February 25th & 26th 2025
| LOCATION: Kitchener & North Dumfries | WEATHER: Warner and quite bright |
A little driving around North Dumfries on Day 1, and spotted lots of Horned Larks, and a flock of Snow Buntings. The Snow Buntings, unfortunately, didn't stick around long enough for me to focus .. they high tailed it never to be seen again that day. Day 2 was where I stopped off at Blair Bridge and checked out the Grand River for the reported male Long-tailed Duck, but unfortunately, I didn't spot him. There were, on the plus side of things, a few other species of ducks, but nothing out of the norm, but still nice to see and photograph.
February 20th & 21st 2025
| LOCATION: In and around Kitchener | WEATHER: Snow flurries & cloudy... and cold |
Day1: I didn't travel too far - I started off at home looking out of my dining room windows, and other than a few Juncos, the only decent shot was the Woodpecker. A bit later in the morning I headed over to Riverside Park in Cambridge and again it was a bit shy on anything too interesting - Lots of Cardinals & Tree Sparrows, but there were also 3 or 4 White-throated Sparrows, so not a total loss.
Day2: Tim & I did our weekly drive around parts of North Dumfries and into Brant County. We almost didn't see a thing, but thankfully a Merlin gave us a few shots so at least I had something to process a bit later !!
Day2: Tim & I did our weekly drive around parts of North Dumfries and into Brant County. We almost didn't see a thing, but thankfully a Merlin gave us a few shots so at least I had something to process a bit later !!
February 15th & 16th 2025
| LOCATION: Back yard Kitchener | WEATHER: Snowy & cold |
| Weather has been very snowy with about 12 inches of the white stuff ... I am not too keen when its like that as a) |have to shovel it out of the driveway and b) I cannot go too far birding. So ... best thing to do is set up a perch or two and lay out some bird seed to attract a few birds. The birds are 100% garden birds but better than nothing :) I used the Canon R5 with my 500mm prime lens, setup inside my dining room and pointing out through the patio door glass. Not perfect but it works. |  Northern Cardinal (F) |
**As always .. click on any image to show full size. Also by hovering your cursor over any image will provide a title**
February 12th 2025
| LOCATION: Riverside Park, Cambridge | WEATHER: Cloudy, and a tad cold |
| The missus had an appointment in Preston this morning so ... I decided to tag on and take a walk around Riverside Park. Riverside, not so many years ago, was one of the better places to do a little bird photography in the winter time, so I was quite hopeful. I headed to the boardwalk section to check out what might be around. A few walkers quite often put a little bird seed down so the birds have grown accustomed to being provided for ... which is good for any bird watchers or photographers that pass through. Lots of the usual .. Juncos, Cardinals, Downy's, Chickadees, Tree Sparrows, but I was surprised to see a lot of White-throated Sparrows too, and even more surprising .. a Song Sparrow. Just before I left (I was given an hour) Merlin was picking up House Finches, but because of that limited time, I never did find them. |  Blue Jay |
February 10th & 11th 2025
| LOCATION: Day1(Home), Day2(North Dumfries) | WEATHER: Sun and cloud, but chilly |
Tim and I headed our for our weekly drive around some of the local spots. Started off at Grass Lake, then did a few stops along some the gravel roads before getting to FWR Dickson. We were the first car to pull into the parking lot at FWR, and so when we walked along the trail heading to the boardwalk we had a ton of birds following us (they get used to being fed so they were getting anxious about when their breakfast was going to arrive :) )
The West Dumfries/Paris Plains loop had the usual Horned Larks, but we were hoping for Snow Buntings. We found them ... a good sized flock of maybe a 100 birds, but generally they kept back from the road, so getting a nice clean shot was tricky. At one point the flock swung around and landed in the tree above us so we managed a few under the tree shots .. not the best angle, but you take what you can get !!
The West Dumfries/Paris Plains loop had the usual Horned Larks, but we were hoping for Snow Buntings. We found them ... a good sized flock of maybe a 100 birds, but generally they kept back from the road, so getting a nice clean shot was tricky. At one point the flock swung around and landed in the tree above us so we managed a few under the tree shots .. not the best angle, but you take what you can get !!
February 6th - 9th 2025
| LOCATION: At home in Kitchener | WEATHER: Wintery, with some new snow |
As you see from the images below, activity around my feeders have been decent, but as you can also see nothing too "exotic" showing up. I keep hoping for maybe some Pine Siskins or possibly some Cedar Waxwings but so far this winter nothing as interesting as those two species. Although ... I have to say that the Leucistic Dark-eyed Junco I was seeing about 5 weeks ago for a few days takes a bit of beating too. Unfortunately this one has either moved on or succumbed to the Coopers Hawk that drops by occasionally .
February 5th 2025
| LOCATION: North Dumfries & Brant County | WEATHER: Sun/cloud/mild(ish) |
| Cerian and I took a drive around some of the popular spots in and around North Dumfries, with decent success. |  Tufted Titmouse |
**As always .. click on any image to show full size. Also by hovering your cursor over any image will provide a title**
February 4th 2025
| LOCATION: North Dumfries & Brant County | WEATHER: Cloudy, but with dampness |
 Horned Lark | The weather "promised" to be fairly mild, with sun and cloud, but no snow or rain until at least late afternoon, so Tim and I arranged to meet up and look for a few birds in the usual area of North Dumfries and the surrounding areas. We tried a few spots that we hadn't been to in a long time, but generally it wasn't as good as we had hoped. We did, as usual, take a walk down the trail at FWR Dickson where there were lots of birds, but nothing too exciting ... no Titmouse or any Nuthatches or Wrens. We did hear some Waxwings but the stayed invisible unfortunately. We came away with some images so not all bad. We checked out a couple of spots along the Grand River where we did manage a few distant shots of a couple of Mergansers & Ducks. |
February 1st, 2nd & 3rd 2025
| LOCATION: KItchener | WEATHER: Mainly cold & cloudy |
The last few days I didn't venture too far from home, and in fact all the images below were taken from my dining room out towards the bird feeders along my deck. Nothing very interesting, but I was certainly pretty happy that at least something showed up.
