The World Through Our Lens
Photography of birds we have observed in the wild.
Bob and I enjoy birdwatching through our patio door as we take our meals every day, but near the beginning of this past December, as we finished up our lunch, all the songbirds took flight in a rushed panic. Next thing we knew, this Juvenile Cooper’s Hawk assumed a stakeout from on top of my garden arbour. Read more
Bob and I had heard that, at a particular cemetery in Burlington, Ontario, there are no less than three Eastern Screech Owls that inhabit nest holes in a couple of different trees. On the morning of our most recent visit, we did find one of the Red Morph Screech Owls, but when directed to a second tree that a pair of Screech Owls calls home, the cavity showed no sign of its occupants. It wasn’t until much later in the afternoon that I spotted this Red Morph when it poked its head out of the dark hollow for a peak at the world. Read more
Bob and I could not believe our good fortune when we found a second Eastern Screech Owl on the same visit to Burlington, Ontario. This Eastern Screech Owl Grey Morph is quite different from the Red Morph Eastern Screech Owl we had just observed at a nearby Cemetery. Read more
Well, Bob and I can finally say that we have seen an Eastern Screech Owl in the wild, as opposed to one we visited at the Mountsberg Raptor Centre a couple of years ago. It has taken us two years to finally see the Eastern Screech Owls in Burlington and not for lack of knowing where to look. It was overcast one day last week when Bob and I again ventured west of Toronto in hopes of finding at least one of the known Screech Owls out of its nest hole. Read more
What a challenge to capture any Belted Kingfisher (Megaceryle alcyon) in a photograph! Over the years, as Bob and I have canoed on various lakes and rivers, we have observed countless Kingfishers taunting us with their perpetual cat and mouse routine. Always just one step ahead of us, it seems that these birds are playful at best, and always wait until we are in sight before taking flight for another tree a couple of hundred feet further down the shoreline. This handsome female took no notice of our presence on the observation deck at Colonel Samuel Smith Park in Toronto. Read more
For weeks, Bob and I had been hearing about a Yellow-crowned Night Heron making a stay at Colonel Samuel Smith Park on Toronto’s lakeshore. When finally we had a chance to pop down there for a look, it was quite late in the afternoon so we did not hold out much hope of seeing it since other people had been numerous times without success. Lo and behold, after we circled the main pond on an obscure trail through the woodlot, we came out to a clearing and found the Night Heron perched nonchalantly on a rock. Read more
They’re back! It seems that trumpeter swans, H11, and her cygnet were just taking a short vacation away from their home pond. We were pleased to see that the whole family had returned and were cruising the pond in Milliken Park in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Read more
Earlier this past fall, visitors to Milliken Park in northeast Scarborough would have noticed that only two Trumpeter Swans were inhabiting the main pond where previously there had been a family of four. Tango, the female or pen, was diligently caring for her one remaining cygnet after the untimely death of her other baby in mid-September. Read more
At the height of the past spring’s migration, Bob and I made a plan to check out Ashbridge’s Bay Park at the shoreline of Lake Ontario in Toronto. Hundreds of sightings had been reported there the previous week, so we were up much earlier than usual and on site in the parking lot before the sun’s rays were much above the horizon. It was fairly late in the morning, however, when we discovered this female American Redstart (Setophaga ruticilla) in the middle of a dense thicket of trees. Read more
One summer, two Juvenile Least Bitterns spent their time hanging out at Colonel Samuel Smith Park on the lakeshore in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. During one of our hikes at the park we found the two Least Bitterns near Whimbrel Point. Read more
