A stop in Algonquin

Had a chance to stop in at the visitor center in Algonquin park over the weekend. Lots of Evening Grosbeaks at the feeders put on a good show. I was able to get quite a few photos of these birds, if you want to see some more check them out here.

Ducks!

On Saturday I had a bit of time so I decided to go an have a look around for ducks on open water around my place. There were quite a few Goldeneye around doing there mating rituals bu they were pretty far off. I did find two hooded mergansers that were fairly close to shore:

With the snow that we got on Sunday I couldn't resist going to Bond Head in Newcastle. Much of the shore line of lake Ontario has frozen up, but here there is still a bit of open water were many ducks like to congregate. With no where else really to go they are pretty tolerant of people. I have been there a couple of times this winter and everytime there is a different mix of species of ducks. This time is was mainly Greater Scaup with some of the usually other ducks like Mallards, Goldeneye and Long-tailed Ducks there was also a couple female Hooded Mergansers. But the hightlight for me was a white-winged Scoter and a Redhead. I have seen these two species before but they are usually far out in the water, so it was nice to finally see them up close.

see more photos here

Jan 2014

This winter I have been fairly busy and haven't been out to shoot as much as I would like. But, this past week I was able to do a little birding in some of my usual spots. I made a trip up to Algonquin Provincial Park last weekend in hopes to find an Evening Grosbeak. These birds haven't been around much this winter but they are pretty regular at the visitor center bird feeders. I stopped in there in the morning and there were maybe 30 of these birds but by the afternoon on my way by again there were none. But there were a few purple finches the second time around...

Evening Grosbeak

Purple Finch

The next day I was able to make it down to Lake Ontario in Newcastle. The shores were frozen solid and there wasn't much around, but in bond head there were a few ducks that had found some open water and were very cooperative because they didn't have any were to go.

Common Goldeneye

The bird I most want to see this winter is a Snowy Owl. There are many juvenile snowy owls around the south this year because a boom in the lemming population allowed for a very successful breeding season for snowy owl. I have not been able to see any snowies closer to home so I decided to go down to Presqu'ile Provincial Park where I have seen a snowy owls are much more common in the winter. Sure enough the first place I looked from Owen Point there was a snowy!... on my way back I also found some freezing looking mute swans...

 click here to see more photos

Ice Storm

Though the recent ice storm created quite a mess in the cities and on the roads, it sure made things look nice! I did my best to capture some of the scenes:

Norwood Fair Entry

It is that time of year again, the Norwood Fair is just around the corner which means it is time to get some photos together to enter in the Photography contest. These are my entries this year with their categories:

Photographers Choice

Spider Web

Wildlife

Winter Scene

Close Up

Barn

Water in Motion

Travel

Dead Tree

Egan Chutes

I spent some time in Bancroft and Egan Chutes this past weekend and the fall colours were beautiful. Egan Chutes is a very nice waterfall and I will definitely be visiting there again. It was a bit of a difficult place to find as there is no real sign directing you to Egan Chutes Provincial Park. But we found it and after hiking along the side of the river for a bit we came to the waterfall.

Fall Colours: Algonquin Park

I spent the day in Algonquin last week Friday, I wasn't expecting the fall colours to be all that great yet but when I got there the Western half of highway 60 was pretty well 100% changed! But most of the highway was under construction and made it difficult to just stop to take some photos. Here are a couple I could manage though.

Tea lake

Opeongo Road

Look out trail - first light

Across the road from Ragged Falls PP

Costello Lake

Lake of Two Rivers

 As you can see I had some fun with Panoramic Photos as well.
I also hiked into wolf howl pond via arowhon road, didn't find a whole lot there but I did spend some time stalking this Wood Duck, and had a Pine Marten run in front of me on the way out. The weather was perfect and it was a pretty great day to be out.