Toronto Wildlife

Gobble, Gobble!

2011-11-24T11:08:00.004-05:00

I took these a few years back and set out to post them on Canadian Thanksgiving a couple of times. The only trouble was I couldn't find them! (Don't ask about my filing system.) But I've found them now and I figure that American Thanksgiving is just as good since they invented the holiday anyway.

In the past I've seen a family of wild turkeys lurking around Cranberry Marsh in Whitby many times. That's where this turkey was, hanging out and feeding under a canopy of trees. I can't say for sure if this little group is still in the area. I can confirm however that turkeys do indeed fly, even if only for short distances. Don't have a shot of that though.

Happy Thanksgiving to all our US readers!

Big Brother is Watching (Sort of)

2011-10-12T11:02:00.003-04:00

Raptors - that is, hawks, eagles and vultures - are well into their fall migration now. And, as is the case every fall, someone is watching them: the Greater Toronto Hawk Watch. These are experienced bird-watching types who monitor and count the various species as they make their way to parts south. Check out their site to understand their mission and to find the areas where the count takes place. You can even watch the count in progress most days throughout the fall.

Of course telling you about the hawk watch was just a cheap excuse to show this Red-tailed hawk. Let's face it, you can never put up too many pictures of hawks. (Click to enlarge.)

What Katy Did...And Why

2011-09-25T12:50:00.006-04:00

Prepared to be confused. This is a Katydid. In the UK Katydids are known as bush-crickets and in North America they are also known as long-horned grasshoppers but in point of fact they are neither crickets nor grasshoppers. They're Katydids. The very long antennae give them away.

And why did this Katy do? She (or he) killed another bug. You can see bits of the evidence if you click on these images to enlarge them.

Shot in gigantic Rouge Park, which is great for finding bugs, but almost too good, because there are usually a lot of mosquitoes and blackflies there too.

Department of Oversight

2011-08-31T12:15:00.005-04:00

Okay, here's a stupid riddle: What common type of local wildlife has never been covered by Toronto Wildlife yet appears on every single page of Toronto Wildlife?

Give up?

Look up. Way up. It's the Canada Goose!

And that's right, calling them Canadian Geese is wrong. If I'm out with my camera I run into them so often I rarely take a picture and when I do I usually delete it. But since they are on our banner and since we've covered squirrels, pigeons and seagulls it's really pretty silly that we've ignored them so long. In our limited defense I'll point out we have previously shown an image of a cute little baby Canada Goose so that probably makes it all okay.

There are actually seven subspecies. Interestingly, the Canada Goose can be found in Northern Europe and as far away as Siberia, China and Japan. They didn't arrive in those places in the bilge of a ship either, those regions are all part of their natural habitat so I guess in a way we're lucky they're named after us. Or maybe no one else wanted to be associated with a bird that produces so much poop.

If you go out to the Cranberry Marsh area in Whitby during the fall you can see massive waves of Canada Geese taking off each morning around sunrise. This is at the very farthest cusp of Toronto Wildlife territory but it's really quite a sight so it's well worth the trip.

One final note: as common as they are, Canada Geese are tricky to photograph because of the combination of black and white feathers. Your best bet is to shoot them out of direct sunlight. In the harsh light of day it's almost impossible to expose these guys successfully.

Bug-A-Day Mini-Marathon Day Eight!

2011-08-24T16:13:00.006-04:00

In Spanish "Ocho Dias" means a week, so yes it was a week ago today that the Bug-A-Day Mini-Marathon began. This will probably be it for now. Or will it...?

Either way, here are some Japanese Beetles. They really are from Japan, and in fact the first Japanese Beetle did not make an appearance in Canada until 1939. They're all over the place now, another insect that I usually see everywhere I look (when I'm looking for bugs that is). They seem quite immune from any insecticides.

One odd note: they aren't easy to get in focus, at least for me. I'm not quite sure why this should be so. My only guess is that it's because they're reflective but really I just don't know.

Click on these two guys to get a better view.

The rest of the Mini-Marathon to date:

Day One...

Day Two...

Day Three...

Day Four...

Day Five...

Day Six...

Day Seven....

Bug-A-Day Seven

2011-08-23T14:40:00.006-04:00

As we enter Day Seven of our Mini-Marathon I was going to say something like, 'Hey, you never knew there were this many bugs in Toronto,' but realistically you probably did, so never mind.

Here we have two Four-Lined Plant Bugs, and one more Four-Lined Plant Bug for good measure. Not really a clever name, but at least sensible.

The rest of the Mini-Marathon:

Day One...

Day Two...

Day Three...

Day Four...

Day Five...

Day Six....

Bug-A-Day Mini-Marathon Day Six!

2011-08-22T14:09:00.005-04:00

This is a syrphid fly, our second here at Toronto Wildlife. After quite a bit of searching I was able to nail the exact species (I think) as Tropidia Quadrata (click to enlarge). Our previous syrphid can be found here.

How much longer can the Mini-Marathon last? You'll have to stay tuned and see!

The previous posts:

Day One...

Day Two...

Day Three...

Day Four...

Day Five....

Bug-A-Day Five and Counting

2011-08-21T12:48:00.008-04:00

Here are a couple of views of a Yellow-Collared Scape moth. These are daytime moths and they eat pollen in butterfly-like fashion.

These should not be confused with the very similar-looking Virginia Ctenucha moth which we've previously encountered here at Toronto Wildlife. Oddly though both specimens were shot in almost exactly the same spot near the Don River. It must a special hangout area for cool-looking hipster moths.

(Click to enlarge.)

The rest of our Bug-A-Day Mini-Marathon so far...

Day One...

Day Two...

Day Three...

Day Four....

Bug-A-Day Four

2011-08-20T13:48:00.006-04:00

Another green stink bug, this one in the nymph stage. As always with trickier ID's I'm happy to be corrected. Click to enlarge.

The rest of our Bug-A-Day Mini-Marathon so far:

Part One...

Part Two...

Part Three....

Bug-A-Day Three

2011-08-19T11:05:00.005-04:00

I can only identify this as a fly with cool striped eyes. I'm not an expert on insects and to obtain an exact ID even experts usually need to examine an insect's genetalia. Yes, that's true, and I only brought it up because you asked. Like with all the insect pics on here feel free to click on the image to get a better view.

Loyal readers will know that I recommend Bug Guide if you ever have a yen to ID an insect that you see around town. Be warned however that there are thousands and thousand of species so trying to figure out what you've seen can be exercise in frustration.

Also check Day One of our Bug-A-Day Mini-Marathon. And Day Two.

Bug-A-Day Mini-Marathon Day Two

2011-08-18T10:15:00.006-04:00

Click to enlarge and you'll get a better look at this dragonfly's eyes. Anyone who knows the exact species is welcome to write in.

If you want a shot of a dragonfly you should head out with your camera before dawn because once the sun is up they're very active. With those big eyes they aren't easy to sneak up on either.

You can see Day One of the Mini-Marathon here.

Bug-A-Day Mini-Marathon

2011-08-17T12:33:00.003-04:00

It's always a battle to find something new and different to do on any blog. It's especially hard for Toronto Wildlife because a trip to some exotic locale isn't going to work and neither is a discussion of good restaurants. Yes, we're pretty much stuck talking about wildlife in Toronto and that's about it, so in yet another attempt to do something a little different I thought I would start a late summer bug-a-day mini-marathon, wherein I will post a pic of a new bug each day. And it's a 'mini-marathon' because a) it won't be that many days and b) bugs are small!

Our first two contestants above: some green stink bugs. Click to enlarge.

Nemesis

2011-08-07T12:55:00.008-04:00

Ah, the (Toronto) wildlife photographer's most hated, and devious foe: the Kingfisher.

Technically these are Belted Kingfishers, and I've discussed before how hard they can be to photograph. It can be done though. You just need a bit of patience - okay, a lot of patience - and a little dollop of humility, because I swear these birds actually laugh at photographers.

You can distinguish the male and female quite easily in the two pictures above since the male has the white chest and the female the band of red. If you see either a male or female, chances are its mate is in the area too.

I mentioned their mocking laughter and often you can hear them before you see them. To get an idea of what to listen for check this recording from the Cornell bird lab. If you keep a sharp ear out you can hear this sound in many Toronto parks and along the lakeshore too.

When they hover like this it likely means they've spotted a fish below and they're just about to dive. And yeah, it would be awesome to get a shot of a Kingfisher in mid-dive. If you want to try all I can say is: Good Luck.

The Good Kind of Sneaky

2011-08-01T08:26:00.006-04:00

The other day I was out testing an old camera I haven't used for awhile and came across this groundhog. It's not a great picture but it provides a very useful lesson.

