12 hours, 400 kilometres and $32.00 of gas!

Since the weekend was looking like rain for the most part I thought I would take advantage of the nice weather on Friday. I started my day with a drive up to Minesing Swamp. I made it there for the crack of dawn. I saw lots of waterfowl from the road like hooded mergansers, buffleheads, common goldeneyes, trumpeter swans, mallards, oh and a muskrat. There was also a really nice raft of ring necked ducks but the main reason I was going there was to see the northern pintails. They were way off into a flooded sod field so I took off the canoe from the car and started into the field. I went really slow and tried not to make too much movement with hopes of not scaring them off. I managed to snap off a few shots but they were very timid and kept their distance so no real good shots like what I was hoping for.

On the way home I found a new pond that had a few common mergansers in it. I watched them for a while and then went home. There I removed the canoe, refilled the cooler and took to the roads again. This time I made my way over to the Luther Marsh area and wow spring was in the air. There was a lot of new wildlife this weekend such as a killdeer, a groundhog, a beaver, robins and grackles but most exciting for me was the return of the northern harriers. I spotted one male and one female in the same areas as last year. I really love watching these guys. I think the harriers and coyotes are at the top of my list so far. I watched the female hunt over a field for a while and then all of a sudden she banks quickly and then dropped to the ground. She then lifted up with a pile of dry grasses in her talons. She dropped down in a different location and then started to pick at the grass, maybe she missed because she left right after that.

I have also marked where a few nests are and I have been checking frequently and waiting to see what moves in and today I saw a red-tailed hawk sitting in one of those nests. Maybe some baby hawk pictures this year.

I can't wait for next weekend to see what else is new.

Reunited and it feels so good.

Well I picked up the camera on Friday and it is amazing. The 4.5 frames per second is just amazing. I also noticed a huge difference in the cameras ability to take pictures in low lighting conditions too. It has a much better built in light sensor and it also has the ability to go much higher on the ISO. I tried a couple shots out and it went to ISO 3200 but kept the shutter speed fast so the pictures turned out quite nice. I also played around with the movie option a bit. It takes really clear movies however the focus is a little weird. You focus on your subject with autofocus but then as soon as you start recording it switches to manual focus. It will take me a little bit to get used to using the manual focus ring while recording.

I just had to get out to try my new camera even though it rained most of the weekend so on Saturday I went for a drive. The first thing I noticed was how much snow was gone. The fields where filled with water and rapidly emptying into the swollen rivers. The culverts where struggling to keep up. It was quickly apparent that most of the snow buntings were gone and now the horned larks are setting up territory and singing their lovely spring sounding tune. I still did manage to find a flock of snow buntings but it was much further north. I checked where I saw the mink last weekend but I found a muskrat instead. I sat and watched it for a while as it foraged for food and the sun actually made an appearance for a bit.

On Sunday it was rainy as well but on my way home I stumbled across a small lake that only had a very small portion of open water and it was filled with ducks. The majority of them were mergansers both common and hooded. I don’t often see the males from both types and I very much enjoyed seeing and watching them as they fished and fought over the females. It was very neat to find a new place and see ducks that I don’t usually get to see. I can’t wait to go back when the lighting is more accommodating for better pictures.

Anyway, I am very glad to be back.

Stay tuned because spring is here and I have a camera again!!