March 24th 2018
Location: Niagara Falls
Weather: Sunny (not a cloud in the sky), but still chilly.
Along with a great birding/photography friend we headed to Lake Ontario initially to shoot a sunrise at one of the better known sunrise locations along Lake Ontario near Grimsby - Fifty Point. Sunrise was pretty good, but would have been better with a few clouds to give it some impact and if I hadn't left all my ND filters at home. I should make a check list before going out whether it be a sunrise, waterfall, landscape or wildlife - that way i would be a little less frustrated when it all goes wrong <wink>.
Since we were in the general area we decided to continue on to Niagara Falls ... not for landscapes, although that might have been an OK idea as well, but to check out birds at Dufferin Island. The island is a great location to see and photograph Tufted Titmouses (or is it Titmice ??... ) Unfortunately our "bad" luck was continuing as even after a couple of hours of looking and dropping peanuts/seed we never found a single one. We did however see a few ducks ... Gadwall, Hooded Merganser, Bufflehead and Red-breasted Merganser, which was somewhat of todays consolation prizes.
Since we were in the general area we decided to continue on to Niagara Falls ... not for landscapes, although that might have been an OK idea as well, but to check out birds at Dufferin Island. The island is a great location to see and photograph Tufted Titmouses (or is it Titmice ??... ) Unfortunately our "bad" luck was continuing as even after a couple of hours of looking and dropping peanuts/seed we never found a single one. We did however see a few ducks ... Gadwall, Hooded Merganser, Bufflehead and Red-breasted Merganser, which was somewhat of todays consolation prizes.
March 23rd 2018
Location: Hespeler, Ontario
Weather: Sunny, but still unseasonably cold
Bird Photography has its challenges as I'm sure many of you have found out. It can also be pretty frustrating sometimes in an effort of finding good subjects, and to get images of those subjects to be well exposed and of course, the all important, sharp. Birds, in general, have a comfort zone that as long as you stay outside that zone, will be relatively relaxed as to your presence, but once you breach that invisible line they tend to take off and "bang" goes that opportunity of a shot.
One method I use to fool the birds into allowing me into their comfort zone and to hopefully get decent photographs, is to use a blind. There are many canvas tent type blinds available, some (generally the more expensive ones) are marketed for photographers, and to be honest are superior to the alternate style, which have been designed for hunters. Both do the same job in essence, that is to provide camouflage and fool the birds to your close presence, but the photography blinds are better designed and are way more functional.
I often use my vehicle as makeshift blind with varying degrees of success, but certainly better than standing out in the open. Today I headed to a stretch of the Speed River in Hespeler where there has been a few species including Buffleheads, Common Mergansers, Great Blue Heron and Belted Kingfishers, hanging around. I chose a spot along that part of the river that I was able to get my car close to the rivers edge. I aligned the vehicle with the drivers side facing the river, and with the window down I was able to sit there for an hour or two and get a few shots of birds as they flew or swam past. Initially the birds are quite nervous of the vehicle, but after a time they seemed to settle down and carried on about their daily business ... at least some of them did. The Mergansers were the most concerned as to my presence and although they did move closer still kept a significant distance. One or two of the Buffleheads on the other hand came in really close and I was able to get a few decent images. .. see below. Keep in mind that a bean bag is a good idea over the window edge a) protects your camera/lens and b) gives you a stable platform to shoot from
One method I use to fool the birds into allowing me into their comfort zone and to hopefully get decent photographs, is to use a blind. There are many canvas tent type blinds available, some (generally the more expensive ones) are marketed for photographers, and to be honest are superior to the alternate style, which have been designed for hunters. Both do the same job in essence, that is to provide camouflage and fool the birds to your close presence, but the photography blinds are better designed and are way more functional.
