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

Madagascar Presentation

Had an awesome time at last week's visit to the Ingersoll District Nature Club, so I thought I'd post a few photos from the presentation.  Here are some of my favourites:

Have you ever seen such an impressive butt-snorkel?

Giant Water Bug (Family: Belostomatidae)

We found this impressive water bug in a puddle, and fished him out for a closer look.  We have these creatures here in Canada (sometimes known as toe-biters or electric light bugs), but this one was exceptional in two ways: his raptorial arms are especially large compared to his body size, and he has a butt-snorkel longer than his entire body.  Here it is in use:

Giant Water Bug (Family: Belostomatidae)

We had the good fortune to find quite a few chameleons, but this one is probably my favourite.  Mostly because of the name.

Big-nosed Chameleon (Calumma nasutum)

One of the coolest birds in Mad is probably the Madagascar Pygmy-Kingfisher.  He is only about the size of the sparrow, lives in the dense forest and as our guide told us in broken English "fishes for lizards."

Madagascar Pygmy-Kingfisher (Ceyx madagascariensis)

And lastly, one of the most incredible spiders in the world.

Net-casting Spider (Family: Deinopidae)

To understand just how amazing this creature is, watch this video: http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/18990161.  Have you every seen anything so freakin cool???

That's all for now!
Kyle

Presentation next weekend!

I am getting excited for my presentation next weekend at the Ingersoll District Nature Club!  The topic has been chosen and it will be "An Island Apart: The Stunning and Bizarre Wildlife of Madagascar."  This is a brand-new presentation, and I can't wait to do it!  For details, visit www.ingersollnature.ca.

I have made some updates to the "Upcoming Presentations" tab (at the top of this page) to reflect some recent changes and additions.  And of course, I always post updates on my Facebook page, and now my Twitter account (I'm so connected)!

Here's as sneak peek from the Mad presentation - I think I'll use it as the cover photo:

Jewel Chameleon (Furcifer lateralis)

:)
Kyle

Photo Editing - Behind the screens?

Hello!

So I was doing some re-sorting and editing some old photos today, and found myself working on some Barred Owl shots from a couple of years ago.  Usually I try to keep my editing to a minimum - I'd really rather nail the shot in-camera than spend hours at the computer - but things don't always go as planned, and I found myself performing an unusually large number of adjustments to these photos.

Although I'm not terribly fond of Photoshopping, I often like to open the original and edited photos side-by-side and see the difference a bit of touching up can make.  I am by no means a Photoshop expert, but I thought it might be fun to post some comparisons just for interest's sake.  So here they are!

The following three shots are of Barred Owls (Strix varia) at Presqu'ile Provincial Park in 2009.  Originals on the left, edits on the right.

The main correction applied to these photos is the digital removal of a colour cast.  A colour cast is sort of what it sounds like - a wash of incorrect colour, which may be caused by odd lighting conditions or incorrect camera settings (or filters, I suppose, if the photographer was seeking such an effect).  In this case it was a slip-up in the white-balance setting, which left all the photos with a blue-green hue.  Many post-processing programs can correct this by having the user re-define white (or black) and calibrating the image from there.  After that it's just a bit of brightening, contrast and saturation adjustment, sharpening and cropping as desired.  Quick and dirty!

:)
Kyle

Ontario big

In case you've missed all the buzz, Josh Vandermeulen just broke the record for an Ontario big year!  This is an attempt to see as many species of bird in Ontario as possible in one calendar year.  The existing record was 338, and Josh just crashed through on a crazy trip to Netitishi Point in northern Ontario.  Currently sitting at 342 and almost 2 months to go - every additional species now is incredibly difficult, but there are still possibilities!

To see what Josh is up to, visit www.joshvandermeulen.blogspot.ca.

Can't help but be a little jealous...

Kyle

A frightening leap...

After a few recent conversations with friends about the terrifying thing that is Twitter, I decided to take the leap and jump on-board!  I'm still not exactly sure what Twitter is for, but somehow I was convinced that it was a good idea.  I hope I don't regret it!

If you, too are a Twitterer, you may now find me in the Twitterverse at www.twitter.com/KHornerNature.  Hope to see you there!

Kyle

And for today's photo-fix, here's a Jerusalem Cricket from South Africa.  What a looker!

Jerusalem Cricket (Stenopelmatus sp.)

The winter approaches

It seems that every year around this time, my photography season begins to wind down.  Everything is turning brown and the reptiles, amphibians and bugs are hibernating, or generally escaping the impending cold.  It always leaves me feeling a bit listless...

At any rate, it does give me a bit of time to sort through the looming pile of photos that I never had time to edit in the summer.  Today, it's a few miscellaneous South Africa photos from the giant stack.  Here they are!

First, a really exciting shot for me.  I had always wanted to see a monitor in the wild, and we were fortunate enough to find a handful!  The Nile Monitor does not disappoint - big, powerful and gorgeous.  Everything I expect a monitor to be!

Nile Monitor (Veranus niloticus)

Secondly, the most hideous creature in all of Africa - the Tsessebe!  Evolution has kindly shaped this animal into something too ugly to eat, or at least that is the only explanation I can imagine for it.  Don't be fooled, it's not sick or emaciated, it's just a Tsessebe.

Tsessebe (Damaliscus lunatus)

And lastly, an insect (what's a blog post without bugs?).  Since many of the parks in South Africa require you to stay in your car (and with good reason), I didn't get the opportunity to shoot many insects.  I can only imagine that the country is full of fascinating, six-legged critters, and I wish I had the opportunity to see more of them!

Locusts (unknown species)

That's all for now!
Kyle