Eagle, Goldfinch, Leucistic Robin (20160313) A trip up the valley for some new spots.

Saturday night I decided to head out on a NSBS field trip with some of my new shutterbugs (Clarence, Alistair, and Laurie Ann). LA was driving and we arrived a little early so we had the chance to visit a SEO area, no birds present, but I now know where to look when I'm in the area. The field trip was pretty crowded so we headed out on our own to see what we could find. We swung over to Blominton and on one of the deadend roads we were treated to this Eagle.

Some feeders near the road netted us an early Grackle that didn't wouldn't hang around for an image but a few of the American Goldfinches provided opps.

Whenever you are near the shoreline and you get an opportunity to grab images of one of the archways present take the shot! You will go back one day and they will have disappeared thanks to time and tide.

Just up the road we were treated to a view of three arches so in this case I listened to my own advice and grabbed this shot.

Then we had a terrific spot of this Leucistic American Robin,  a first for me.

I managed a second image which provides a peek at some of the breast.

Laurie Ann got the best image of that unit by far. We then took a walk to a waterfall location and were disappointed with the lack of water. Clarence spotted this Kinglet which everyone enjoyed trying to capture an image of.

We finished the day up at Miner's Marsh which will become a familar location here in time to come. One of the local mallards was nice enought to allow a portrait.

It was a super day with some super company! Take sone time to put a little "wild" in your life, it will do you a world of good!
Turbo

Whitetail, Purple Sandpipers, Harlequins (20160312) Around the house, and a road trip pays off.

As I was lazing in bed this morning thinking about the upcoming day Deb yelled that there was a deer out in front of the house. So I had to grab the camera and take a look. It disappeared for a few minutes then popped out and stood still for me to capture this, my first image from the home yard.

Later in the day Laurie and Alistair dropped by to try out their new "better beamers". We had a woodpecker and some Chickadees around but the star of this day was this little Golden-crowned Kinglet.

It was a first ever for my visitors so they were pretty pleased. So another image is in order.

A couple of days later Len and I hit up the Halifax Outdoor and RV show and thought since we were in the area we would take a little trip to look for the Harlies one more time this year. We were fortunate enoug to spot them and moved into position to get some shots. While we were setting up this group of shorebirds dropped in.

I believe that they are Purple Sandpipers. If they are, this will be a first for the
blog and dedicated visitors will know that a newbie always gets a second image.

Well back to our whole purpose for this trip and the end of a five or six trip quest. Here is a group of six resting out on the nearby island. You can tell from the sky in these shots the light was pretty shabby.

We spent about 75 minutes with these beauties. Here is one of early images. 

The second tough challenge of the light was that it was behind the birds so another trip is order soon to see if I can get them with sun behind me to give a better quality image. 

So these newcomers to the blog have been a long time coming. I really enjoy the colouration of these gorgeous birds so you will be seeing more soon.

Take some out of your day and put a little "wild" in your life, you won't regret it.

Turbo

Chipmunk, Landscapes, Kinglet (201603-early) Some shots from around the house

Well I am finding it hard at this time of year to get a lot of targets in a single day so you will likely see several composite posts that cover several days. So we shall see how this goes for total content. Here is a image of a terrific little visitor the other day.

We were fortunate enough to have Eric Boultier-Brown present at the Dartmouth Photo Society at our latest meeting. He did a presentation on macro photography and shooting flowers in ice. I think it might have inspired these next shots, although they are not Macros.I'd call this first image Water and Ice

Down at the lake we had some pretty windy conditions the day before with dropping temperatures. Here is Ice Weeping Willows.

At the west end of the lake I was able to find a couple of Chickadees. They had a little company in there "band" as I was also able to find this Golden Crowned Kinglet.

I was able to convince him to show me his red patch on the top of his head.

A couple of days later I headed out to the Pipit place again, hoping to find the Harlies. This time I took along Laurie Ann and Alistair.

They weren't the only ones capturing images of the Pipits I grabbed a few of my own.

We swung out passed the third beach to find very little birdlife. We did see some mink tracks but not much else. On our way back to the truck we popped in to see the Pipits again. Here is a shot of one hanging around in the seaweed.

A shot here of two birds, showing just how well they can hide in this environment.

The next day I took a stroll out to the east side of the tracks to see what I could find on the now semi-fresh snow. Here is a shot looking west; the tracks to nowhere.

Down the tracks a little way, I found these tracks and with the deteroation of a day or two they were tough to ID. They imprints were 6 to 8 feet apart, then a little further out I found out that they were actually Showshoe rabbit tracks.

