My apologies for the length of time that has elapsed since the last blog post but my intent is to be more punctual as we head into the New Year….perhaps that should even be a resolution!
One of the wildlife photographer’s most prized animal to capture is the moose and fortunately I’ve been able to spend some time photographing them in Algonquin Park which you can see via this link to a previous blog post. This fall the goal was to photograph a Bull Moose during the rutting season; you know, that classic Bull Moose with a huge rack of antlers looking directly into the camera. To that end I spent two consecutive Fridays in the park last month looking for that elusive moose and unfortunately was unsuccessful on both days. Even when a plan doesn’t unfold as expected it is always a pleasure getting out of the city and spending time enjoying the outdoors. The bonus was seeing an Eastern Wolf on the first Friday and a Red Fox the second as well as having the privilege to photograph both of them.
The Red Fox is common in Ontario and in fact common around the entire Northern Hemisphere. It is the largest of the foxes and a truly beautiful animal with a heavy red coat and seemingly oversized tail.
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Who can deny what a majestic looking animal they are.
Animals that are introduced into foreign ecosystems generally (if not always) upset the delicate balance that exists within that ecosystem, often with devastating results. The introduction of the Red Fox to Australia in the 1830’s is such an example and the 6.2 million Red Foxes that now live in Australia make it one of the most damaging invasive species on that continent.
The Red Fox is a predator that typically eats small rodents, but will also take rabbits and game birds given the opportunity.
The Red Fox itself is a target of the larger predators in its ecosystem, which in Ontario includes wolves, coyotes and even some of the uncommon big cats.
The fox images in this post were taken late in the day as the light started to subside so an ISO of 2000 was required in order to arrive at a high enough shutter speed. For this reason I also chose the 5D Mk III body which is very good at high ISO’s. The lens was the new Canon 100-400mm IS zoom which is proving to be a wonderful lens. A number of other Red Fox images can be seen in the Wildlife Gallery.
The Eastern Wolf is a member of the dog family and is an important part of the Algonquin Park ecosystem, which is unique to the rest of the province as the wolves of Algonquin are not culled and are protected within the confines of the park. Although Deb and I have spent countless days in Algonquin Park over the years this was the first time either of us had seen a wolf in the wild and it was an unexpected pleasure.
Wolves typical live in packs of five to seven in Algonquin Park. Pack size is usually determined based on the primary food source of the wolves. In the park the wolf’s primary food source is the White tailed deer, which is of a size that can only support five to seven wolves, hence the average pack size in Algonquin Park (the two secondary food sources are the moose and the beaver). In parts of Canada where the primary prey is much larger (i.e. Bison) the packs are greater in number.
This wolf was probably a lone wolf or sigma wolf. The lone wolf is one who has left the comfort of his or her pack, by choice or eviction. Either way the lone wolf must fend for itself, which makes it difficult, if not impossible, to hunt the White tailed deer. Thus the lone wolf will scavenge for food and often become a nuisance if near a farm or community. Although this wolf has a healthy looking coat, it does appear thin and is probably is less than the average 30 kilogram weight of an Eastern Wolf.
There is often significant discussion and disagreement around the identification of wolves and coyotes and the differentiation between the two. The fact that this animal was seen in Algonquin Park virtually assures that it is an Eastern Wolf and not a coyote. Coyotes tend to prefer more open areas (farming communities) and don’t hunt well in heavily forested regions. They are also preyed upon by wolves when then enter their domain. Having said that, there were coyotes that interbred with Eastern wolves in Algonquin Park, most likely in the mid to late 1800’s when extensive sections of the park were cleared by logging operations, providing a more suitable environment for the coyote than what exists today. So although this animal may contain some coyote DNA it is surely an Eastern Wolf.
The eyes of the wolf create an intense stare.
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Wolves will actually migrate during the winter and follow the White tail deer to their winter deer yards. On the east side of the park the deer head to the Round Lake area and are followed by the wolves, where they were vulnerable to being shot by farmers and hunters. Recognizing the human threat to the wolf population, hunting bans were placed in thirty townships surrounding Algonquin Park in order to protect the wellbeing of the wolves.