At the time I had a 35mm lens on my camera. In plain English, this means I had about the worse lens you can imagine for photographing wildlife. A 35mm lens won't bring your quarry any closer, in fact optically it will push your subject farther away! So how did I get this picture?

The groundhog was a good forty feet away when I first spotted him, merrily chomping grass. If I had just started walking toward him he would have taken off. What I did instead was stand there, waiting. Every minute or so I took a couple of slow steps forward, usually when the groundhog had his head down. By approaching this way and never making any sudden movements, I didn't alarm him. He was relaxed enough that he ate his way in my general direction even as I continued to edge my way toward him. It took maybe ten minutes all told but eventually I got close enough to take this picture. I then blew it by getting down to get an eye-level shot. The groundhog didn't like that and promptly ran away for good.

But the moral still stands that even if you don't have the best equipment for the job you can accomplish a lot with a little know-how and patience. Be sneaky. And if you're approaching birds don't just be slow and careful. Be indirect. Approach like this, with X being your bird:

For whatever reason this kind of route doesn't seem to set off a bird's internal alarm as much as walking straight. Try it. You'll (sometimes) be amazed how close you can get.

UPDATE: As several astute readers have quickly pointed out, the above zig-zag pattern can also be effective when you are being chased by wildlife.

Assassination in Toronto

2011-07-18T11:25:00.003-04:00

Yes, I know our city has a reputation as a relatively safe and peaceful place. It's not so great though if you cross paths with the Zelus Luridus, more commonly known as the Assassin Bug. These guys excrete a sticky substance which they use to capture other insects and then...well, you can fill in the rest. Not sure of the identity of the victim.

Taken in one of the more dangerous sections of the Don Valley.

The Other Cardinals

2011-06-27T13:49:00.004-04:00

This sounds like the title to a really bad mystery novel but really I just wanted to post a shot of a female cardinal. I don't think most people notice them very often. I've thrown in a shot of a male cardinal too because well, I kind of like the way this guy looks.

Click to enlarge.

EDITOR'S NOTE: Even though you can see bird seed in the top shot you really should not feed birds. The bird seed was thrown by someone else, i.e. not by me.

MicroSub

2011-06-08T11:02:00.004-04:00

Now that I've lured in technogeeks I'll reveal this post has nothing to do with very tiny submarines but rather micro-evolution and sub-species.

Anyone can distinguish a raccoon from a duck, but picking out various sub-species is a little trickier. For example, there are over twenty species of warbler in Southern Ontario and you've got to be a real expert to tell most of them apart. I'll confess I can only differentiate maybe three or four.

It's much easier to ID different types of swallows. The most common are tree swallows with their irridescent blue. Not quite as common are cliff swallows like the one above (a juvenile) and barn swallows like the one below. I don't really have any tips on where to find them. Trust me though, they're out there!

Committing Insecticide

2011-05-23T15:54:00.004-04:00

Like I've said before, if you're inclined to shoot some bugs with your camera Toronto can be a tough place. Most of the parks are sprayed regularly, and if they weren't we'd be up to our eyebrows in mosquitoes.

But one bug you're sure to find everywhere, and I do mean everywhere, is the soldier beetle. There are billions and billions of them, including the two pictured here. I have yet to go anywhere in the city where I don't find them.

If you've got a little point and shoot camera you can actually shoot bugs pretty well because smaller cameras have great depth-of-field, crucial for little critters. A small camera can also be great when it comes to getting into cramped spaces at weird angles. You will need to practice holding your camera very still. Don't be afraid to use your flash.

Click to enlarge these pics. They are bugs, after all. They're small.

The Evil Cormorants

2011-04-29T11:57:00.010-04:00

A few years ago I rarely ever saw a cormorant anywhere. This has changed. By my admittedly rough count there are now about fifty-six billion cormorants in and around the Toronto area. If you go to the tip of the reclaimed land at Colonel Sam Smith Park in the early morning you will sometimes see them heading west in numbers that make the 401 look empty. And I'm barely exaggerating.

Because there are so many of them, the Province has culled (i.e. killed) significant numbers of them in the past, especially toward the east end of Lake Ontario. They're considered a nuisance because when nesting they can completely strip trees of vegetation. They also eat prodigious amounts of fish and of course make more and more little cormorants like the one at the bottom of the post.

I'll let someone else debate whether they should be culled. There are an awful lot of them. Still, I kind of like them. A very large colony nests on the Leslie Street Spit in an area that is closed to the public.

You know what I'm going to say: Click to enlarge.

Spring 2011!!

2011-03-22T11:41:00.008-04:00

In celebration of the glorious eternal dance that is the changing of the seasons, or, um, something like that, here are some Common Terns performing head-turning acts of aerial ballet.

While it looks very poetic these terns are actually just quarreling over fish, which is something they do a lot.

These guys should be arriving any day now. The best place to see them is on the Leslie Street Spit. They are actually quite hard to photograph because of the contrast between their white bodies and the black on their heads. If you expose for the white their black eyes are likely to be invisible, and if you expose for the black you'll burn out the white. You need to keep adjusting exposure until you get it dead on. The margin of error is perhaps a third of a stop...if you're lucky.

Click on any of these to get a better view. And get out there before the spring passes you by!

White-Breasted Nutjob

2011-02-26T12:20:00.008-05:00

The paranoid among you should realize that whenever you go to a website they can tell how you got there and where you came from. So I can tell that sometimes children from Toronto's schools are looking up stuff on this website, which probably means that some of them are using me as a source for papers. I can think of no greater condemnation of our educational system.

Before any more of our youth are led astray let me point out that this bird is really called a White-breasted Nuthatch. I just call them nutjobs because they almost always perch in this wacky upside-down position. Why? The scientific explanation seems to be they just like it that way. These three shots are of three different birds in three different parks.

While not exactly supercommon, you can find these guys all through the city all the year through. The Red-breasted Nuthatch is much harder to find, and in fact I've never seen one.

Taming Wildflowers

2011-01-26T12:08:00.009-05:00

I always feel that the very worst and most boring way to open a presentation or article is by quoting a definition. That's why I'm just going to flatly tell you that the word 'wildlife' covers not just animals, but plants too. And how many plants have we covered here so far? Well, none. Hence the wildflowers.

I love wildflowers. Sadly, if you browse through one of the several million online message boards for photographers you will find nothing but contempt for people who take pictures of flowers. How exciting could flowers be after all? They don't even move, right?!

Or do they?

As it happens, flowers do move. Ever hear of the wind, Einstein? The faintest of gentle breezes will make flowers bob around and this is just one of the reasons that getting high-quality, sharp flower images can be challenging. You have to be patient and wait for a moment of dead calm to get your shot. You're most likely to encounter these conditions in the early morning and to a lesser extent the late evening so that's the best time to go. To get sharp flower images you should also focus manually and always use a tripod. Always.

Another challenging aspect of flower shots is that it's ridiculously easy to overexpose them. We like flowers because they're colourful. A digital camera records images in three colours, Red, Green and Blue, but most histograms (that graph thing which helps check your exposure) measure in black and white only. This means your camera may be telling you the exposure is correct when in fact it's completely blown out in one or more of the colour channels. If you overexpose a flower this way there is no way to fix it in post. Can't be done. So always underexpose flowers by at least three-quarters to a full stop. If you have Photoshop or any other simple editing program you can then make a levels adjustment later on to make the image a little brighter and more contrasty. Also realize that flowers are very reflective, so never shoot them in direct sunlight. Avoid flash for the same reason.

As far as the depth of field, that is how you set your f-stop, use your own judgement. If you want the entire flower in perfect focus stop down (bigger f-stop). If you want more of an impressionistic image you can shoot at a smaller f-stop and get just the stamens in focus.

And let's not forget that the most exciting part of shooting wildflowers, like with all wildlife photography, is locating your prey. There are tons of different wildflower species in Toronto, and they grow in fields, hillsides, marshlands and even in the woods. You have to go out and find them, and many only bloom briefly at certain times of the year. If you want to ID them you can get a book or scout online, however it's often difficult to ID flowers this way because these sources always seem to have the worst flower pictures you can imagine, so bad in fact, it's often hard to make out what you're looking at. Luckily you don't always need to find an obscure flower species to get a good picture. The Large Bird Foot's Trefoil below is common all over the city, often right beside the road.

If you want some cheering up in cold dead January remember a few wildflowers begin to appear in early April. Just over sixty days away.

Rudolph!!

