Mother's Day

The weather on Mother's Day was beautiful. With plans to visit my Mom later in the day, I went for a walk with the kids to the park in town to give the dear mother of my kids a quiet afternoon at home.  I took the camera along and wandered the grounds around the playground.  I did not linger long by the playground with my long lens for fear someone would call the cops reporting a strange guy with a big camera taking pictures of kids - don't laugh, it's happened before.  Another blogger I follow had it happen to him once when was in a woodlot abutting a school yard!

I watched the always present Robins combing the "grass-scape" for works and grubs, pausing for a few seconds to scan the grass below, and then hopping the next five paces to another place to search.

American Robin

I watched this Common Grackle take on a different approach to finding food, or should I say, obtaining food.  When the Robins would find a grub or worm, the Grackle would swoop in and pounce.  The undersized Robin would drop the catch and flee, leaving the Grackle to pickup the fallen prize.

Common Grackle thief.

This Grackle did it a few times while I was watching and picked up a good supply of food, likely for a nest full of young somewhere nearby.

Common Grackle with stolen meal.

The familiar high pitched notes of an American Goldfinch caught my attention up in a tree.  It was serenading a female that was calmly sitting by while the male switched from branch to branch, singing its heart out hoping to convince the lady of its worth.

Male American Goldfinch with female in background.

Although I'm doubting it now, I'm pretty sure the bird in the background is the female. Usually Goldfinches are quite camera shy but it seems this pair was quite distracted and I could get quite close. Too bad they were way up in the tree.

male American Goldfinch singing away.

female American Goldfinch

male American Goldfinch

After returning from the park, I wandered behind our place in the church yard to see if any migrants might have stopped for a rest in our little area of town.  Way up in the tops of some old spruce trees was some movement and I took some pictures with harsh mid-day lighting.  The birds were constantly moving through the branches and it was a challenge to try and get a few good pictures.  Previewing the pictures I assumed they were Yellow-Rumped Warblers and didn't think much about it till editing them recently.  I'm still not 100 percent sure, but I think they were They were Cape May Warblers (Thanks Dwayne!).  I'm pretty sure the bird pictured below is a young male.  Life bird #203.

Cape May Warbler

These little birds prefer the spruce budworm, but also have a unique feature in the warbler world.  They have a curled, semi-tubular tongue which they use to gather nectar during the colder seasons after having migrated to the West Indies islands.

Cape May Warbler

What had actually brought me to these tall spruces was a Gray Catbird which was eluding me earlier.  I was able to get one quick shot as it played cat and mouse (yes, pun intended!) between the large row of stout spruce trunk bases.  Although not a great shot, I thought I'd include it as it shows, albeit obscured somewhat, the bright rusty colour under its tail.

Gray Catbird

We headed to my parents church in Cambridge for their second service, and afterwards, my youngest brother pointed out a neatly carved hole in an aging Maple tree in the front yard of the church.  Soon enough, the curious head of a Red-bellied Woodpecker appeared, giving away location of an active nest site.

Red-bellied Woodpecker in nest cavity.

Once it got used to us standing there, it seemed content to just watch us right back.

Red-bellied Woodpecker

Red-bellied Woodpecker

However, once the curiosity of the young boys running on the other side of the church lawn brought them over, the woodpecker had enough and fled with its trademark, scolding call.  We didn't stay long after that and let it return to the nest.

Just as we were about to leave, a Cooper's Hawk soared over, nice and slowly so I could get a reasonably clear picture as it coasted west, way above us.

Cooper's Hawk

That afternoon we headed to the Huron Natural Area near my parent's place for a walk before supper.  It's a beautiful spot in an area quickly being developed with new housing.  Great to see such a large area being left for conservation.  Since the camera was in use for capturing our family time, I didn't do a lot of bird searching or photography.  I was surprised though that there weren't more birds to be seen then we did.

Spring fiddlehead in the afternoon sun.

We headed back to the home of half my childhood (after we moved) and enjoyed time with family and spent time appreciating my great Mom!!

Mourning Dove

I'd almost completely forgotten....  My outing earlier that day had been to take my first run with our new camera.  I had convinced Henry's to drop an already sale price on a Sony a65 to replace our dead a33. After quite a bit of research (online and talking to various Sony and Henry's staff), I'd determined fixing our stuck shutter was likely to be between $400 and $500.  I ended up getting the new camera for barely more than that.  On top of that, the a33's shutter had already died on us once with the camera being replaced for us under warranty.  With it having hinted at a failure earlier and then finally dying, I was nervous about spending that much money on a shutter system with known problems.