I trust you have enjoyed this brief look at two of the smaller predators that occupy very important positions within the Algonquin Park ecosystem. As always, your questions, comments and shares of this post are very much appreciated.
Well, as it is for everyone, time slips by at what seems like an ever increasing pace and we find ourselves already into February while Christmas feels like it was only yesterday. It’s also been over a month since our last blog post and although I have a number planned for the upcoming months, there just hasn’t been enough time to prepare them, so I thought I would post a few quick bird images taken over the last month or two.
Before Christmas I spent a morning at Lynde Shores Conservation Area with Joe & Harv, two wonderful photographers who I’ve known for many years and have learned much from when it comes to capturing great bird photographs. We had a terrific time kibitzing, telling stories, arguing over camera gear and even taking a few pictures in the process. The images that follow are a few of them.
Deb’s favourite bird is probably the Black Capped Chickadee (BCCH) and I never tire of trying to get a good picture of one. They are extremely cute and friendly little birds that dart from branch to branch and follow you along through the forest paths and readily landing on your hand if it contains some black oiled Sunflower seeds.
From a technical perspective, the close proximity of blacks and whites on the Chickadee presents an exposure challenge. How do you preserve the details in the whites without underexposing the blacks and how do you expose to see detail in the blacks without blowing out the highlights in the whites? The short answer is that you can’t, especially in strong light. An overcast sky is your best friend in cases like this! Personally, overexposed whites that present as white areas with no visible detail ruin pictures more than anything else, so my rule of thumb is to always expose for the whites and if needed improve the dark areas in post processing (this is another reason to always shoot in RAW format as doing so provides about 3-4 stops of exposure adjustment on the computer).
Compositionally, practice taking shots in both landscape and portrait orientations. This is easy with birds like Chickadees that will allow you to get close to them and provide you the privilege of ‘cropping in the camera’. When getting this close make sure you move your focus point to allow for proper positioning of the bird in the frame. There is nothing worse that being treated to taking full frame images of a bird in portrait orientation only to find you’ve placed the bird in the middle of the frame and have no margins left for cropping on the computer. With today’s high megapixel camera sensors, you may be happy to shoot everything in landscape orientation and simply crop for portraits later but doing so always costs by way of reduced detail.
The following four images show two portrait and two landscape images with the bird facing in opposite directions for each similar orientation. If you make a practice of getting these different views in the field, you can be relatively certain of getting some good ‘keepers’ every time out.
In the same family of birds as the Chickadee we find the White-breasted Nuthatch (WBNU), which happens to be my Mom’s favourite bird.
They are known for spending most of their time upside down on three trunks. In fact you may not recognize the bird when perched as it is above, but it certainly looks more familiar in the next two images as that’s the way we see them most often.
They look very different when foraging for bugs the way the other birds do as seen below.
Another friendly bird in our area is the Blue Jay (BLJA) which will gladly take peanuts from your hand. Their brilliant blues and superb primary wing feather patterns also make them very photogenic. The first two Blue Jay images are very similar portraits however the first is a much better photograph due to the more natural appearing body shape of the bird (the disproportionately wide neck in the second created by the forward posture of the head is distracting). Also the dark back ground along the lateral edges of the first frame provides a natural vignette effect which is pleasing. It’s enjoyable to be able to choose from a number of similar images to pick the best one and this can only happen by taking lots of images!
The beautiful blue, white and black feather patterns of the Blue Jay.
The Blue Jay gets its vibrant blue hues as light is refracted when passing through the unique structure of its feathers and not from blue pigments in the feathers as most presume. The next time you find a Blue Jay feather on a trail, crush it up with your hand and watch the blues turn grey as you alter the structure of the feather and hence the refractive properties of the feather. You will be surprised!
This Red-bellied Woodpecker has been a popular resident at Lynde Shores for a while now, however this was the first time I’ve been able to photograph this beautiful bird. This first image shows the characteristic red belly from which it gets its name.
The male and female of this species are similar other than the cap, the male has a red cap while the female’s is grey. These images are of the male.