2010-12-25T10:41:00.003-05:00

This is him all right, after a long night's work, prosthetic nose back in place, relaxing a little in Santa's massive new multi-billion dollar terrarium facility, which I'm sad to say was financed in part with taxpayer money.

Okay, now that I've written an almost kid-friendly first paragraph, I'll reveal that this was actually taken at Petticoat Creek Conservation Area. This is quite a small park, but size doesn't matter. I've said it before, just by perusing a map for spots near the lake or a river you can find many potential wildlife goldmines. That's how I found Petticoat Creek and to see for yourself here's a satellite image of the very spot where this picture was taken. Note the pedestrian bridge at right which gave me a vantage point to get this high angle shot.

I have yet to see the Abominable Snowman in the city but invite you to invent your own Rob Ford joke.

Merry Christmas!

Patience and the Sly Red Fox

2010-12-14T12:02:00.006-05:00

Out of the hundreds of thousands of emails per month we receive here at Toronto Wildlife, the theme of most could be summed up as "I never see any of this stuff." And indeed, if you click through the entries here you might get the impression that every park and green area of the city is packed thick with wildlife, as jammed up as the first ten rows at a Justin Bieber concert. You might get the impression you can't miss.

Of course, there is tons of life out there. The mistake is thinking it's anxious to be part of photo op.

To illustrate: a Toronto Wildlife fail.

Early this year I became aware of a family of foxes somewhere in the city. Certainly not the only family of foxes in Toronto, but I knew exactly where these were and the area where they'd made their home was a small one. I figured it would be like shooting fish in a barrel, so to speak.

One spring morning at dawn I went to this spot. Within two minutes I saw a fox. Awesome, right? The fox was just sitting there catching some early morning rays but was behind some grass. I couldn't get a clean shot. It was there perhaps ten seconds or less. It eyed me. Then left.

A little voice in my head, said: Great, I saw a fox after less than two minutes. Now I'll never see one here again.

You know what? I never did.

Oh, that family was still there all right. I heard of others who'd spotted them. And this really is a small area, not much bigger than a football field in fact. I went back ten times. Twenty. Thirty. I told myself, okay I give up, and then I'd go one more time anyhow figuring that if I no longer had any expectation of seeing the foxes they'd show up. Except they still didn't.

A fashion photographer can fire off six hundred images of a model over two hours and end up with three keepers. If you're a wildlife photographer your model will be available for a few seconds (if you're lucky). Your model won't pose. Every shot you see here or from any wildlife photographer is from that brief moment when he or she got lucky. You don't see the times they weren't. Except for now, that is.

A Flock of Seagulls

2010-11-09T15:31:00.009-05:00

You'll never find a post here on rats or bedbugs (or probably not) but as promised here's your look at seagulls, directly following in the tradition of our unbiased admiration of other dissed creatures like squirrels and pigeons.

There are actually over forty different species of gull in the world. Most of those you'll see in these parts will be Herring Gulls or Ring-Billed Gulls. I've also heard of Iceland Gulls being spotted around the city and I've personally seen a Bonaparte's Gull and got a great picture of it too...but it wasn't in Toronto so I'm legally forbidden from showing it to you. The wide variety of seagull 'styles' you see is mostly a result of changes in their plumage at different times of the year and at different ages.

Besides strawberries and garbage they do actually hunt and catch fish and other aquatic life as you can see.

In the nineteenth century seagulls were almost hunted to extinction because their feathers were used in women's hats. This makes their wide presence now kind of inspiring. The fact that they're everywhere is also useful if you want to learn how to shoot birds in flight. Which is the real method to my madness of bringing them up.

It takes a lot of practice to do anything well, and shooting birds in flight is no exception, even with modern autofocus. So if you have a DSLR and a reasonably long lens, go out to a spot that has seagulls around, heck even a parking lot will do. You'll always be able to find these birds so you won't have any excuse for not getting your practice in, and the other advantage is that light-coloured stuff (at least by my observation) gets nailed more easily by autofocus than anything dark. Just another little factor to make your practice easier.

If you practice enough you'll be in good shape when you're out someplace and spot something really cool like an eagle or owl, and that means you'll have that much less chance of missing that once-in-a-lifetime shot. Believe me, that happens all too often.

And on a closing note, honestly, if you were in the Amazonian rainforest or Tahiti and you saw a bird like this and didn't know what it was called, wouldn't you think it was stunning? Yes, you would.

To enlarge any of these just click on them.

Fall Migration 2010

2010-10-02T14:10:00.007-04:00

It's time to panic. Sure lots of birds pass through the city during the fall on their way to parts south. But many species start this migration as early as mid-August. At this point the whole process is well underway.

If you do get lucky you might catch some Red-breasted Mergansers like the one above, yet another No Way That's In Toronto bird. These guys are easy to confuse with the very-similar Common Merganser. The biggest tip-off that you're looking at a Red-breasted version is the red eyes.

In almost the exact same pose, here's another Red-breasted Merganser side-by-side with a female for easy comparison.

The main takeaway from this should be that if you're going to birdwatch this fall don't delay. All these fairweather Canadians will be past and gone before you know it.

Highrise Hawk

2010-09-04T12:28:00.014-04:00

As many of you already know, our huge staff here at Toronto Wildlife laughs at danger, and we spare absolutely no expense of time or effort to obtain the very best urban wildlife images. To that end, last night, right after dinner, I walked out onto my own balcony. And from just a few feet away this hawk was staring back at me.

Thinking of you dear reader I went all the way back inside and got my camera. When I came back out the hawk hadn't budged and was still staring at me. He seems a little freaked out, likely because he's not used to seeing relatively large (but still fashionably slim) mammals just a few yards away when he's 130 feet high.

And from up high he checked out the area. First he looked down.

Then he looked to his right.

Then he looked over his shoulder.

Then he looked to his left.

Then he kind of...well, I'm not sure what direction this is, but he saw something interesting.

Then he (or she) took off with one more concerned look in my direction. As you can see from the darker lighting, this was almost exactly at the moment the sun went down which might not be a coincidence.

This hawk was fast. And here's a tip, sometimes you can be too close to what you're photographing, because at the speed this hawk flew off there was no way to physically pan quickly enough to get even one real flight shot. I got this one and then just empty sky.

After a good deal of hemming and hawing I've decided that this is probably a Sharp-shinned hawk, however you should definitely read about the Broad-winged hawk before you take my word for it.

Here's Looking at You, Kids

2010-08-23T11:18:00.014-04:00

Normally I throw up shots of animals we can all look at. For a change I thought I'd put up shots of animals looking at us. And, well, let's be honest, I wanted an excuse to show this turkey vulture.

This was shot around Whitby (still Toronto by our definition). I was standing in the middle of a field and the turkey vulture approached very low. It then actually circled back to check me out, flying only about eight or ten feet above my head. Do I look like carrion? I don't think so, I work out and everything, but for some reason this vulture was curious. Click to really stare him down because vultures have such beedy little eyes it's usually quite hard to capture them.

Next we have another dead meat consumer, a flesh fly. Then some other more or less scary customers, in order, a Common Green Darner dragonfly, a Longhorned Beetle, and a Shieldbug.

Terrified yet? Probably not. But just in case, let's close with some happy, nice creatures: a skipper butterfly, what I think is a Nashville Warbler, and a playful Canada Goose gosling. And remember, wherever you go...they're watching.

Click any of these to enlarge.

Holiday Heron

2010-08-01T14:53:00.005-04:00

Because it is a lazy Canadian-only holiday weekend I've decided to be lazy and simply throw up a shot of a creature we've seen before. I took this just yesterday morning in High Park from pretty much point blank range. Go outside. Look. You'll find something.

Click to enlarge.

Ants Aren't Gentlemen

2010-07-17T12:30:00.007-04:00

So I stole the title for this post from P.G. Wodehouse. I did toy with the idea of some sort of complex joke based around the idea of the ant and the grasshopper and the tortoise and the hare, except I was going to substitute a snail for the tortoise and then somehow have the ant battling the snail and, well I, could just never pull a real joke out of it. But I started down that path because in the course of its travels the ant above stumbled into a snail. Or over one. Several times.

These other two pictures are a little disorienting because the ant hung around checking out the snail for a few minutes and the snail moved during that time. I don't think it was happy about the encounter at all. What ant species is this exactly? Feel free to figure it out if you can.

As with all the macros you see here I shot this with a Nikkor 300mm f4 and a PN-11 extension tube. I also handheld a flash which almost always helps for insects.

