Subscribe to Blog
RSS
Archive
January February March April May June July August September October November December (2)

Least Sandpiper

May 31, 2020 - The Least Sandpiper is a denizen of the coastline often foraging among the kelp and weeds captured by the rocks. The pic...
Read the Full Post »

Moving Waters

May 31, 2020 - Photography for me is like using an artist's tool such as a paint brush or a chisel. Others use photography for technica...
Read the Full Post »

Razorbill

May 30, 2020 - The Razorbill is a nifty bird and easy to identify in flight with its magnificent bill leading the way. I have seen this...
Read the Full Post »

Painted Lady Butterfly

May 30, 2020 - In my field experience the Painted Lady is our most common coloured butterfly. The sulphurs and whites are probably the...
Read the Full Post »

White-winged Dove

May 30, 2020 - The White-winged Dove is easily separated from the Mourning Dove by its larger bill and lack of spotting on the back and...
Read the Full Post »

Prothonotary Warbler

May 30, 2020 - The Prothonotary Warbler is a stunning bird. I tried to photograph this warbler twenty years ago in Rondeau Provincial P...
Read the Full Post »

Greater Yellowlegs and Lesser Yellowlegs

May 30, 2020 - The Greater Yellowlegs and the Lesser Yellowlegs are similar in appearance. Although the Greater Yellowlegs usually has...
Read the Full Post »

Least Flycatcher and Alder Flycatcher

May 29, 2020 - Our two common flycatchers are the Alder Flycatcher and the Least Flycatcher. They look similar at a glance although the...
Read the Full Post »

The Tall Pine Forest

May 28, 2020 - I visited the tall pine forest to meet and greet the annual arrival of the nesting Pine Warblers. I was not able to capt...
Read the Full Post »

Angry Sea

May 28, 2020 - Seaside photographs seldom capture the splendor and power of the ocean. The trick is to have an object that can provide...
Read the Full Post »

Ruffed Grouse

May 28, 2020 - The Ruffed Grouse is a favourite target and almost always found in our backyard multiflora bramble. I ran into a family...
Read the Full Post »

Coastal Nova Scotia

May 28, 2020 - This is a compendium of coastal Nova Scotia photographs. Lack of haze and puffy cumulus clouds are always on order but n...
Read the Full Post »

Late Winter Sunrise

May 28, 2020 - These photos of sunrises were taken at various locations. At this time of year it requires early rising. Photos are usua...
Read the Full Post »

Black-throated Blue Warbler

May 16, 2020 - The Black-throated Blue Warbler is a favourite of mine, probably due to its navy blue head and back. It sings continuous...
Read the Full Post »

Redhead

May 16, 2020 - The aptly named Redhead is a handsome and rare visitor to Nova Scotia. It breeds in the centre of our continent mostly i...
Read the Full Post »

Blackpoll Warbler

May 16, 2020 - The Blackpoll Warbler flies from the Caribbean and South America to its breeding grounds, the mosquitto and black fly in...
Read the Full Post »

Yellow Warbler

May 16, 2020 - The Yellow Warbler is often the most numerous species in fresh water wetlands and marshes. At some banding stations over...
Read the Full Post »

Black-throated Green Warbler

May 15, 2020 - I heard my first Black-throated Green Warbler this morning, hooray! Meanwhile our resident male Yellow-rumped Warbler co...
Read the Full Post »

Northern Parula

May 15, 2020 - The Northern Parula is easy to identify thanks to its colour patterning especially the transitional colour changes on th...
Read the Full Post »

Ovenbird

May 15, 2020 - The Ovenbird has the most powerful voice in the woods. Its numerous, widespread and loud. Add to that its good looks and...
Read the Full Post »

Common Yellowthroat

May 14, 2020 - The Common Yellowthroat is widespread and easily found due to its tameness and rambunctious song. Its a striking bird an...
Read the Full Post »

Mourning Warbler

May 14, 2020 - The Mourning Warbler is absolutely stunning in the right light. Its hard to find in its thick brush habitat. I once met...
Read the Full Post »

Bay-breasted Warbler

May 14, 2020 - The Bay-breasted Warbler can be hard to find. It prefers mature forests and sings from the canopy. Its a coveted target...
Read the Full Post »

Hermit Thrush

May 14, 2020 - The Hermit Thrush is our most common thrush and like all thrushes it has a gorgeous song. The song is especially hauntin...
Read the Full Post »

Ville de Quebec

May 14, 2020 - This is my favourite photograph of the Ville de Quebec, one of our Halifax class frigates at speed off Chebucto Head. Th...
Read the Full Post »

Glaucous Gull

May 14, 2020 - The Glaucous Gull is our largest gull with an attitude to boot. Normally we only see them in the late fall, winter, and...
Read the Full Post »

Gadwall

May 13, 2020 - The Gadwall is an uncommon summertime breeder in Nova Scotia. It can be hard to find and easy to miss except for the con...
Read the Full Post »

Nashville Warbler

May 13, 2020 - The Nashville Warbler is not from Nashville. It's a continental bird with most nesting in Canada. It arrives early and l...
Read the Full Post »

Little Blue Heron

May 12, 2020 - The Little Blue Heron is an annual regular to Nova Scotia, certainly not rare. Its an extremely attractive bird with its...
Read the Full Post »

Short-billed Dowitcher

May 12, 2020 - The bills of the Short-billed Dowitcher and Long-billed Dowitcher overlap and their plumage is almost identical so the o...
Read the Full Post »

Blackburnian Warbler

May 11, 2020 - The Blackburnian Warbler is easy to find thanks to its striking good looks and easy to remember song, a rapid high pitch...
Read the Full Post »

