Week Summary: Feb 15 - 21

With the weekend approaching and temperatures on the rise for the next few days, I thought I'd post a summary of my birding and photography for the week of February 15 - 21 before I get too busy with birding. This is mainly for my own records, but maybe you'll find it interesting as well.

Good Days for Ducks
Over the last seven days, I managed to get out birding four times, although one of those trips resulted in very little. The other three days, however, went well. Ducks were the main item on the menu, including REDHEAD, COMMON GOLDENEYE, SCAUP, GADWALL, AMERICAN WIGEON, RING-NECKED DUCK, LONG-TAILED DUCK, CANVASBACK, BUFFLEHEAD, RED-BREASTED MERGANSER, COMMON MERGANSER, and WHITE-WINGED SCOTER. For photos, my main targets were Redhead, Gadwall, and Common Merganser. I need more and better photos of them for my Birds of Ontario in Photographs. Things went well with Redhead and Gadwall photos, but I'm still wanting more good Common Merganser photos.

I also saw and photographed an overwintering HERMIT THRUSH that has been reported at LaSalle. It almost made me feel like it was spring!!

Redhead
Redhead ducks seem to have begun gathering more in the Hamilton Harbour in the last weeks. They've been around all winter, but now there seem to be more and they're gathering a little closer to shore at good viewing places, like LaSalle Marina. On Monday morning, with bright sunshine, a few came in close and one even performed a flyby in some dramatic light. I look forward to more opportunities to photograph these beautiful ducks in the coming days and weeks.

Redhead Flyby

Redhead

Common Goldeneye
Common Goldeneye were very frisky that sunny morning, with several performing many courtship moves and making that peent call. This should continue over the next weeks, and hopefully with other species as well. I did see some Long-tailed Ducks doing head snaps out at the Burlington Lift Bridge as well. I'd really like to photograph Redheads doing this.

Common Goldeneye Drake

Common Goldeneye Drake

Canvasback
Numbers of Canvasback remain very good at LaSalle Marina. Sometimes, they congregate at the east end of the shore trail. Just as I arrived there on Saturday, two flocks flew in before I could set up to photograph them. Oh well.

Eight of the 40 - 50 Canvasback gathered at the east end of LaSalle

Gadwall
I was happy to come across some Gadwall as I walked back from watching the Canvasbacks. I was first alerted to them by a few males making their burping calls. They sound a little funny when a few of them are burping away like that. The lighting was challenging, as it can be at LaSalle, and I was unable to get down for a view that was closer to eye level, but I'm happy to have taken a few good shots in the bright sun. I also took a few shots earlier in the day before the sun broke through the clouds.

Gadwall in bright sun

Gadwall before the sun broke through

Common Merganser
I managed one or two decent but distant photos of Common Merganser. I need more close photos!!

Common Merganser

White-winged Scoters
There are fewer White-winged Scoters at LaSalle these days. Many have moved out to the Burlington Lift Bridge, where I photographed this one coming in for a landing.

White-winged Scoter at Burlington Lift Bridge

Hermit Thrush
The surprise of the week was seeing a Hermit Thrush at LaSalle. I'd heard it was around, but it hadn't registered that I might see it. As I approached the far east end of LaSalle, something low in the bushes caught my eye. I assumed at first that it was a Cardinal, but when my eyes landed on it, I was happily surprised to see that it was a Thrush. It seemed content to stay hidden in the bushes and didn't respond to pishing, but just as I was giving up, it popped out onto a rock to feed on some seed ... several snaps later and I got some good photos of it.

Hermit Thrush

Someday, when I have a silent mirrorless camera, birds will look right at me less often. 

Hermit Thrush

What's Next?
This weekend's targets are mainly ducks again. Hoping for more flight shots and maybe some close views of Redheads and Common Mergansers. I bought a new collapsible stool that came highly recommended for birding, so I'll give that a test. I might take a trip to Ruthven to look for a Tufted Titmouse.

Good birding!

