DECEMBER 2017

December 28 - 29th December

Location: Algonquin Provincial Park

Weather: A frigid -33C, but warmed up on day 2 to a "pleasant" -28C

As I have mentioned before, for photography, I like dull cloudy days in the summer but sunny bright days in the winter. Forecast was calling for a few good days and what I think would be perfect for me, but unfortunately it was really icy cold. On my way up early, early morning, at around 6:00am as I neared Huntsville the temp indicator on my vehicle showed a frigid -37C for a few minutes WOW !! Anyways the four hour drive was pretty uneventful other than a section of black ice that had a few other drivers in trouble near Barrie. 
My principle destination was the Visitor Centre but birding was a tad slow at a few of the locations I stopped prior to getting there. Arowhon Road, Mew Lake and Spruce Bog were pretty much devoid of anything, so was hoping that the Visitor Centre had something more to offer. The VC was pretty good, albeit a little quieter than on previous winter trips. The big surprise species was the Red Crossbills (saw about a dozen) .. I don't remember having ever seeing any there in past years, so based on their closer proximity I was able to get some of the best shots ever of this fantastic species. Other birds were Purple Finches, Evening Grosbeaks, Pine SIskins, Blue Jays and a ton of Chickadees. Over the next few hours I jumped between Spruce Bog,  Opeonga Road and the VC. Spruce Bog and Opeongo had a few Gray Jays and Red-breasted Nuthatches. Day two was almost identical but we managed a few shots of another boreal bird, the White-winged Crossbill at Opeongo. As always I was hoping for a glimpse of the elusive Pine Marten and the Boreal Chickadee. The Chickadee was not to be, but the Marten popped out for a few minutes and posed nicely .... cool (in more ways than one)
​​All images are clickable to go full size, and hovering over will display species or description

December 27th 2017

Location: Cambridge, ON

Weather: Very cold (-17C), but sunny

With the build up to Xmas I hadn't been able to get out birding, but now that the festivities are generally over I am hoping to make up for lost time ... starting today. Last week I was traveling on the QEW near Hamilton the truck I was following dropped a huge chunk of ice that I had no way of avoiding  .. it hit and damaged the front skirt and the windshield washer bottle/pump (sits behind the skirt), so I'm trying to avoid too much travel until my garage gets the parts (hopefully next week) ... so I stayed locally today, but it wasn't a bad birding day. Highlight was a surprising - Yellow-bellied Sapsucker. After getting several shots at reasonably close range, I discovered that I had been shooting at 1/200 (handheld - which is way too slow \- even allowing for the 4stop stabilization that my 500 has) ... so those images are all pretty yucky. I think I now know what one of my New Years resolutions is going to be ... "Check all settings before shooting".
The rest of my images today were essentially "garden birds", but always fun to find and photograph.

Yellow-bellied Sapsucker

December 14th 2017

​Location: Oakville - Hamilton

Weather: Bright, sunny and bitterly cold again (-14C)

Along with my friend Steve, we basically did a repeat of the day before, and again starting at Sedgewick and finishing at the Lift Bridge. Sedgewick gave us sightings and photographs of the two Warbler species (Yellow-rumped & Nashville) and this time we manged to see a Carolina Wren and a small flock of House Finches. The finches were foraging in some low shrubbery and entertained us as they fed on the flower heads of a plant I wasn't familiar with. AS was the day before next stop was La Salle, and here we also had a couple of Carolina Wrens and a few others, but no decent photographs unfortunately. Although the local Wood Ducks were out in the open next to the cars in the parking lot. 

December 13th 2017

Location: Oakville - Hamilton

Weather: Bright, sunny and (holy ship) cold (-15C)

Next two days are looking bright and sunny, and although this would be the worst looking weather for me during the warmer months, its what I look for in the winter. The stronger light makes up for the harsh shadows & highlights. With most of the birds being encountered along the lake shore (lake Ontario) I headed out first to Oakville, and the all favorite location - Sedgewick Forest. Sedgewick, is as I have mentioned before, a location that is next to a Sewage Treatment Plant and because of the warm water settling ponds there which breeds lots of bugs (even in the winter) will often host some off-season birds. I found during my visit 2- Nashville Warblers, 3-Yellow-rumped Warblers and a Ruby-crowned Kinglet - all of whom should be somewhere in the Caribbean by now. From here I headed to La Salle Marina where I had hoped for a Winter Wren and/or a Carolina Wren, but was out of luck with both - although I did see a few Canvasback Ducks out in the bay. From here I headed to Eastport Drive, and was able to photograph a good few Hooded Mergansers at one of the outlets, and then finally a stop at the Lift Bridge for a chance to photograph a few of the Long-tailed Ducks in flight. All in all a pretty good day. 

December 10th 2017

Location: Burlington, Hamilton & Stoney Creek

Weather: Dull, overcast and very cold in the wind.

Weather forecast lied to me (again) .... It had shown sun and cloud for this morning, but I never saw the sun once. It stayed dull all morning making decent photography pretty much impossible. However we cant have a say in the weather so I had to get on with it as best I could. My first stop was one of my favoured winter stops - La Salle Marina. I arrived around 9:00am and decided to take a walk prior to lugging photo equipment. I wandered along the trail to the start of the boardwalk and almost immediately I had two Carolina Wrens within 12' of where I was standing. I backed off and headed back to vehicle to get (what I should of had with me to begin with) my camera, tripod and flash. As you can probably guess, when I got back to the spot, there was nothing to be seen but a few Chickadees. Another lesson reminder !! 
Next stop was 10th Road in Stoney Creek where I had 

Canada Goose - Greylag Goose hybrid

​hoped for either a Kestrel, Harrier or Peregrine which are often spotted in this area, but not today (looks like my bad luck is not over yet). As I left 10th Road, however, I was happy to see a Snowy Owl (my second of the morning) fairly close to the road, so at least I was getting to photograph something. Finally as I was heading along Highway 8 back into Hamilton I spotted a really unique hybrid Goose (a Canada/Greylag).
After a quick stop back at La Salle (no Wrens) and a final stop at Woodland Cemetery, where I had a brief glimpse of a Screech Owl I headed home.

November 28th - December 5th 2017

Location: Dumfries, Scotland UK

Weather: Mostly sunny, with occasional cloud

It was my dear old mums 90th birthday on the 28th of November, and so my wife and I headed back to our homeland (SW corner of Scotland) to help my mother, and our family, celebrate this momentous milestone birthday. However I couldn't resist getting out for a couple of hours most days to do some birding. Generally I kept fairly close to home with a couple of visits to a local wildlife reserve located along the edge of a salt marsh being the furthest ventured during the week. Birds in almost all locations were plentiful - some garden birds and some a bit more unusual. I had only three lifers - Brambling, Little Egret and Redwing, but exciting nonetheless. Lighting wasn't the greatest for good photography. On the sunny days the light was very harsh (deep shadows and strong highlights), and on duller days the light was just too weak for my liking. eg The Dipper image below was shot at f5.6 - 1/400 and 6400 ISO, and even then I had to boost the exposure in post processing. On the plus side there was no shortage of birds in most locations. At Caelaverock (the above mentioned nature reserve) I saw several hundred Geese, swans & ducks, as well as many, many small birds. They have quite a setup at this location, with blinds set up all along the trails and the trails between said blinds had high embankments on each side.making it easy to stay hidden. They also have small buildings and towers at a few locations which brought in an element of comfort (not used to that). GREAT trip!  

Blue Tit