I often use my vehicle as makeshift blind with varying degrees of success, but certainly better than standing out in the open. Today I headed to a stretch of the Speed River in Hespeler where there has been a few species including Buffleheads, Common Mergansers, Great Blue Heron and Belted Kingfishers, hanging around. I chose a spot along that part of the river that I was able to get my car close to the rivers edge. I aligned the vehicle with the drivers side facing the river, and with the window down I was able to sit there for an hour or two and get a few shots of birds as they flew or swam past. Initially the birds are quite nervous of the vehicle, but after a time they seemed to settle down and carried on about their daily business ... at least some of them did. The Mergansers were the most concerned as to my presence and although they did move closer still kept a significant distance. One or two of the Buffleheads on the other hand came in really close and I was able to get a few decent images. .. see below. Keep in mind that a bean bag is a good idea over the window edge a) protects your camera/lens and b) gives you a stable platform to shoot from
March 21st 2018
Location: Kitchener, Ontario
Weather: last few days have been sunny, but cold.
According to our old friend Google the Spring Equinox 2018 in the Northern Hemisphere was at 12:15 p.m. yesterday the 20th March ie the official first day of spring. Not that it felt much like it at -7C most of the day, but at least we hit a milestone as we get closer to the warmer weather. Birding for me over the last couple of weeks has been pretty stagnant, with almost no photographs to show for being out most of those days - so roll-on spring I think :)
"Birdless" days, however, have given me a chance to catch up on some long overdue image administration - I went through hundreds of images from the past year rooting out the really bad in an attempt to trim down on storage space. That whole exercise gave me a chance to look at, and reflect on some interesting birds from last spring - here are a few ... a taster of things to come in the coming weeks. These images were all taken during the month of May 2017
"Birdless" days, however, have given me a chance to catch up on some long overdue image administration - I went through hundreds of images from the past year rooting out the really bad in an attempt to trim down on storage space. That whole exercise gave me a chance to look at, and reflect on some interesting birds from last spring - here are a few ... a taster of things to come in the coming weeks. These images were all taken during the month of May 2017
March 11th 2018
Location: Back roads around Cambridge
Weather: cloudy with off-and-on light snow
 Eastern Bluebird | Another crappy weekend. The weather "Experts" got it wrong again - forecast yesterday was to be a bright sunny day, so I was all geared up to check out some spots around Hamilton/Niagara Falls that lend itself to that kind of weather. Oh well ...s@#$ happens. So I had a quick change of plan and buzzed around a few spots I know, on the west side of Cambridge, instead. My initial target was to see if I could locate the Eastern Meadowlark that a friend had seen a day or two ago near Whistlebear Golf Course, and sure enough I was able to spot him/her and get a few shots within minutes of pulling over. My goal is always to try to photograph my target in a pleasing and natural location, but unfortunately this guy didn't cooperate, but I suspect I will find this bird in the same spot in the days to come, so my chance might still materialize. Other early season "goodies" were the Sandhill Cranes and an Eastern Bluebird pair that allowed me a few shots 2018 Year list = 87 |
March 9th 2018
Location: Cambridge
Weather: Snow squalls
 House Finch (M) | When the snow eased off and a bit of sun appeared I couldn't resist it .... I headed out to a local winter "hotspot". I had the idea that the fresh snow might be nice if I could get a few birds to pose in, on or around it, and even if it started to snow again (which it did) that it also might be a feature that could result in some keeper images. I wish the birds were a bit more glamorous, but you take what you can get at this time of year and on these kind of days. The important thing is to get out and do some shooting.... right ? I often say that I would rather have a great shot of a common or garden bird, than a lousy shot of a rarity. Well .. no rarities today but I did OK with some of these common ones, as shown to the left and below in todays gallery. |
March 7th 2018
Location: Burlington, Ontario
Weather: Hazy sun & cloud, but chilly by the lake
g was asked earlier today if getting Lightroom was worth it. The answer to that question is a matter of personal preference, but in my own humble opinion ... absolutely. This comment also goes for Photoshop. As I'm sure most serious photographers out there would agree you need to have an organized structure for storing your photographs as well as a post processing work flow.
