Northern Shrike, Chickadee, Hooded Merganser (20131116) Outing at Jarvis'

Len, Dave and I took a trip over to Jarvis' in memory of my father, with whom we had hunted on this porperty for about 10 years. We took over a bottle of Rum to toast Dad with before we headed out for our walk. We had spoken briefly with Jarvis and he mentioned that over the past couple of years (I haven't been there for the last 5) he had done quite a lot of logging and we may not recognize the place. On the lower road there have been a family of beavers at work and we couldn't get across the damn. Off to the upper road, and it is very quiet. We stroll into one of the new choppin's and grabbed this Northern Shrike.

As it flew off we recognized that it was a mouse it was carrying, a pretty big meal for a bird of this size.

That is my first Nova Scotia Shrike and a first for Dave, a terrific start to the day.  Here is David taking a shot where he saw his first Whitetail in the wild when all alone. The hunter orange is a legislated requirement in Nova Scotia during Hunting season. You must wear a hunter orange hat and vest.

The rest of the visit to Jarvis' was uneventful but not unsuccessful. We covered a lot of ground and made it through a number of new and old cut areas with nothing ill affected!  We grabbed another beverage and some lunch as provided by Dave before we headed out for a bit of a drive.  As we swung into a loading area on the way to Oak lake we flushed nine (9) Snow Buntings, they are pretty skittish this time of year. Here is a shot of 5 of them.

We stopped and I grabbed this image of a Chickadee in profile. As you can tell the skies were pretty grey and light was at a premium. I reall like how you can see "through" his wings and see the branch behind.

At the lake, when we arrived, we found a very flat surface. It provided a great opportunity to "shoot" my bother.

I took a stroll up the lake as Dave and Len were chatting about "things" and I was able to find a pair of Hooded Merganser's. They were a long way off but this is a decent "evidence" shot.

We had a couple of other "encounter's but I didn't get any shots. David grabbed his first ever Mink shots and I missed out on a Showshoe Rabbit and maybe an owl.  But the boys agree it was agreat day!

Turbo