A Surprise Visitor: Two Days Birding in SW Ontario

I had an unexpected visitor over the weekend of Feb 8-9. My brother Bruce texted Saturday morning from the Pearson International Airport in Toronto saying that his connecting flight to St. John's had been cancelled and that he'd been rebooked on a flight Monday morning. ... Let's do a couple of days of birding in Southern Ontario! I knew we couldn't possibly top the two weeks he'd just spent birding in the Falklands, Antarctica and southern South America, but we could still make a good finish to his once-in-a-lifetime trip.

Day One:
On Saturday, we focused on Hamilton Harbour/Burlington Bay, where there are loads and loads of wintering ducks. On the way to LaSalle Marina, we made a slight detour to see the red-morph Eastern Screech Owl. Lucky for us, it was showing. It's so nice to have that owl around in an easy-to-see spot. At LaSalle Marina, there were many species, including 100+ Canvasback, ~40 Ring-necked Ducks, Common Goldeneye, White-winged Scoter, Bufflehead, Long-tailed Duck, and the usual group of Trumpeter Swans. Photo ops weren't very good, but I know Bruce was happy with seeing the species, especially the Canvasbacks.

Red-morph Eastern Screech Owl: A long-time resident in Burlington

After LaSalle, we headed over to the other side of the bay to Pier 4 and Pier 8 in Hamilton looking for gulls and ducks. At Pier 4, there were a couple of Glaucous Gulls hanging with some Herring Gulls. Someday, I'll get more excited about gulls! At Pier 8, we found more ducks: Common Goldeneye, Greater Scaup, American Coot, White-winged Scoter, and some very talkative Long-tailed Ducks eating zebra mussels.

Long-tailed Duck eating a Zebra Mussel

Day Two:
Sunday was the real birding day! Knowing there was a few thousand Sandhill Cranes and several hundred Tundra Swans wintering at Long Point, that was the easy choice for the day's destination. It even beat out a trip to see the Northern Hawk Owl up in Schomberg, mainly because we'd see many more species at Long Point. The weather forecast was pretty mixed: mainly cloudy with snow showers, possible freezing drizzle, morning fog, and occasional sunny periods! Perfect!

On the 85-minute drive from Hamilton to Long Point, we counted Red-tailed Hawks. I predicted we would get at least 12 before arriving at Long Point. We ended up with 15 or 16. Red-tailed Hawks are very common in southern Ontario 12 months of the year.

As we were approaching the corn fields where the Sandhills have been gathering, we spied a very dark raptor perched in a tree right beside the road. At first we thought it was the dark-morph Red-tailed Hawk that had been seen in the area, but upon closer inspection of photos, we discovered that it was a dark-morph Rough-legged Hawk. I only managed record shots, but still a nice bird to see.

Dark-morph Rough-legged Hawk

As we turned onto Lakeshore Road, where the Sandhills have been showing quite close to the road, we saw hundreds flying from Big Creek marsh into the corn fields for feeding. We quickly pulled into a small parking area and jumped out to watch and photograph the event. The lighting was spectacular, with thin clouds almost revealing blue sky and the fresh snow lighting up the birds' undersides! The options for flight shots were numerous, and all to the soundtrack of hundreds of calling Sandhill Cranes. It was one of those moments you always hope for!

Sandhill Crane: The lighting made the wingtips turn a slight bronze colour

Sandhill Cranes

Sandhill Cranes: Just some of the many flying over us

Sandhill Crane: My favourite photo from the trip 

Other Birds Too!
In addition to the scads of Sandhill Cranes, we saw several other species, including hundreds of Tundra Swans, thousands of Redhead Ducks, several Bald Eagles, a few Northern Harriers, a Pileated Woodpecker, a Red-bellied Woodpecker, Horned Larks, a Lapland Longspur, and even a Great Blue Heron.

Some of the thousands of Redhead Ducks and Tundra Swans. Note the Bald Eagle in the right corner, waiting for an an opportunity to grab some lunch. 

Just some of the hundreds of Tundra Swans we saw.

All-in-all ...
So, all-in-all it was a great two days of birding with my brother. Sunday at Long Point was a standout day with so many birds to see and photograph.

