Smorgasbord of Wildlife! Virginia Rail and Owl Family Treat!

Virginia Rail

We've been pretty damn lucky lately, in our own area even, to see some first time ever sights. While walking around in the forest east of us, we ran into people there who let us know there was a Great Horned Owl family.  People were being generously allowed, by a resident home owner, to come onto his property and view through his telescope, a baby owl and mom owl. The dad owl was a bit farther away on a different tree. It was a once in a life time amazing thrill to have that privilege! I could only get semi ok shots as I have only a 105mm old manual Nikkor lens. We saw other birds in the same area.....Magnolia Warblers, Kinglets, a Cat Bird, and Magpies.

We also were excited to see the deer for the first time, and a Virginia Rail, as well as some other kind of rail...maybe a Sora. The squirrels and muskrats of course, we always see.

Sora

Cat Bird

Baby Horned Owl

Finally! ........ Baby Water Fowl!

Well, having just moved into an area near Lake Ontario last spring, we kind of were a bit oblivious to the aspects of that season last year, and missed the beginnings of new life. This winter, we waited patiently (lol! maybe 1 of us did) for the spring baby animals and birds we enjoyed seeing in the fall and winter on walks. Well, we got our first look in late April! Another person we run in to off and on, on our adventures, let us know he had just seen the first babies of the season. We headed over to the area he mentioned, and we did see them, but a bit far by the time we got there. Later in the week, on a drizzly day, we went out for what ended up being a short walk, as it began to pour shortly after we got to our usual destination. However, Not before I managed to come up on and grab some shots of the baby geese! Omg are they cute. There are 12. The one parent was hissing continuously so I took a couple shots then left them alone.

The ducks also were startled out of there hiding spot in the marsh, when we went to see what else was around.

The day we discovered the baby geese for the first time, we also ventured back that evening, in hopes of spotting them closer. I had my 105mm manual lens all ready, but alas, no dice. However.... we were treated to a pretty brave raccoon and some muskrat love lol! Too bad the muskrats seem to like privacy or I'd have gotten a better shot lol! Always plenty of animals to see around on our ventures.

Back to Painting

After a long hiatus, for many reasons, my first ever, I venture back in to the land of painting. Slow going and a bit rusty but I am really happy to be back at it. I am wetting my feet with an acrylic on canvas of a friend's boyfriend. He is a lovely person and makes for an interesting subject, having been in the Irish army, played semi pro soccer, and also has a lot of interesting personal tattoos. 

Exciting Bird Spotting Lately!

Both myself and my boyfriend are fairly new to bird spotting, having been introduced to it sort of by accident last summer. Living down by Whitby Harbour was the draw, and walks along the water. Then, the Smew frenzy in December happened, and we began discovering this whole world of avid and serious birders down here, and many from pretty far locations throughout Ontario, that come here.

Lately, we have been lucky to have seen birds we have never seen, most I guess are common spottings to birders, but to us, exciting and new.

I do not own a zoom that will fit on my DSLR, as of yet. The best I can get is with my manual Nikon Nikkor 105mm portrait lens that i used on my old FE.