Bookends
April 12th, 2009
There was something magical about the light on Friday afternoon. Everything
seemed luminous. I found myself trying for shots that I wouldn't normally do:
leaves, moss, bare branches on blue sky. Even an old stump caught my
attention.
These two came out especially well, and they bookend nicely: last year's
leaves, and this year's spring shoots. The second picture was taken right next
to the Britannia Yacht Club, thus the old twine on the log.
Comments are closed
Great Blue On The Prowl
April 10th, 2009
Birding out at Mud Lake today, and it never rains but it pours! Lots of
interesting sightings and three spring firsts:
Tree
Swallows,
Scaup,
and a
Great
Blue Heron fishing on the Ottawa River.
Tree Swallows are beautiful, graceful, streamlined birds who are nearly
impossible to photograph unless you catch them nesting, because they seldom
perch any other time. Scaup are nearly as difficult because they like to stay
way out in the water. But Great Blue Herons: them I can handle. Big, bold and
photogenic.
1680x1050 wallpaper
Comments are closed
Whazzat?
April 8th, 2009
1680x1050 wallpaper
Comments are closed
And miles to go before I sleep
April 5th, 2009
Hiking at Jack Pine Trail with some friends today. About 13 kilometers (8
miles), the farthest I've ever gone by foot. Numerous parts of my body are
complaining, but at least they seem to be going in rotation rather than all at
once. Right now it's my shins. They inform me that hiking 13 kilometers in
tall boots was not a happy thing for them.
For the most part it wasn't very birdy, but there were a few pleasant
surprises:
- A remarkably tame
Ruffed
Grouse. He came out of the bushes and right up to our feet looking for
handouts, clucking softly. I'd seen these birds at a distance in the shadows
at Old Quarry Trail, and thought them plain and rather dumpy. Up close I was
surprised at how handsome and, well, graceful he was (at least for a game
bird). I almost didn't believe he was really a Ruffed Grouse, but there was no
other option.
No camera on hand, alas. If I'd had my camera, it would have for once been a
question of, "will this bird stay
far enough away for me to shoot him,
or will I wish I'd brought the regular lens?" He was that tame.
- A singing
American
Tree Sparrow by a marsh. I've logged thirteen sightings of this species so
far, but this is the first time I've ever found one singing, so that was a
treat. They don't breed here though. They winter here. They'll sing just a
little while longer and then head back to the far north.
- A set of feeders attracted huge, noisy flocks of Pine Siskins and
Slate-Colored Juncos, along with the omnipresent chickadees and a few
woodpeckers. A small Bohemian Waxwing flock stopped by too. For someone in
love with birds as I am, it was enough to leave me standing there looking
around with my mouth hanging open like a fool for a good twenty minutes.
Comments are closed
The Lookout
April 4th, 2009
This was taken back in early March when the Canada Geese first started
trickling in. A simple picture, but I found it evocative.
Comments are closed
Exercise in self-torture, take two
April 2nd, 2009
For those of you who weren't with me
last fall, let me
describe the exercise in self-torture:
It starts when you discover a migrant flock of
Golden-Crowned
Kinglets, very tiny, very cute birds with the activity level of chickadees
on crack. The females have a bright yellow crown stripe. The males have an
even brighter yellow crown stripe, plus a central stripe of the most beautiful
vivid orange--but that part's usually hidden. He has to ruffle his crown
feathers for you to see it.
You, the aspiring nature photographer, would like to get a half-decent picture
of one of them, sitting still, in good light, with the golden crown visible.
If you're
really wishing, you'd like to catch a male showing off his
orange. When you stand and watch these birds with binoculars you see them in
all sorts of fetching poses, flashing their crowns every few seconds, so it
seems a reasonable thing to wish for.
