Today's Outing

A saw a few regulars today that I never tire of seeing!  Whitby's most photographed owl once again stopped by for a visit.  He was nice and low and out in the open, giving thrills to photographers who were all very well behaved.  Everyone stayed on the path to give the owl space.

I had been concerned that he was being baited but saw no signs of that today.  He doesn't seem to look at humans as a food source or with any expectation, he is just extremely calm around people.

Apparently there is a second barred in this part of the forest who is skittish but I haven't seen him myself.

Taken from a safe distance away at the 500mm end of my Sigma.

We're so lucky to have this owl with us for such a long time this winter.

I visited a few of the backroads hoping for a coyote sighting but no luck on that front.  Instead, I found 40+ roosting wild turkeys.  Here are a few - I wished I'd brought my 16-85mm to get the whole flock in - it was quite a sight!

I don't know why the sight of turkeys in trees
amuses me so much but it does!

These four deer were in the south field on Lakeridge.  They were quite animated (though not in this shot!)

This Thicksons Woods greeter was at the entrance having breakfast.  I love his "hands"!

An Oldie but Goodie

This is not a new sighting but I will never get tired of seeing him.  I took a quick trip to Halls Rd. not expecting to find much but it turned out that Mr. Barred was having a mid-morning hunt along the south path...what a beauty!

I didn't get the memo but apparently it was also American Kestral Day in the industrial areas of South Whitby.  I lost count after number 6.

We are lucky to have so may kestrals around us!

Local Yokels

Today was a stay-close-to-home day so I hung out with some of the local critters.  You're probably wondering why the heck I would post this shot...

...it is the first vole-butt shot I've ever gotten!  Vole anything shot, for that matter.  He kept darting in and out, disappearing into his snow tunnel in the blink of an eye.  Defnitely my coolest sighting of the day.  I wished he'd reappear but no luck.

There were many really adorable little birds out today.

Not-so-little "little bird" from today

Another local character is my beautiful neighbour-friend Buddy.  He is the most loveable little guy and no doubt is the most popular dog in the neighbourhood.

The neighbourhood sweetheart (but don't tell Osgrrr and Johnny I said that).

Driving Durham's Back-Roads

Finally, a day to roam around the backroads, with a repaired 150-500!  And I really needed the focal length today.  Lots of great sightings but most were quite a ways out.

There's an area in north-west Durham that had a coyote family last year that I hadn't visited in many months so I headed that way early this morning.  Rather than looking for an exotic creature, I decided to look for my friends the crows, who would lead me to all sorts of adventures, and they didn't disappoint.

There were hundreds of crows and they started an alarm call that I've only heard them use for Great Horned Owls so I knew it was a serious predator.  It turned out to be not one but two eagles!  They were so far out that there were no photos (are they ever fast flyers!).  At one point the eagles connected mid-air, and did a little dance which was amazing.  In the adjacent field other crows reported that two coyotes were in the area.  One was a beautiful black one, who looked very much like one of the family members from last year.  He was very alpha in his behaviour.



I also saw a mysterious large bird in a treetop - I finally figured out it was a wild turkey!  That is only the second time I've seen one in a tree.  There were actually several roosting, but each had chosen his own tree. 

This one took off which was very cool.  I didn't think I'd get a wild turkey flight shot today!  Too bad he was so far away.

During the back-road drive I also saw 3 flocks of Wild Turkeys, a Common Raven, 3 Red-Tailed Hawks, numerous Jays, Crows, Snow Buntings and Juncos...and this cute Downy Woodpecker. 
 
I had heard the typical tapping but it sounded a bit off.  Instead of finding him clinging to tree bark I found him latched onto this seed head.  How the heck he was still hammering so loudly is beyond me.
 
 
 
A bit closer to home I met up with some waterfowl.   The backdrop was a beautiful blue-grey in Whitby where I saw a black-backed gull and mute swans in flight.

 

 
A few blocks later I stopped to catch this gull in flight.  They are fun to photograph on windy days. 

My last critter of the day was this pretty mockingbird by Pringle Creek, eating berries.



Now that I'm home, I better swing into action and get some chores done before the start of another work week. 

Happy shooting!

Leave it to Beaver(s)

Sunnybrook Park in Toronto was a great place to be today - we released a Northern Goshawk who has been in care for quite a while.  It only took a moment for him to shake off the "yuck" from being in the hospital and start to manuever through the treetops in his old neighbourhood.  It was an amazing sight.

Unfortunately his speed was too much for my 70-300 and I ended up with a lovely shot of his primary feathers but not much more.

The Beaver is North American's largest rodent.

As I wandered through Sunnybrook I found these two characters. 
I was focusing on them and saw a dog enter my viewfinder - he was about 8 inches from the nose of one of them!  They are unbelievably strong and I was worried that I was going to witness a terrible scene!

Fortunately the dog sniffed and retreated.  In speaking with his owner later I learned that this dog goes to visit these beaver every day - he is so intrigued by them.  They have become acclimatized to humans and other animals and could have cared less about the dog's presence.

After about 20 minutes of watching them, they both disappeared under water so I went to check out the area where they had cut down several trees close to the bank.  Suddenly one was about 10 feet away from me.  I hadn't heard or seen him surface again - he must have done so very close to the shore where I had no visibility.


 I didn't dare move as he snooped around for more...you guessed it...wood.  At one point I thought he was coming after me but I realized I was no match for the tasty branch he was really after.  He carried it back into the water and began to eat.  It is really cool to be close up for this.

So I didn't find the Goshawk but it was a real treat to spend part of my day with these two amazing creatures.