Location: Algonquin Park

Weather: Forecast was sun and cloud, but all we got was cloud and lots of snow flurries.

My shooting partner, Steve and I have been waiting and watching the weather forecast for a decent day to travel the 4 hour hour drive north to Algonquin Provincial Park. Forecast for today looked good - Sun and Cloud, so up at 3:00am and load up the car. The targets were any of the northern species that may have settled here for the season in this awesome and very large Provincial Park.
Our first three stops in the park were a bit of a let down with few birds/animals to photograph. However things began to look up for us at the end of Opeongo Road where we had a couple of Gray Jays entertain us for a while (we traded a few peanuts for some photo posing). Headed from here to the Visitor Centre to see if their feeders were attracting any birds. There was nothing very interesting at the feeders, but in the trees opposite the balcony a flock of Pine Grosbeaks were feeding on their natural food (Spruce buds) at the tops of the trees. We had an amazing 10 mins or so until a flock of Evening Grosbeaks arrived and flushed the Pine Grosbeaks, but now we had new subjects. Things had definitely picked up.
​After a while we headed out to see if we could find any Pine Martens at Mew Lake. As soon as we arrived we could see several of these cuties on the ground and up in the trees. We spent the next hour photographing them .... they were quite bold and gave us some nice images. Light by this time was failing so we packed up for the long drive home. About 15 mins on the road we found a young female Moose on the roadside and who appeared to be sucking on the road salt from the snow piles left by the snow plow, so to wrap up our excellent day we managed a few shots of this fine young lady. Great Day

Location: Hamilton

Weather: Sun and cloud, but cool (-2C)

Location: Goderich

Weather: Sun & Cloud, but really cold (-12C)

Chasing down rare birds is something I'm not really into - traveling hundreds of miles to join the crowds photographing their lifers. However I did just that this morning - I drove the 2 hours to the small coastal town of Goderich to checkout the much publicized  rarity that has shown up in an urban backyard in the middle of town. Namely: a Calliope Hummingbird which as well as being the first ever recorded instance of this species in Ontario is extremely late in the year for any hummer. The Calliope is also the smallest bird we have weighing no more than a ping pong ball. Anyways, yes I headed into the lady's back yard along with another dozen or so birders and watched this little gem of a bird for about half an hour before moving on with my day, and I suppose I must add a "lifer" to my list. (I've no idea what the count is at, but it must be significantly over 300 for Ontario). Image below is if the Hummer sitting on the edge of a heat lamp where it spends a significant amount of his day. It's a young male BTW.

Location: Toronto (Humber Bay)

Weather: Sunny

It takes me an hour (plus) to get to downtown Toronto from my home port of Kitchener. That's on a good day with no traffic, but this morning I was running a bit late so got tied up in rush hour traffic - ended up taking me almost 2 1/2 hours. It was not the most pleasant couple of hours I've ever spent I can tell you - the things you do to get a few photographs.
Anyways, it ended up being a pretty good birding day - the target today was Hooded Mergansers of which there were several in the "harbour" cells. After an hour of satisfying shooting we headed around another part of the park to see wat we could find. We ended up seeing something I had never witnessed before - A large female Coopers Hawk was sitting on the ice (close to shore) in one of the Park ponds. She didn't look to steady on her feet - kinda looked like a beginner ice skater as her legs were sliding all over the place. We watched this for a while and eventually the hawk ended up taking a couple of baths in the un-frozen sections beneath the trees, so I assume this was the ultimate goal all along. Eventually the Coop flew off and landed in a tree where we were able to get a few shots.

Location: Toronto

Weather: Dull but dry and cool

Last week a friend and I headed to Toronto on an owl hunt - during that outing we managed to find a Saw-whet Owl, so we headed back to same general area to see if we could find any more of this exciting species group. We arrived early and within an hour we had found a couple of Long-eared Owls roosting in a bunch of cedar trees not too far off one of the paths. After getting a few images "in the can" we moved on and a tad later we found a Saw-whet Owl sitting not too deep in a short tree. It was a good day ... Snowy Owls were also on my mind, but there we didn't score.... maybe next time.