The Agony and the Ecstasy

2010-06-30T12:51:00.010-04:00

I haven't posted in awhile because I've been hunting (with a camera) for a very specific Mystery Animal. Unfortunately, just like with the old Marx Brothers' routine I keep going to the ball game but the Mystery Animal refuses to show up, and if you don't know what routine I'm talking about please watch Duck Soup. This is why nature photography is so much fun of course, sometimes you get the great stuff and sometimes you don't. And I'll be looking for the Mystery Animal this weekend so maybe I'll get lucky.

For now you'll have to suffer with these older shots of Long-tailed Ducks. They're actually out-of-season in Toronto at the moment photography-wise, you can only see them in the spring and fall and some of the winter. Often you can hear them before you actually lay eyeballs on them; they make a very insistent and unique call that sounds like this.

I left the files of the flying images pretty large so you can get a much better look by clicking on them. In the more static images you can see the male's 'tail' quite clearly, though the shot of him and the female would have been better from a lower angle. Oh, well.

I think the best place to see these guys when they're here is the Leslie Street Spit.

Shooting Tree Swallows in Flight

2010-05-17T14:15:00.010-04:00

So how the heck do you shoot something like this? It's not quite as hard as you might think.

You do need a DSLR. It would help if you have a lens that focuses pretty quickly but many consumer-level lenses should be good enough. You also need a flash. If you can find a pond or body of water in or near a park you're halfway to finding tree swallows. Normally for shooting birds in flight you'd want a nice sunny day because otherwise you'll get backlighting from the clouds and end up shooting a bunch of dark silhouettes. The day I shot this it was actually cloudy but it was okay because I had a vantage point where I could shoot down at the birdies as they circled around a pond. The clouds ended up providing a nice even look without too much contrast. Sun or clouds you should use your flash because it will help to emphasize the swallows' iridescent feathers and give a nice sparkle to their eyes. Set your flash for TTL BL (consult the manual). Then set the shutter speed of your camera to at least 1/800th of a second.

Okay, now comes the tricky part.

Start trying to shoot the tree swallows as they dart around in circles. Repeat until insane. You can shoot swallows this way (and I've seen it done) but it's very time-consuming and takes a lot of practice. Luckily there's a much easier method that follows solidly in an important time-honoured tradition of nature photography.

You can cheat!

Where was that swallow heading when I shot that first image? He was heading here.

That's him on the left. In the first shot he was coming in for a landing. The same is true in these.

So if you can find a tree branch or bird house that the swallows have made their own all you need to do is get them as they're coming and going from that spot. This provides a reference point for your focus and makes things a lot easier than just trying to nail a shot in free space. Let me also emphasize that since you're just cropping judiciously this method isn't really cheating. You're not cloning anything out of the image -- a no-no in nature photography.

Go out and try this yourself. But do remember this method only makes things easier. If it was really easy it wouldn't be any fun.

Rats of the Air

2010-05-10T12:09:00.005-04:00

We're not snobs here at Toronto Wildlife, if it's wild and it's in Toronto that's good enough for us as you can see from our posts on the supposedly-lowly squirrel and chipmunk. How could we have overlooked the Rock Pigeon as long as we have?

If you've never seen a pigeon in Toronto please smack yourself in the head immediately. They're everywhere in the city, and in fact they can be found everywhere from the tip of South America right up to Alaska and coast-to-coast, which is pretty good for a bunch of poor immigrants from Europe. I could tell you amazing facts about the pigeon, yes it's true they can always find their way home, but the thing that strikes me most is how cool some of them really look. If you really had never seen a pigeon and were told it was a rare, exotic, important, endangered bird you'd think, Wow! Look at that thing! It's beautiful. The same is true of seagulls, and yes I promise to do them one day too.

These shots of pigeons also confirm our first rule here which is that it's better to have a good shot of something common than a bad shot of something rare.

Just a Bunch of Red-Necks

2010-04-13T11:37:00.007-04:00

At Colonel Sam Smith Park you can almost always find large numbers of Red-necked Grebes in the spring and fall. During breeding season they get pretty aggressive and bellow out a very ugly noise. That's what the one red-neck is doing above. This is a species where the male and female share the same plumage; these are likely both breeding pairs. The couple below as you can see are cleaning up the area around their trailer and will probably soon be off to buy some beer and lottery tickets.

Click to enlarge and get a better look.

Early Morning Walk in the Don Valley

2010-04-02T14:10:00.011-04:00

In a never-ending attempt to do something different than what I've done before I thought I'd simply post a sampling of the shots I got just this very morning in the Don Valley. These were taken in the space of a little over an hour. Are they the best images in the world? Nope. But it just goes to show what you can find if you get out there. I recently saw an article on canada.com which said there's no wildlife in the Don Valley. Thankfully the wildlife doesn't read canada.com. Oh, who am I kidding...no one reads canada.com!

If you're wondering: we have here the first goldfinch of the season (for me), a female red-wing blackbird, two Canada geese, a robin, a red-tailed hawk (in wings up and down configuration!), and a close-up of a Downy woodpecker tucked in the nook of a tree.

Happy Easter!!!

No, It's Not a Swallow

2010-03-17T12:22:00.004-04:00

Yup, the weather is beautiful in Toronto this week. Sad to say though your Toronto Wildlife photographer is still grumpily flopping about in his cave, waiting for the effects of a long winter to wear off. So here's another older image, this one from 2008.

It's quite easy to mistake the bird here for a swallow. But it's actually an Eastern Kingbird. There's lots of these around and they should be showing up in Toronto soon. The swallows are coming too, maybe any day.

Just to show how far birds can migrate these Eastern Kingbirds spend our winter down in the Amazonian rainforest where they fly around in huge flocks. Up here they're quite solitary. If you see something that kind of looks like a swallow but is maybe a little bigger, one of these is probably what you're looking at. You can find them all through the city.

We have a WINNER!!

2010-03-08T11:15:00.003-05:00

Our first annual photo contest is over and many thanks to all those who participated.

Our winning shot is by Francine Bazos. She caught this rabbit stealing from her garden and because he really does look remarkably guilty to me I picked this as our winning shot.

And please note: wildlife shooters are always complaining that if they had (insert name of expensive equipment here) they could get all sorts of great images. Francine shot this with a relatively humble Canon S5 IS. The moral is if you want to get something good the most important step you have to take is to get out and shoot.

Congratulations Francine! You go girl!!

Deadline for the Photo Contest Extended!!!

2010-03-01T14:36:00.003-05:00

In order to accomodate all you last minute slackers the deadline for our photography contest has been extended by one week exactly. That is March 7th, 2010.

If you want details of the contest look here.

UPDATE: Whoops! Date corrected.

Deer Hunting

2010-01-26T16:06:00.010-05:00

In another tribute to incredible laziness here's another golden oldie, this one from August of 2006. Ah, those were the days.

As I've touched on before, there really are deer to be found in and around Toronto. I've seen them in the Don Valley right within striking distance of downtown and also in Rouge Park and I've heard of them being spotted a lot of places, including High Park (though I do wonder how a deer could get in there). I've even heard deer hunters complain they see more deer around here than they do far north in areas where you're allowed to hunt them, which of course you aren't allowed to do in Toronto.

This particular young deer I spotted early in the morning at Cranberry Marsh, Whitby, which still counts as Toronto for us. You can see she's actually checking out the sunrise in the first shot. Then once I took her picture she heard me and looked over, and, as usually happens with deer, she took off. (I think it was a she.)

I shot this with an older version Nikon 300mm f2.8, which is a physically huge and heavy lens. I rented it from Vistek downtown on Queen, a place you might want to check out if you're interested in trying out a lens. They have a huge selection available for both Nikon and Canon and a weekend rental isn't expensive at all. You can get glass you'd never have access to otherwise this way, and a lot of people I think probably aren't aware that there's a place in Toronto where you can rent camera equipment so easily.

Christmas Reruns

2009-12-18T12:05:00.009-05:00

All your favourite shows take a break over Christmas. It stinks. The same is true of your friendly neighbourhood wildlife photographer. It's cold out. I should be filling your heads with inspiring talk of how you need to go out no matter what the weather's like, but I'm not going to. Go out if you want. You won't run into me.

Still the show must go on. And while I try not to repeat things here, from time to time I'll get a picture of something I've already covered which is as good or better than the one I posted already. So here's a few of those.

A Red-Winged Blackbird from the Toronto Brickyards in June. Red-wings are very territorial, so rest assured if they're flitting around and making a lot of noise when you walk by some next spring they're annoyed at your presence. If you're really lucky (or um, unlucky) they'll even divebomb you for walking near them.