For those of you proud Nikon or Canon owners who I'm sure are right now wondering why I still went with a Sony... already owning Sony lenses meant I was not going to start over again with a whole new camera system.  There are things I really like about the Sony cameras, and then other days when I really wish I could get another stop or two of light without the "transparent mirror" in the way.

Image grabbed from Sony's website of the a65

So far from my few outings with the new a65, here are my pros and cons:

Pros
Bigger: Yes, I found the a33 too small.  I don't have huge hands, but when you're gripping a camera for a few hours on an outing, it actually is a pain having a small camera in your hands.
Faster: It can shoot 10 fps with continuous AF but AE locked after the first shot, and 7 with adjusting AE. That's nice and fast!  And when capturing while panning, the lag problem with the display of the last picture is greatly reduced.
24.3MP: Though really it's getting pretty high, if you really get the focus right, you can crop in nice and close on a distant subject.
Additional Focus Mode:  Sony has added one new focus mode which groups all the sensors in a field of three.  That limits it from hunting as much when there is varied  focus items.
Overheating: Or rather, the lack there of!!! In warm weather, the a33 would constantly overheat on me and shut off.  That was extremely annoying!!  I will not miss that.  Almost reason enough to switch just for this!
new OLED viewfinder: Sony has upgraded the digital viewfinder.  In normal lighting, you can hardly tell anymore that it's not optical.  It has almost double the pixels of the a33, and with the OLED compared to LED, it uses less power and presents much cleaner when displaying motion.

Cons
Programmable button: I changed the D-Range button on the a33 to focus mode so I could switch quickly between single point focus and wide (say a noticed a bird in flight and needed to switch quickly).  However, though the a65 does the same, the only button I don't want remove its normal mode from, can't utilize the customized mode in Manual mode.  Why, I do not know!  I usually shoot in fully manual.

Multi Shot Self Timer: This is a general gripe.  I don't know if any of the other SLR brands have this, but I can't for the life of me understand why they don't have a feature to shoot a sequence of multiple pictures on self timer.  Our old Panasonic FZ30 (now that was a great camera in its day!!) had this.

Ok, have any of you other photographers had this idea?
"Camera, ISO 400"
"Camera, Focus, Point"
"Camera, Focus, Burst"
Being able to have the camera obey voice commands to adjust functions without having to shift to another hand hold for another button and change a mode would be great!  Maybe that feature would price the camera completely out of my market I don't know, but you'd think with all the voice control on our phones, that technology has been mastered?


But to wrap it up, a post mother's day thanks to my Mom who is very dear to me.  She's a great mom and now is a great grandmother to our kids!  She throws her heart and soul into everything she does, sometimes so much that it takes a little too much out of her I fear. ;)  I love you Mom and thank God for you and your huge impact on who I am!

Until next time...
Keep enjoying HIS handiwork!

Two Nests and Two Life Birds

A little bit back, I saw activity on the bird boards that there were some American White Pelicans in the area and that they had recently moved to Coote's Paradise and were spending time on a sandbar of one of the small islands there in the mornings.  I decided to head into work early to see if they could be sighted.  It didn't take a second glance to confirm they were their.  They are huge, and their size and pure white plumage stood out in stark contrast to the cormorants that were making their company.  I had no close access, so had to make due with a tripod shot from on on the ridge that York Road follows.  These shots are quite cropped, but definitely show the dark flight feather markings of the bird landing. An exciting life bird (#122).

American White Pelicans with Double-crested Cormorants in Coote's Paradise

American White Pelicans

That lunch hour I headed to Valley Inn Road, and headed down the Grindstone Trail.  The songs of many birds filled the air and the distinctive sweet sound of the Yellow Warbler belied its location for a brief picture.  Interesting how birds will still sing even while preening.  I guess that's a lesson in doing your work with cheer!

Yellow Warbler preening

As I headed further down the trail I was met with another flurry of yellow, but darker, larger, and mixed with black. Three Baltimore Orioles were loudly dueling over territory, and later, I discovered a nest right in that vicinity, so one male was courageously dealing with two trespassing intruders.

