Who's a voyeur?
November 27th, 2009
I'm currently visiting my folks in Virginia. Virginia weather is just bizarre sometimes. Today we're alternating between fair weather, rain, and hail. Hail at 12C, mind you--and sometimes falling out of a sunny blue sky with just a few wispy white clouds overhead.
My mother, aunt and I found a few precipitation-free hours this morning and went out to Dutch Gap, a conservation area on the James River. The wintering Ring-Necked Ducks were in their usual place, milling around on the marsh along with Canada Geese. In the same area was one of the coolest things I've seen in three years of this hobby. Two Bald Eagles were perched on a bare tree. Then one of them flew over to the other, hovered, landed on top, and started mating! Noisily and enthusiastically, I might add. I was fortunate enough to find a break in the trees and get four good photos before they separated. We were practically jumping up and down (actually my aunt was literally jumping up and down) with excitement.
Sunset Teal
November 20th, 2009
Some sunset pix of those beautiful teal at Andrew Haydon Park.
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November Gold
November 19th, 2009
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Scaup are some of the most numerous diving ducks in North America. Their usual habitat is lakes, bays and large rivers, but the Lesser species is sometimes less-than-finicky about its migration stopovers. This one was on the pond at Andrew Haydon Park, swimming close to shore as he foraged among mallards and teal.
The strange, patchy plumage is due to him molting out of eclipse. Here's what he'll look like when he's done.
Who's That?
November 18th, 2009
My only clear view of this Red-Tailed Hawk was from behind. But he improved matters for me when he got curious and looked back.
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Where I come from (Virginia), Red-Tailed Hawks are the hawks, and I see them everywhere, including in deep woods and peoples' back yards. Here, I find them only in their preferred habitat: grassland and farmland (though sometimes very small tracts of grassland), where they hunt the small rodents that form their staple diet. This one was on the experimental farm. My theory is that there are more of them in Virginia, so some have to settle for less-than-ideal habitat.
Up Early
November 15th, 2009
These two mallards were up early enjoying the sunrise, while their flockmates dozed and scratched themselves.
The autumn spectacle
November 13th, 2009
Male (right) and female Green-Winged Teal, wallpaper available
Andrew Haydon is birder mecca these days. 'Tis the season and the place for migrant waterfowl. One of the manmade ponds has attracted several dozen Scaup and a handful of Green-Winged Teal, and they, in turn, attract the folks with the multi-thousand-dollar lenses. Go down there on any good sunny morning, and you can see them lined up on the shore with their tripods and their insanely well-endowed cameras. And you might just see me and my humble Nikon D40 + 70-300mm lined up with them. These ducks are normally quite wild species, whom you wouldn't expect to mill peaceably around on a little pond in a recreational park. But there they are. So we don't waste the opportunity!
Scaup males are late going into eclipse and late coming out of it. They're handsome ducks in breeding plumage, but right now they look more or less like scaup females: which is to say, like balls of mud. Some of them have begun their molt out of eclipse, which means smudgy, unkempt balls of mud. Nevertheless, Every Bird Deserves Its Day. So I took pictures. And darned if they didn't manage to look handsome in spite of themselves.
More compelling for me were the teal. Teal are small dabbling ducks with striking, often beautiful plumage. Two species occur in our area, Blue-Winged and Green-Winged. Green-Winged is the prettier of the two!
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It was hard to fully appreciate them while I was focused on taking pictures, so I came back the next day with binoculars. They were still there, and I got my fill, watching them dabble in the mud from ten feet away. After awhile a photographer in full camouflage (overkill in this case) with what looked like a 400mm joined me. "I'm not used to this," he said. "Wildlife not being...well, wild."
He glanced over at the multi-thousand-dollar-lens people. "Suddenly I feel inadequate."
"I know the feeling," I replied. "My friends joke that I have a lens as long as their arm. No. That's as long as your arm."
Back on the Rideau, my winter friends, the Common Goldeneyes, have arrived in force! There were literally hundreds of them Wednesday morning, gathered in rafts all along the river from Hurdman to Cummings Bridge. Here's a small group of males at sunrise.
Brightening The Landscape
November 11th, 2009
Songbird migration is winding to a close. The focus now is on the wintering species--the year-round birds, plus the far-north "winter finches" who may wander into our area in search of food. A few minutes walk from Hurdman bus station, there's a set of feeders that gets put up every winter. It's one of the best, if not the best, bus-reachable winter birding hotspots in the city. Along with the ever-present goldfinches and chickadees, there are redpolls and siskins if they're in town, in 2007/08 the suet feeder sustained an overwintering Hermit Thrush (who, it was theorized, was unable to make his migration to the southern states due to injury), and in winter 2008/09, as you may remember if you've been following along here, the seed feeders drew in three Wild Turkeys!
The feeders aren't up yet. But I took some sunflower seeds there yesterday, sprinkled them on a log, and enjoyed the show. Chickadees (who began escorting me down the path as soon as I took the baggie out) were almost instantly whizzing back and forth, then came the delicate tapping sounds from all around as they perched in trees pecking the shells open. The cardinals (a mated pair) were much more cautious, slowly, quietly making their way over, hopping from perch to perch in the underbrush.
It's a harsh landscape out there right now, bare-branched and frost-scorched. It's nice to have cardinals around to brighten it up.
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Some goosy wallpapers
October 27th, 2009
Two shots of the Brant at Andrew Haydon Park, and one of a more familiar Canada Goose.
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Young Redwing
October 25th, 2009
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I photographed this juvenile male Red-Winged Blackbird back in late August. The rather cavernous feel of the backdrop is a fortunate optical illusion. In fact, the bird was maybe a foot above ground, and the surface behind him was a fallen tree.
I Spot My Prey
October 21st, 2009
There's a black and white cat I've been seeing at Mud Lake for years. Its behavior is entirely feral, yet somehow it survives the winters.
Although my forebrain realizes the cat is probably just afraid of me, there's always something a little unsettling about the intense looks I get when we cross paths...
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