JUNE 2020

June 26th & 27th 2020

Location: In and around Cambridge ON

Weather: Sun, and more sun

A few insects that I came across over the last couple of days. 
As always ... click on any image to show full size ​

June 25th 2020

Location: Perimeter of Algonquin Park

Weather: A mix of sun & cloud.Cool to start

We have been very patiently waiting for the weather up north to swing in our favour, for almost two weeks, and so we were delighted when we checked yesterday that it was to be predominately cloudy, and maybe a chance of some light rain. For the last while, like lots of the rest of Ontario, it's been sunny, sunny, so we grabbed our chance and headed up. I left here at 2:45am for the 4 hour drive north (I think I eventually woke up close to Barrie ;) )
The day went well with lots of sightings and of course we all managed a few pics.  Nothing too surprising, but there was certainly an increase in juvenile birds from our last trip here, two weeks ago.

June 23rd & 24th  2020

Location: Local to KW

Weather: Continuing sunny & hot

A few bugs over the last couple of days. 

June 19th, 20th and 22nd 2020

Location: In and around Cambridge

Weather: Hot & muggy for the most part

Four-lined Plant Bug

As I mentioned in a previous post, the hot weather has made me flip to insect photography earlier in the summer than usual. I find insect photography quite challenging, but with many of the same considerations as with avian photography. First of all use the best equipment that you can for the job - for the larger insects I use a 100mm Type L Canon Macro Lens, and for the smaller subjects I use a 65MPE Macro Lens (I plan to go into some detail about using this lens in an upcoming post). Secondly use flash, and preferably a Ring Flash. Next use something to diffuse the background, so that your subject stands out, and finally find something to photograph. 
Subjects are generally quite easy to find - billions of insects around us, almost everywhere, but for certain types habitat, like birds, is very important. If you would like to photograph Damselflies and/or Dragonflies the preferred location would be around some sort of natural water source eg a pond or a river/creek. Beetles and other flying insects a meadow or a field, or possibly your own back garden, would be a preferred spot to find them. 
A quick note about the Bald Eagle babies below - This almost ready to leave the nest pair are quite well known around the Cambridge area, and they can be seen, quite often with a parent in attendance, from along the roadside at Fountain Street, close to the Osprey nest.

Tip of the Day: In the warmer months insects are at their most active, and they are very hyper-aware. The slower and stiller you can be, the easier time you will have setting up a shot. Vary your camera angles, as well as the distance from which you shoot your subjects. Start from farther away, and this will at least mean that if you accidentally frighten your chosen subject or it flies off suddenly, you will have something in the bag.

June 16th & 17th 2020

Location: Kitchener/Cambridge

Weather: Sun, sun, sun

I wasn't expecting to be photographing insects this early in the year - for the last several years I don't start until July, but with the current hot sunny spell it has "forced" me to start early. By July the bird activity generally slows down due to a) the hotter weather and b) the songbirds are already well through their breeding schedule, so not active, and so therefore nothing to photograph ... hence the switch to insects. I actually love photographing bugs - they can be such a challenge.
Anyways, on the 16th I headed out looking for Dragonflies & Damselflies of which there seemed to be much activity, and after a few hours I managed quite a few shots. My technique (if you call it that) is to head to a marshy area where I would expect many of each would be around, as it was.
On the 17th I headed back to the same spot - armed only with macro gear, and guess what ... as soon as I pulled up a Brown Thrasher was out in the open, posing for me, on a low branch ... lesson #### don't go anywhere without proper gear - I popped back to the house to re-arm and managed a few shots of the Thrasher as well as a Yellow Warbler & Kingbird that were also around the same spot, when I returned.
As always ... click on any image to show full size ​

June 12th & 13th 2020

Location: Perimeter of Algonquin Park

Weather: Cloudy & cool (12th)- Sunny (13th)

A couple of us have been closely watching the weather patterns for a day where the sun is minimal, but hopefully dry and found a couple of days where the conditions were satisfactory. ie minimal harsh light. In my opinion the absolute best weather to photograph songbirds is when there is no direct sun, but still with reasonable light levels a) so that there is no harsh shadows & nasty highlights and b) with decent levels of soft light that keeps the ISO within acceptable limits. The two days 12th & 13th seemed to fit the bill, so a quick hotel booking close by and gas tanks filled and away we go 
As always ... click on any image to show full size 

