Late last fall we saw a northern shoveler for the first time. It is such a spectacular looking duck, from its bill to its colouring.  I couldn’t have asked for more until…on our third sighting of the shoveler, this wigeon joined him for a swim around the lake. The day was cloudy but there were nice reflections in the water and then there were these ducks, they would dress up any occasion.

These photographs were taken at this time last year when the temperature was milder and the days sunnier than they are right now. I wonder if the pileated woodpeckers are preparing their nests regardless of the cold weather or have postponed this activity until it warms up a bit. This male woodpecker was excavating the same tree that we’ve seen them nest in in past years. We’re supposed to get some milder weather later in the week in which case I’ll stop by the tree to check on any activity.

I was using a long lens with a teleconverter the day I took these shots. During last year’s fall migration I had wanted to take some hooded mergansers that my regular telephoto lens just couldn’t capture. Walking on a path that borders the lake I caught sight of this Great Blue Heron close to shore. I don’t think I’ve ever been this near to one before and given where he stood and where I found myself, I couldn’t back up to get more of him in the shot. Pretty pleased with the way things turned out though.

We didn’t see many of these herons last summer. This striking bird made up for that though by giving us a lot of opportunities for photographs. He preened and napped and didn’t fly off while we were photographing him. The changing light due to the clouds passing overhead made the shoot challenging. The reflections from the lake also effected the lighting on the bird. In Photoshop I corrected the yellowish/green colour cast on the heron using a Hue/Saturation layer. This adjustment effected the surrounding greenery, making it less vibrant. I created a mask on the Hue/Saturation layer to correct this. Wonderful bird, wonderful day!

A nice thing about photographing chickadees is that if you don’t capture the one you’re aiming for there will be others around in no time at all. They dart by so quickly that you often end up with a well focused branch! They do slow down a bit in winter though when they’re more dependant on handouts. The chickadee in the first photograph was taken in August; it was molting and looked a little bedraggled. The second, taken in early December was sporting a sleeker look.

I don’t often see nuthatches on the ground searching for food, as in the first photo. More frequently I see them moving along branches and trunks of trees at challenging angles. The first two nuthatches are white-breasted, the third is red-breasted, not nearly as common in this part of the country and especially nice to see.

These photographs are the second in my duck-on-ice series. I am amazed at the resilience of mallards and the fact that this female can move along the ice, keep her balance and tolerate the cold. In this post I wanted to talk a bit about bringing out the detail in the frozen lake. The duck was a pretty impressive subject but I wanted to enhance the background to give the photos more interest. I did this by adjusting the Highlights and Shadows in Lightroom. I then used the detail extractor in Macphun Intensify CK. For the B&W I used Tonality Pro; by adjusting the Highlights, Shadows and Mid Tones and using colour filters which effect the tonality, even more detail was brought out.

This male Bay-breasted warbler, in fine breeding plumage, was migrating through our area last spring. Given the amount of red in his cap, I believe he is a mature bird. Their population is very dependant on the caterpillars of the spruce budworm and other insect infestations and their numbers rise and fall accordingly. They are a little easier to photograph than other warblers as they move about the branches and show themselves a bit more readily.

The lake had just frozen over and this female mallard was taking her first tentative steps on its surface. She was pretty surefooted and didn’t slip once as I watched her. There are at least thirty mallard pairs that remain at the reserve all winter and we normally see them on the river side of the reserve where some of the water remains ice free. This is the the first of two sets of photographs I took of this mallard which I’ll be featuring in the next week or so.
February 2 was Groundhog Day in Canada and the U.S. and it was reported that the “official” Canadian groundhogs did not see their shadows (yes we have two). The story goes that when this happens we’re in for an early spring. If this holds true, I’ll be featuring ducks in open water before too long!

Nuthatches are tiny aerial wizards and acrobats hanging onto trees at impossible angles. They obligingly remain all year, these first two shots were taken in early January. I like their distinctive nasal call, which is often heard before they make an appearance. Normally quite shy, nuthatches are more assertive during the winter hoping for some seed as I pass them along the trail.

I featured this eastern screech owl earlier in the month. In that series he was inside a tree cavity, on this day he was perched on a broken tree branch nearby. As this owl blends in so well with his surroundings, if I hadn’t been looking for him where I’d seen him before I would have missed him. All three photos had a tremendous colour cast caused by the leaves. In the first two, I used the Color Balance and Hue/Saturation in Photoshop to correct it. The colour cast was too pronounced in the third photo to fix, so I turned it into a black and white using Tonality Pro in Photoshop. As someone said, any day you spot an owl is a good day, this was an excellent day!

When I set up my gear that morning I was hoping to take some photographs of hooded mergansers I had seen the day before. They usually remain just out of range of my favoured lens, so I had my 300mm lens with me instead. There were no mergansers that day but I did come across these wood ducks along the lakefront. I couldn’t move back far enough to capture the entire bird so I took portrait shots instead. No two days in photography are the same. There are disappointments sometimes, but I know before too long something else will strike me and I’m off…

Palm Warblers are known to stay low or on the ground but this bird went his own way and remained high up in the pines, darting in and out of the branches catching insects in mid flight. You have to be patient with warblers but the rewards are worth it. In the eastern part of the country we are treated to yellow palm warblers, the western variety are a duller colour. These warblers migrate through our region in the spring and fall. After spending the winter months due south (the birds not me), I look forward to their return again in May.

Chickadees are the most acrobatic of birds and they’re fun to capture as they fly in and land nearby. They never stay still for long so I’m always pleased to get a decent close up shot. As the weather gets colder they do linger a little longer though hoping for some seed from passersby. They are also one of the few birds that can lower their body temperature to conserve energy on cold winter nights.

Cardinals are “all weather” birds that remain throughout the year and I have photographed them in every season. This was taken in October on a day when the light was nicely filtered and both the bird and the background colour mesh well together. The conditions were perfect with a very cooperative subject in no hurry to leave.

For two years in a row we’ve seen a solitary eastern screech owl in the reserve. As they blend in so well, you have to search hard to find them. We came upon this owl last April, and we continued to see it for several weeks in the hollow of the tree or perched on a nearby branch. I look forward to seeing one again this spring.

Although relatively common, I had never seen a northern shoveler before and couldn’t believe my luck when I spotted this solitary shoveler in late November. Their spatula-shaped bills give them a distinctive and comical appearance. We went back to the same area in the reserve for several days in a row and saw him each time. However, when we returned after a snowfall to check on him he had left. Like other Canadian “snowbirds” he was headed south no doubt.