1 below was the results of said Day1.
Day2 we had much more time, and as it would seem many more opportunities as well - seems that we managed a few decent and somewhat varied sightings. This would be rows 2, 3 & 4. Basically all the shots on both days were taken along the one road in Halton region, so it will definitely be on my goto list for the coming couple of weeks. Not that there were any rarities in the days captures, but the birds were most certainly active, and volunteered some awesome poses for us.

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

Some days just seem to work, and even when the weather looks, on the surface, to be poor and not very birdy looking. So these kind of days I think give the most pleasure. 

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

Tip of the Day: Spring songbird photography brings colorful, vibrant photography opportunities. If one of your favorite birds is in a colorful tree, stay with it and take advantage of the moment. Birds dart in and out as they are curious little creatures. Watching their movements will help anticipate where they may be next .... so be ready!​

Another local day, but today I decided to explore some adjacent roads to my normal routing ... with mixed success. 

A close to home day, with a few decent sightings, but I couldn't get them in the viewfinder .. one of those days LOL
Sightings included Blackburnian Warbler, Yellow Warbler, Yellow-throated Vireo, Blackpoll Warbler, Eastern Meadowlark and a few others ... 

Targets on this trip were the Golden-winged and the Blue-winged Warbler, and especially the hybrids produced by these two individual species - the Brewster's Warbler and the Lawrence's Warbler. We did quite OK with both the Golden-winged and the Brewster's. Both of which are hard to find . Funnily enough we didn't locate a Blue-winged, which is the much easier of the quad, or did we find a Lawrence's, the harderst of the group. All in all  - I was very happy.
Other sightings were The Yellow-throated Vireo - an odd find this far north (but I wasn't complaining), an Ovenbird (which we heard almost everywhere), a Nashville Warbler an a Black-throated Green Warbler.
A pretty good and successful day 

For the most part I only spotted what I expected to see .. except!! I found a Blackpoll Warbler - now that was a huge surprise. I see this species on rare occasions only, so I was pretty happy... and at one of my favorite and least known spots.
Grasshopper Sparrows are back at Grass Lake, joining the Savannah Sparrows that have been here for a few weeks now. I was keeping my eyes open for Lapland Longspurs, but so far I haven't seen any, but you never know  

Tip of the Day:  Research your subject - have an idea what you are hoping to see, and know what kind of habitat etc ​​

Started off at Lakeside that over the last few days has been quite active with migrating songbirds, but today it was very quiet with only a couple of common species, so I went some of my old favorite spots in the North Dumfries area.
Big surprise at one spot, with a Yellow-throated Vireo visit, but unfortunately only for a few seconds then he was gone

A very early start this morning, with my alarm set at 2:15am and out the the door at 3:00am for the 3.25 hour drive to one of Mays hotspots - Point Pelee. Arrived at 06:15 and even this early the main parking lot was full, so ended up parking at the West beach parking lot. 
The plan was to meet up with a couple of friends from Scotland who were there for a couple of weeks. We met up at the Visitor Centre, and then walked a few of the trails with mixed success, but still managed several FOY (first of year) sightings, so all in all well worth the trip, but Boy, was it busy with hundreds of birders and photographers. It was incredible to meet up with Iain again, and his wife .. thanks folks:)
Highlights for me were the sightings and photographs of both Cuckoo species (Black-billed & Yellow-billed Cuckoos), but only managed a decent shot of the Yellow-billed.

The back roads on the north east side of Puslinch Lake have always been on of my local favorites, and today I visited a few spots that, in the past, I have had some luck. The land is owned by the Grand Rive Conservancy people, and is very well maintained, and of course, is awesome habitat for the current hot targets ... Warblers.
Although I spotted several birds that I would loved to have photographed, they were for the most part quite high ib the trees and reluctant to drop down to a height where shooting (with a camera LOL) is decent. I spotted at least 3 Blackburnian Warblers at 3 different spots, and a couple of Nashville Warbler. I also got a quick look at what I think was an Orange-crowned Warbler. 
On the plus side I spotted several Northern Waterthrushes along the edge of a couple of slow moving creeks. Other sightings were Pine Warblers, of which there were a few, and a pair of Rose-breasted Grosbeaks. The male was kind enough to pose for me for a few minutes. 
Non-bird wise I spotted this Comptons Tortoiseshell butterfly, and another FOY for me. I shot it with the long lens - I did head back to the car for a macro, but it had moved on by then.

Tip of the Day: Be careful and quiet when shooting - slow and sure is always better. Sudden movements or unnecessary chatter will often scare the bird away, so be quiet, be still and if the subject bird doesn't feel too threatened, then you, as the photographer, might just get that shot of a lifetime. Good luck ​

A cooler start, but things warmed up very nicely a bit later. Lots of new birds arriving and several FOY for me. The target for me was, and the reason for visiting the Grass Lake area, was the Bobolink. Quite a few warblers around and several species seen, but unfortunately not all photographed .. they can be tricky little devils sometimes. Seen: Yellow Warblers, Palm Warbler, Yellow-rumped Warbler, Nashville Warbler.

As you can see from the location above, I was in SE Ohio for 5 days, along with another pair of bird photography fanatics (Steve & Cerian), on what used to be our annual visit to this part of the US until Covid hit, and so after 3 years we were able to return, and shoot a few of that areas specialty songbirds. Most of them can be found in Ontario, but for the most part are quite rare, so it is real nice to have them fairly easy to find.
Personally, I had a target list which I was able to get, other than the Yellow-breasted Chat - we saw one almost daily, but couldn't get a decent shot, other than a couple of snaps  for record purposes..
The last time we were in the area we found it quite a challenge to see and photograph the Cerulean Warbler, but this year we found several cooperative birds, and managed several decent images ... so all in all I was really pleased with the collection, as below, and dozens more that I haven't published. Roll on 2023 :)

Tip of the Day: Its been a while since I posted a tip, so my apologies for anyone that follows my ramblings. 
There are two of our human senses that make locating and photographing birds .. especially songbirds, a definite must. First is obviously sight, and to enhance that is a good pair of binoculars. The second sense is good hearing, and in a lot of ways the more important of the senses for locating our targets. Personally I have lost the high end of the frequency ranges, so I have to rely on someone else, and thankfully I have a couple of birding partners that have excellent hearing. Good hearing is only the first part - it is incredibly important to learn the bird songs that are sung by the birds. These songs can help you identify what is out there and the direction and distance that they can be found. So learn your bird calls !!  ​