Location: Cambridge to Guelph

Weather: Forecast was sun and cloud, but never saw blue sky once all day.

Location: Cambridge (13th) and Burlington (14th)

Weather: Some sun but mostly cloudy. Cold

The Fox and the White-throated Sparrows were from Cambridge (Riverside Park). With the little bit of snow we got overnight the sparrows stand out quite nicely. Riverside looks like it has a single Fox Sparrow, but at least a half dozen White-throated Sparrows.
The Lincoln's Sparrow (if that's what it actually is - I originally thought it was a Song Sparrow based on the chest spot, but I was corrected online by a much better birder than I) . This was taken at La Salle in Burlington. It was hanging around a log pile - the kind of location that's very typical of a Lincoln's so lends to the argument that it is Lincoln's.   

Location: La Salle, Burlington

Weather: Cool, but some sun and cloud

I had popped into La Salle about 4 or 5 times in the last 8 or 9 days to see if I could find and photograph the now relatively famous Black-throated Gray Warbler, and up to this morning I, although I saw the bird every time, I had yet to get a decent shot. Today, I had that same destination and yet again I was hopeful that I could get this rare bird (for Ontario) in my viewfinder, and at last I managed a semi-decent shot - it was into the light, but I was pretty happy to get at least something. Also I saw two Carolina Wrens - one of which perched into the open for twenty or thirty seconds, and gave a few  of us great shots. My luck may be changing .... at last.

​All images are clickable to go full size, and hovering over will display species or description

Location: Toronto

Weather: Sun and a bit of cloud, but a cold start (-4C), but warmed up to maybe +3C

Along with a friend we headed to Toronto on an owl hunting "mission". Our main target were Long-eared Owls and a secondary target of Snowy Owls, of which we found neither. What we did find may even be better than either of the other two - a cute and very tiny Northern Saw-whet Owl. Other birds were  couple of Song Sparrows, some Goldfinches and a surprisingly late migrating Hermit Thrush. A pretty good day
​

Location: Kitchener

Weather: Damp & cloudy

The weather was a little drab today and because of a few other commitments I didn't venture too far. I have a few perches setup around the feeders in my back yard and I always have a lot of fun with a camera setup on the inside of my patio doors and setup to shoot through the glass at whatever is in the right place at the right time. Today I had a slightly surprising visitor - a Chipping Sparrow. 

Location: Burlington

Weather: Chilly start (around 1C) but sunny

Location: Vittoria

Weather: Heavy Rain

It had been a while since I went to one of the Canadian Raptor Conservancy presentations, and when I was asked if I wanted to participate I jumped at the chance. The CRC offers session to photographers/photographer groups where they will fly a few raptors (Owls, Hawks, Falcons and Eagles) so that us "shutterbugs" can get a chance to capture in-flight images. They also bring out  a birds that haven't been trained to fly, as static subjects. Unfortunately it rained pretty hard all afternoon. so although we did do a few in-flight setups outside it was far from perfect (poor light, high ISO etc). A few of the birds we setup in their indoor "studio" so we were able to get something. 
Indoors we photographed ... Screech Owl, Red-tailed Hawk, Eurasian Eagle Owl, Peregrine Falcon and outdoors we photographed Bald Eagle, Harris Hawk, Great-horned Owl, Great-gray Owl and Snowy Owl.
I think all of us ended up a tad damp by the end of the session, but it was, as always, very enjoyable.

