An afternoon at Fletcher Wildlife Garden with M.Zuiko 75-300mm F4.8-6.7 II

Compared to the last few days, today's weather was a bit more agreeable - sunny and not too frigid, so I went to Fletcher Wildlife Garden to test out my new lens.

Because of the sunny weather, I was able to increase the ISO to get faster shutter speeds and increase the depth of field, resulting in sharp images.  The auto-focus was also speedy and accurate, which was the main reason why I got this new lens.

Black-capped Chickadee (Poecile atricapillus) enjoying the sumac.

Great Backyard Bird Count in Ottawa

I returned back to BC last night for a week off from school.  Before I went to the airport in the afternoon, I went out bird-watching with a friend for the Great Backyard Bird Count in the morning.  We actually went to Strathcona Park on Valentine's Day to scout some of the species found there (e.g., Mallards, Common Goldeneyes, Great Black-backed Gulls, Herring Gulls, etc), and then began our Monday bird count there as well.  It was quite cold on Saturday and Monday morning, so I didn't bother taking photos then.  After surveying the birds at Strathcona Park on Monday morning, we took the bus to Remic Rapids along the Ottawa River, which was my first time there.  The temperature felt warmer by then and so I started snapping some photos.

Remic Rapids and some impressive rock-balancing.

Busy life...

One of the reasons I am extremely busy these days is that I am temporarily employed by my supervisor to analyze the data from my deceased labmate's project.  In the end, we will publish the results on her behalf with her being the first author.  I will also be presenting her research at the ESC-ESO conference next week at Guelph.

I walked to school yesterday to get feedback from my supervisors on the presentation slides.  I took some photos on the way there.

Maples leaves on the ground.

Lady Eaton Drumlin in late Summer

I had been busy this past week working on my thesis revisions, so I didn't really take any photos during the week.  It had also been relatively uneventful this week, aside from the fact that another graduate student in my lab successfully defended his Master research and we went out for lunch at a popular BBQ place in Keene, and then last night we had a post-defense party at my supervisor's place.  Weather-wise, it definitely feels that autumn is approaching (although it was really hot on Wednesday) with the evenings getting colder now.

On a somewhat unimportant note (to most people), Olympus announced the release of a new camera called E-M1 on Tuesday (news here).  As my Olympus E-620 DSLR is getting older, I am thinking about upgrading the equipment to improve my photography skills.  However, this new camera is very very expensive and I need to buy an addition adapter for my current lenses (which kind of defeats the purpose of using a small and lightweight system like Olympus).  So eventually I will be in a dilemma of continuing with the Olympus brand or switching to a new system (e.g., Nikon) that is more well-supported by the company and its customers. 

In the mean time, I will continue to enjoy my E-620 and the photos that I can get with it.  Today, I hiked around the Lady Eaton Drumlin before going to school to do some work, because I seriously needed to be outside and enjoyed nature a bit.

First wildlife I saw was a Downy Woodpecker (Picoides pubescens).

Walking along Otonabee River and checking out Head of the Trent

One month has gone by and now we are into autumn now! How quickly time flies. I mentioned a few posts ago that October 1 is Trent's Head of the Trent regatta.

In the morning though, it was windy, cloudy, and cool outside. But the sky cleared in the afternoon and it was beautiful then. Since I am not a fan of large crowds anyways, I decided to take my time and slowly walk along the Otonabee River and towards Trent.

Clear sky