Wilson's Warbler in winter - great way to end the year!

Wilson's Warbler, Oakville, Ontario - Dec. 30, 2014.
Gear: Canon 1D4, 500/4IS II and 1.4x III.

I've been following the bird reports about the ''famous five" lingering warbler species hanging out near a sewage treatment facility in Oakville, Ontario this winter.  After visiting my family down near Point Pelee for the holidays, I thought I'd swing by on the way back home to try my luck. I left Leamington at 5am and made it to Oakville shortly after 8am. It was cold (around -7C) - not exactly the kind of conditions you expect to look for warblers in! I bundled up and hit the trails with my camera.

I spent a few hours wandering around the small area and was able to easily find five warbler species: Yellow-rumped, Orange-crowned, Nashville, Tennessee and Wilson's. Although I manged to get photos of all of them, the densely tangled thickets made for busy backgrounds - not ideal for photos. Except for the Wilson's Warbler, which landed on a completely unobstructed open perch right in front of me. It posed for about 30 seconds, long enough to capture some great photos. I never expected to get my best ever Wilson's Warbler photos in Ontario on December 30. What a great way to end the year! 

Varied Thrush in Tobermory !!!!

Varied Thrush, Tobermory - December 16, 2009
EOS 1Ds mark III, 500/4 IS lens & 2x teleconvertor; ISO 800; 1/125s @ f/8
Gitzo tripod with Wimberley II gimbal head

My neighbours called me a couple of days ago to report this rare bird visiting their feeder. The bird has continued to hang around for a couple of days and was seen today on the annual Christmas Bird Count. This is just a record shot to confirm the ID.... I'll be going back to get more photos for my collection (I need to use a flash to improve detail on the dark face)! Although only about 100m from my yard, I can't seem to lure the bird over to my feeders!

By the way, sorry for the lack of posts lately. The hard-drive on my main business computer crashed a few days ago, and although I have backups of everything.... it's been a pain having to restore all the files. Aside from this, I've been out socializing lately more than blogging.... tis the season!

Check back soon for some bird photos and winter landscapes!

Wood Ducks in autumn colors

I'm in Cleveland, Ohio for the weekend at the North Chagrin Reservation pond, considered the premier location to photograph Wood Ducks with fall color reflections. I arrived at the pond (next to the Nature Centre) around lunch time and by the time I stopped photographing at dusk, I'd shot 973 images. The pond has many tame wood ducks, beautiful reflections and gets bathed in soft evening light. What more could you ask for?

I've been back in the hotel room all evening editing the photos... my eyes are bugging out from staring at the laptop.

Here's a travel tip: I stay in hotels often and save a pile of cash by booking them through discount sites such as hotwire or priceline. Tonight's room (in a 3.5 star hotel) cost about half the usual price.

Here are a few quick picks. All shot with an EOS 1Ds mark III; 500/4 IS lens (first two with a 1.4x teleconverter). More coming in the next post.