To end this post, here's a snap of me taken by Bruce at LaSalle ... smiling with my new lens!

Me with the new lens, all wrapped in camo! 

Common Goldeneye Courtship

I had the opportunity this week to watch the elaborate Common Goldeneye courtship ritual. They mated twice in about 20 minutes, but who's counting? If you haven't seen the spectacle, it can be quite complex, with both the drake and the hen performing several ritualized displays.

One of the more common displays is the head-throw, usually performed by the drake when he snaps back his head, rests it on his back, and sometimes makes a peent call. The photo below shows a drake performing this move while a very interested hen looks on. The head-throw is common amongst some duck species looking to "get it on!"

Head-throw: Drake snaps back his head while hen watches intently

Sometimes, the head-throw is followed by a quick leg-kick. The male I watched this week didn't perform that move, at least not while I was watching, but I photographed one performing it last March.

Leg-kick: Drake performing the leg-kick

Both the drake and the hen will perform an assortment of moves that involve variations on crouching low and extending the head outward and/or upward.

Hen crouches low

Hen crouches low and stretches her neck up

Having a messy drink of water. I think she likes it!

Drake performs drink and neck stretch upward while hen crouches low in prone position

Eventually, the hen assumes a prone position, floating around while she watches the drake perform. With the pair I watched this week, the hen floated prone for at least 5 minutes, waiting for the drake to get on with it! In addition to head stretches, this drake frequently pointed its bill down into the water and then flicked water at the prone hen.

Drake preparing to flick water at the hen

Flick!

Drake flicks water at hen. One of my favourite shots from the day.

Drake preparing the water flick!

Water flick!

The drake performed this water flicking multiple times

Sometimes he flicked more water on himself than on his partner.

Soon after, the drake moved up alongside the hen, preparing to mount her. The mounting happened very quickly. During this stage, the male attempts to grab the female's head feathers in his bill. This drake had some troubles getting a good grip. Meanwhile, the poor hen was completely submerged.

A little leg stretch before the big performance!

The drake had some troubles getting a good grip on her head feathers

Eventually, he was able to pull up her head so she could breath!

It looks a little aggressive in single photos, but it wasn't that way in real time

Once he had a good grip, the two pulled back and pointed themselves to the sky. Then the twirling began!

Twirling - She's lifting up as much as he's pulling up.

Twirling

Twirling

Twirling

After a few twirls, which involved the drake shifting his body perpendicular to the hen, they separated. The drake quickly swam away with his head and neck fully extended upward while the hen went under for a wash, then had a good wing flap to dry off.

Off he goes!

Post-copulatory wash and dry.

This wasn't the end of things. Soon after they uncoupled, a competing male started sneaking over towards the female. Her partner wasn't going to have any of that! A violent bout of splashes erupted until the competitor gave up and swam away.

Get away from my hen!

Photographing the Courtship
A word about my experience photographing this ritual. The conditions were quite good, with the sun providing strong light (perhaps too strong) and giving the water nice colour. If this had happened even a half hour earlier, the sun wouldn't have been quite so bright, which might have helped even out the highlights and shadows. While strong morning sunlight can make for intense colours, it can also make for very uneven exposures, wth a mix of blown highlights and black shadows. The strong sunlight was especially interesting for the effect it had on the drake's head colour, which changed from various shades of bright and dark green to dark purple and almost black. Thankfully, most of the performance happened in water that was reflecting dark colours with the sun directly at my back, or at least almost so.

If you're out birding for ducks over the next weeks, keep an eye out for ducks performing their courtship rituals. And have your camera ready! Just snap away keeping focused on the action and you're bound to get a few good shots.

According to these Common Goldeneyes, spring can't be too far away!

Blog Design: Turn and Face the Strange ch-ch-Changes

If you've been here before, then you you've probably noticed a change in my blog's design. Believe it or not, there's a Kentucky Warbler in the background image of the tree trunk. It's hidden behind the text block. There might be more design changes over the coming days, so to quote the late great David Bowie "Turn and face the strange ch-ch-changes!"