I flushed a couple of Ruffed Grouse but didn't get to actually see them. I'll wrap this post here and see how long it takes me to get enough images to put another together. It shouldn't be too long as I try and put a little "wild" in my life every day! Turbo

Red Phalarope, American Pipits (20160229) Yet another search for a Harlequin fails.

With continuing beautiful February weather I was hoping to get out and find a Harlequin or two. I met Angela and we headed over to meet with Diane and Shawn, who were going to be our guides for the morning. We started out with a walk up to Chebucto Head. The overlooking bluff is a great spot to search the ocean to see what is around. Black Guilimon's were around, with some gulls and here is a group of Eiders.

We headed over to Crystal Crescent beach to see if we could find a Harley to photograph. We arrived uneventfully and began our walk. As we were passng through "beach 3" we found these American Pipits.

I am used to trying to find these birds during migration in the spring. But apparently they have spent the winter here eating kelp flies.

The group allowed me to move forward on my own, the result are my personal best Pipit images. I was very grateful with their willingness to hold back for a few minutes.

After posing for me these birds flew back in front of the rest of the group and provided them with a photo opp.

This Greater Black-backed Gull seemed right at home on this large boulder. The lighthouse in the background is a sight I will be getting used to here in NS.

There were no Harleys to be found and we headed back to the truck. As we were leaving the last beach the ladies found this little beauty.

A Red Phalarope, apparently the first time in Nova Scotia that one has been entered on the "dead of winter list". Luckily today was leap day and the list goes on until the end of February.

As I believe this is a Blog first I will add a couple of other images. While not the best they are decent ID photos.

It was a glorious suny day here in February. Apparently a highly unusual month for this part of the country. I don't really care, the fine weather made it more comfortable to put a little "wild" in my life!  Try it, you'll like it,
Turbo

Bald Eagles, Redtail Hawks (20160223) Can we find an Eagle today?

An emergency run to the valley (sort of) to check in on a small leak and the promise of good weather. Dave joined Len and I this morning and I was relegated to the the back seat. On the run out the 101 Hawkeye Len spotted 15 or 16 different redtails. With our pit stop compete (we couldn't do anything about the leak) we headed out for a few birds. On our way over to Sheffield mills this bird was spotted.

We continued to spot Red-taileds and now we were willing to take some time and try to capture an image.

It is always nice to get to see why these birds have "earned" their names. This is a pretty heavy crop of the image.

On one of our favourite side roads we found this pair of RTH's watching over a very large field.

After a little road time when we were checking out a potential accipitor, Len spotted this beauty!

Here is a heavier crop of the same bird. While I had a great seat to shoot this bird, I didn't take advantage of the situation to grab a head only shot!

And as seems to be the case these days we were also able to find the odd Chickadee.

What a terrific day for light as well. We had a great time putting a little "wild" in our lives on a super day. Do the same sometime, you will love it!
Turbo

Dunlin, Turnstone, Seal (20160220) A trip to the salt water.

I reached out to Angela Granchelli one of the ladies that I did the Cape Sable Island trip with. I was curious to see if she had any plans for the day. It was good mid-day low tide and Angela thought that a trip to Wedge Island in Three Fathoms Harbour would be a good target for subjects.  We can only get to the island duing low tide so timing is important. we made out travel arrangements and established our meeting place. We concentrated on getting to the island while we still had open passage. So we did not stop to shoot any thing until we were on our walk to the island. we were pleased to see several seals in the area.

We spent a little time with this particular seal, It seemed to be trying to climb on this rock to rest.

You can probably tell from the colours of the water, we had a very overcast day. Angela had headed out with the hope of finding a Red-throated Loon, Our seach was interupted by this crew.

There were two Dunlin and three Ruddy Turnstones. Here are the Dunnie's.

Two fo the three Turnstones.

The air shots wre not the only images I was able to get. After they came in for a landing they started working the shoreline.  Here are the two Dunlins.

And this is probably the best image of a Turnstone I have.

Here is a shot of two of the Stoneturners with some rocks too big to roll over.

In a while we bumped into some folks that Angela knew. They had a scope so she was able to see her Loon and some Alcids: a Thick-billed Murre, and a Razorbill.We also found a number of fresh owl pellets indicating that there might be a Snowy in the area. Angela has provide this image of me getting shots of the shorebirds.

That takes care of this outing! Get out into the woods, or even your yard, or a local park and put a little "wild" in your life!
Turbo