What you actually get is: smudgy distant photos, motion-blurred photos
(lots of those), shadowed photos (because you tracked them into some dense
thicket and there's not enough sun getting through), nice well-focused
photos with no golden crowns visible, and photos with nothing in them,
because the bird flew out of frame before you could push the button. You're
there for hours. Every fifteen minutes or so, the whole flock suddenly
disappears and goes you know not where. (Their voices are so soft that it is
impossible to follow them by sound.) Fifteen minutes later they show up again,
and you get another batch of bad pictures.
Finally, your patience gone, your morale shot, you're just about to throw in
the towel, and then a Golden-Crowned Kinglet alights on a branch six feet away
from you and just sits there. He tilts his head and shows off his crown. You
lift the camera, focus, click, and by god, he sat still the whole time. Then
you look at the picture on the LCD...and it's dark. It's blurry. The lighting
was no good. You know why? Because you've been out here so long, trying to
photograph these damn birds, that
the sun set an hour ago.
At this point you smash your $600 zoom lens with a sledgehammer and go off to
take up a more satisfying hobby, like stamp collecting.
Take two. The good news is, it's early April. These guys have made a long trip
from as far south as Mexico and most of them have further to go yet. They're
tired, perhaps finding it a little colder than they'd like, and they aren't
doing much flycatching because there are few flying insects to speak of. This
all means that their activity level is more of a "chickadee on espresso" than
chickadee on crack. So while it was still an exercise in self-torture, it
wasn't a complete loss.
This is somewhat of a turning point. It was kinglet season back when I first
bought my new lens in autumn. Bird migration follows a "last in first out"
rule, which means that the species still to come (of which there are tons)
will be, for the most part, species I have never before had the chance to
photograph. Exciting!
Comments are closed
Wetland Robin
April 1st, 2009
1680x1050 wallpaper
Comments are closed
The Project
March 29th, 2009
I watched for some time as this Blue Jay poked, prodded, fussed and fiddled
with what looked like an old leaf. Only when I studied the pictures back home
did I realize it wasn't a leaf, though I'm still not sure what it was. Cocoon,
maybe?
1680x1050 wallpaper
Blue Jays can be so gorgeous, it's hard to believe that they have no blue
pigment in their plumage at all. But it's true: the color is caused by the
structure of the feathers and the way light refracts through them. In other
words, if you grind up a Blue Jay feather, it won't be blue anymore.
Comments are closed
Wood Duck Strut
March 28th, 2009
Took a few friends out to Mud Lake today, and had a great time.
The wetland was still somewhat asleep, though with a growing patch of open
water around the bridge and another near Cassels Road, and muskrats and
beavers therein. Mallards, Black Ducks and Canada Geese were around. I told my
companions about the beautiful
Wood Ducks
who breed on the pond, but that they hadn't migrated back yet.
Well, I spoke too soon. When I came back there later on my own, several pairs
of Wood Ducks had arrived! They were skittish at first, but grew accustomed to
my presence as I waited, and finally, one of the male/female pairs hopped up
onto the hand railing to survey the area.
And then that male? Strutted it. Upright, crest poofed out, mating calls, the
whole bit, as m'lady looked on adoringly. I'd complain that they weren't in a
more natural setting when I shot this, but I think that would count as looking
a gift bird in the mouth.
Here's another shot. The slicked-back appearance of the male's crest here is
typical. (I had never before seen it poofed out the way it was in the previous
picture.)
When a male Wood Duck is on the water, his whitish belly doesn't show. Only
the "painted" parts show. He's as perfect as a faberge egg.
Comments are closed
Pileated Woodpecker
March 24th, 2009
I decided to post this since at least one person thinks that the mushroom does
not ruin the picture. And I guess Pileated Woodpeckers are magnificent enough
that I'm willing to cut them some slack when it comes to composition!
She's female. You can tell because the sideburns are black instead of red, and
the red crest doesn't extend onto her forehead.
Speaking of woodpeckers, I'm amazed this tree is still standing:
Comments are closed
Previous 10 |
Next 10