600mm III f/4 Update

Recently, I've been talking here about my experiences with the new Canon 600mm f/4 III lens. In an earlier post, I was complaining about not being able to take handheld shots that were sharp and in focus. Some folks responded with reassurance that they regularly get excellent results shooting handheld with their monster lenses. I assumed that I just needed more practice, but deep inside, I was disappointed with some of the initial results I was getting with the lens. Even the good shots took more work to make excellent than I experienced with the Canon EF 100-400mm II.

I think I also mentioned in an earlier post that the lens I was using was a loaner from Canon while I waited for stock. Well, the new one arrived a few days ago and I immediately tested it out on some yard birds. I took only handheld shots, and most were at slowish shutter speeds between 1/320s and 1/500s in late afternoon light (i.e. it was getting dark). The results were fantastic! Higher shutter speeds and they would have been perfect.

How do You Spell Relief?
It's hard to express the deep feeling of relief I experienced! Even beer tasted better that evening! Dan C., if you're reading this, I have since replenished my supply of single-malt, which is the usual birding celebratory drink!

These early tests tell me that the loaner lens is "off". Maybe the IS isn't working properly or maybe it's been bounced around, going through a number of hands as a loaner. Regardless, it was not a good representation of this lens.

Testing on Ducks
In the few days since the new lens arrived, I've photographed mainly ducks. Hamilton is an excellent place for ducks in winter, and currently there are loads of them at LaSalle Marina in Burlington. In addition to the usual army of MALLARDS (boring!), a handful of BUFFLEHEADS,  a few GADWALL, and some big honkers (CANADA GOOSE, MUTE SWAN, and TRUMPETER SWAN,) there are a few LONG-TAILED DUCKs, some REDHEADS, a large group of WHITE-WINGED SCOTERs (100+), a somewhat smaller group of RING-NECKED DUCKs, good numbers of CANVASBACKs and occasionally one or two NORTHERN PINTAILs. There's also a PIED-BILLED GREBE and one or two HORNED GREBE hanging around, but I haven't seen them for a couple of weeks.

Ring-necked Ducks are one of my favourites, so I was excited to see two large groups of them on the west side of the LaSalle on Friday, January 31. One group of 25+ was close enough for decent record shots. The other group of around 50 was quite far west down the shoreline. I only knew they were RNDUs because some birders visiting from Bracebridge had a scope.

So, I set up the 600mm + 1.4x on the tripod and snapped away at the floating groups of Ring-necked Ducks. These shots would have been impossible with the 100-400mm, even with the 1.4x attached. The photos might not be super close portraits, but they show the groups of ducks with excellent clarity.

Ring-necked Ducks with a Redhead and a Couple of Canvasbacks

Small Armada of RNDUs Approaches

The RNDUs sometime came a little closer

I'm very happy the image quality I was able to get taking quite distant shots of these RNDUs in rather weak lighting. The photos above range from between ISO 800 - 1000 at f/5.6, f/8 and f/11. There were also several Canvasbacks around, who were much closer.

Since that first day in the field, I've returned multiple times hoping the Ring-necked Ducks would be closer. Of course, they haven't been. I didn't even see them there at all today. But there's been plenty of other ducks to photograph, even if the light has been poor (typical of a Hamilton winter). I think the results speak for themselves.

White-winged Scoters

White-winged Scoter in Snow

Bufflehead

Red-breasted Merganser

Red-breasted Merganser

Andrew's a happy camper now! The new lens is fabulous, and it's a real game changer.

Handheld
All of the photos above were shot on a tripod, but the occasional handheld shots I've been taking have all been excellent! Here are a couple of handheld shots of an American Wigeon currently in the Desjardins Canal in Dundas.

American Wigeon, ISO 2000, f/5.6, 1/800s

American Wigeon, ISO 2500, f/5.6, 1/1600s

Bring on the Scotch!
Super happy! Super excited! Can't wait to get out again and again with Cyclops, my name for the new lens! Might be time to open the new bottle of single malt!!

Long-tailed Duck