Cheapskate Solution for the Backyard Bird Feeder

Hairy Woodpecker

The above photograph of the male Hairy Woodpecker was created at my backyard bird feeder set-up. He would visit the bird feeder to collect seeds and then hide them among the cracks in the bark on the old apple tree stump that support the feeding station.

In the image below you will see the set-up I am using this year for my winter songbird photography. In the center of the frame at the bottom you will see the speaker that is connected to an old MP3 player that I keep inside the photo blind to play the songs of various bird species that frequent the area around my home, to lure them in closer to the feeding station.

Now for the cheapskate part – use an old set of automobile jumper cables affixed to a flexible type of clamp and presto you have an easy, effective set-up to hold various perches and the ability to change them around as needed without too much fuss. The flexible clamps were purchased from Princess Auto for a mere $11.99 CDN and now I have a set of magnifying glasses for my daughter to play with too . The cardboard over the feeder actually has a small hole cut in it which tend to make the birds land on the perches rather than the sides of the feeding station.

To see the larger, sharper versions of each image please click on them to enlarge.

The Backyard Set-up

Just a reminder to all full-time photography students enrolled in an accredited Canadian University or College to click on the Sigma Scholarship Contest logo in the sidebar of the blog for a chance to win $3000 towards their tuition and $1000 worth of gear from Gentec International.

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Top 12 for 2012

Male Bullfrog in wetland on Horseshoe Lake, Ontario

Looking back over the past year I realized I probably photographed a little bit more wildlife than landscapes, which is some what different for me. Mostly I was photographing frogs and toads for various chapters in the frog book that I am currently writing. As a result it is easy to see why my top 12 images from 2012 contains a few frog photos

Here is a selection of a few of my favorite images created in 2012.

Tiny Marsh Provincial Wildlife Area, Ontario

Eastern Massassauga Rattlesnake, Killbear Provincial Park, Ontario

Rosseau River at Lower Rosseau Falls, Ontario

Over-under juvenile Bullfrog

Willet on Liebeck Lake, Ontario

Horseshoe Lake wetland at sunset, Ontario

Common Loon with chick on Horseshoe Lake, Ontario

Zimmerman’s Poison Frog

Beaver Pond, Algonquin Provincial Park, Ontario

View from the dock at sunset, Horseshoe Lake, Ontario

White-breasted Nuthatch

The White-breasted Nuthatch image above represents the last photograph captured for 2012. It was visiting my suet feeder set-up frequently yesterday while I was out in the blind for another round of winter songbird photography.

Wishing everybody all the best in 2013.

Happy New Year!!!

Please remember to click on each of the photos to see the larger sharper version.

See ya soon!

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Songbird Surprise

 

I have been preparing my photo blind and bird feeders for another season of winter songbird photography and today I finally had a chance to go out and sit in the blind for a couple of hours to see what I might be able to capture. I was quite surprised to see this different looking chickadee land on one of my perches. It is not uncommon to have a great number of Black-capped Chickadees at my feeders throughout the day, but I have never seen one quite like this. Upon referring to my field guides I believe it may be a Boreal Chickadee.

During the course of last winter I had a lone, female red-bellied Woodpecker visiting my suet set-up and thought that this was most likely due to the warmer than usual winter we had last year. However, today I was pleased to she that she has returned and made a couple of lovely poses for me, which can be seen below.

Please remember to click on the photos to see the larger version.

Red-bellied Woodpecker

Red-bellied Woodpecker

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Hot Off The Press: Melantisic Green Heron

As readers of this blog will remember, about a year and half ago I had the pleasure of photographing an unusually colored heron in Cuba’s Jardines del rey archipelago, an UNESCO World Biosphere, on the island of Cayo Santa Maria. My photos of this odd looking heron eventually made their way to Dr. James Kushlan of the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s Heron Specialist Group. It is believed that this heron  is either a melanistic or genetic variant of the Green Heron and is most likely the first record for such plumage in this species.

Below you will see the JPEG version from the latest issue of Conservator, a beautiful magazine that is published by Ducks Unlimited Canada  and sent out to those that hold a membership with Ducks Unlimited Canada. The most recent issue of the magazine began hitting the doorsteps of DUC members this week and features an InfoGraphic on my Melanistic Green Heron that I photographed in Cuba. The inset image shows a normally plumaged Green Heron that was also photogaphed in Cuba.

Please take a moment to check out the Ducks Unlimited Canada website particularly the page that celebrates their 75 Years of Conservation Excellence.  DUC has conserved 6.3 million acres and has completed 9,000 projects all aimed at conservation. That folks is an amazing track record don’t you think!

