White-winged Crossbill

Posted on January 19, 2013 by birdquest2004

I’d read that a few good birds, were coming to the feeders at the Visitors Centre, in Algonquin Park.  Of particular interest was a male White-winged Crossbill.  I have a  few images of this species but most are at severe camera angles and far away.  I knew my chances were good for improving on this specie’s photo.

It didn’t hurt that Great Gray and Northern Hawk Owls were also being reported in the area.

Off we went in -24C weather, thank god, there was no wind.

The Owls were very scarce, none had been seen in 2 days but the Visitor Centre feeders didn’t disappoint,  birds were constantly coming in:  Blue Jays, Redpolls, Pine Grosbeaks and of course the lone Crossbill.   My best photo of this bird to date.

At the junction of Opeongo Road and Cameron Lake Road, there was a leucistic Chickadee, who put on a great show.

We did manage to see a Great Gray on the way home, just west of Golden Lake at 5:30pm, well past available light for taking a decent photo.  I did take a few images at ISO 12800 and no flash.  Not bad results, gotta love the D3s.

p.s. — the date that shows in my images is the date I first saw the species, not the day I took the photo, We listers are like that.

WhiteWingedCrossbillBlog

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LeucisticChickadeeBeforeAfterBPN

PineGrosbeak

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GreatGrayOwl

Ciao for now……

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2013 – Screech Owl

Posted on January 11, 2013 by birdquest2004

Again today,  I went looking for Great Gray Owl’s in the Dunrobin area, with very little luck.  I know they are around but seem to be moving throughout the area instead of staying one spot like other years.  We put on 75km without even a sniff.

During these times it never hurts to ask for help.  I saw a local resident plowing his laneway and decided to ask if he’d seen any Great Gray Owl’s in the area.  He said he hadn’t seen any big owls and I figured well at least I tried.  He then told us that there was a small owl hanging around his workshop.  He certainly got our attention.  We followed him for about 5 minutes to Fitzroy Harbor and there above the entrance to his workshop was a lovely Red-phased Screech Owl.  People had been going in and out of the shop all day and the Owl just rested there, he could not have cared less about us.  He thought we probably couldn’t see him because of the red wall on the building.

A very cool owl, I’d seen many Grey-phased Screech Owl’s in the Ottawaarea but never a Red-phased.   We took a bunch of photo’s,  the one below is one of the best.

Not bad for 2nd bird of the year, we also say a Great-horned Owl on Greenland and Thomas Dolan, sitting high up on a tree…

RedScreech

Ciao for now.

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