BIRDQUEST2004

After reading in Ontbirds, that Ray Holland had found a singing Western Meadowlark, near Ottawa…I just had to go and get this beautiful bird for my Ottawa List.  Yes, I keep an Ottawa List.  Probably a lot smaller than most but I can only keep trying.

Arriving at the Junction of Panmure and Upper Dwyer Hill Road, the first thing I heard when I rolled down my window, was the sweet sound of the Western Meadowlarks call.  LOLOL…I couldn’t locate it though, I looked left then right but forgot to look up.   I had parked under a telephone pole, that it was on top of.   It sang for quite some time, then flew off into the field.   It must have gone for some food, singing must make you hungry.  This gave me time to set up my 500 and 1.7 tc.

It flew back a few minutes later and I was ready when it landed on a fence post.

It is a very tame bird, I got as close as I dared, soon to be joined by a local tour group also interested in seeing this Bird.

My 300mm lens came back from Nikon today, I hope my D7000 comes back soon. My D70 is doing a fine job for now.    A lovely addition to my list..til next time.

Ciao

My buddy, Mike, told me that he’d photographed, a rather tame Green Heron, at Mud Lake. Getting a better image of one of these shy herons was an opportunity I couldn’t pass on.

I met Mike and Joe, at 8:30am at Tim’s, grabbed our coffee’s, and we left for Mud Lake.

Sitting on my folding chair, sipping coffee and enjoying the morning breeze, we talked camera’s, bird’s and techniques for about 1/2 hour, when out of the south came the heron. He landed on a log and proceeded to preen, removing parasites, and feathers…cool to watch.

Being Sunday morning lots of people walked by and asked what bird it was and every so often the Heron would leave but always returned.

It would hop from log to log, feeding. preening, staring at the water…allowing for some lovely camera ops.

We sat and watched this beautiful bird for about 4 hours, he often caught fish..some small some large.

After a few hours of sitting in the chair, I had filled my cards with images, just waiting to be processed. I also had some good luck with turtles & dragonflies that kept landing on branches, during the times the heron was gone.

The day did belong to the Green Heron, thanks Mike for telling me..ciao for now