Interestingly, the males forage on tree trunks while the females prefer the tree limbs. Males also have longer beaks and wider tongues than females.
The Red-bellied Woodpecker is near the northern limits of its normal range so we don’t often get a chance to see them around the Durham region .
The darker brown eye of this bird indicates that it is an adult.
Now that winter is upon us, bird photographers often turn their attention to owls, especially the Northern Owls (i.e., Great Grey, Snowy and Northern Hawk Owls) that will often get displaced southwards from their Arctic breeding grounds when food supplies are scarce. The environmental situations that arise to force more owls south tend to become acute about every eight to ten years. These years during which a disproportionate number of a given owl species arrives this far south s known as an irruption. This winter is an irruption year for Snowy Owls with many being found in Southern Ontario. So the goal this winter is to get some great images of the Snowy Owl. Unfortunately it hasn’t happened yet although we’ve been out looking a couple of times! The following two images were taken just after Christmas and are both cropped images taken at a distance of about 70 yards…..much too far away for a good image.
The most enjoyable part of this day, during which we traveled about 400km and saw ten or twelve different Snowy Owls was that were joined by our friends Arni & Dianne. So the times we spent standing out in the very sub-zero temperatures were off set by lunch in Angus and hot chocolate and coffee at Arni & Dianne’s place.
This past Friday Deb & I spent another day travelling around looking for Snowy Owls and although we saw one owl, there were no photo opportunities. That’s the nature of wildlife photography but it’s always fun to get a day out enjoying creation. Our day was cut short by the weather as an intense snow storm hit while we were travelling from Minesing to Orillia, forcing us to head south on HWY 400 to get out of the storm and head home. Here is a short clip of the snow we found while out looking for Snowy’s 🙂
Sometimes, when you take the time to scout out the perfect location, place a unique looking perch where the lighting is perfect and there is great separation from the background and you’ve created the ideal outdoor studio for bird photography, other ‘models’ come along with well groomed manes to show off their best poses for the camera…..always make sure you oblige them!
All the images in today’s post were taken with the Canon 5D Mk III body and Canon EF 500mm f4 L IS lens (the Snowy Owl images also used the 1.4X TC to provide 700mm). The video clip was taken with an iPhone 6.
Last Friday Deb & I were able to enjoy a few hours sharing a blue berry patch with nine Black Bear; Deb picked the wild Blue Berries and I photographed the wild Black Bear! The nine bear we saw comprised three families, each with an adult female and two cubs. Neither of us had ever seen that many bear sharing essentially the same space for such a long time. The bear were in the area to feast on the abundant Blue Berries and although the three families never mingled they were regularly within about 100′ of each other. Each mother bear would move rather systematically through the patch with the cubs bounding around behind her, constantly on the move, never too far away and occasionally slowing down to eat some berries. There was no doubt they were tight family units as seen in these next two images.
This next shot is in very harsh light but I liked the symmetry of mom and cub.
Black Bears are found throughout Canada and it is estimated that there are more than half a million bears in the country. They are found in all of the Canadian provinces and territories with the exception of Prince Edward Island where they have been extinct since 1937.
Adult Black Bears vary a lot in size, with a typical weight range between 125 and 550 pounds. The average adult male in Ontario is around 250 pounds while the females average less than 200 pounds. As Black Bears hibernate their weight fluctuates a lot over the course of a year with their spring weight usually 30-35% less than their late fall weight. The heaviest recorded wild Black Bear was from New Brunswick and was estimated to have weighed 1,100 pounds. The pelage, or coat, of a Black Bear is thick, dense and at this time of year very healthy as can be seen in this next image.
Bears move into their dens for winter in late October and early November and for the two months that precede that, their full time job is eating enough to put on 30-50 pounds of fat that will sustain them through the winter. Eight five percent of a bears diet consists of vegetation and the animal sources of food are usually bees, ants and larvae. In the spring when they emerge from their dens, they will eat carrion in order to quickly replenish their muscle mass. They rarely attack other animals, or people, for food, although the rare cases in which they do are well publicized and perhaps earn the peaceful Black Bear a reputation worse than they deserve. In this next shot you can see that the girth of the adult is growing as she readies for the winter.
