One of the best things about moving to new locations is that we get a whole new set of sights and sounds when it comes to animal and bird life.  After our short stay in the Niagara region to complete an 18 month contract in Buffalo we finally committed to our long term plan to get to the west end of North America.  

Extending from the last post that focused mostly on landscapes, let’s take a quick look at what we were able to see in the way of wildlife in the Kootenays on our short stay.

As it was just the start of winter, it can be a challenge to get places to shoot nature. Most travel from Nelson requires traversing at least one mountain pass which can and most likely will have some significant snow and ice and can also be rather treacherous to drive.

Last year will go down as one of the oddest years for most. It definitely wasn’t the best year for nature and landscape photography but I still managed to get out and get some shots for the portfolio.

I chose our trip to Australia from seven years ago for my look-back. Ever since I was a young kid I remember thinking how great it would be to travel around Australia to see the exotic animals and birds, amazing coastlines and reefs, not to mention those cool accents, right?

Back in 2010 Salwa and I had an opportunity to stay at a “resort” near Corcovado National Park on the Southwest Coast of Costa Rica. This trip would mean a flight into San Jose, a second “white knuckle” flight to Puerto Jimenez and then an hour and a half 4x4 ride to the Pacific coast and the Bosque Del Cabo Rain Forest Lodge.

We had a very odd spring this year, cold and wet until the last couple of weeks of May and then 30 degrees Celsius immediately afterwards. No transition, and due to that the spring migration of birds felt kind of abbreviated.

Short Eared Owls are not a particularly rare owl, but up until this year I have had little success in getting to know them. Near the end of this winter I got a call from another nature photographer with some local knowledge of a great location to be able to shoot Short Eared Owls…not owl…owls.

On our first winter back in Canada after 5 years down in South Carolina we were not really looking forward to the prospect of weeks of below -30 degrees Celsius, but we were looking forward to some hikes in the parks… hopefully after a big snowfall.

One small wooded area on the beach near where we live that can still be a resting and replenishing area for migrating birds. Located near Waverly Beach, this small plot was the sight of the Erie Beach Amusement Park nearly ninety years ago.

Got a new toy and places to go. I picked up the Sony 200-600 and was able to test it out on Osprey before the start of our one week trip around Vancouver Island.   This is the first big trip I have done leaving my Canon gear at home and only going with Sony.

Learning to use your tracking autofocus is not just a matter of picking up a new camera and point it at a subject.

It has been a few months since I have written anything. Between looking for a new job, moving back to Canada and experiencing probably the worst spring weather wise I have seen in years, time and motivation to do any photography has been at a minimum.

I was often cropping my 16 MegaPixel pictures down to a point that they were ok on the internet but as soon as I tried printing them the details started falling apart.

The coast changes rapidly along the eastern seaboard. Weather makes new sand bars and takes them away over time and sometimes within one storm. One interesting part of this change are the beach boneyards…

From a nature lovers point of view, there is a hidden gem in central South Carolina that I kind of happened upon accidentally.

Growing up there were stories and TV shows on Saturday mornings of people living in the southern swamps. Amazing waterways with Cypress trees and grassy areas that you could travel by airboat. I had heard of the Okefenokee Swamp long ago but…

I thought at first it was a small hawk buy the way it took off, but the shape was wrong…a little too small and round looking.

We came back to Ontario after 4 years of playing with nature in the sunny South of the Eastern US. This was always going to be a short stay, get our paperwork in order and start looking for the next place…

This weekend there were some more sightings, and another one up near Lake Simcoe so we headed out to some farmers fields to see what might be around.

The Great Smoky Mountains National Park is the busiest park in the US, and Cades Cove can seem like you are in the worst of New York and Toronto commuter traffic. So why on earth would you want to spend a perfectly good weekend stuck in traffic?

It doesn’t take long before the sun casts a warm yellow light on the meadow, revealing a glimmering frost on the grasses. As the fog begins to lift, the shadowy outlines of solitary trees begin to take shape.