Like many herons, the Black-crowned night heron can stalk its prey for longer than I have the patience to watch. With a catch or not they make for excellent subjects, as they stand so still allowing me to take many photographs. This spot on the lake is always a popular fishing spot, and the lighting always adds interest to the scene.
All the familiar favourites are returning to the reserve. We’ve had a few sightings of Black-crowned Night Herons; never two at once, so I’m no sure if there’s one individual or more. We came across this one in a quiet cove. We watched as he starred at the water never shifting his gaze. He caught a fish so quickly that I missed the shot and only caught him with his back to me as he flew off with a large catfish dangling from his mouth.
The female Red-winged Blackbird has more subtle colouring than her male counterpart but is an attractive bird by any standard. I’ve only seen the female once before, the males seem to be less shy and their song fills the woods beginning mid-March, one of the first spring migrants to our area. This bird and her mate were in the open as I walked along and I took this shot.
The photo has an unusual composition that I like. The chickadee to the right of the photo and the leaves to the left provide balance. No Rule of Thirds here or the usual negative space in front of the bird. Some rules are meant to be broken!
I came across the first image when I was looking for some Canada Geese photographs for a recent post. I haven’t taken many birds in flight and hadn’t remembered taking this one. The geese were beginning their fall migration so if you pointed your camera towards the sky there were a lot of opportunities to try and capture them. My 300mm lens at F 5.6 worked in my favour and I was pretty pleased with the result.
The Great Blue Heron was on a fishing expedition and landed shortly after I took this photo. Always a favourite subject of mine on land or in the air.
Canada Geese can be unwelcome visitors, noisy, messy and overstaying their welcome. But they can make for wonderful subjects too. I came upon this bird last fall as the leaves were changing and the light was soft. These photos were taken at our favourite reserve, a place I’ve only visited a few times this spring. With the below average temperatures and the flooding this month many of the paths are under water. The nearby river is slowly beginning to recede but it will be a several weeks before we’ll be able to walk the park in its entirety.
This downy woodpecker had been busy excavating some bark but paused briefly in his work, taking a break. Perched on the branch facing a wide open sky gave the bird a rather contemplative look that I liked.