 Baltimore Oriole nest - way up in the top of a big Poplar Tree

male Baltimore Oriole

 

female Baltimore Oriole

Further down the path, I startled two Northern Flickers off a dead snag, and with a second look, noticed that there was a freshly chiseled opening.  Biding my time, I settled in for a wait, and sure enough, one returned to what was confirmed as a nest.  Inside he popped, promptly checking on whatever was inside.

Northern Flicker nest entry

Northern Flicker

Northern Flicker

Northern Flicker

 After tolerating my presence for a while, suddenly the bird became quite agitated, squawking and looking down below.  I wasn't sure why, but soon it left and I saw the reasons... a Red-bellied Woodpecker pair were on the same tree, and a flurry of chasing began.  It was too fast to try and get any pictures and not one even caught anything.

Protesting the visitors

Notice the Red-belly on the bottom of the picture
and the Flicker at the top.

male Red-bellied Woodpecker

Strangely, it all seemed to end quite quickly, and the male Red-belly remained to feed on a tree just next to the snag with the nest.  It was quite unconcerned with me.

Red-bellied Woodpeckers were given the wrong name in my opinion, given the inconspicuously small patch of slightly red belly they do have.  Others have written the same and I agree with one writer who thought they should have been called "Ladder-back Woodecker".  You can see why in the picture above.

male Red-bellied Woodpecker feeding on ants from a branch hole.

male Red-bellied Woodpecker feeding

Hoping not to belabour the Flicker pictures, I got a couple pictures with the bird blinking. Woodpeckers have a number of significant design features which are all necessary for it to survive its interesting habit of whacking its head on trees (see a previous post about this here about this bird's design features).  One thing they need is strong eyelids to protect and keep their eyes from popping out of their sockets as their head stops with the impact.

Thick, protective eyelids.

I was met by a nice lady who had just spent an hour just around the corner trying to photograph Kingfishers which I had heard noisily rattling away from up the creek while I was at the Flicker nest.  When she came by, I kindly pointed out the Pileated nest.  She got very excited but couldn't seem to spot the nest hole I was pointing her to.  Seems, I had, as I wrote above, mis-spoken. Oops, not a Pileated, a Flicker nest.  Then I understood her excitement and the fact that she could not spot the very large hole that would be present had it been a Pileated Woodpecker nest!  I subtly tried to regain some of my reputation and hoped I could assure her that, although not an expert, I did know what I was talking about. Susan posts some very nice pictures here.  Sorry for disappointing you Susan!

And if I'm honest, I think I was also pointing out following Orchard Orioles (the pictures above), though it obviously turns out that Orchard Orioles are much more of a dark, almost chestnut colour.  Boy, did I ever eat humble pie that day!

In the same area as the Flickers, there was a pair of tiny Blue-gray Gnatchatchers busily harvesting tiny bugs from a flowering Pin Cherry tree.  They are such tiny, cute birds.

Blue-gray Gnatcatcher

Blue-gray Gnatcatcher - funny look

On my way back to the car, another pair of small birds caught my attention as they flitted about in the trees... They didn't stay long, but I got enough distant pictures for Peter and Caleb Scholtens to help me ID it later on as a Warbling Vireo.  (life bird #123) 2nd of the day!

Warbling Vireo

Just across from the parking lot, this adult Racoon was out in the middle of the afternoon, an odd time for this generally nocturnal animal.  Made for a nice picture though!

Racoon in broad daylight.

More life birds and good times still to post....
Keep enjoying His handiwork!!

The Big "100"

As mentioned in my last post, I spent a few mornings at the mud flats of Coote's Paradise off the east side of Princess Point created by the lack of rainfall from the very dry summer and fall.  I waited for the golden glow of the early sun's rays to come over the tree tops.  With the slow advance of the edge of light, mud and water and shore birds became light enough for photographing.

Well, I hit the 100 mark on my birding life list!  Though not anywhere close to the huge count of Josh Vandermeulen who is currently doing an Ontario big year (At the time of this post, his blog reports he sits at 331, and we are all hoping he can surpass the record of 338.) I'm still pretty pleased with my 100th bird on my list.  At first I had not planned to do the list thing, but somehow it just happens as you start to tally what you have seen so far.  I'll introduce bird 98, 99, and 100 in order, all shore birds.

The first shore bird was from a group of Lesser Yellow Legs, wading in the soft mud hunting for small creatures living there.  These birds breed in Northern Canada and have pretty much finished their migrating pass through our area on their way south, mostly to South America.