This next image reminds me more of a beautiful black dog, than a bear. It almost looks like you could wander up and pet her.
…..and a more traditional looking bear pose!
The above images are all of the same adult female bear. These next images are of the second family that wandered into the blue berry patch. The next uncropped image is one of my favourites as the bear was lying down on a small knoll under the branches of a tree keeping watch over her two little cubs. This afforded the time to take some portraits of her and actually get low enough to the ground so I could be looking up slightly at the bear providing a rather unique perspective for a bear photograph. She looks so peaceful!
There was one other photographer in the area when I took the above shot and apparently he caught the attention of the bear as she got up from her spot under the tree and took a step towards him with a much less docile looking demeanour as seen in the next image.
The bear in the above image was actually missing its front right paw which is shown in the image below. Although one might think it would have the lost the paw in a bear trap, this is unlikely for a bear living within the safety of the vast expanse of Algonquin Park. A good friend of mine (and bear expert) who was with Deb & I when we saw these bears explained that the more likely cause of the missing paw was the bear defending her cubs against the attack of another adult male Black Bear. Apparently, other than during mating season when males impregnate as many females possible, the relationship between the adult sexes is very antagonistic. Male adults will kill young cubs in order to preserve their dominance in the community. Similar behaviour is noted among Lion populations in Africa. Although this bear was missing her paw, she was able to get around fairly well although with a very distinctive gait that was easily recognizable. People in the area said she lost the paw about three years ago so she has obviously adapted well to her disability.
The next two images are of the third adult female Black Bear we observed. She was a large bear that also had two cubs. The first shot is of her standing amongst the ferns and providing a great profile portrait. Although rather artsci for a wildlife shot it’s another of my favourites from the day. This was the only tagged bear we observed and you can see the tag in her right ear.
As a wildlife photographer you always hope to capture a shot of a bear standing up and it was a thrill to not only observe the bear rising to its full height, but to catch it on the sensor of the camera. The wild bears don’t spend as much time on their hind feet as Yogi seemed to 🙂
The cubs were difficult to photograph as they were small enough to easily hide within the ferns and rarely came into the open for an unobstructed view. Even when they were just peeking out from the vegetation they sure looked more cute and cuddly than they actually are!
This next image is another favourite, with a young cub standing up and checking out the surroundings. This bear is one of about 20% of the bear population that has a white chest patch in its coat.
This final image was one of the last taken on the day…..I think mom and her cub were eyeing Deb’s blue berry container which was quite full after a few hours of picking.
All of the images for this post were taken with the Canon 5D Mk III and 500mm telephoto lens. Instead of using a tripod which is awkward to use when you are constantly moving around, I used a Jobu monopod and Jobu Jr. 3 gimbal head to support the heavy camera and lens. It would have been impossible to hand hold the heavy gear for the few hours we spent with the bears and the monopod with gimbal head provided the perfect solution for support of the gear and easy mobility over the terrain. If you don’t already own a monopod, I highly recommend that you purchase one and the Jobu is the one to buy, its carbon fibre makes it very light and Jobu is a Canadian company.
We recently returned from an almost 4,000 km drive around the Gaspe Peninsula of Quebec. It was a wonderful trip for many reasons, including that my parents joined us and we were able to visit my Dad’s parents homestead in the little town of New Richmond on the south side of the peninsula. Prior to my grandparents moving to Oshawa in the 1920’s, there were five generations of Martin’s in the Black Cape/New Richmond area of the Gaspe Peninsula.
Undoubtably, one of the high points of the vacation was seeing Minke and Humpback Whales while whale watching out in the rough waters of Gaspe Bay and the Gulf of St. Lawrence. Our boat, the Narval III was operated by Croisieres Baie de Gaspe leaving from Grande-Grave harbour within Forillon National Park, Quebec’s first National park, located at the Eastern tip of the Gaspe Peninsula.
As you can see the Narval III is a beautiful boat for whale watching.
