Bird Photography Time

      Spring time in Alberta is always a welcome relief from long cold winters. Ice and snow disappears, daylight hours overpower dreary darkness, leaves flush and birds arrive from extended winter holidays. Geese are generally the first to advertise their arrival with loud honking and beating wings. Before dawn, I am awakened by an amorous robin trilling promises of love, devotion and fat worms to all sweethearts who can hear. In the nearby pond I can hear frogs cricking, red-necked grebes chortling and mallard drakes quacking their best pick-up lines to seemingly deaf hens. The real call of spring for me is the red-winged blackbirds territorial declaration overpowering the muttering of black American coots.

Red-winged Blackbird

     While out walking, I enjoy watching the interesting lives of the familiar residents and am thrilled when I get to see some new visitors. My faithful Leupold binoculars help with the details and nuances of bird identity but my memory is not always good enough to transfer to a guide book, so I try to get photos for ID clarification. I have found this endeavour to be very challenging and a way to add interest to a nice walk wherever I am that day. There are birds to be found on every trail and even if walking for a short distance, I can find interesting birds to watch. The everyday lives of even the most common birds is a fascinating study of lives, not unlike our own, only at high speed.
     Mates choose nesting sites with all the care that we do. They want the best neighbourhood, closest to good food, away from potential danger and a safe place for the kids to play and forage. No human family is as protective as mother goose and gander. Watch the grebes as the busily fish and forage for their new chicks and mate while she sits on her nest. With a quick call, the parents change places, allowing the brooder to groom, preen and forage. Never are the little grebes far from watchful parents.Mallard hens monitor their clutches as the ducklings paddle furiously to keep up while learning to catch their dinners.
     It amazes me how quickly the young birds change. We must not forget that they have to be big and strong enough to migrate south within about four months or less. Everyday the geese change from cute, yellow down to greenish-grey pin-feathers to the magnificence of adult plumage. Each bird has their own unique colouring, reasons unknown and cute/ugly to anyone but their mothers.

Doting Mother Goose

     While out bird watching or photographing their lives, we must be mindful and respectful to them.
It is not cool to disrupt their lifestyle as every waking moment in summertime is devoted to growing strong enough to migrate and to surviving a constant threat from predators. Baby birds are favourite food to many predators such as eagles and hawks, fish, mink and otters, magpies and ravens or crows. If photographers find a nest and spend too much time there, predators will also find it and eat the contents. If we flush the guarding parents they may abandon their clutch to try another place or time. Every time the birds are frightened away they are using fat reserves required later in the season or they are prevented from foraging to build up those reserves.

Preening Pelican

     We have to take care of ourselves too. Nobody wants to get mugged by an irate goose as they are very powerful and fearless. Watch the body language of the birds to see their reactions to your presence. If you are in a city park, you will be able to get closer than if you are on a wild lake. Wear comfortable clothing of muted colours and move slowly. Sit down to enjoy the ambiance of the place and you will find that wildlife will calm down and carry on with their normal activities. Nothing likes to be stalked. They see us as predators stalking for food that they do not want to become.
     There are many websites that help and guide us to ethical bird watching and photography.
     Get out and enjoy our natural world. Take your kids and teach them as well as the birds in front of you are teaching their broods.


http://www.mindfulbirding.org/images/mindful/pdfs/complete.pdf

www.wildviewfinders.ca

Alberta Spring

      What a relief, spring has sprung in Alberta. No matter that the past winter was not too bad and certainly not as bad as it can be, the long frozen darkness is finally lightening and greening.

Canada Goose Splash-down

     Canada geese have been back from their winter holiday for about a month or so and a few hearty mallards with them. Now, with the greening trees I see most of the regular summer time birds are back with mates and building new nests. On my regular walk around the storm water Broadmore Lake, I can hear Red-necked Grebes calling as they gather nesting material.

Red-necked Grebes Gathering Nesting Material

Mallards are tipped, wigwam up, feeding on invisible-to-me duck snacks. There is a Common Golden-eye with an unusual rusty coloured cheek patch resting on the island shore line. There is another Golden-eye couple paddling and diving as they bond and get to know each other. There was even a Common Merganser pair resting on the island among several nesting geese. Magpie squawked a warning over it's covered nest while it's mate warmed their precious clutch of eggs.

Dry Island Provincial Park Buffalo Jump

       Most of all, I enjoy watching the countryside green up. With the warm sun coaxing leaf buds, then fully flushing trees with bright and fresh leaves, the drab greys and tans are highlighted with brilliant greens.

Birch Catkins

Willow and Birch catkins, Black Poplar sticky-buds and fresh leaves along with bunches of Trembling Aspen groves greening blotches on the river breaks and bottom lands bring renewed optimism to the land. This morning I could smell rain in the air blended with pungent poplar sap to refresh the cool air. What a great time of the year.

Sticky, Pungent Black Poplar



www.wildviewfinders.ca

Leupold Binoculars

     A pleasant surprise came in the mail yesterday. A brand new set of Leupold 10x42 binoculars. I couldn't wait to open the package and try them out. They are fantastic; crystal clear with my eyeglasses on and without. They are light weight and comfortable to use.

     A month or so ago, I sent my old set to The Korth Group at Okotoks, Ab. on the advice of their sales rep Troy Flasch, who I met at the Edmonton Sports show. I had my previous set of Leupold Binoculars for about a dozen years and they have seen some tough use in all climates and weather conditions. I am a wildlife watching guide that has worked at Knight Inlet Lodge in B.C.'s temperate rainforest and enjoyed a Norman Carr safari in Zambia where I watched my first leopard. Those binos hung around my neck in Yellowstone and the Yukon as well as a full season with Polar bears and Beluga Whales at Lazy Bear Lodge at Churchill. I have struggled to identify thousands of birds and wondered at the delicate details of a grizzly's chin whiskers and dexterous lips. Weather has never crossed my mind when using them. Torrential downpours in the rainforest and the heat in Zambia or the frigid temperatures and snow of Northern Manitoba or Albertan winters have never caused me to hide those Leupolds in the safety of their protective case.

Leupold BX-2 Cascades 10x42

     I try now to purchase the best equipment that I can afford and these binoculars priced in the 500.00 to 700.00 range work very well for me. Believe me when I say that I have tried several different brands of cheaper glass only to be disappointed with foggy lenses, eye strain and fuzzy viewing. I am very careful about who I pass my binoculars to. People can be very careless and drop them or set them down in a puddle of mud or smear the lenses with their sticky fingers. I also hate to miss the action that occurs at the exact moment you pass your binos to a guest or wife. They should have their own set if they are going wildlife watching.

Leopard in the Grass

     Most good equipment comes with "Lifetime Warranty." Most manufacturers give you a booklet of fine print which details myriad ways for them to avoid paying out on this warranty. The most common issue used is human use. If you use your equipment you will probably damage it eventually, unless you only go to the opera. I would like to thank Troy at the Korth Group and Leupold for replacing my well used binoculars. I will continue to use my equipment to enjoy spotting and studying our fantastic wildlife viewing opportunities.

www.wildviewfinders.ca

www.korthgroup.com