For the love of all wild things: Wildlife observed (so far) this week

2015/04/11

Wildlife observed (so far) this week

Now that the weather is getting warmer and sunnier, I went out to a few different spots this week and brought my camera with me.

Strathcona Park (Tuesday)

I went out to Strathcona Park during lunch break. I had the 40-150 lens on my camera, and I was practicing the continuous auto-focus (with tracking) on the gulls.

Mallards (Anas platyrhynchos)

Quack, quack.

Ring-billed Gull (Larus delawarensis). Because of the non-native lens mount (4/3 to m4/3), the C-AF with tracking is not great but this was almost impossible to do on my E-620, so I can't complain.

As I was photographing the gulls, I saw this large, dark bird flying across the Rideau River. The bird (Double-crested Cormorant, Phalacrocorax auritus) is swimming towards the right side of the image. See if you can spot it.

McCarthy Woods (Wednesday)

I did some grocery shopping on Wednesday and then went to McCarthy Woods to look for birds. If I remember correctly, it was overcast that day, but I spotted two new species for this year. Unfortunately, I forgot to switch my lens from yesterday so these photos were taken with the 40-150 again.

Common Redpoll (Acanthis flammea)

American Tree Sparrow (Spizella arborea)

Mud Lake (Saturday)

Given the increasingly warm weather, a few grad students and I went out to Mud Lake hoping to do herping. Sadly, we did not find any frogs, snakes, or salamanders (mainly because a lot of the ground and ponds are still partly frozen), but I did see a couple of new birds for this year.