December 31st 2020
LOCATION: North west of Waterloo near Heidelberg | WEATHER: Dull |
Anyways ... today as per the latest lockdown restrictions, I kept my travel distances to a minimum and headed the short ways to the north end of the city looking for the reported Crossbills. Both Red and White-winged have been reported over the last few days, so I did some running around in those areas, and saw a few flocks of winter finches, and I'm not sure if any of them were Red Crossbills, but the White-winged were certainly more available, so a few shots were managed.
How to find these species? I have found the best way is to head to an area where they have been seen, either recently or historically, and drive slowly along these roads, especially where there are good patches of evergreen trees. Crossbills feed on "pine" cones so anywhere that is reasonably remote and where these trees have a decent crop of cones, then stop and scan the tops of the trees, and with luck you will spot some.
Here's a video of this years Warblers ..... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zaD_V86RMS4&feature=youtu.be
Goodbye 2020 !!
December 29th 2020
LOCATION: Luther Marsh area | WEATHER: Snowy and dull, with occasional sun |
It's very important with the cold weather and with shooting out off, or around your vehicle, to try to keep your equipment as close as possible to the temperature your are working in. Same goes with shooting out of your vehicle window, to try to maintain a similar temperature in your car as outside of it. The temperature differences can play havoc with quality of your images, and will be improved if temperature variances are minimized.
As always ... click on any image to show full size. Also by hovering your cursor over any image will provide a title
December 27th 2020
Location: Home area | Weather: Dull and dank |
For those of you who aren't sure how to tell these two Waxwing species apart - the Bohemian has the reddish brown streak on the underside of their tail, where the Cedar doesn't - theirs is a pale yellowish colour.
December 23rd, 25th & 26th 2020
Location: Mostly in my back yard (Kitchener) | Weather: Prior to Xmas - mild and dry, after - snowy |
December 21st 2020
Location: Amherst Island | Weather: Fairly mild with the odd flurry |
A group of us have been anxiously waiting for a day when the weather was looking good for a visit to the island. From KW, the drive each way is in the neighbourhood of 4 hours, if you include ferry time, so it needs to be as perfect as it can be ... What's a perfect day? Generally I prefer a dull or cloudy day, but with some brighter patches, so that the light levels are flat, but still able to use a lower ISO. Forecast, the night before, was looking good with great weather and with the bonus of very little wind. Unfortunately the weatherman had a bad day and the weather was dull all day with the occasional flurry. Oh well too late when you are there, so you have to make the most of it. Sightings were down from the last time we were there (3 weeks ago) with almost no Rough-legged Hawks, but on the plus side I saw 3 Snowy Owls. One of the main targets was the Short-eared Owl of which the island abounds, but only along Front Road at the east end of the village. A few times it seemed that the majority of them took to the air and it was around 25 birds or so, so quite spectacular. Unfortunately, they kept their distance, so images were quite mediocre. Oh well nice to see nonetheless. |
December 19th 2020
Location: At home in Kitchener | Weather: Dull, then some light snow |
As always ... click on any image to show full size. Also by hovering your cursor over any image will provide a title
December 15th 2020
Location: Burlington - Oakville | Weather: A mix of sun & cloud |
Another drop in spot was Paletta Mansions where I had two very nice encounters - first was a Winter Wren that popped into the open after a short wait, but the highlight was a Red-tailed Hawk that flew in and landed less than 40 feet away ... and stayed (in fact was still there after I left)
Final venue was Sedgewick Park in Oakville - In past years this has been a superb place to find over-wintering songbirds, and although this year is a bit less so, I did find a Northern Parula that showed it's face briefly while I was there.
December 13th 2020
Location: Luther Marsh and surrounding area | Weather: Dull and a bit damp |
After getting my fill of shots from our Snow friends, I headed up along the north road above the Marsh hoping to see other species. I did see a couple of Northern Shrikes along the side of the road, but as usual they were too far out and terribly skittish, so shots were a non issue. However, about mid way along that road I caught a glimpse of some Bohemian Waxwings, numbering around 50 individuals and was delighted when they came in quite close and gave Helen and myself a few descent photo opportunities. Turned out be a decent day after all ... despite the freezing temperatures.
December 9th 2020
Location: Melbourne | Weather: Very dull |
December 7th 2020
Location: Home, in Kitchener | Weather: Dull |
December 5th 2020
Location: South side of Luther Marsh | Weather: Cloudy and occasionally misty a tad. |
I did really like the face of the one I have cropped closeup, so I zoomed in during post processing and made this a portrait type image, which I kinda like. For comparison, the image on top left is the original
December 3rd 2020
Location: Up and around Luther Marsh | Weather: Cloudy and dull'ish |
At this time of year the Luther Marsh area can be quite good with lots of winter finches dropping by (like those White-winged Crossbills we found in this area, last week). Right now a few desirable species are being reported ... including Bohemian Waxwings, which as I left home, was my primary target. Unfortunatel ... no hide nor hair of any as ai drove around the park perimeter. What I did find though, was three separate flocks of Snow Buntings located around the south end of the park. One flock was quite small with a number in or around 30 individuals, but the other two flocks I came across was easily a 100 birds each.
Other than those birds I came across an individual Common Redpoll foraging along the side of the road, and Northern Shrike that was a tad too far to photograph properly, but hey ... I'l take it.
December 2nd 2020
Location: In and around KW | Weather: Sunny |
In the afternoon, it seemed like a decent day to see if I could find the Barred Owl that has been hanging out in Waterloo, and I was delighted to find it sitting really low on a stick just off the main path.
December 1st 2020
Location: Home in Kitchener | Weather: Snowy |