Lesser Yellowlegs arriving.

Lesser Yellowlegs wing stretch.

Lesser Yellowlegs

Lesser Yellowlegs and turtle.

The next shore bird I found were a group of Least Sandpipers wading along the eastern shore just off the recreation trail which links with Bay Front Park.  They are the smallest of the Sandpipers (often called Peeps).

Trio of Least Sandpipers

My 100th life bird happened by accident really.  I was taking pictures of the Least Sandpipers and saw this bird up closer and snapped some shots thinking it was a more brave bird of that group.  But when editing, I noticed the markings seemed different.  To tell you the truth, I didn't even know what the Least Sandpipers were till after receiving some help from some other birding/blogging friends Caleb and Dwayne - thanks!  I have to admit that for the most part, many of the shorebirds all looking very similar and hard to clearly distinguish.  I'm sure if saw them more often and was routinely IDing them, that would change, but that is not likely to happen. For now anyways, the key to IDng the Least Sandpipers is their yellow legs.

Life Bird #100 - Semipalmated Sandpiper

A song sparrow was also foraging, resting the drier mud portions for bugs and other food.  Some Mallard ducks were preening across the water.

Song Sparrow

Female Mallard Ducks preening.

A Great Blue Heron seemed to be waking from what may have been its roost for the night.  I think they usually will roost in trees, but this may have been a safe spot for the night.  It was definitely going through a thorough stretch routine of each leg, wing, neck... That neck of theirs is quite something.  All herons have very long necks, and they seem to have a couple of hinge points allowing them collapse quite compactly.  I search on the net quite a bit and didn't find anything specific about it.  Notable is that herons do this, but cranes and geese fly with their necks fully extended.

Great Blue Heron waking up.

Great Blue Heron wing stretch.

Great Blue Heron neck stretch.

On the way back to the car, heading back to work, I had to try and capture these sights... the dew was heavy on the huge number of spider's webs all over the golden rod and other brush.

Morning dew on a spider web.

Spider

On the way home that night, I saw quite a few birds and stopped making me quite late for supper.  Some how, at the moment it seem perfectly logical that a stop is justified and that it will only take a couple minutes.  I don't often have the camera in the car on the ready, so this time I didn't resist.

I stopped first at a bridge on Hwy 5 which crosses Spencer Creek where I very regularly see a Great Blue Heron  in the shallow waters.  I thought I'd try and sneak up on him.  I didn't work and I only got some blurry fleeing flight shots.  What I hadn't noticed was a Green Heron right on the shore, just in front of me, close to the bridge.  I was just about to leave and I must have finally scared it and it flew up into a tree a little ways off.  I have had similar things happen often, and I have to remember to look around more carefully after having seen one bird - often there are others.

Green Heron.

On my detoured route home, I drove past, turned around and shot this Red-tailed Hawk from my window before it grew too wary of me and flew off.  Further on my drive I repeated for a much larger Red-tail which was likely a female, being larger than the males.

Red-tailed Hawk

Red-tailed Hawk

I've noticed this set of woodpecker holes on a dead tree I pass every day to and from work.  I've seen a woodpecker right at the hole once during the summer, but as mentioned earlier, I rarely have the camera with me and am often on my way to work or just about home.

Woodpecker nest?

This time I stopped and noticed a dead Elm close by where there were a number of Red-bellied Woodpeckers flitting about from branch to branch along with a number of other birds.  There are 6 birds in the picture below, and at least four different birds.  If someone is really good at silhouette, they can fill me in on what they think the other birds are.

Can you find the 6 birds in this photo?  One is a Red-bellied Woodpecker.

Below is some help... I've received a few comments already on this one. :)

1. ???
2. Blue Jay
3. Mourning Dove
4. ???
5. ???
6. Red-bellied Woodpecker

Just down the road is Fairchild's Creek and again I almost snuck up on a Great Blue Heron.  A Belted Kingfisher chided me as well and stayed long enough for a distant photo.

Belted Kingfisher

I seem to have days where I get to see lots of birds all one after the other, and then other days when I see next to nothing.  Well, I'm still behind on posts, so there are more to come for the blog anyway.  One more blog post on the Princess Point area of Coote's Paradise to come, and then a post on a trip up to the Lodge again.  Fall is coming with the crisp air, full bodied clouds and blue skies, amazing colour display of the turning leaves.  Fall...my favourite season.