To see a larger version of this excerpt from the magazine do remember to click on the image.

 

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Willet vs ATVs on Liebeck Lake

Western Willet on Liebeck Lake near Parry Sound, Ontario

During my last trip up to the Parry Sound Region I decided it was time to take my 5 year old daughter on an excursion to Liebeck Lake. This is a small, cottageless lake found deep in the forest near the family cottage on Horseshoe Lake. A trail extends through the woods for roughly 3 kilometres before arriving at the lake and then the trail continues for about another kilometre as it follows the shoreline of the lake before it comes to an end at the Seguin Trail. Despite what you will read below we did have a wonderful time and my daughter was given the piggy-back ride all the way back to the cottage, which I promised her if she would walk all the way out to the lake with me.

Liebeck Lake is a beautiful lake and the water level of the lake is somewhat controlled by beaver dams. Once, about 10-15 years ago one of the dams sprung a leak and the water level dropped quite a bit. History repeated itself this year. During my visit to the lake with my daughter we were able to explore the newly exposed shoreline which is essentially a large mudflat now. While there I noticed a lone western willet feeding on the mudflat and shallows and I was able to get a few decent photos despite the relatively harsh lighting. When the lake level drops like this it exposes part of the areas history with the logging days of the late 1800s and early 1900s evident in the many dead-heads that are usually submerged when the lake levels are normal. These dead-heads tend to make interesting photo subjects themselves.

Please do remember to click on each of the photos to see a much larger, sharper version.

Dead-head on newly exposed shoreline of Liebeck Lake

Dead-heads on newly exposed shoreline of Liebeck Lake

A lovely trail leading us through the woods to a beautiful, quiet lake; the newly exposed shoreline covered with a multitude of Moose and Black Bear tracks and sandpipers arriving at the newly exposed mudflats to feast before continuing their migration south. Not so my friends! When I swing my camera to the left all you can see is a mudflat chewed up by thoughtless folks who have taken their ATVs out for a joy ride in the mud. The lovely quiet trail now looks more like a hideous logging road. Don’t get me wrong now…I have nothing against ATVs, they do serve a purpose but when the folks that drive them off through the woodland trails and wreck havoc on them or destroy shoreline habitat like you see in the photos below I get pissed off. Their are designated trails for ATVs and there are folks who abide them and respect nature and then there are the others…..

ATV damage on Liebeck Lake

What was once the lovely woodland trail to Liebeck Lake

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Common Loons of Horseshoe Lake with the Nikon D800

I have just return from several days up near Parry Sound, Ontario at the family cottage on Horseshoe Lake where I spent much of time getting to know my new Nikon D800 and swimming in the lake with my daughter, who is now able, with floaties, to swim quite some distance out from the dock.

I will do a more in-depth look at the D800 in a future post, but first wanted to share these images of the Common Loon family that reside in our bay on the lake. They have two chicks and both seem to be doing very well, diving on their own and both have very healthy appetites. Last year one chick had perished but hopefully this year’s brood will survive. The first two images in this post were photographed from the canoe, using the handheld Nikon 80-400mm VR lens with an ISO setting of 800 and the last image was captured with an ISO setting of 1250. I did not need any additional focal length to create images of these loons on this particular day, but when I did need extra focal length I could easily select the 1.5 crop mode on the D800 and immediately convert the 80-400mm lens to a 120-600mm lens.

Please remember to click on each photo to view a much larger version.

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Don’t Leave Home Without It

Regardless of whether I am heading out for a day of photography or just driving down to the local grocery store, my camera is most often sitting on the front passenger seat of the car, ready for anything I may see along the way. I seldom leave home without it. My home is about 2 miles down a country road, just off of a small two-lane highway, and often as I drive out to the highway I will see Turkey Vultures, Bobolinks, Horned Larks, and numerous other bird species sitting on the weathered, cedar fence posts that line the farm fields. Many times the birds fly off when the car comes to a stop, but sometimes I get lucky and they sit still for a few frames. I have often seen Upland Sandpipers foraging among the grasses of the hay fields while I take my dog for her daily walk, but I have never really tried to photograph them as they have always seemed rather skittish.

On Friday I packed my camera in the car as I drove my daughter to her final practice for her dance recital on Saturday. As we made our way home from the dance practice, I noticed this Upland Sandpiper sitting on a fence post. I continued to drive along the road a little further so that when I turned the car around I would not disturb the bird. Once I turned the car around I also rolled down the windows in preparation for pulling up alongside of the bird. Once I had the car in position, I shut off the engine and was able to fire off about 30 frames before the bird flew out across the neighboring field. Using my car as a blind and never leaving home without my camera were the two key factors in these successful photographs of a beautiful bird. I selected an aperture of f-8 on my Nikon 80-400mm VR lens to render the bird and the fence post as sharp as possible but keep the poster-like background of out of focus field grasses.

