I haven’t really gotten out much, the idea of standing out in the cold with a camera just hasn’t been very appealing.

” Environment Canada says the temperatures in February over eastern Ontario and western Quebec “was never observed before since 1900.  The average temperature in Ottawa in February was minus 16.3C.  The previous record for coldest February was -14.4C in 1979.  It is also the second coldest month in Ottawa’s history. The record for coldest month is -18C set in January 1994.  Temperatures dipped below -15C on 26 of 28 days in February. “

Below is a photo I took one morning at the Lafleche Waste Dump, near Casselman, while waiting for the Gyrfalcon to make an appearance.  You can just feel the cold, with the windchill it was -37.  It was even cold in the car with the heat on.

The Gyrfalcon did finally make a long distance appearance ….

Sue and I went to the Dominican Republic with 2 other couples and was great to get away for a week in the sun.  It was tough leaving my SLR at home but was good to get away and focus on my golf game.  I brought my Lumix FZ200, point and shoot.

On February 20th as I walked into the house in the west sky was a sight I’d never seen before;  the moon, mars and venus were in conjunction in the west sky.  It was too cold to set up a tripod but I did fire a “gotcha” image.

March is here, February is gone, thank god.

I am leaving March 2nd for a short 2 day trip to Nova Scotia, hopefully the Fieldfare and Eurasian Kestrel will still be there.

Here’s a few more Photoshop created images from February…

Bring on some warm weather, get rid of the snow, get the golf courses open and of course bring on migration…

Ciao for now