August 27th and 28th 2021
| LOCATION: Couple of spots - Barrie area and Burlington | WEATHER: Hot and sunny .. what else :) |
I had reason to head up to Barrie, so I left early from here in Kitchener and spent some time between Orangeville & Barrie trailing some of the back roads looking for likely habitat with some success
Tip of the Day: Weather conditions can play an important role in the type of species you may find during Fall migration, and some of my most exciting birding days over the years have been in the rain. Trouble might be finding wet days at this time of year. Good Luck :)
August 25th and 26th 2021
| LOCATION: Halton Region, mainly | WEATHER: Hot with a mix of sun and cloud |
Nice to see migration in the early stages of picking up. Highlight over these two days was the Golden-winged Warbler ... REALLY nice surprise
Tip of the Day: Find the flocks - During the fall, even more than during spring, migrant warblers tend to be concentrated in flocks. The flocks may be only loosely organized, and they may contain only a few individuals, but they are out there and worth finding.
August 20th & 22nd 2021
| LOCATION: Grass Lake area | WEATHER: Yep hot and sunny ... what else!! |
A couple of days local seeing what I could find ... Sandhill Cranes are typically posing nice late in the day close to Grass Lake.
Tip of the Day: When it comes to shooting Sandhill Cranes - Focus your attention where it counts. Look for interesting perspectives !!
August 16th & 18th 2021
| LOCATION: Grass Lake & Halton | WEATHER: 16th sunny, 18th cloudy |
Over the last two days I have been driving around a few of the back roads, in my general area, on a very much a preliminary scouting tour, in the search for some of our pending Fall songbird migrants. Success isn't a word I would use, but there was certainly a few individual moments of activity in a few different areas. One thing is for sure .... it was absolutely awesome to see some of the early ones on their way south. I can hardly wait for the upcoming waves of Warblers, Vireos, Flycatchers and Thrushes that will inevitably push their way through my area in the coming weeks. This was the taster :)
Tip of the Day: Since the birds are not singing during the non-breeding season, you don’t have the luxury of waiting for unfamiliar bird songs to clue you in to the presence of a migratory songbird. Scan trees carefully, watching for movement, and listen for call notes. Pay attention to sunlit spots, as insect-eating birds tend to congregate there looking for prey. Many a wave of warblers has been found just by taking a moment to stop walking and start looking.
August 14th 2021
| LOCATION: Grass Lake area | WEATHER: Pure sun, but slightly cooler |
For the last several days I have been recovering files and programs after a serious hard drive failure (my boot drive), and recovering myself after the stress and anxiety that these kind of incidents have on a person. However after a few days I feel as if I'm back at maybe 95% of where I was - still a few things to do and a few programs still to reinstall, but I'm "close" .. I think :)
So today I headed out for a few hours with a good friend (who I hadn't birded with for quite some time) and managed a few snaps as well as a good catch up. Both of us had limited time so we stayed fairly close to home, but did reasonably OK. Fall migration is still maybe a week away - it will be nice to see the flood when it arrives.
So today I headed out for a few hours with a good friend (who I hadn't birded with for quite some time) and managed a few snaps as well as a good catch up. Both of us had limited time so we stayed fairly close to home, but did reasonably OK. Fall migration is still maybe a week away - it will be nice to see the flood when it arrives.
Tip of the Day: For ground level subjects, it's a good idea to get down to s similar level as to where the bird is. This suggests to the viewer a more intimate and eye catching moment
August 7th 2021
| LOCATION: Puslinch in AM, and North Dumfries in PM | WEATHER: Sun and cloud occasional shower |
Today was a good looking morning for bird photography - ie sun was behind clouds for the most part, so I took a drive around a few gravel roads looking for movement and bird activity. The morning was a tad quiet, but a Yellow Warbler game me quite a show eating a dragonfly, and was delighted to get several shots of it swallowing it's catch.
In the afternoon I headed back out towards North Dumfries and a little known spot where I have some luck in the past, and was delighted when I found that this spot was quite birdy with several species hanging our there - Warbling Vireo, Red-eyed Vireo, Redstarts, Gnatcatchers, Wood Pewee, Robins Starlings and several others that were too quick for a positive ID.
In the afternoon I headed back out towards North Dumfries and a little known spot where I have some luck in the past, and was delighted when I found that this spot was quite birdy with several species hanging our there - Warbling Vireo, Red-eyed Vireo, Redstarts, Gnatcatchers, Wood Pewee, Robins Starlings and several others that were too quick for a positive ID.
Tip of the Day: Todays tip is for those users of the EF500mm and 600mm Canon prime lenses, and is based on a personal experience last week. Last week i discovered that my EF500 rear lens element was apparently loose and rattling, so I took in to a repair facility for repair. The tech called me a bit later to say that there was nothing wrong with the lens and that I must have removed the lens from the body without turning the camera off, such that the autofocus mechanism wasn't in it's "parked" location. So always turn off your camera before removing lenses.
August 2nd & 5th 2021
| LOCATION: In and around Kitchener | WEATHER: Sun & cloud, and hot!! |
Today was a mix of straight macro and a few stacked macro shots. The first 3 images were stacked and quite time consuming for many different reasons, but setting them up then taking all the shots (sometimes 50 plus), then into post processing, which can take an hour or more sometimes. Tedious, but the results can be breathtaking.
Tip of the Day: This might sound obvious, but the first step in learning to take photos of insects is learning how to see them in the first place. Our six and eight-legged counterparts are all around us, but they don’t usually announce their presence with a trumpet blast. You often have to look just a little harder to see them, but you can great shots of bugs and insects on trees, shrubs, rocks, benches, buildings, or almost anywhere if you just keep your eyes peeled.
August 1st 2021
| LOCATION: Kitchener | WEATHER: Rain, cloudy then a little sun |
The first two images were created using focus stacking. What is focus stacking? Focus stacking, put simply, is moving the point of focus over the subject in a number of small increments. During each small movement, you take a photo, usually working from the front of a subject to the back, and then align and merge these photos in Photoshop or another post production software. As you can see in the spider image this technique appears to super extend your depth of field.
The bottom two images were taken as a single image using a standard macro lens.
The bottom two images were taken as a single image using a standard macro lens.
Tip of the Day: If you plan to use the stacking technique be aware that picking the right aperture is important. Using wider aperture settings is the first and usual technique for stacking, but unfortunately, refracted light disrupts wider aperture settings very rapidly with most lenses. Using a narrower aperture is an alternative to this technique, but narrow apertures have issues of their own. The narrower the aperture, the more difficult capturing the depth of the background will be. So a compromise is the answer.
