NOVEMBER 2018

November 29th 2018

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

November 23rd 2018

Location: Hamilton

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

Now that early winter is now here I'm beginning to see more and more over-wintering ducks and geese showing up in all the usual spots - including in and around the harbour area in Hamilton. One of my favorite spots is along the canal area of Windermere Basin and so I headed there this morning and was pleasantly surprised at the quantities of birds settling in there. Mainly Buffleheads, Mallards and Hooded Mergansers, but a few others as well including Pintails, Wood Ducks and Black Ducks. I also saw a few Great Blue Herons, lots of Double Crested Cormorants and a "very late to leave" Black-crowned Night Heron (J). When it comes to Herons I suppose as long as there is some open water and some fish to catch they will stick around.
I also headed over to the Lift Bridge to see if there were any Long-tailed Ducks there and yes there were several hundred crowded into the Channel below the bridge, so a future trip is warranted to photograph these ultra cute ducks.
One last spot on my run today was over to Dyments Farm on Fallsview Road where most winters we get a few Snow Buntings and Horned larks, and maybe a Lapland Longspur or two, but unfortunately none of these seem to be around yet, but there was a small flock of about 20 or so Common Redpolls.

Northern Pintail ....... ...... . All images will go full size by clicking on it, and hovering over will display species or description

November 22nd 2018

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.

November 19th 2018

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.

November 18th 2018

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.

November 15th 2018

Location: Cambridge to Guelph

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

Along with an old birding and photography buddy we headed out to check out a few local spots in and around the area. First stop was Riverside Park to check to see if the Fox Sparrow was still hanging around, but alas it wasn't to be found today, but there were lots of newly arrived American Tree Sparrows (I was wondering when they would arrive). Also found several White-throated Sparrows and a single Swamp Sparrow (which eluded our cameras unfortunately). A walk along the river we saw a chilly looking Great Blue Heron that must be still finding food ... at least until the river freezes over, I suppose.
Next stop was a few spots around Guelph - where we found an Eastern Towhee male. It was hanging around and gave us a few  decent shots before it disappeared back into the forest.  We spotted a few Red-bellied Woodpeckers at a couple of spots - such a cute bird.
​A cold and dull day, but we managed quite a few birds, so turned out pretty good.  :)

Red-bellied Woodpecker (F)

November 13th & 14th 2018

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.   

November 12th 2018

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

November 11th 2018

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
​

November 8th 2018

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. 

November 4th 2018

Location: Burlington

Weather: Chilly start (around 1C) but sunny

A rarity showed in Burlington yesterday and several people managed to see and photograph a Black-throated Gray Warbler, that was obviously "lost". These cute little Warblers are more at home in Western USA (In fact I saw a few during a  trip to southern Arizona). It would seem that this little guy lost his bearings on it's southern migration to Mexico and Central America.Today I headed down early to see if I could manage a few shots if it was still around. I arrived around 7:30am and almost immediately I was, thanks to other birders, looking at this little beauty. Unfortunately the light was very low and so I didn't manage a photograph. I have however added one from a trip in 2017 to Tucson.  I wonder how long he will stay ???  

Black-throated Gray Warbler