Narval III
This next shot with the smaller red zodiac on the left gives some perspective as to the size of the Narval III.
Narval III
We had reserved our spots on the boat a number of weeks before arriving, however because of the rough seas and high winds, we were forewarned that it would be a rough almost three hours on the boat and that we would get completely soaked. Deb & my mom were wise in their decision to stay on shore, but my Dad and I donned the complementary rain gear and climbed aboard. Not knowing anything about whale observation and given the rough seas, I was pretty much convinced we wouldn’t see any whales, however only a few minutes into the voyage we saw some Minke whales, which are the second smallest of the baleen whales (more on baleen whales in a minute). The average length of a Minke whale is 23 feet. It was such a thrill to see even a ‘small’ whale that the trip was already a success, but only a short while later we found a pair of Humpback Whales and I was amazed at how close they would come to the boat as we watched and followed them for the next hour or so.
Here is one of the first pictures I was able to capture of the Humpback Whale.
It is difficult, if not impossible, to describe effectively enough to provide someone else an appreciation for the sheer size of these whales. Humpbacks weigh in at about 40 tons (80,000 pounds) and can reach lengths of 62′, or larger than a transport truck, yet they are very graceful to observe in the water. The normal method of spotting whales is to look for the 10-15′ high water spout created when the whale surfaces to breath and forcibly exhales air through the blowhole before inhaling. This is an easy thing to spot under calm seas, but the high winds and ten foot swells made it much more difficult for us to observe the water spouts. After seeing a spout, the small dorsal fin would appear about twenty feet behind often followed by the fluke or tail, allowing for great photo opportunities. The following are a few of the results.
The underside of a Humpback tail has large white areas which are an identification distinction visible from quite far away.
Humpback Whales are part of the baleen whale grouping. Baleen whales are edentulous, meaning they have no teeth, but instead have up to 400 baleen plates on both sides of their mouths. These plates are side by side, perpendicular to the roof of the mouth and can be up to 4′ in length. When the whale closes its mouth while feeding on a school of krill, the small fish are trapped between the baleen plates while the water is expelled. The food is then swallowed. Blue whales, the largest animals on the planet, are also baleen whales, thus the biggest whales in the world have no teeth, which is perhaps one of those little pieces of trivia you will never forget after reading this blog post!
The Humpback Whale, like many whale species, was brought to the brink of extinction around the turn of the last century by over fishing and a hunting ban was implemented in 1966. Since then the population of the Humpback globally has slowly increased, however the National Geographic Association still lists the Humpback as endangered. It is estimated that there are 80,000 Humpbacks alive today.
The Humpback Whale gets its name from the distinctive hump seen in its dorsal spine as it arches above the water when it surfaces to breath.
Humpback’s Hump
I was fortunate to capture a unique perspective of the dorsal spine of the Humpback Whale as it surfaced while swimming directly towards the boat. Only a small part of the whale is visible, but you can see how the humpback got its name.
Humpback Whales are migratory animals that cover a lot of miles every year, in fact 16,000 miles on average. They summer in the cooler northern polar waters and head south in the winter to the tropical waters where they breed and give birth to their young. Interestingly they don’t eat while in the cooler waters in the summer and live of the fat reserves created by all the krill and small fish they consume in the winter months. Although they don’t eat in the summer, they continue to produce waste as this next image shows 🙂
You won’t find this next pic in the gallery, but it is included here in an attempt to convey the relative size of an adult Humpback whale, using the rough waters of Gaspe Bay and the shoreline in the back ground to provide some scale. The width of the Humpback fluke can be up to one third of its length meaning the tail width can reach 15-20 feet or the length of most recreational motor boats.
Humpback Fluke
I trust that you have enjoyed these Humpback Whale images and if you’ve never been whale watching, I would urge you to plan a trip to Forillon National Park and sign up for an excursion with Croisieres Baie de Gaspe. You will be amazed when you see up close one of the largest animals that God designed to roam our oceans.
To see the above images in more detail, you can view them in the Wildlife Gallery.