In the fall of 2008 I saw two Hooded Mergansers at Colonel Sam Smith Park in Etobicoke, and this past fall I saw two Hooded Mergansers in the exact same spot. Was it the same two? Maybe. And why do they do that thing with their head like the one on the right is doing? I don't know. But they do it a lot.

And even though I posted no less than three shots of Great Egrets this past fall and explicitly said the last time that I'd never post any shots of them ever again, here's another Great Egret, this time in Area 51. If you click on the pic to enlarge you can see he's caught a little itty-bitty fishie.

Happy Holidays!

First Annual Toronto Wildlife Pro-Am Photography Contest

2009-12-09T12:09:00.004-05:00

Yes, just what you've been waiting for. The First Annual Toronto Wildlife Pro-Am Photography Contest is here at last.

Rules: Any person, young or old, professional photographer or amateur is eligible to enter. Photographs can depict any sort of wildlife including animals, insects and even plants in a non-domesticated setting somewhere in or around anything that could remotely be described as 'Toronto'. Participants should include a brief description of each image, equipment used and the location. There is no entry fee. Participants may enter as many images as they like. Deadline for entries is February 28, 2010, at 11:59 PM EST. Entries should be no larger than 300 kb and sent to robert(at) robertrafton(dot) com. Entries larger than 300kb will be deleted.

Prizes: First Prize winner will receive a one-year subscription to the Toronto Wildlife blog, including unlimited page views. The winning image will be displayed on Toronto Wildlife and the Winner will also receive an Official Congratulatory E-mail along with bragging rights to tell everyone they know that they've won the First Annual Toronto Wildlife Pro-Am Photography Contest, which (let's be honest) is pretty cool. Additional entries may be awarded Honourable Mention solely at the discretion of the judges. Honourable Mention winners will also receive a congratulatory email, but it will be slightly shorter than the one the winner gets.

Disclaimers: All decisions by the judges are final. Neither Toronto Wildlife, its officers, owners or shareholders shall be deemed liable for any material lost in transmission or in any other way so please don't sent the only copy of an image. All participants agree that their entries can and may be displayed on Toronto Wildlife with attribution, and waive any rights to claim payment for the display of such images. Submitting photographers retain all other copyright to their images.

And that's it. Go out and shoot!

Absolutely Not a Turkey

2009-11-25T12:21:00.009-05:00

In honour of American Thanksgiving I was going to post a pic of a wild turkey (the bird, not the drink) that I once shot right on the very edge of Toronto. But I can't find it! Yikes!

So instead I'm posting something that might conceivably eat a wild turkey. No, it's not Mr. and Mrs. Jones of Steubenville, it's a very vigilant-looking Sharp-shinned Hawk.

Or...

I'm pretty sure it's a Sharp-shinned Hawk. (SEE UPDATE BELOW) If you check a bird ID book you'll find many of the birds of prey (aka raptors) in the Northeast of North America look very similar, and each species can look different depending on their age and the time of year when you see them. Even really expert birders can argue about the identification of these birds, so while I'm the first to admit I'm not a hundred percent positive I'm reasonably certain that this is indeed a Sharp-shinned Hawk, or a Sharpie as they're sometimes called. Anyone with a different opinion is welcome to let me know.

Found this guy right smack in the middle of the Don Valley.

UPDATE: In fact, later on I determined that this is probably a Broad-Winged Hawk. Whoops.
For a Sharp-shinned hawk go here.

Black and Grey Living Together in Harmony

2009-10-31T11:53:00.014-04:00

You see black squirrels all over the place, right? But here's something you probably never knew about black squirrels.

There's no such thing as black squirrels. Hah!

Black squirrels are just a colour variant of grey squirrels (or if you're American: a color variant of gray squirrels). There's no difference between them other than the colour, with grey squirrel couples able to produce entire litters of black-tinted offspring. It's believed that before European settlement in North America the blacks were dominant, since black blends in better with the dark of a forest. Nowadays grey squirrels outnumber their black brothers by a factor of about 10,000 to 1. Black squirrels however do dominate in the Northeast, probably because their darker coats helps them absorb heat better in winter months.

Both images taken at Rosetta McClain Gardens. Click here for a post on red squirrels.

Ask and Ye Shall Receive

2009-10-14T11:41:00.004-04:00

Hey, just a couple of days after posting a shot of a Downy Woodpecker and saying Hairy Woodpeckers look almost exactly the same except for a longer bill what did I see on an early morning walk?

You can make the comparison and see for yourself that but for the longer bill on the Hairy Woodpecker they look pretty close. Obviously Nature reads this blog regularly and provided the bird above just so I could illustrate my point. And I'm flattered.

Recycling Christmas Trees Before Christmas

2009-10-06T16:10:00.004-04:00

I've often thought that Downy Woodpeckers seem to favor evergreens (i.e. Christmas trees) but maybe I'm wrong. But sure they can be found on any kind of tree and sometimes on telephone poles too. They're in Toronto year-round.

This is a male, easy to spot because of the splash of red on the back of his head, but a Downy can very easily be mistaken for a Hairy Woodpecker which looks exactly the same (more or less) except they're bigger and have a longer bill. If you're walking through a park in Toronto and you hear what sounds like someone hammering wood chances are you're hearing a Downy.

Where Toronto Does Get Ripped Off....

2009-09-26T14:12:00.004-04:00

I'm always saying that such and such an animal is all over Toronto, that we're lucky to have so many [insert wildlife here]. But when it comes to hummingbirds, we're like the rest of eastern North America: we stink. Because out of the dozen or so species of hummingbirds in North America we get exactly...one.

Yes, the Ruby-Throated Hummingbird, a female in this particular case. The males are even harder to find, you can spot them by the reddish-ruby on their throat (see how this works?), and by this time of year they're long gone for their wintering grounds on the Yucatan Peninsula. The females will follow very soon so if you want to see any stragglers move fast.

If you want a picture of a hummingbird your best bet is a feeder in the backyard. You can also hang a feeder in a local park. Either way you may have to wait a long time. As far as technique you really are better off shooting hummingbirds with flash to freeze the wing motion since the wings move at about fifty beats a second. You can see in this shot (without flash sadly) that the tail feathers vibrate too; a flash should give the tail feathers a much crisper look. If you shoot without flash, make sure you set your shutter speed as high as you can, at least to one-eighthundredth of a second.

Hinterland Who's Who

2009-09-19T12:58:00.009-04:00

I'm hoping you can guess this is a chipmunk. I only mentioned Hinterland Who's Who because for some reason when I see a chipmunk it always reminds me of those annoying commercials with the melancholy music that I used to see when I was a kid. I'm not sure why, maybe there was a chipmunk at the beginning or something. And apologies to our international readers, because that's a one hundred percent Canadian-only pop reference.

Like my posting of the red squirrel and the bunny rabbit, this shot is for cuteness value only. I will say if you want a great pic of a squirrel or chipmunk use flash if you can because their fur will look that much more glossy and colourful. This shot could certainly have been improved if I'd used flash, which I didn't.

No One Can Resist the Red-Tailed Hawk

2009-09-12T13:53:00.007-04:00

Even though we've already shown images of Red-Tails not just once, but, er, twice, they're birds of prey, aren't they, which makes them really cool. Raptors (the fancy name for birds of prey) aren't as rare as you might think in the city, but Red-Tails are truly all over the place. Right off the top of my head I can think of at least a dozen spots where they're found regularly.

This particular hawk was in High Park and she spent a good minute or so posing for me. I'd guess this is a female because it was pretty large and female Red-Tails are bigger than the males. Also note that in the sun (this was shade) the Red-Tails often have a much more brilliant reddish colour.

Black-Capped Chickadee on Hollyhock

2009-09-05T11:50:00.008-04:00

These tiny birds seem to be to more common to the east of Toronto (why I couldn't guess) but you can find them most anywhere. If you've never seen one you might be surprised just how small they are. Highly inquisitive and usually quite tame they'll follow you around if you walk through their territory and also eat right out of your hand, though as always with any kind of wildlife you really should not feed them.

Theoretically because these are tiny birds they should have tiny little bird brains, yet I've seen them identify a hawk from half a mile or more. They'll raise a huge racket as a warning and often they'll spot a hawk before I can since as a flock they have a set of eyes looking in every direction at once. Without practice most people couldn't ID a hawk from half a mile so these little guys aren't as stupid as you might think.

The Ludicrously Hard to Photograph Kingfisher

2009-08-27T15:42:00.005-04:00

If you go to most any sort of reasonably-sized pond in a Toronto park there will usually be a Kingfisher there in the summer, and where there's one there's usually two, because its mate won't be far. They aren't that small, but they're fast - really fast - and also incredibly quick, and they just don't like coming anywhere close to where people are. It's not uncommon that you can be somewhere near a pond and see the Kingfishers flying all over the place, only to find they instantly disappear when you advance to the pond's edge. It's very annoying.

