There’s a platform off the water that provides an excellent view of the goings on at the reserve. Given the drought in our area the water level is low and the painted turtles are easier to spot as they swim around. In the first photo the turtle seemed to be treading water. I’ve never noticed one in that position before. I spotted the second turtle further along the trail. He was a fine looking example, his shell and claws quite striking. But what a grump!
With all the summertime visitors to our area we tend to forget the true denizens of the forest. Although there are a few species of birds that remain year round, you don’t need to go far to spot a squirrel in any season. We haven’t seen any raptors in the reserve this summer (the largest bird we’ve spotted is one lonely turkey) so the squirrels are running free. I took this shot in low light so I raised the ISO but the speed never got above 1/40sec. Exposure and shadow adjustments in Lightroom and noise reduction software in Macphun made the photo come to life.
I was standing on a platform with a group of other photographers trying to take photos of a heron that was just out of my lens’ range. As I was having no success with the heron I looked about to find something else of interest. The painted turtle in these photos was swimming around a few feet below me and kept raising his head above water. As I didn’t have a polarizing filter on my lens the water looks a bit murky but I don’t think it detracts from the final result.
I came across this well-fed rabbit as it grazed along the footpath. It didn’t follow typical rabbit behaviour when startled by people – it didn’t freeze or bolt. It just continued feeding and then stopped and looked at us (we were never further than seven to eight feet away). We figured it must have been a young rabbit and had not learned to fear people or predators yet. This reserve has a fair number of hawks and other raptors, I hope it learns that lesson soon!
* After some useful information from a fellow blogger, I no longer believe this rabbit is a cottontail (see my exchange with Eliza Waters in comments)
I always check for painted turtles swimming along the shoreline or sunning themselves on the fallen logs. As their name suggests they have colourful markings and are the smallest turtle species at this reserve. The snapping turtle and blanding’s turtle (both of which I’ve featured in earlier blog posts) are larger. We’re looking forward to seeing some hatchlings, it shouldn’t be too long now!
This little squirrel was aware of my presence but he wasn’t going to abandon his snack and run away. I guess he hoped that if he stood very still I wouldn’t notice him. Not a chance of that as the lighting was perfect and he stood out so sharply against the green of the grass. I took a couple of shots and left him to his snack.
This attractive squirrel with its reddish coat and white underbelly is larger than a chipmunk but smaller than the grey squirrel. They are very territorial and I often see them chasing the much larger eastern greys through the woods. They will stand their ground with people too, this little guy a case in point.
On a sunny day last week we came upon these turtles basking in the sunshine. The Blanding’s turtle (the turtle with the yellow throat and domed shell) was sharing the log with the much more common painted turtles. Very often turtles will slip back into the water as you walk past. Happily this particular spot was far enough away that the turtles continued to soak up the rays as I took my shot. A note about the Blanding’s turtle – it’s a threatened species in Canada. Wildlife experts are working with landowners, conservation groups and local authorities to protect their habitat.
We came across this beaver towards the end of our walk. Instead of taking our regular route back we decided to walk along the river’s edge. Given that it was mid day we weren’t expecting to see a beaver as they are mainly active at night. Looking down the river bank we saw it feeding at the shoreline. We were very close and it must have been aware of us but tolerated our presence. The beaver stopped eating for a bit, took a swim and returned with something else to snack on. You never know where a different path might lead!
This raccoon was quite easy to spot in its perch above the main hiking trail. There are a few resident raccoons in this reserve and we always keep an eye out for them. I like the way the leaves create a natural frame around the animal. Although I liked this effect, I made some adjustments in Lightroom using the Hue/Saturation/Luminance slider to adjust for the brightness of the leaves.
The snapping turtle is prehistoric looking with its long spiked tail and makes for a great subject as it can stay put for long periods of time sunning itself. This is the first time I have tried doing a photograph in black and white. I used Tonality Pro for Mac to affect the changes. While the colour version gives a sense of what I saw, I think the black and white is a better representation of this impressive creature.
As we were finishing our walk one day last fall, we saw someone we knew and stopped to chat. There were quite a few ducks on the lake that day but other than that we hadn’t seen much. As we turned around to leave I spotted this meadow vole. Catching sight of this little creature was an unexpected treat. Given the dull quality of the light I made some shadow and contrast adjustments and used spot removal to clean up the water a bit using Lightroom.
I came across this cottontail one morning last spring. As they are usually nocturnal I thought this was a bit of luck and given what he was up to, doubly so. I guess his snack was of more concern than I was because he held his ground which allowed me to capture him mid chew. Out of camera the shot was in the centre of the frame, I thought this crop gave the picture more impact.
There are several spots we always check on as we make our way through the woods. The raccoon was having a nap in a tree where we have spotted raccoons before. The tree is located a fair distance off the path in a dark wooded area. Out of camera the shot was a bit grainy (it was taken at a high ISO) and given how far I was from the subject I had to crop the image significantly. I processed the shot with Macphun’s Noiseless Pro and Nik detail extractor. Another issue was the white balance which I corrected in Lightroom.