June 10th 2020

Location: Elgin County

Weather: Dull start but ended up being a scorcher

First time visiting this spot was very successful - I was able to add a couple of new birds for the year ie the Celurean & the Prothonotary. Strangely enough they were within a couple of hundred yards from each other. There was another bird hanging out in the same general area, and which was also in the highly sought after category - a Yellow-throated Warbler, but unfortunately after some significant looking and listening, we didn't manage to see it. 

June 9th 2020

Location: Georgetown

Weather: Sun & Cloud

A few years back we discovered Blackburnian Warblers at this location, and so every year we make a day trip to see if he is still around. This year was no different with the male popping out into the open and giving us some brief views. Same area has a few other birds including Common Yellowthroats in the nearby swamp and a American Redstarts.

Tip of the Day:  Finding birds is not only about getting out and exploring various locations - it's also about recording your findings and so by looking back to spots where you found certain birds in previous years, can often be a spot you will that bird in the current year. Birds tend to return year after year to the almost identical spot to breed and raise their young.

June 6th & 8th 2020

Location: Halton Tracts

Weather: Mainly sunny and pretty hot !!

Photographing birds are often like waiting for a bus (not like I've done that for many, many years) but you wait for ages for that bus, then two come along at once.Birding has days like that too .. Right through migration I never saw one then in the last few days I've seen 2 or 3> The images below are two separate birds from two different Tracts. The one on the left was shot without a flash attached and the one on the right with a fill flash. I've mixed feelings about a flash - If you are not really careful the flashed image can look quite false and unnatural. 

Tip of the Day:    A good tip for finding songbirds in the wood lots we roam around is to be aware of not only the sounds the birds make, but also for any slight movements of leaves and branches. Obviously more effective on a non windy & still day. Another thing to look for is a falling leaf, which can mean that above you a bird is foraging for food and dislodged that leaf - I've found birds on many occasions just by determining which direction that leaf has fallen from.  

June 5th 2020

Location: Halton Tracts

Weather: Scorching

Halton Regional Tract system is quite impressive, with several trails, so today I checked out a few of the ones I hadn't visited for some time. It was too hot, so I was back home fairly early, but I did manage a couple of shots. This was the first day of the season where I was able to find easily any Red-eyed Vireos - they were almost everywhere I looked.
Birding in really hot days is not easy - birds tend to stay in the deeper cooler parts of the forest - smart birds !! 

June 2nd & 3rd 2020

Location: Halton Tracts & Woodstock

Weather: Hot !!

Day1 - we took a short jaunt down a couple of the Halton trails with some success - We found two Mourning Warblers, with the one shown below close to a nest (although we didn't see the nest the bird made frequent back and forth flights to the exact same clump of  deep scrub). Other birds were a Black-throated Blue Warbler and a Hooded Warbler .. both located by call, then tracked down, for the shot.
Day2 - A couple of weeks ago I spotted a Red-headed up in a tree on a back road, but didn't get a chance at a photograph, so today , along with a couple of friends, we went back to check it out. We saw both a male & female at a tree that we assume was a nesting spot.  Managed a few fairly low in the tree shots, so pretty happy.
BTW I turned around at one point while photographing a bird to see this guy (the Fox) watching us... 

June 1st 2020

Location: Halton Region Tracts

Weather: Mainly sunny ... lighting a bit harsh

Two of the Warblers I missed during the migration surges were these two, and so today I was ecstatic to be able to see and photograph them. My thanks goes to a fellow birder and great shooting partner (you know who you are), for locating these birds and sharing the spots with me ... I owe you big time. These birds are of course the Hooded Warbler and the Mourning Warbler. The light was a bit harsh for decent photography (it was bright sun, so the harsh highlights and the deep shadows made them really tricky to get the best shots), so don't be surprised to see more shots in the coming days ... I am looking for a cloudy day, which in my humble opinion is the best kind of day to shoot colourful birds.