How quick are Kingfishers? At a park in Vaughn (is that Toronto?--close enough) there's a blind beside a rather isolated pond so visitors won't disturb nesting birds. This is about a ten foot wooden wall with some viewing ports cut in, and it's right beside the pond, and as soon as I saw it I guessed that the Kingfisher I could already hear would probably sometimes land on top of this blind to use it as a vantage point to look for fish below (they aren't called Kingfishers for nothing).

So I took a position behind the blind, camera at the ready, and sure enough, not even ten minutes later a Kingfisher lands on top of the wall, not six feet away from me, but before I could actually take a shot, boom! It saw me and was gone again. So when I say these guys are quick I mean they're quick.

I've heard various tips on photographing Kingfishers not all of which are entirely ethical, and I won't share any of those. I'll just say if you want to get a shot of one, especially flying, you have to keep at it, fire off as many shots as you can, and just basically hope you get lucky. That's all you have sometimes.

The Kingfisher below is a female based on the dash of red on its chest, Kingfishers being one of the few birds where the female is more colourful than the male. I shot it at Area 51.

Big Storm and Tornado Hits Toronto

2009-08-21T09:00:00.008-04:00

Well, this is something a little different than what we normally do, but last night a really whopping storm hit the city, and it was wild, so I thought I'd post some video I shot from my eleventh floor pad. If you're paying attention, this is the first video in the long and storied history of Toronto Wildlife. Bear in mind this was during broad daylight, and normally from this position visibility stretches out a couple of miles.

The sound more than anything (from a tiny pocket camera no less) is what makes this impressive, so make sure you have your 5.1 surround hooked up.

The Greatest Great Egret of Them All

2009-08-17T14:26:00.006-04:00

Okay, okay, I promise to post no more shots of Great Egrets for awhile or make any more Great Egret puns unless I meet one that talks and/or kidnaps me. But this was too much to pass up, a flight shot of the same Egret in High Park seen perching below in Part II. Like their close cousins the Blue Heron, these birds are easy pickin's for flight shots because they glide in a nice straight line at relatively low speed and because with wings spread they really are big targets.

Click the image to get a better view.

An Even Greater Great Egret

2009-08-08T13:48:00.005-04:00

How typical: the animal world of the city is reading my blog and after I post a B minus shot of a Great Egret and whine and wail about how hard they are to find, and woo hoo hoo, sure enough, just a short while later I go to High Park again and there are three egrets, flying around, pretty much providing a photo op. And much more clearly here you can be sure this is indeed a genuine Great Egret and not the 'white morph' of the Great Blue Heron because the black legs of the egret are clearly visible. Click to enlarge.

PHOTO TIP: Just like with swans, the white feathers of the Great Egret reflect a huge amount of light which means they can be hard to expose, especially if you want to balance with the background. With swans I say use the spot meter function of your camera, but Egrets are so slight and thin it can be hard to keep them centered all the time. Instead, if you see an Egret you're probably better off adjusting your exposure compensation down about one and two-third to two full stops.

What's So Great About the Great Egret

2009-07-29T16:08:00.004-04:00

I've often kicked myself over reports of having just missed a great egret in Toronto, and every now and then I hear about several hanging around in one spot at once, flying around, spreading those big wings in a way no photographer could resist. I do catch up with them from time to time though, and here's one I shot in the duck pond of High Park.

Note that there is also a Great White Heron, which is simply a Great Blue Heron with all white feathers, a 'morph' as ornithologists call it, but this is not a Great White Heron because it lacks tufts on the top of its head and is a little more slender. I'll also say that egrets aren't quite as skittish as herons...though they're not exactly bold either.

As always, if you want a slightly better look, click to enlarge.

Toronto Coyotes

2009-07-11T12:10:00.014-04:00

Toronto Coyotes doesn't seem as obvious a connection, as, I don't know, say, Toronto Blue Jays, but there are coyotes in Toronto and I ran into a small pack of them recently in, yes, Area 51. Remember, this is a park area literally only a stone's throw from the intersection of a major highway and street, right in the middle of the city.

Here's the one I think was leader of the pack:

This was pretty early in the morning and it's interesting to note that while coyotes were originally diurnal, that is day animals, they've become nocturnal in response to living near humans. Coyotes are so good at adapting to human habitation in fact that they're one of the few animals whose population has increased when they've come in widespread contact with us. It's believed many major North American cities have as many as several thousand coyotes living within their borders, though I'm unaware of any study of this type with regard to Toronto.

I saw three coyotes in total, and here was the straggler:

Like his or her pals this coyote spent quite awhile hovering close to see what I'd do next. When they saw that I was just going to take their picture they went on their merry way.

And though this is pure speculation, I think you can tell which of these coyotes is the dominant one by looking at the eyes. Here's a closeup of the straggler:

Now check out the closeup of the coyote I think was the leader, excusing the poorer quality because he was farther away:

Again, it is pure speculation and perhaps it's all in my imagination, but while the eyes of the coyote straggler look worried and a little afraid, the eyes of this other coyote don't look to me to be scared at all. So I think that's the boss...

My best tip for spotting a coyote: go out very early in the morning.

Who Was Icarus, Anyway?

2009-07-04T15:06:00.005-04:00

Those of you who are absolutely overeducated will know Icarus was the guy from Greek myth who made his own set of wings but flew too close to the sun so that the wax in the wings melted and he, um...crashed and died.

Here's a Cedar Waxwing, not to be confused with the slightly larger and harder to find Bohemian Waxwing. And yes, there is waxy stuff on their secondary wings the purpose of which is still a mystery. I'm pretty sure these birds don't crash on sunny days though.

Or maybe they do...Cedar Waxwings eat so much fruit they some times get drunk from eating overly ripe, fermented berries. MADD should step in right away.

A Moth Welcome to Eat My Clothes

2009-06-26T12:19:00.005-04:00

In keeping with our recent spate of bug shots, here's the quite beautiful Ctenucha virginica, also known as a Virginia Ctenucha.

These are daytime moths that can be found from Virginia (hence the name) all the way up through Ontario and parts west. This one was within a stone's throw of the East Don River. Click on the photograph to enlarge this guy, because he looks pretty cool.

Ischnura verticalis with a Drop of Water

2009-06-22T16:05:00.003-04:00

Yes, this is an example of Ischnura verticalis commonly known as a blue green damselfly and no I didn't know the scientific Latin name, I had to look it up. If you want to get a shot of these or see them flitting around try most any park or area that is marshy or has a small pond. They are predators, so if you're really lucky you can see them eating other little bugs.

I'm not sure how this guy got a big drop of water hanging off him but it made for a cool shot.

Man's Most Deadly Enemy

2009-06-13T15:07:00.006-04:00

With only a camera, flash and tripod I faced down this dread beast. The bane of all Canadians...

Yup. It's a mosquito. A male by the looks of him, because he's pretty big. All pumped up on steroids and possibly West Nile Virus. Try to avoid these and wear lots of deet and bright clothing.

And remember, if you go camping, exactly one mosquito will end up inside your tent and buzz around your ear as you try to sleep. This is actually in the Canadian constitution, so don't blame the mosquitoes for that. They have to do it.

CORRECTION:

Whoops!

After further consultation with our vast and highly paid staff here at Toronto Wildlife, it seems like this is not a mosquito at all but in fact a Chironomid or what's commonly known as a midge fly. In case you had any doubt about our high ethical standards, now you know: if we make a mistake we admit it. The male part of the identification was correct.

FYI, mosquitoes and midge flies are apparently often hard to distinguish, so my original guess, er or mistake, can perhaps be forgiven.

American Goldfinch

2009-06-06T14:02:00.003-04:00

Here's another species I see all over Toronto in the summertime that most people (I think) never notice because they think every bird flying by must be a pigeon or sparrow. If you have a fair-sized backyard I guarantee goldfinches pass through from time to time.

This is a male. The females are also yellow but a duller shade. Look for goldfinches especially in the Don Valley river area.

Black-Crowned Night-Heron

2009-06-03T12:54:00.005-04:00

I'm no bird psychologist, but I'm pretty sure this black-crowned night-heron wasn't overjoyed to see me. I caught him waiting for some unwary fish to go by at a small stretch of white water along the Don River. Perhaps he thought I was there for fish too.

Night-herons BTW are the most common herons in the world and can be found on five of the...let me count my fingers...seven continents. If you want an image of a heron they're a good bet because they aren't nearly as skittish as Great Blue Herons. That doesn't mean you can run at them while yelling however. Always be discreet and deliberate when approaching any kind of bird.

