Recent Birds

Not too much to report since last i checked in but i will say that today i finally decided to bring my lens in to Nikon again to get it fixed, it should have gone in a while ago actually and it seems like the right time now, before the fall begins in earnest.

Couple of birds from the last while



Pigeon Guillemot
one of roughly a dozen i saw off the Lonsdale pier last sunday morning.
My life was actually threatened while i was on the small public dock by a young fella who didn't like me sitting there, he kept saying stuff until finally i had enough and confronted him back, he backed down to my delight and in the end i realized he was tending to some illegal crab traps and didn't want me taking his pic (which i should have, had i known he was going to throw a broken net back into the water rather than put it in the garbage), geez, some people..

Checked out Jericho (and did a couple of uneventful walks at Maplewood as well) and got some shots of these birds





American Goldfinch





Warbling Vireo





a young Anna's Hummingbird that landed right in front of me and posed for a while

That's all (for a while i guess)

Getting Out Again

i try to get some shots of the Black-throated Grey Warbler at Maplewood every year and i decided to focus on that species recently. 

I know the spots they frequent every year but this time i had to work a bit harder for them but eventually my walk produced one hanging out with a flock of Bushtit.



As my walk was winding down i came across a Northern Flicker but it wouldn't let me get close so a longish-range crop will have to do.



Yesterday we took our Japanese exchange student out to Reifel for a nature walk and i plunked myself down with a group of yellowlegs and tried to get something decent in the noon hour sun.









Greater Yellowlegs above.

It was nice to get a couple of Lesser Yellowegs in the mix for comparison, much paler and smaller and most importantly, bill length is roughly the same width as head while in Greater bill length exceeds head width.

Book-making

I've been working on a little project for the last few weeks, a book of my best bird photos 2008-2012.
I thought long and hard about it and decided that i should do something with the images i'm most pleased with.

Decided to use the Blurb software to make this first book.

Here's a sneak-peak, i think i've got all the images nailed down but was bummed that a good portion of 2008 is stuck on the external HD that epically failed a year ago now, i knew it would come back to haunt me but luckily i printed off some of the more memorable shots before it died and was able to scan them if need be.




Not sure when this will get published, there is the little item regarding actually paying for it out of pocket but i'm happy to sit on it until able.

Even happier to be free again to get out shooting, i think there are some Black-throated Grey warblers at Maplewood with my name on them

Recent Birds - July 22

Well, after the somewhat unsuccessful BC road trip (it sure seemed that way to me, a lot of stuff went wrong, including my health) i ended up taking a bit of a web-posting sabbatical (for no real reason other than to just take a break), i still got out shooting a bit but had a bit of a dry spell in regards to the types of shots i like to get, ah well, thats summer shooting though, one must work a bit harder for the shots and i took a bit of a break.
My 500mm lens is still technically broken (dropped it just before the BC trip) but have found it usable with a teleconvertor on for some reason.
I'll get it fixed again soon but until i can bear to be without it again for a bit, it's still usable..
Anyways, here's some of my more memorable shots from the last month or so.


Cedar Waxwing


Swainson's Thrush


Orange-crowned Warbler


Western Wood-Pewee


Willow Flycatcher


American Goldfinch


Common Yellowthroat


Black-headed Grosbeak


Black Oystercatcher


Spotted Sandpiper


Eastern Kingbird


Belted Kingfisher


Long-billed Curlew

BC Road Trip - 26th May to June 4th 2012

Thought i'd share some of the more memorable birds from our recent BC road trip, it was fun but honestly, i imagined Dawson Creek and Fort St. John a bit differently in my head than reality, no slight to the beautiful region but i probably need to go much farther north next time to get the tundra landscape

Basically, we hit up Kamloops, Prince George, Dawson Creek, Fort St. John, Jasper, and Cranbrook.
I found Jasper to be devoid of birdlife for the most part although other wildlife was plentiful, granted, i didn't stop all that often while driving through.

Loads of driving and a shortened trip due to attempting to drive down a farmers dirt pathway to a lake in Fort St. John and getting hopelessly stuck in mud, the tow-truck etc. cut into my budget and when the Creston Valley was soaking wet due to rain we decided to head back, without hitting up the Okanagan either, as planned.
Another time for that.


Red-necked Grebe - Kamloops


Evening Grosbeak - Kamloops


Mountain Bluebird - Kamloops


Magnolia Warbler - Prince George


American Redstart - Prince George


Eastern Phoebe - Dawson Creek


Rose-breasted Grosbeak - Fort St. John


Black-and-White Warbler - Fort St. John


Sora - Fort St. John

It was soon after this that we got hopelessly stuck in the mud trying to get to a lake and had to be towed out.

Thankfully i got one of my target birds afterwards, softened the blow somewhat.


Upland Sandpiper - Fort St. John




Calliope Hummingbird - Cranbrook



Great Gray Owl - Kamloops