Please remember to click on the images to see a much larger version.

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First Time For Everything

Female Wild Turkey on nest

I have spent the last several days up in Ontario’s Muskoka region opening up the family cottage. Aside from the regular chores of opening weekend, I made time for visits to my favorite frog pond in the forest to photograph chorusing Grays Treefrogs, take my daughter in the canoe to a nearby wetland to see what was new in there this spring, my daughter also decided that it was a perfect day for swimming, jumping off the dock, and practicing her doggy paddle in the frigid water, and of course take my dog for several long walks. It was during one of these walks on Friday afternoon that something caught my eye at the base of a massive, rocky outcrop near the entrance to our cottage lot. Something looked different, not quite right, and certainly out-of-place as I remembered it. And then as my eyes adjusted to what I was seeing before me, I made out a female Wild Turkey sitting among the leaf litter. She was not at all alarmed to see me and my dog walk past her at only a distance of about 15 feet. My dog was oblivious to her on the ground and I figured that the turkey was probably quite comfortable with how well concealed she was on the forest floor. I concluded that she was probably sitting on a clutch of eggs. What surprised me most was that every time I passed by her over the course of several days, during the dog walks, she was always in the exact same position on the nest. I have explored the woodlands in this region for over 30 years and not once have I ever seen a Wild Turkey in the vicinity of the cottage and today there is one nesting right on our lot. Nature never ceases to amaze me, but I do wish this turkey had selected a more photogenic location for nesting .

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The Weatherman Got It Right

Mallard drake at Humber Bay Park

With a ton of work to do (submissions and new eBook to write) I decided to ignore the weather forecast for today and take some time off to create some fresh waterfowl images at one of my favorite locations, Humber Bay Park on Lake Ontario in Toronto, during the spring migration. The forecast was for snow flurries, sunny periods and windy conditions. Since the weather forecasts are usually wrong anyway, I figured I would make the one hour drive down to Toronto and try my luck. Today the weatherman got it right! I encountered a real mixed bag of weather from brief, but very heavy snow flurry activity followed by clear skies that quickly turned back into snow squalls. I did not find a great assortment of waterfowl today, just some Mallards and a lot of Gadwalls. More Gadwalls than I have ever seen at Humber Bay before, so I spent the day photographing Gadwalls in the various weather elements we were experiencing today. And I never pass up the opportunity to photograph the Ring-billed Gulls at close range while here either. A long time ago, I heard a good bit of advice – take advantage of the common wildlife around your home, because there are other places in this world where they are not so common. For the Ring-billed Gull portrait I applied a touch of Nik Software’s ‘detail extractor’ filter found in Color Efex Pro 4 to bring out some of the detail in the whites of the bird.

When I arrived home at the end of the day, I was greeted by the calls of Red-winged Blackbirds and the first Robin of the year was sitting on my front lawn. Looks like spring is here

Gadwalls  and falling snow

Gadwall drake preening

Gadwall drake

Ring-billed Gull

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Snow Squall Songbirds

Black-capped Chickadee in snowstorm

Winter has once again returned with two days of snow squall activity. On Friday morning I took advantage of the stormy weather to sit out in the photo blind for some additional songbird images. I just love to photograph the songbirds around my home during periods of snow. The snow streaking through the frame gives a real sense of the elements these birds face during the winter months and the activity at the feeding stations is often at its best. During snow squalls it is possible to have near white-out conditions one minute and clear conditions the next. This day of stormy activity turned out be one of my best days yet in the photo blind this winter. We have also had large numbers of Dark-eyed Juncos and American Goldfinches arriving over the last few days.

All my songbird images are photographed with the Nikon 80-400mm VR lens which I often find to be painfully slow in regards to focusing, but by pre-focusing on the perch and then adjusting the composition to anticipate where the birds may land the lens does not have to work very hard to focus on the bird when it does land on the perch. I also work the camera and lens mounted on a loose ball head with the VR function activated. Often I find this will yield the best results, however, many images are created to capture the few that I consider to be the keepers. Here is a selection of my favorites from the day.

Hairy Woodpecker – male

Black-capped Chickadee

Dark-eyed Junco

Black-capped Chickadee

American Goldfinch

American Goldfinch

Black-capped Chickadee

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