Buying Camera Equipment on the Net

2009-06-02T10:58:00.003-04:00

I touched on this in a previous post about where to buy camera equipment in Toronto, but I've gotten other questions about buying gear (especially used) from the US.

Let me point out again, you pay no duty whatever on camera equipment purchased from the US and shipped to Canada. You will have to pay PST and GST and cover the exchange of course but when it comes to used equipment you'll still usually save cash, and sometimes quite a lot of cash, by buying stateside.

If you're worried about buying used, it's actually a much better value for your money than buying new. Almost all my lenses and most of my cameras were bought used. A used lens works just as well as a new one.

As far as specific outlets, I'd recommend both B&H Photo and Adorama who are both honest and quite conservative when it comes to their grading system on equipment. Check them out.

Punching Above His Weight

2009-05-26T10:36:00.006-04:00

Sure maybe I'm paranoid, but as I snapped this guy's picture I swear he kept looking in my direction every time the shutter fired, just as you see here. I've seen wasps do this before which is interesting because this little specimen is actually related to the wasp family even though it's called an Argid Sawfly.

Taken at the Don Valley Brickworks, which is yes, near the Don River.

Click to enlarge and really see the compound eye.

Emergency Ditch

2009-05-16T13:16:00.004-04:00

Yes, I'm behind a little. Here's a Common Goldeneye found off the Leslie Street Spit in April, almost certainly on his way farther north.

I have lots of images of these guys and when they land they always look like they're crashing. It must be the big eye. A lesson for all you budding animators out there.

Let me also emphasize like I have before, if you're using a tripod the chances of getting a flight shot of a Goldeneye or any bird will be greatly reduced. You just can't react quickly enough. If you have a 500mm or 600mm lens then of course you need a tripod. But if not, try to leave that sucker at home.

Where to Find Wildlife and Birds in Toronto-Part II

2009-05-14T17:22:00.007-04:00

By popular demand and protest, mostly a lot of 'Where did you take that picture?' emails, here are some other spots in the Toronto area that you might want to check out along with the spots from Part One. And remember, here at Toronto Wildlife we define 'Toronto' in a pretty relaxed way.

Colonel Sam Smith Park--Found at the foot of Kipling right on the lakeshore this park offers a series of paths between various inlets and ponds. A great place for waterfowl to be sure, but also a spot where you can find mink and fox and probably some other stuff.
Humber Bay East--Just a stone's throw or so down Lakeshore Blvd. to the east from Colonel Sam Smith Park you can find Humber Bay East. This is mostly a spot for waterfowl in the spring and winter.
Lynde Shores Conservation Area--Okay, this is WAY farther to the east, in Whitby technically speaking. Take the 401 to the Brock Street exit (not Brock Road) and then south to Victoria Street and west to Lynde Shores. Here there are always birds and some extensive walking paths through the marsh where you will often see (typically shy) deer. In the fall the wooden boardwalk off to the side of the parking lot gives access to the sight of literally tens of thousands of Canada Geese taking off each morning. Note you must pay to park at this location.

Solitary Sandpiper

2009-05-09T14:44:00.005-04:00

Okay, now I'm really being a wiseguy.

There are actually several species of Sandpiper, and they all look very similar and can thus be hard to distinguish.

One is the Spotted Sandpiper. I'm pretty sure that's what we're seeing here, but there's also another species called the Solitary Sandpiper. These don't really spend all their time alone, they're just more solitary than other sandpipers. And while I am pretty sure that this is a Spotted Sandpiper (because, um, of the spots) he is alone.

Which makes him a solitary Sandpiper. Get it?

I apologize.

Daring Daytime Burglar

2009-05-05T15:25:00.006-04:00

Like the image from another recent post, this was taken quite literally on the banks of the Don River. This raccoon, I suspect quite young, was out in the middle of day, which is something you don't often see. There was nothing else in this tree that I could detect, so I guess he was just goofing around.

Many years ago while jogging I surprised a raccoon very early in the morning and in a complete panic it attempted to climb a nearby No Parking sign. With a lot of slipping and sliding it actually succeeded...and ended up right at my eye level. Not great as escape plans go.

Tree Swallow with an Attitude

2009-04-30T15:06:00.004-04:00

Yes, the swallows have returned...er, well, actually they returned a few weeks ago and I've just forgotten to post this picture. And no, they don't just return to San Juan Capistrano.

This specimen (a male I think) clearly seems to think it's superior to me, which must be why we get the looking down the beak look. This is surprising because I've often noted that swallows don't seem too bright: they spend the whole day basically chasing each other in circles. And yes, that's all day, every day. Yet somehow, I'm the low guy.

Male Wood Duck

2009-04-21T12:06:00.008-04:00

Yes, a baby wood duckling is cute but an adult male wood duck is spectacular.

Here's a male right along the shores of the unfairly maligned Don River. A lot of people are shocked to know there are such colourful birds so close to home, but (like I keep saying about so much) wood ducks are really quite common. They're just very shy. They also happen to be the only ducks that nest in trees instead of beside the water, and up in the trees they're that much harder to spot once the foliage kicks in. Wood ducks are in fact so common you're allowed to hunt them during duck season if you're so inclined (but not in city limits of course).

If you want to see these guys with your own eyes your best chance will usually be the duck pond at High Park.

When Hawks Attack

2009-03-28T15:40:00.003-04:00

We hate to repeat ourselves at Toronto Wildlife and sure we've posted an image of a Red-tailed hawk before. But this is a different red-tailed hawk and it's a cool action shot so there.

This hawk actually had a black squirrel and a grey squirrel trapped on two not-so-high trees just about four feet apart. Here he's just making his strike on the grey squirrel. Normally I don't love shots that have blurry wing motion but I think this works considering the context.

For the more timid and romantic among you...the squirrel survived. They both did. And after awhile the red-tail gave up and went to look for easier prey.

Taken at Colonel Sam Smith park in Etobicoke. Click to enlarge and get a better look at this picture.

Sunbathing on the First Day of Spring

2009-03-20T12:03:00.003-04:00

To usher in the first day of spring (today!), here's an an image of a painted turtle basking in the sun's rays. And yes, these guys are probably still hibernating now, this image was taken last summer.

Painted turtles are all over Toronto, in fact they're very common from Southern Canada right down to Mexico. Sometimes you can catch a half dozen of more of them on a log or rock all basking together and piled up like a bad multi-vehicle crash on the 401. Any sort of wetland near your home will almost for sure have one or more of these guys, like with a lot of things you just have to go out and look. Turtles are shy though, you may have to look close.

And note: this really isn't a very good image. Because this guy is basking in the direct sun there are harsh shadows around the edge of his shell and by his rear leg. Always avoid harsh direct sunlight for any kind of portrait, whether it's of Uncle Jack or a turtle.

Underneath Swan Lake

2009-03-19T14:57:00.005-04:00

Many people don't realize that during the spring and fall the climate isn't the only thing that shifts. The earth's magnetic field is also subtly distorted during these seasons causing disorientation in many animal species. Swans, as you can see from this picture, will often spend at least a couple of weeks upside down before they manage to right themselves.

Or, possibly, this swan is working just a little too hard to see what food is on the lake floor. I'll let you decide.

And a photo tip for taking pictures of swans: set your camera's meter to the center or spot setting if it has this feature. Swans reflect so much light that any sort of matrix or balanced metering will pretty much always overexpose the swan and burn out huge portions of the bird. This is especially true in direct sunlight. So be careful out there.

That Touch of Mink

2009-03-11T12:06:00.006-04:00

We've taken an awfully long hiatus here at Toronto Wildlife and feel free to make any and all hibernation jokes you can think of.

Here though, to help usher in the approaching spring, is a spanking new image of a mink on the shores of Lake Ontario. I actually startled this mink's mate within a large jetty of rocks which turned out to be quite a stroke of luck. Because when this second one returned to find its mate it more or less swam right to me. Shortly after that both mink disappeared in the rocks and made a clean getaway.

Mink are tiny and cute and have soft fur I suppose but they're rumoured to be vicious. Birds will go nuts if they see a mink around. You probably shouldn't pet one no matter how cute they look.

Superbowl Eve Special

2009-01-31T17:29:00.005-05:00

Okay, now this is really low, but in honour of Superbowl 43 (is that a registered trademark?) featuring the Steelers vs. the Cardinals I've got this nice close-up shot of no, not an Arizona Cardinal but a Toronto Cardinal. For all I know however, this guy goes down to Arizona for the winter. It's not impossible....(though many cardinals stick around here all winter long).