As mentioned in the opening of this blog post, our whale watching excursion left from Grande-Grave Harbour in Forillon National Park. You could easily spend a few days exploring the park itself and admiring its many beautiful vistas overlooking the Gulf of St. Lawrence and Gaspe Bay. One of the most picturesque is Cape Bon Ami in the northern section of the park. The cliffs around the Cape provide nesting grounds for Black-legged Kittiwakes, Razor-billed Auks, Common Murre and Black Guillemots, which will be described in a future post. In the mean time here are some pictures of Cape Bon Ami and the surrounding area.
The whale images in this post were all taken with a Canon 5D Mk III and 500 f/4 L lens while all other images were taken with a Fujifilm X-E2 and 18-55 zoom lens. Long time readers of this blog will recognize that this is a significant departure from a gear perspective, however I will talk about the new Fuji equipment in more detail in a future post.
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In North America there are seven species of Grebes, however this post will focus on the Red-necked Grebe, which is a medium to large sized bird that frequents fresh water marshes and lakes from the north-west (Alaska & the Yukon) extending southwards to Texas. It is rarely found east of Ontario.
The Red-necked Grebe is a rather nondescript grey bird during the winter months, however transforms into the beautiful bird in this post when it adopts its breeding plumage, including its red neck, white face and black crown with its characteristic tufts.
Grebes typically nest on floating beds of vegetation which allows for protection from the usual land based predators. Like Loons, Grebes are awkward taking flight and ‘run’ along the water for a long distance before acquiring the speed required to take flight. As a result of this you don’t often see Red-necked Grebes in flight other than during migration. Also similar to the Loon, the Grebe’s legs are positioned far back on its body making it very immobile on land but adept in the water. The Grebe dives when faced with a threat as opposed to taking flight. This next image show an adult on the floating nest (in breeding plumage both sexes appear the same so differentiation is very difficult, although the male is usually the heavier of the two sexes).
Red-necked Grebes lay two to six eggs which enjoy shared incubation for 20-23 days before hatching. This family had four young ones making for a busy time of feeding. The biggest threat to the young chicks are fish (particularly pike and muskie) and snapping turtles and for this reason, along with the desire to keep warm and comfortable, they spend the first few days of life snuggling on the backs of the parents. It is always a treat to see these young families and watch the young jostle with each other to get the favoured position on mom or dad’s back.
The choice position cuddled at the base of a parent’s neck is only available to one, but perhaps they take turns! Young birds grow very rapidly and Grebes are no exception, so the opportunity to see them on the backs of the parents only lasts for a few days. In just a few months they must be big enough and strong enough to migrate south for the winter. Interestingly, Grebes migrate mostly at night.
The little sentinel, learning to be a keen observer of the surroundings. Observational skill is essential for survival and although the Grebe reduces land based predator threats by nesting on the water, other birds (hawks and gulls) pose danger as do many other aquatic adversaries (fish, snakes & turtles). Grebes are typically very quiet however when threatened do make a series of loud and unusual screeches & squawks.
The chicks have very distinctive black and white banding patterns on their head and necks which give them a little zebra like appearance. This next shot captures the unique beauty of the young birds head.
Red-necked Grebes consume mostly invertebrates including insects, molluscs, dragonflies, beetles and crayfish and they also eat fish. The Grebes also have a very peculiar item on their menu; they regularly eat their own feathers and in fact start feeding feathers to the young when they are only a few days old. The feathers remain in the stomach and tend to partially decompose into a soft amorphous mass. It is not known what the purpose of the feathers in the stomach is, although it has been suggested that they form a filter of sorts to prevent ingested bones from damaging the digestive tract.
While my good friend Arni and I were photographing the Grebes pictured in this post, we had the privilege of watching the young chicks being fed numerous times. The challenge was to get a great feeding shot with everybody looking at the approaching meal. Fortunately all four of the young cooperated at least for the split second required to get this shot. This shot is also humorous in that Dad is being overly optimistic in just how big of a fish the young ones could handle and the weight of this meal caused it to be dropped as soon as it was handed over. No problem though as the parent immediately returned with a smaller fry for the youngsters.