Snow Bunting

May 11, 2020 - The Snow Bunting is a handsome bird that brings the winter and leaves when spring arrives. It breeds in the wind swept t...
Read the Full Post »

Ruby-crowned Kinglet

May 11, 2020 - The Ruby-crowned Kinglet is easy to find thanks to its bellowing and melodic song that carries for kilometres through th...
Read the Full Post »

Snowy Owl

May 11, 2020 - The Snowy Owl movements are a function of the tundra population of lemmings. Unfortunately this does not affect Nova Sco...
Read the Full Post »

Northern Shoveler

May 10, 2020 - The Northern Shoveler was one of the first ducks to return after a Manitoba winter. Laura and I would go to Oak Hammock...
Read the Full Post »

Say's Phoebe

May 10, 2020 - The Say's Phoebe has been a challenge for me. I've encountered the bird more than once and interestingly the best photog...
Read the Full Post »

Northern Saw-whet Owl

May 10, 2020 - The Northern Saw-whet Owl is our smallest owl and unless you hear it calling, usually at dusk, it can be hard to find. I...
Read the Full Post »

Musquodoboit River, Nova Scotia

May 10, 2020 - The Musquodoboit River winds slowly through the Musquodoboit valley, sometimes rushing along but always photogenic, unti...
Read the Full Post »

Ipswich Sparrow

May 09, 2020 - The Ipswich Sparrow is a wholly Canadian bird with almost the entire world wide population breeding on Sable Island off...
Read the Full Post »

Orange-crowned Warbler

May 09, 2020 - The Orange-crowned Warbler winters in North America along both coasts but will only survive our winters here in Nova Sco...
Read the Full Post »

Hairy Woodpecker

May 09, 2020 - The Hairy Woodpecker like its smaller lookalike cousin the Downy Woodpecker is common and widespread in Nova Scotia. It...
Read the Full Post »

Downy Woodpecker

May 09, 2020 - The Downy Woodpecker is our smallest woodpecker and is common and widespread in Nova Scotia. Its a reliable feeder bird...
Read the Full Post »

Laughing Gull

May 08, 2020 - The Laughing Gull is an annual regular to Nova Scotia and common during weather events that drag reluctant birds north f...
Read the Full Post »

Golden-crowned Kinglet

May 07, 2020 - The Golden-crowned Kinglet is a challenge to photograph not because its shy but because its in constant motion flitting...
Read the Full Post »

Dovekie

May 07, 2020 - The Dovekie is the smallest of our alcids, slightly larger than a American Robin. Finding one bobbing about in the surf...
Read the Full Post »

Iceland Gull

May 07, 2020 - The Iceland Gull is a winter regular in Nova Scotia found along our eastern and southern coasts often in large numbers....
Read the Full Post »

Natural Ice Sculpture

May 07, 2020 - In the gorge beside the trail to Duncan Reef is Champagne Dam. This small dam was built during the second world war to p...
Read the Full Post »

Hidden Ponds

May 07, 2020 - The Hidden Ponds are a series of pools formed by the Hidden Falls. They are reminiscent of those romantic tropical movie...
Read the Full Post »

Upper Burnside Falls

May 06, 2020 - Upper Burnside Falls are easy to find at the end of a steep(no kidding) staircase. Unfortunately if the water is high th...
Read the Full Post »

Green-winged Teal

May 06, 2020 - Our native ducks are beautiful and elegant creatures gifted to and by nature. There is no need to kill these birds for "...
Read the Full Post »

Eastern Kingbird

May 06, 2020 - The kingbirds are renowned for their tenacious attitude and especially the risks they will take in defending their famil...
Read the Full Post »

Rose-breasted Grosbeak

May 06, 2020 - The Rose-breasted Grosbeak is common in favourable habitat of mature deciduous or mixed forests and uncommon elsewhere....
Read the Full Post »

Evening Grosbeak

May 05, 2020 - If there is one bird I would travel anywhere in Nova Scotia to photograph it would be the Evening Grosbeak. The good loo...
Read the Full Post »

Eastern Phoebe

May 04, 2020 - The Eastern Phoebe is often our earliest flycatcher to arrive in spring migration, sometimes a second to the Tree Swallo...
Read the Full Post »

Cliff Swallow

May 04, 2020 - There are three ways to photograph a Cliff Swallow; find them at a mud hole when they are collecting building material t...
Read the Full Post »

Blue-headed Vireo

May 03, 2020 - The Blue-headed Vireo is among our earliest arriving passerines. Its song is slower and more melodic than its later arri...
Read the Full Post »

Greater White-fronted Goose

May 03, 2020 - The Greater White-fronted Goose is an annual regular and better categorized as uncommon due to recent and regular annual...
Read the Full Post »

Upland Sandpiper

May 03, 2020 - The Upland Sandpiper is a rare visitor to Nova Scotia. Laura and I were introduced to this bird in Manitoba where it lik...
Read the Full Post »

Greater Shearwater

May 03, 2020 - The Greater Shearwater is a pelagic bird preferring to spend most of it life at sea. It is not shy if baited with fish....
Read the Full Post »

Whimbrel

May 03, 2020 - The Whimbrel is an early arriving shore bird, although it is seldom on the shore. It seems to prefer to forage upland in...
Read the Full Post »

Harlequin Duck

May 03, 2020 - The Harlequin Duck is a beautiful bird but quite the challenge to photograph as it moves about in the surf, usually in p...
Read the Full Post »

Common Tern

May 03, 2020 - Our resident Common Tern is every bit as elegant as the more exotic varieties. I was lucky to run into a bunch of them p...
Read the Full Post »