The World Through Our Lens
Photography of birds we have observed in the wild.
How exciting it was to see so many new bird visitors to our backyard. With bird migration in full swing, Bob and I kept a keen eye out our windows hoping to glimpse new species that happened to drop by. First thing, one morning, as I sat at my computer desk looking out on the streetscape, I saw a flash of orange land in my Highbush Cranberry. That bird turned out to be a Blackburnian Warbler. Read more
One spring, on the only clear day in a week of rainy weather, Bob and I seized the opportunity to go birdwatching. A return trip was in order to the area of the Royal Botanical Gardens in Hamilton. Not since the previous spring had we visited the protected areas in the Gardens’ vicinity, all of which make for great hiking and birdwatching. It was in the Grindstone Marsh that Bob and I came upon two pairs of Wood Ducks (Aix sponsa) idling in the backwaters of one of the marshes. Read more
Bob and I took a drive down towards Cambridge to see if we could locate any of the Sandhill Cranes reported to be nesting in the area of Grass Lake. Our first observation over the marshy lake revealed nothing to us of the Cranes’ whereabouts, but a fellow birdwatcher pointed us a little further down the dirt road where Eastern Bluebirds were preparing to nest. They were going to have to stand in for the Cranes until a little while later. Read more
A sure harbinger of spring is the sight of Tree Swallows (Tachycineta bicolor) staking a claim on a chosen birdhouse, and that is exactly what Bob and I witnessed on a spring weekend near Cambridge, Ontario. A farmer had generously provided a small selection of nesting boxes at the edge of a field, and they were a hot commodity. Read more
A sudden change in plans had Bob and me with a free day in which to go birdwatching, an opportunity not to be missed. Recent reports had us setting our sights on an area just west of Toronto, an area to which we had never gone birdwatching before. It promised to be a fruitful day, and sure enough, amongst other species observed, we did sight one Sandhill Crane at Grass Lake near Cambridge, Ontario. Read more
One of the highlights of our winter day trip aboard a Toronto Island Ferry to Ward’s Island, one of 13 islands in Toronto Harbour, was seeing a real proliferation of ducks, some of which were wintering in Southern Ontario from the Arctic. One such species was the striking Redhead Duck (Aythya americana). Read more
Bob and I are determined, so we decided to once again make a trip to Colonel Samuel Smith Park to try to see the Snowy Owl viewed by many birdwatchers. Persistence pays off! We did locate the Snowy Owl and spent 2 1/2 hours recording its movements about the harbour. Read more
On a lark, Bob and I thought we would revisit Thickson’s Woods in Whitby, Ontario, to see if we could find the Great Horned Owls that inhabit that forest. It had been about a year since we earnestly looked for the Owls, and sure enough, one of the beautiful birds was found perched in the top of a tall pine tree. Read more
The winter of 2014 went down as the year of the Snowy Owl judging by the number of sightings here in Southern and Central Ontario, in Canada. It seems that every Tom, Dick and Mary has spotted one be it on a fence post, a light standard, the roof of a building, along a hedgerow, in a treetop and even lots of them in flight. Bob and I caught sight of this Snowy Owl out on the ice at Frenchman’s Bay, on edge of Lake Ontario. Read more