The World Through Our Lens
Photography of birds we have observed in the wild.
On our first morning in Banff National Park, Alberta, Bob and I made a beeline for Lake Louise to take advantage of the morning sunshine for photographing that iconic location. When we returned to the parking lot at Chateau Lake Louise, Bob quickly pointed out an interesting bird loitering near the vehicles and seemingly unafraid of the humans coming and going about their business. The bird turned out to be a Clark’s Nutcracker.
After spending a few days on Vancouver Island, Bob and I returned to the mainland for a trip to the interior. During a brief stay in Kamloops, we were lucky enough to see a number of Black-billed Magpies (Pica hudsonia) congregated outside of our hotel. Read more
On our morning outing to Comox from Bowser, British Columbia, Bob and I stopped at the edge of the Salish Sea. Nothing much was stirring in the Sound, so we walked into an adjacent brushy area and came upon a very wet Cooper’s Hawk. Read more
An early spring rendezvous in Whitby allowed Bob and me to fit in a stop at Lynde Shores Conservation Area while in the area. The Cranberry West Tract turned up no birds of note, but we did spy a family of deer, a young buck, doe and two fawns, that kept their distance in the thick brush. We then popped over to Lynde Shores for a quick tour around the bird feeding trail. Near one of the feeders, a beautiful Brown Thrasher (Toxostoma rufum) was tucked low in the crown of a fallen tree. Read more
The objective of our drive to Comox from Bowser, British Columbia, was to find and photograph Bald Eagles. As we observed a pair of those magnificent birds of prey just offshore, we became aware of a considerable flock of American Wigeon Ducks scooting along the shore of the Salish Sea right in front of Bob and me. Read more
When visiting relatives in Bowser, British Columbia, in early January, we were fortunate to have clear sunny weather for a couple of days in a row. It was one misty morning, however, when we took a drive to nearby Comox in the hopes of seeing some Bald Eagles (Haliaeetus leucocephalus). We were not disappointed. Read more
Our trip to British Columbia had been a birdwatcher’s delight, but once back in Ontario, it didn’t take us long to go on the hunt for new bird species in our own neck of the woods. A trip to Bluffer’s Park along the edge of Lake Ontario turned up some impressive Long-tailed Ducks). Read more
Morning walks are the ritual for my sister-in-law, Claire, and her husband, Martin, and from their home in Bowser, British Columbia, on Vancouver Island, they have a variety of options open to them, but no matter which direction they choose to go, they almost always spot one or two Bald Eagles in the treetops. Read more
As Bob and I were coming near the end of our visit to the George C. Reifel Migratory Bird Sanctuary, we thought we had seen the best of what the protected area had to offer that day, a variety of ducks, Lesser Snow Geese, Spotted Towhees and scores of Great Blue Herons, to name a few, but the best was yet to come. As we rounded a bend in the trail, our eyes fell on several Sandhill Cranes foraging for bits of food in the brilliant sunshine. Read more