Evening Photography

I went for a drive one evening at the end of April with the intent of photographing the nearby one-room school house in the beautiful evening light, but I saw some good birds as well.

There were lots of Snow Geese, Canada Geese, and Northern Pintails feeding in our field and in the neighbours’; Northern Shovelers, Buffleheads, American Avocets, Lesser Yellowlegs, Tree Swallows, Snow Buntings, and a Red-tailed Hawk were also around.

A pair of Buffleheads,

Nikon D610, handheld, f5.6, 1/500, ISO 160, Nikkor 200-500mm, natural light

Northern Shovelers,

Nikon D610, handheld, f5.6, 1/400, ISO 160, Nikkor 200-500mm, natural light

Driving down one of the back roads, there was a big raptor sitting on a fence post, and it was a Peregrine Falcon! I took a few photos before it flew off. This is the second Peregrine I’ve seen in the area. The last and first one I saw was in September last year.

The Peregrine Falcon — such a stately bird,

Nikon D610, handheld, f5.6, 1/400, ISO 160, Nikkor 200-500mm, natural light

Nikon D610, handheld, f5.6, 1/400, ISO 160, Nikkor 200-500mm, natural light

A view of the school from distance,

Nikon D610, handheld, f6.3, 1/640, ISO 100, Nikkor 200-500mm, natural light

I switched my 200-500 mm lens to the 50mm lens to better photograph the school. A Great Horned Owl was sitting in the back window of the school, and because of the lens switch, I didn’t get very good photos.

The departing Great Horned Owl,

Nikon D610, handheld, f1.4D, 1/400, ISO 160, Nikkor 50mm, natural light

The quaint Chatsworth School,

Nikon D610, handheld, f1.4D, 1/500, ISO 125, Nikkor 50mm, natural light

Two Rock Pigeons then flew out the windows, and that pretty much concluded the birding for the evening.

Nikon D610, handheld, f1.4D, 1/1,000, ISO 320, Nikkor 50mm, natural light

A Sunday Bird Walk

I haven’t been able to go on long birding walks for quite some time because of busy days, late nights, farming, and trying to catch up on sleep on weekends, but I went on a two-hour walk early Sunday morning! Because our Spring got a late start, the shorebird migration has just beun and most of the resident passerines have arrived including the Baltimore Orioles, House Wrens, Common Yellowthroats, Yellow Warblers, and Least Flycatchers.

The view across the road, early Sunday morning,

A male Bufflehead (digiscoped),

On my walk I saw many Wilson’s Phalaropes; here is a female phalarope (digiscoped),

A White-throated Sparrow (digiscoped),

A Morel Mushroom,

I was playing hide and seek with this male Baltimore Oriole,

A female Common Goldeneye (digiscoped),

The American Goldfinches just started to arrive,

Chipping Sparrow,

The weather has been very warm here and the mosquitoes are very bad, which makes birding less fun than it could be. But it’s still great to get out and go birding. This coming week and next week I’m going to be busy with 4H beef club and getting my cattle ready for the show and sale, so I won’t be birding or posting much.

Fall Migration Hike

I spent Tuesday from 9 am to 1 pm at the local provincial park to look for Fall migrants.

I started along the river side of the park. The first birds I saw were Black-capped Chickadees, though after looking through the photos, I realized I hadn’t taken any photos of the chickadees. I saw a quite a lot of species, from Yellow-rumped Warblers to Turkey Vultures. I saw 18 species in total: four Pied-billed Grebes, eight Red-necked Grebes, one Double-crested Cormorant, five Mallards, two Gadwalls, 10 Buffleheads, three Turkey Vultures, one Northern Harrier, 15 Ring-billed Gulls, 23 Black Terns, one Belted Kingfisher, one Blue Jay, five American Crows, countless Black-capped Chickadees, three House Wrens, 17 Cedar Waxwings, 15 Yellow-rumped Warblers, and eight White-throated Sparrows.

Red-necked Grebe,

At first I thought this raptor was a hawk,

It was a Turkey Vulture,

One of the highlights of the trip, a Belted Kingfisher,

Non-breeding Black Tern,

Ducklings

On Sunday I was very excited to see a female bufflehead and her 10 ducklings. They are the first black-and-white ducklings I’ve ever seen. They are very cute.

I think that the ducklings look like miniature Canada geese,

The mother is on the left hand side of the picture,

I would have made the movie longer, but I was being eaten alive by mosquitoes. In the background you can hear the mother calling to her babies,