Fetching birds

I usually oblige my camera when it asks to be taken for a walk. Unfortunately, my camera does not always reciprocate my kindness by fetching an interesting variety of subjects. On recent jaunts, it has retrieved only birds, but at least it was fetching fetching birds. A dozen are below.

The Great Blue Heron is a favourite of mine—maybe I identify with its cragginess.

The Canada Goose is not a favourite. While it is lovely at a distance, it is messy on one’s lawn. Here are two of over a dozen flying by.

Nearby perched a goshawk. Etymologically a goose hawk, our local goshawk seems to lack a taste for geese.

The American Coot is an easy bird to find in the winter, but a difficult one to photograph. Pictures usually show featureless black plumage with an over-exposed bill. It is satisfying to capture both feather detail and bill shading.

Similarly, a distant view of the male Bufflehead Duck usually offers starkly black and white plumage. Only a closer look reveals iridescent colours on the head.

Black-billed Magpies prefer extensive meadows and grasslands, of which there are few around the Lake. This magpie was found in Harrop.

A Merlin hunts from a high perch.

It would have found these American Goldfinches tasty, but didn’t see them.

Ring-necked Ducks (male, female, male) float on the Lake.

While a Mallard leads Wigeons across the sky.

A pair of Bald Eagles sit in a tree. The larger (upper) one is the female. 

Finally another heron steps out during a snowfall.