Friday, January 18, 2013

Weekend Owling!

I have just arrived in Kingston, and am prepared for two days of owl photography outings on Amherst Island with Natura Tours Inc.  Fingers crossed for some good birds and good shots!























In order to increase my chances while on the island, I decided it was finally time to try a service I've been eyeing for a while: Lens Rentals Canada.  Yesterday I received my rental lens, the Canon 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L.  I've been wanting a crack at this lens for a while as it may be the hole into which I pour my next available $1700, so I thought this would be a great try-before-you-buy.













I'm off to bed so that I'm well rested tomorrow, but I will be sure to post next week with any winning photos!

Kyle

Saturday, January 5, 2013

Presentation This Week

It has been a busy bird-count (and holiday) season, so I haven't had much time to edit photos or post to the blog recently.  All told I have done 3 Christmas Bird Counts, one Christmas Bird Count for Kids and the Guelph Arboretum Winter Bird Count.  Counting birds is just so much fun!  Highlights of the counts were as follows:

-one Common Raven on the Port Hope count (this was a very slow day, so highlights were hard to come by!)
-two Iceland Gulls on the Guelph count (both gorgeous adults)
-one Merlin on the Guelph CBC4Kids (mostly notable because the participants got excellent looks!)
-one Great Black Back x Herring Gull hybrid on the CBC4Kids (this was less exciting for the children)
-one Ring-necked Pheasant on the Rice Lake Plains count (almost certainly a game-farm escapee, but still cool!)
-one Brown Thrasher and one Barred Owl on the Arb Winter Bird Count (thrasher in winter...WEIRD!)
-good numbers of Common Redpolls and Bohemian Waxwings all round

If you didn't count this year, be sure to do it next year - even a slow day of bird-counting is tons of fun!

On a more tropical note, I will be delivering my Madagascar presentation this coming Thursday for the Guelph Field Naturalists.  The meeting is at 7:30 at the Arboretum Centre and it is open to the public, so come on by!  Here are a couple of teasers:

Perinet Chameleon (Calumma gastrotaenia)















Unnamed Frog (Platypelis barbouri)















Hope to see you there!
Kyle