A deep-winter Pileated Woodpecker
December 13th, 2008
Went out hiking at 8:30AM this morning. Two hours, -20 degrees Celsius (that's -4F for my American readers). It was wonderful. The sky was clear blue, the sun was shining. The Rideau River is gloriously ragged in such weather, like our own little corner of the arctic. Even the rapids had icebergs and ice fringes.
A male Pileated Woodpecker was the star of the show. For such magnificent and wild-looking creatures, Pileated Woodpeckers can be remarkably tame. This one was busily gouging an old wooden pole beside the river. He remained calm while I approached to within 10 feet, and circled the pole trying different angles. The only thing that sufficed to startle him was a very noisy mini snow plow going by. He skittered around to the far side of the pole, but came back a few seconds later.
And so here he is, with my thanks for being such a good sport!
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Toughing it out
December 11th, 2008
When three Wild Turkeys made an appearance at the Hurdman bird feeders, I kicked myself for not bringing my camera--then I raced back home on foot as fast as I could go. When I got back a half hour later, they were still there!
Wild Turkeys were recently reintroduced in Ottawa. We're still waiting to see whether they can establish a stable breeding population, surviving the worst that Ottawa winters can throw at them. So far they appear to be doing well.
Insulation
November 22nd, 2008
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Liquid Light
November 6th, 2008
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Watching the world go by
November 3rd, 2008
Got a few good shots of an American Black Duck resting and preening on the Rideau River today.
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Posers
October 23rd, 2008
There's nothing like chickadees to make a nature photographer feel like a million bucks.
They almost seem to be helping you out. "Over here! Me me me! Photograph me. No wait, the light is all wrong. Let me move over there. Okay, here we go. Cheese!"
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So I went down to Henry's camera shop today. I learned that there is, in fact, a lens that does 400mm zoom and is in my price range (just). Yay!
I also learned that, dear god, I need steroids to carry that thing. Way too heavy for handheld shooting + my arm strength. Unyay. Since I don't like the idea of having to lug a tripod everywhere, 70-300mm it is. So I (re-)bought it and went down to Mud Lake with it this afternoon. Got lots of distant poor-quality shots of interesting birds (Wood Ducks, Common Goldeneyes, Scaup), and several glorious pictures of chickadees.
I have high hopes of what I'll be doing with this lens in the future! Common Goldeneyes winter in Ottawa by the hundreds. They can sometimes be seen quite close to shore on the Rideau River rapids (when the rest of the river is frozen over). In late winter, they start courting, and Common Goldeneye mating rituals are...quite something.
But today, you get chickadees.
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Ottawa River Sunset
October 14th, 2008
There's a spot by the Ottawa River, a short distance east of Andrew Haydon Park, that produces the most beautiful sunsets. I had resolved that I would return there with camera in hand on a promising, mostly cloudy evening, and fill a memory card. Yesterday evening was such an evening.
As it turned out, the day I picked was smack dab in the middle of fall waterfowl migration. The long line of specks in the water (more visible at wallpaper res) is an evening roost of Canada Geese. By the time I was done shooting, there were literally thousands of them.
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The Joys Of Photographing Kinglets
October 5th, 2008
The birding has been spectacular lately. I've been out at Mud Lake this weekend enjoying the influx of kinglets, sparrows and thrushes. But I'm not posting to tell you about birding, per se. The topic is photography. Yesterday was the day when I finally went out and purchased my spiffy new $600+ zoom lens. And today was the day when I returned my spiffy $600+ zoom lens.
I took it out to Mud Lake yesterday afternoon and shot everything I could over a space of four hours. And in the process I learned a few things.
- 300mm is not enough zoom.
- When shooting small birds in thick foliage, autofocus is worse than
useless.
- VR (vibration reduction) works surprisingly well.
- The sun will be where you do not want it to be. Always.
- I now understand why I get borderline-hostile stares from some nature
photographers. It's because nature photographers secretly wish everyone else
in the world would CEASE TO EXIST (and thus cease to scare away the damn
wildlife) until they're finished taking the shot.
- Photographing Golden-Crowned Kinglets is an exercise in self-torture.
The good news about photographing kinglets is that they're very bold--you can get within six feet of them and they evince no greater alarm than your average chickadee. The bad news about photographing kinglets is that they are the most hyperactive birds in the universe. Now refer back to what I said about autofocus being useless, and picture me carefully adjusting the focus wheel to zero in on a bird that moves every .000002 femtoseconds, and you'll have a good idea of how I spent my afternoon.
I worked, and worked, and worked. And finally was rewarded with this:
...and I'm convinced that the photographers who have taken sharp, in-focus pictures of Golden-Crowned Kinglets have captured and drugged them.
Anyway, the short story is that I need more skill, and I need more patience, but I also need more zoom to take the kinds of pictures I want. So I took the lens back, and I'm going to research the possibility of more focal length, and frankly, I'm going to seriously consider whether I want to take up the hobby of bird photography. Maybe I should try something less challenging. Like ice climbing.
Hike At Night
August 26th, 2008
Or hike at sunset, anyway, and bring along a good pair of low-light-tolerant binoculars.
I went out to Old Quarry Trail today around 5:30PM. I hiked around for an hour, didn't see much (other than the usual deer and a few common breeding birds), and went back to Hazeldean Mall to have dinner. After dinner I was going to head home, but thought "well, marsh birds are often more active at dusk, lets give it one more try"--and went back out. Which is when all the cool stuff happened.
At 8:00PM, after creeping back and forth on the boardwalk for about fifteen minutes, I saw a medium-sized bird silhouetted behind the cattails. I very slowly and quietly sat down cross-legged, lifted my binoculars, and watched as it came out into the open: my first Virginia Rail, a shy and secretive marsh wader. This made my day. And my week. And my month.
At 8:15PM I saw a Snowshoe Hare on the path ahead. Rabbits are ubiquitous in a number of places in Ottawa, but this is the first time I'd ever seen a hare. I didn't realize how different they looked: this one was standing half-upright, and his posture reminded me of a kangaroo. At 8:20, a pair of porcupines--mother and child, I think--ambled by in the woods. Shortly thereafter a third porcupine began to come down out of his tree for the night. Said tree was about five feet away from me.
For obvious reasons, I didn't stick around.
A Meal For A Merlin
August 20th, 2008
I saw something new at Mud Lake yesterday evening. Not a new species, but a particular bird-watching "slice of life" that I had never witnessed before: a raptor in flight with catch in hand. He was off in the distance flying towards the river. Knowing that wherever he landed, he'd likely stay there awhile, I followed, and found him in a tree with a chickadee dangling from his talons. He was a Merlin: a handsome blue-jay-sized falcon of the north.
If you ever want to find a raptor, follow the noise. Some birds have alarm calls for raptors on the hunt, but that's nothing compared to the amount of noise all songbirds make when a raptor with prey in hand perches nearby and starts eating. It's a sound I can only call "outrage." In this case, the Merlin apparently got fed up with it, because he flew away to dine at a more secluded location. One particularly gutsy chickadee chased after him as he left.
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