​All images are clickable to go full size, and hovering over will display species or description

Location: At home in Kitchener

Weather: poor - damp, rainy and yucky

Location: Burlington

Weather: Bright and sunny for the most part

Reports were such that the Hudsonian Godwits were still still hanging around on the mud flats next to Valley Inn. The other day when I was there I photographed the group in the rain, so the images were far from perfect (or even good). The weather forecast was to be brighter so it seemed a good idea to see if I could manage a few better shots. mmmmm! Unfortunately the birds were still on the same mud flats and this time I was shooting into the early morning sun, so are these shots better .... no unfortunately not, but again, still nice to see these fine birds.Maybe next time I will get luckier.
Whilst there we heard that there were a few Fox Sparrows down below Cherry Hill Gate, so this was opportunity I could not resist - Fox Sparrows are definitely one of my favorite Sparrows, and they are always hard to find, so it was a "no-brainer". Unfortunately there was only one, and it was not showing very well, but you take what you can get sometimes.My experience has been that these birds tend to hang around for a while once they find a spot, so I will keep an eye on this location, and hope for something better going forward.

Location: At home in Kitchener

Weather: Mix of Sun, Rain and lots of cloud

Some days It's kinda nice to do some shooting at home. I had a dental appointment in the morning, so wasn't able to travel too far anyways, so I stocked up the feeders, setup my camera on a tripod behind the glass of my Dining Room patio doors, and waited to see what showed up. Before I had headed off to my dental appt I had seen several Pine Siskins at the feeders, and so these were the main target.
Not too much, or at least not too exciting, showed up over the next couple of hours, but I can't say it wasn't enjoyable sitting looking out with a cuppa tea and just relaxing. The most common visitors were, as you might have guessed, were Black-capped Chickadees, then Blue Jays, followed by Red-breasted Nuthatches and White-breasted Nuthatches. At the tail it was Cardinals. On the non-birding side there was no shortage of Red & Grey Squirrels and of course Chipmunks.  

Location: Robertson Tract (Milton), Sedgewick Forest (Oakville) & finally Valley Inn (Burlington)

Weather: Cold but sunny start, then around midday rained for a bit, and still cold

Location: Back to Dundas & Burlington

Weather: pretty much a repeat from yesterday - Cool, but with a little sun

I headed back down to the same area as yesterday, but headed to Valley Inn first and other than lots of Egrets there wasn't too much to photograph. I did see a few Ruby-crowned Kinglets, but as usual they were tough to get in the open and even tougher to get to sit still for a micro second.
I had a friend with me today and thought it might be fun to go back, yet again, to Thornapple to see if we can find some Hermit Thrushes, and maybe who knows, what else.  As it happened we did find lots of Hermit Thrushes, but sadly not too much else.  I lie .... we had a small group of Ruby-crowned Kinglets float by and for once I was able to get a reasonably close and sharp shot ... 

Location: Dundas & Burlington

Weather: Cool, but seasonal

Dropped in at Thornapple again ....there has been a bit of activity over the last week, so hard to drive by without checking it out. Lots of Hermit Thrushes (just like the other day) and a few Kinglets - mainly Ruby-crowned. It's funny other places get nothing but Golden-crowned, but here it's almost all Rubies.  Not complaining as they drift by in little flocks giving the occasional (and I mean occasional) pose for the camera. 
Whilst in the area I also dropped by Valley Inn to see if there was anything new, but sad to say for the most part it was the same old stuff - Egrets, Blue Herons, Green Herons, Cormorants, Gulls, Osprey, but I did see a lone female Bufflehead - now is that a sign of the upcoming winter or what (sadly no image LOL.

Location: Burlington

Weather: Very cool start, but warmed up later

With only a limited amount of time this morning (a family gathering planned for noon) I headed down to the Burlington area (I had debated taking a walk around Riverside Park instead, but the lure of good sightings near the lake changed my mind). It turned out to be quite productive. Our first stop was at the RBG property in Dundas where we encountered a largish flock of about 15-20 mainly Hermit Thrushes, but I was sure there was a Veery in the mix (unlikely I know, but the brief bino glimpse I got was pretty good) Anyways, the flock seemed to follow us as we traveled along a local trail, and every now and then one would pop out into the open giving us decent photo ops. 
From here we headed to Valley Inn for about 45mins where we arrived to find several Kinglets foraging along the road next to the parking lot. Amongst them I saw (even before getting out of the vehicle) a Magnolia Warbler ... a quite late migrant, which would have been one of the last I would have expected this late, but a nice surprise nevertheless.. At one point I found the Magnolia in the open at close range with a caterpillar that it was hitting against the branch it perched on and slowly devouring it. My reaction was delight as I shot off some 20 shots, but turned to disappointment when I realized that my exposure setting had been accidentally changed (a hazard shooting manual) resulting in grossly underexposed images. A lesson learned  ... check frequently!!!  However after adjusting I did get another shot, but caterpillar was history.