I was hopeful to photograph a Grebe chick on the back of a parent while swimming away from the nest, however this was not be. The next two images were as close as we were able to get, but that’s the beauty of bird photography, no matter how many great shots you’ve taken there is always a better one to be had next time. So we keep on looking for that ‘perfect’ yet elusive shot.
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The Red-necked Grebe was an interesting bird to observe and photograph. They are also very photogenic as this concluding image demonstrates.
A couple of interesting facts regarding the Red-necked Grebe is that its feet are lobed rather than webbed and a group of Grebes together on the water are referred to as a ‘water dance’ of Grebes.
All of the images in today’s post were taken hand-held with a Canon 5D Mk III and EF 500 mm f4 L IS lens. Normally I use a monopod to support the weight of the lens, however as all of the images were taken while lying down to get a more desirable low angle, support for the lens was not available.
Although I’ve been fortunate to see Short-eared Owls (SEOW) over the years, a good photograph of one has eluded me. It seems the longer you’ve waited, the more effort you will invest to finally get that desired shot, so perhaps not surprisingly I left home at 5:00 a.m. on a winter morning when the temperature was -25°C to embark on a 600 km round trip looking for Short-eared Owls. Fortunately, to make it an enjoyable day, I met up with my equally dedicated friend Arni and off we went. The plan was to be in the area where the owls had be seen for sunrise and although we did our part, there were no Short-eared Owls in sight. We looked faithfully for a couple of hours until Arni spotted one in a tree not too far off the road. We were relieved to find the owl however the nature of wildlife photography is that you often invest considerable time and expense to see a bird or animal and they simply don’t show up on cue. Seeing what you set out for is never a certainty and some times you must drive away empty, but when you are blessed to see what you set out to find you are elated and a good photograph becomes a bonus.
The Short-eared Owl Arni spotted was a fair distance off the road in the yard of a large farm, so we obtained permission from the owners of the farm to access their property to take some photographs. Here is the owl, nestled deep into the needles of an Eastern White Pine Tree.
Unfortunately the owl flushed when we were about 100′ from the tree and we watched it fly down the road and perch in another tree. You can imagine our surprise when we packed up and drove down to the tree to find that it had joined six other Short-eared Owls! Seven owls in the same tree was quite an unusual sight. Here is a snapshot of two of them.
The Short-eared Owl shares a similar range and habitat as its cousin the Long-eared Owl and they even look somewhat similar with the exception of their short ear tufts and the horizontal black feathers around the orbit. Their small ear tufts are often not displayed however can be seen in the above two images. Short-eared Owls have always been one of my favourite looking owls primarily because of their eyes, which have been referred to as mascara eyes because of the unique black feathering around the eyes. The next few images will demonstrate those alluring mascara eyes.
The Short-eared Owl is a globally common owl and enjoys one of the largest geographic distributions amongst the owls, being found on all continents with the exception of Australia and Antarctica. It is however in Ontario listed as a species at risk and of special concern.
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Capturing in flight images of the Short-eared Owls was a treat as they are largely nocturnal birds that roost through the day.
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After photographing these beautiful birds we headed about 15km further south west to the shores of Lake Erie not too far from the little hamlet of Selkirk in search of some other unusual birds that had been reported in the area, however as it often happens , none of the expected birds made an appearance so we made our way home stopping at Lynde Shores Conservation Area in Whitby to see a resident Red-bellied Woodpecker (RBWO). Although it was very cold, the light was nice and the birds cooperative, so we were able to get a few images.
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It’s always good to have some black sunflower seeds in your pocket as the seemingly ever present Chickadees (BCCH) are usually in need of a snack.
The week after the images in this post were taken Deb & I headed to Florida for a couple of weeks and were fortunate enough to spend a few of those days birding and collecting enough images to put together one or two future blog posts. So the next post will feature some birds of the south where the warmer temperatures were a most welcome respite.
All of the Short-eard Owl and Red-bellied Woodpecker in today’s post were taken with a Canon 5D MkIII and Canon EF 500 L IS lens with a 1.4X TC for a focal length of 700mm. The Chickadee video was via my iPhone 🙂
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