Barred Owl

Not too bright on my part - bush-wacking with my recently fixed 500mm f4 one week before a major road trip.
The lens is workable thankfully, but only with a teleconverter on, just bought a new 1.4x to replace this one that took the brunt of the impact when tripod fell over, again. sigh..
will bring my lens to Nikon again for service after the trip, should be an easy fix this time.

Barred Owl.
This is the bird i was going after when the camera fell.
Went back to the spot the next day in the pouring rain to test the camera and lens out, had to make sure everything was fine, which it all seems to be.
Also wanted to reclaim my "mojo", yesterday was a terrible day as far as things mechanical and electronic went, today was much better.

 

 

 

 

Bullock's Oriole

Before i became a birder i had no idea we could see orioles in BC., i thought they were only found in the east or deep south for some reason.
Seeing these colourful birds here for the first time was pretty special. Not the easiest bird to shoot, i've tried to get something this nice for 5 years now, finally a sweet encounter early this morning in Pitt Meadows :)

 

 

As well, picked off a few shots of a nice Wilson's Warbler and another Orange-crowned Warbler in a funny pose.

 

 It's nice to take a day or two off work sometimes...

Mothers Day weekend

Nothing too special from last weekend folks, but i was happy to get some shots of Killdeer and got some decent looks at my first Savannah sparrows of the year on Mother's Day (i had to cut my session short because i had to meet my mother of all people ).

Rufous Hummingbird

Ha, finally nailed a decent shot of these guys the other day.
Every year i dedicate a few days to work the Rufous hummers at Maplewood.
Not having a feeder around one must rely on spotting a perch in use and just waiting, yesterday it all came together.
Made a print of it just now and it looks pretty nice i gotta admit    

When i first arrived i noticed one of the birds perched on a big stumpy perch, the perch swallowed up the little guy so i decided to place a smaller branch on top of the stumpy bit with a little scrap piece of electrical tape i had in my bag and sure enough, after waiting a bit i nailed one on it

Virginia Rail

A few weeks ago i had some luck at Maplewood with the Virginia rails as well, in fact just the day before i had been joking with another photog i usually see there that it would sure be great if a rail popped up in front of the far reed bank and the next day one did for me

I've been itching to get out shooting for weeks now but i needed to finish our bathroom renovation, it turned into a huge job but i knew the sooner i finished it the sooner i could get my life back.

Going to get busy shooting-wise soon though, i've booked the last week of May and first week of June off work and am planning a mega BC road trip, hoping to get up to the Peace River district - Dawson Creek and Fort St John, for eastern species to check off my BC list. Kamloops is on the menu as is Cranbrook and Creston Valley (if we don't run out of time) and the Okanagan, target birds will be Calliope Hummingbird, Williamson's Sapsucker, the eastern warblers and anything else that jumps in front of my viewfinder