Bohemian Waxwings

I posted these in my old blog, I thought I would re-post.  

I will probably re-post a few things from that blog in the future.

I saw these bohemian waxwings for the first time two winters ago, they are so pretty :)

I love when they cooperate

Even if it's just for a few seconds.

Owlets

I rented a lens, which arrived yesterday.  It's the Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6l and I have it for 10 days.  I'm not sure I want to give it back LOL, I really like it, much better than my old Sigma.  I mainly got it to play with it and get a feel of it, but also because I found a great horned owl nest a couple of weeks ago, and my Sigma is just not cutting it right now!  I took a few shots of the chicks but I'm not satisfied, I'll have to go back this weekend with a tripod and try to get a bit closer without disturbing the birds.  They have got to be the sweetest things I've ever seen.

I also found a bald eagle nest just 5 minutes from my house, I'll be taking pictures of them tomorrow morning, I saw that there are two chicks.  I'm very lucky this spring :)

Three lifers

Well we did find two out of four birds I wanted to see, plus a bonus! After driving about three hours we reached John Inmans' house where the red-headed and red-bellied woodpeckers and white-winged dove have been spotted for a week now. It looks like the young red-headed has settled in :) The lighting was terrible yesterday so I had to shoot with high ISO, nothing sharp unfortunately, but still very happy I got to see it for about an hour.

The dove showed up for a few minutes but was being very cautious, I was only able to snap one decent shot. This dove is not from this area, AT ALL, so it was very exciting!

The red-bellied didn't show while we were there, but I'm confident that I'll eventually get to see one this winter, there's been many sightings so far. I was very bummed that the prothonotary warbler didn't show and I really hope the little bird made it. It's getting very cold.

A nice bonus : we got to see a few beautiful ring-neck pheasants. I'm very happy with my day :)

It's time for a road trip!

I found out today that we are being invaded! By woodpeckers, that is. There's been many sightings of red-bellied and red-headed woodpeckers (!!!) throughout the southern part of the province, so I'm charging my camera batteries and going on a road trip tomorrow! There's also been a prothonotary warbler and a white-winged dove seen in the same area I'm headed, so I hope I'll get lucky!

Also, I thought I'd mention that my little Queequeg is fine, he doesn't have a tumor. He just has irritated skin around his uropygial gland (or preen gland), which caused it to swell. My little bird was picking so much and broke a few feathers around the gland, which explains the blood. Luckily he didn't start plucking. The vet gave me antibiotics and anti-inflammatory medication for the next 3-4 weeks. Giving him his 'meds' can be a challenge, but I think he's already feeling much better :)

Have a great weekend!

Busy birds

I hardly had any chance to go birdwatching this summer, I guess that I was too busy. Sean and I went to my grandmother's cottage in August for a weekend and I introduced Sean to clam digging! I didn't even think of taking pictures of us digging or of all the clams we caught, but I did snap a few shots of all the busy birds around us! Most of them were so tiny! They were all looking for food and really didn't mind having us watching them. The sandpipers and plovers were so close, I could've reached over and touch them. They were doing the same thing as us; digging for food. Maybe that's why they didn't perceive us as threats :)

Least Sandpiper

Ruddy Turnstone (lifer)

Semipalmated Plover

Sean did sneak a pic of me in action, haha!

Thanks for visiting :)

I went birding today

I haven't been birding much lately, mainly because it only seems to rain on the weekend! It's very aggravating because I have a few photo op ideas and I have to wait for the weekend (I'm too busy during the week lately). Hopefully mother nature will cooperate with me soon :)

Even though it was very gloomy this afternoon I managed to get a nice few shots of a concerned veery, I think I was close to a nest. I'm very happy with this one, I was shooting in raw so I was able to brighten up the photo a bit.

Thanks for visiting :)