My personal work flow is to import all my RAW images into Lightroom CC, then from the Library feature weed out and delete all the unusable - the out of focus and the grossly over/under-exposed, etc etc., before continuing to the Develop module (where the fun part starts), I tag all the images (I need to be able to find them later, right?). In Develop I adjust exposure, white balance, highlights, shadows, clarity and saturation, both as a global measure and as a localized treatment (maybe brighten the eye, or some local sharpening, etc). Next step for me is to open up that image in Photoshop CC where at the least I would add a "signature", but often much more depending on the image. Return the image to Lightroom to make fine tuned and final adjustments before saving the image to my output folder. The images below, which were taken earlier today, were processed like this.
Reminder: All images are click-able to go full size, and hovering over an image will display species or description
My personal work flow is to import all my RAW images into Lightroom CC, then from the Library feature weed out and delete all the unusable - the out of focus and the grossly over/under-exposed, etc etc., before continuing to the Develop module (where the fun part starts), I tag all the images (I need to be able to find them later, right?). In Develop I adjust exposure, white balance, highlights, shadows, clarity and saturation, both as a global measure and as a localized treatment (maybe brighten the eye, or some local sharpening, etc). Next step for me is to open up that image in Photoshop CC where at the least I would add a "signature", but often much more depending on the image. Return the image to Lightroom to make fine tuned and final adjustments before saving the image to my output folder. The images below, which were taken earlier today, were processed like this.
Reminder: All images are click-able to go full size, and hovering over an image will display species or description
March 5th 2018
Location: Riverside Park, Cambridge
Weather: Sunny blue skies
Some days the best I can think of is to head to local park and do a little setup with some bird seed and an old stick or two. Today was one of those days. Some days, using this technique, are better than others ... today was at lower end of success, but still it has to be better than sitting around the house. Even the common birds are beautiful in their own way, are they not :)
March 4th 2018
Location: Burlington & Hamilton
Weather: Icy cold wind, in a cloudless blue sky, but the air temp was not bad at 1C
| I always advise every birder or bird photographer to do a bit of research prior to heading out. There are lots of resources that you can check out on line, that can make the difference between getting "skunked" and getting a decent shot in the can eg .. ebird, list serv's, OFO, Facebook Groups, etc. It might not always go according to plan but at least you have a target to aim for. My personal target this morning was to see if I could find, and hopefully photograph, the reported Red-throated Loons that had been seen yesterday at La Salle in Burlington. There had been six of these beauties spotted at the east end of the bay yesterday, but after much scoping (and a fair amount of walking) I was unable to find them, so I suspect they had moved on overnight. So I suppose in this case that targets don't always pan out <curses>. Anyways, while I was in the area I was able to see and photograph a few other nice birds. Canvasbacks at La Salle, Ruddy Duck and Shovelers at Windermere, Buffleheads and Common Mergansers at Red Hill Valley Pond. For 1st week in March, which is often always flat, it wasn't too bad..... |  Red-bellied Woodpecker |
March 1st 2018
Location: In and around Drumbo
Weather: Cool, but dry (so far) 0C
 Sandhill Cranes performing their mating ritual along the side of Hohner Creek wetland flats near Drumbo | I thought As I read the latest birding reports it would seem that many of the spring arrivals have started to arrive, and one species that might be fun to check out is ... Tundra Swans and the first location that came to mind and, that wasn't too far away, was around Drumbo. I was able to spot two large flocks in that general area, with each group maybe 200-300 individuals, but what a spectacle ... my hearing isn't too good these days, but I could certainly hear the racket these guys were making. One of the nice things about photographing Tundras is that you don't need to leave your vehicle ... in fact it's not even a good idea, as it will almost certainly result in the flocks taking off. Forcing them into the air only depletes energy that they need for their ongoing migration. While in the area I also checked out another large bird species that has been over-wintering along the wet lands near Drumbo ... Sandhill Cranes. I counted seven of these majestic birds, and although they were quite some distance away their size made photography feasible with a 500mm on a full frame camera. Spring was in the air here as I watched a couple do their prancing mating dance ... awesome !! Another couple of FOY (first of year) birds today .... Brown-headed Cowbird, Northern Flicker and Killdeer. Total for 2018 now at 84 |
