OCTOBER 2018

October 27th 2018

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

October 25th - 26th 2018

Location: At home in Kitchener

Weather: poor - damp, rainy and yucky

With the weather being a tad on the crappy side and with a few things to do at home I setup a camera on the inside of our Dining Room patio door, so was shooting through the glass, but as you can see there didn't seem to be too much that distracted from the normal quality of my camera/lens. I put a little seed and and a few peanuts out along the edge of my deck and waited to see what showed up. By far the most abundant were the Dark-eyed Juncos, which was my main focus as a new "winter" arrival. The arrival of the Juncos is a sure sign that winter isn't too far away, so it was a bitter-sweet moment when I saw my first one of the season a few days ago. 

Other visitors were both Nuthatches (White-breasted & Red-breasted Nuthatches), House Sparrows, White-throated Sparrows, Downy Woodpeckers and an occasional Pine Siskin.
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Other common visitors over the last few days were Gray Squirrels, Red Squirrels and Eastern Chipmunks. Chipmunks were OK, but the Squirrels were quite destructive as they aggressively  attacked the feeders etc.

Downy Woodpecker

October 24th 2018

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.

October 23rd 2018

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.  

October 20th 2018

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

Hudsonian Godwit

Last couple of days some business prevented me from getting out, so I was determined to cover some ground today, and hopefully see and photograph some decent birds.
First stop was at Robertson Tract and I had lots of confidence as I trecked in, but other than a brief sighting of a Winter Wren so after an unproductive 1.5 hours I decided to move. My original plan was to also hit Currie Tract a few miles away but logic suggested that it won't be any better, so headed to an old favorite spot - Sedgewick Forest in Oakville. Not as many lingering summer birds as usual at this time of year, but I did see a Yellow-rumped Warbler and a Palm Warbler. What was in abundance though was both variety of Kinglets, especially the Golden-crowned, so it turned into a decent spot for a few images.
At around noon I headed to my last spot of the day - Valley Inn/Woodlands Cemetery. Down in the lake part, at first look, it didn't look as if there was anything too interesting. I spotted a few shorebirds out on the mud (Lake level was low) of which, at first glance, I assumed they were Yellowlegs, but after a look through the bins I realized that these were in fact  Hudsonian Godwits. Now after doing this for the last 10 years I don't get too many life birds, but today I had 5 Godwits. If only it hadn't been raining the shots might have been a bit better, but not complaining ...  a good day was had :)

October 17th 2018

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 ... 

October 16th 2018

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.

October 14th 2018

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

October 9th & 10th 2018

Location: Southern Quebec

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

Something a bit different for me over the last couple of days. A friend and myself headed north for a couple of days to an area about an hour north and east of Ottawa. The plan was to head to Parc Omega in Quebec on Day 1 and then see what we can up with on day 2 when we got there. Parc Omega is a Wildlife Park that is quite unique in that it's a large drive through park with hundred of free roaming animals of mainly Canadian natural species. There are a few non-native species, but our targets for the most part were our native animals. The weather when we entered the park ​was really hot so a lot of the animals were hunkered down in the shade, as well as the harsh lighting was a real challenge.  ​​All of the animals were very tolerant of the close human presence  so it was a bit of a duck shoot, but still an enormous amount of fun photographing them. Highlights for me were the Arctic Foxes, 

Arctic Fox

Musk Ox,and the Black Bears.
Day two we headed to Parc national de Plaisance, which is a National Park that juts out into the Ottawa River for a few miles with great bird habitat, so we were quite hopeful of some good sightings. Yes we saw lots of birds but the species we did see weren't too exciting. The prominent species, and there were likely hundreds there, were White Crowned Sparrows. Another common one was the American Robin, of which there were many, many. Other sightings were Dark-eyed Juncos, Black-crowned Night Heron, Great Blue Heron, Gadwall, White-throated Sparrows, Kinglets, Mallards, Swamp Sparrow, Vesper Sparrow and a few more. All in all the 7 hour drive each way was worth it (I think).

October 7th 2018

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.

October 3rd 2018

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

October 1st 2018

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.
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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.