All images are clickable to go full size, and hovering over will display species or description

Location: Southern Quebec

Weather: Foggy Start both days, but cleared late morning into sunny and hot (28C)

Location: Samuel Smith Park, Etobicoke

Weather: Drizzly rain

Today was a visit to Colonel Samuel Smith Park primarily as a bird watching day as opposed to my normal photography pursuits. My partner for today was a good friend who is also an avid bird watcher - hence the bird watching. Saying that I did lug along a camera ... just in case. The weather was iffy for most of the time we were there, but there were no shortage of birds  - unfortunately they were in isolated groups, so we had a lot of walking with nothing, then a bonanza period. Our sightings in the small bird category were primarily Kinglets (both Ruby-crowned and Golden-crowned) but along with these little beauties there were a few warblers and thrushes. Other sightings in the small bird category were Winter Wren, Brown Creeper, Downy Woodpecker, White-breasted Nuthatch, Red-breasted Nuthatch, Eastern Phoebe, Chickadee, Cardinal, White-throated Sparrow, White-crowned Sparrow and likely a few more that are not coming to mind.Around the ponds there were several interesting species - several Gadwall and American Widgeon, a few Pied-billed Grebe, Red-necked Grebe, Mallards, Black-crowned Night Heron, Mute Swans and of course Cormorants. The lighting was poor - both because of the low light but also with a mist that hung over the whole area making decent photographs more than a challenge.

Location: Currie Tract, Halton Region

Weather: Dull with less than perfect visibility

Over the last few days I've seen a distinct change in the species being spotted. Gone, (or at least they seem to be) are the pretty Warblers, ... Parulas, Blackburnians, Black-throated Greens, Blackpolls and Magnolias, and for the most part I'm now seeing Palm, Yellow-rumped and Black-throated Blues. None seem to be too much in abundance, but saying that I am seeing little groups of them pass through my stakeout spots. The Thrushes however are still in decent numbers with more Hermits than I was getting 2 or 3 weeks ago (then it was mostly Swainson's and a few Gray-cheeked). New for me this morning were several Golden-crowned Kinglets (last week it was 100% Ruby-crowned, so these new arrivals are indicating we are closer yet to the inevitable winter season.Still you take what luck throws in your path. Highlights today were certainly the Thrushes - Hermit and Swainson's, but a brief visit by a Winter Wren was equally exciting.

​​All images are clickable to go full size, and hovering over will display species or description

Location: Tilt's Bush, Kitchener

Weather: Rain and heavy cloud

I don't often go out without a camera, but this morning the weather was not too pleasant. It wasn't raining hard but rather than miss my morning ramble I donned the waterproofs and headed out to one of my local standby locations. Tilt's Bush is about a mile from my house and located at the edge of our sub division alongside and into the swamp. The boardwalk is pretty rickety and this morning, because of the overnight rain, was flooded in sections ... but I still made it to the end. I hung around for a couple of hours and saw briefly several birds including a Northern Flicker, Palm Warbler, Gray Catbird, Ruby-crowned Kinglet, White-throated Sparrow, Purple Finch, Blue Jay, Chickadee, Gray-cheeked Thrush and Swainson's Thrush. Other than struggling to keep my binocular lenses dry it was quite a pleasant walk.
​
BTW ... you might notice that my history section on the right hand side of the page is missing September - I'm not sure what happened but September is there, it's just combined with August.