FWIW, with the betting line at 6.5 and favouring the Steelers I'll predict the Cardinals will not cover the spread.

Ladybug in Summertime

2009-01-27T11:22:00.002-05:00

Currently it's about minus five hundred degrees outside and amazingly there's a housefly moving around on the screen in my double-paned window. I should take a picture of this hardy customer, but he's just a housefly after all so his fifteen minutes of fame will have to come some other time.

For this colorful ladybug however, the time of fame is now. I keep threatening to do a post on macro techniques and I will one of these days. I will say for now that this image was taken was a 300mm lens and an extension tube.

Great Blue Taking Off

2009-01-24T11:38:00.005-05:00

A little taste of the Florida everglades during the freezing depths of the horrid Toronto winter? No! A taste of Toronto in the summertime!!

Yes, there are lots of Great Blue Herons in Toronto, many right in the centre of the city. In fact herons are so common if you go to most any sort of wetland area (even a small one) there's probably a blue heron hanging around for at least part of the day, most likely the early morning or late evening. The difficulty lies in the fact that they are very skittish, so if you walk up to a marshland like an approaching army or even just walk up casually most herons will fly away as soon as they see you--or even before. They're also surprisingly difficult to see when they're wading in the water because their camo is good and because they stay very still to lure in the fishies. But having said all that, if you check a few places and look around you'll find some Great Blues out there for sure.

Winter Robin

2009-01-10T12:51:00.005-05:00

Okay, remember when I said I never go out in the winter, well it looks like I lied, because a couple of weeks ago there was a brief warm spell and I did indeed venture out with the old camera. It used to be the first robin of spring was a big deal, but lots of them simply spend the winter here now because it's so (relatively) easy to find food. This guy had a dozen pals at least with him and he was right in our mysterious Area 51.

For real camera buffs out there your might be interested to know this image was shot at 3200 ISO. Not bad.

Green Heron at Area 51

2008-12-24T12:01:00.004-05:00

This is the best I can do for Christmas, something green, and well, it's flying like Santa does, so that's as close as you're gonna get. Sorry.

I spotted this green heron passing through my famous Area 51 and got this shot just as it was jumping off a tree. This shows just how well autofocus can work because I had about a half second or less of lead time to take aim for this image. It's also an instructive lesson on the up and downsides of using a tripod, because while every book and website will say you must use a tripod, the fact is, when you need to react quickly a tripod is about as useful as a ball and chain wrapped around your neck. Which doesn't mean you shouldn't ever use a tripod either.

Perhaps a subject for an upcoming post....Happy Holidays!!

Miniature Amphibious Car

2008-12-14T13:38:00.004-05:00

Okay...it's not actually a very tiny amphibious car, it's a Candy-striped Leafhopper (and you were just about to say that, I know). But I always think this bug looks like a little amphibious car. And I just love this bug, though it's not easy to find and even harder to take a good picture of because even for an insect it's tiny.

Some macro photography tips coming soon....

Lesser Yellowlegs

2008-12-11T15:47:00.005-05:00

This bird seems to be looking at me thinking, 'Who you callin' lesser, buddy?,' but more likely he or she is just annoyed by my flash. These little shorebirds are always on or around mud flats when I see them, and they are very active, always feeding and zipping around in low-level flight.

The greater yellowlegs of course is ten feet tall, and can cause detectable seismic readings whenever it lands. No...I'm making that up. They actually look almost exactly the same, except their bill is a little longer. But my way would be cooler.

Taken at Lynde Creek.

The Lost Ruddy Turnstone

2008-12-06T12:21:00.009-05:00

As winter begins to really set in I should be switching to some winter images to get you all in the mood. The only problem is I don't really have that many winter images, because heck it's cold in the winter and I don't like it much. Sure I should be telling you it doesn't matter, if you want to take pictures of wildlife or see wildlife or any nature at all you've got to get out there all the time, rain, sleet or snow. And sure, you can do that, just be rest assured that more than likely I won't be out there with you in the winter months.

But....

I do have an image of an arctic bird: a ruddy turnstone walking along the beaches of Lake Ontario. These birds spend their summers way, way up in the arctic and summers around the Florida keys and Cuba. This guy must have got separated from his flock during the northbound springtime trip (when this was taken). He was walking and flying up and down the beach looking for his pals. I hope somehow he found them.

Turnstones incidentally get their name by turning over stones to look for food. You would have never guessed that on your own.

A Thoughtful Blue Jay

2008-12-01T15:55:00.003-05:00

I don't mean thoughtful as in polite, I mean full of thought. And this blue jay does seem to be thinking of something, perhaps our rule that it's better to have a good picture of common wildlife than a bad picture of something rare. Sure, that's exactly what he's thinking about. But this image is another good example of that rule in my book.

Interestingly, blue jays are known to mimic the cries of hawks and I actually heard this jay do a perfect (and I mean perfect) imitation of a red-tailed hawk. Why jays do this isn't known exactly. I'll tell you though, the impression was good enough to fool anyone.

Where to Buy Camera Equipment in Toronto

2008-11-26T14:11:00.014-05:00

So you've decided you want to take some pictures of wildlife (or anything) and you want to know where to get some equipment to make those images the best they can be. For the brick and mortar crowd you can try:

Downtown Camera--Located right downtown (duh!) these guys have some of the best prices and they're very friendly and helpful, a big factor in my book. And they carry cool stuff like Voigtlander rangefinders. Their prices on used equipment are also usually excellent.

Vistek--Toronto's 'pro' camera store, Vistek has great selection and sometimes very competitive prices. Their salespeople however are a different story. Many of them seem to have drunk from the same vat of specially tart vinegar each morning and they really just aren't nice. The exception is on the upper 'pro' floor: I've often received excellent attention here even when I was buying something worth only about twenty bucks. So if you go to Vistek just be wary of who you deal with. If you do get a jerk just ask for someone else! That should show them. Used selection at Vistek is very limited.

Henrys--Toronto's traditional camera store, Henrys has expanded a lot in the last few years and seems to be moving more into the consumer electronics Future Shop-type market. What's more, their salespeople aren't very friendly either (there are exceptions) and to top it off they don't know much. But a deal's a deal, if they have one sure, and sometimes you can find a great deal on their eBay site. Otherwise I'd steer clear of Henrys.

DVshop--Located a little more to the west of the city, DVshop specializes mostly in video, but they have still camera stuff too. Their selection is limited but they often have truly great prices and a lot of stuff they don't carry they can order. Also, perhaps because it's not a big store they're extremely friendly and helpful.

And on-line:

Camera Canada--is not in Toronto at all, it's in London (yes, Ontario), but if you're in Toronto you can use them, can't you? They have a wide selection and the shipping is usually pretty reasonable. Compare prices before you buy. No used department but they do have a new 'trading post' where you can post or read ads that others have posted. I've never used this so I'm not sure how it works but it might be something you'd like to try out.

Kijiji--If you're not familiar with Kijiji, no, it's not a typo. This is a classified ad site but there's all sorts of camera equipment available (hint: look in the camera section). Sure it's used, but camera equipment doesn't have nearly as much potential for hidden problems as does something like a car. If you run a camera through its paces when you go to purchase and it works then, well, it works. It's ever easier to check a lens, you just need to make sure there's no fungus or dust inside (or at least not too much dust) and no oil on the blades. Just as it says on the site however, only buy from local people that you can see and meet, not a guy with a great deal somewhere in Labrador or Kuala Lumpur.

B&H Photo--The largest camera store in New York (and heck, maybe the world) B&H Photo does a rip-roaring internet business. They're very honest and reliable and fast, but there is a good news/bad news aspect to it. The good news is THERE IS NO DUTY OR TARIFF ON CAMERA EQUIPMENT FROM THE UNITED STATES. You will have to pay PST and GST (and the exchange of course) but that's it. The bad news: if you buy a new camera or lens in the US in most instances the warranty is not valid in Canada. This is definitely true for Nikon so always check with the respective manufacturer. Also realize that though this means you're better off not buying a new camera from the States a lens is probably worth taking the risk, and for used equipment B&H have their own three month warranty. If it's any sort of camera equipment you can be almost sure to find it here, both new and used.

Adorama--another giant camera store in New York, pretty much everything I said for B&H goes for Adorama too, though I find Adorama isn't quite as fast on the shipping front. Realize that even with the exchange you can get a lot of stuff cheaper at either of these places than you can in Canada.

KEH--Yes, also in the US, Atlanta based KEH is a HUGE online depository of camera equipment. They're also very reputable and offer a three month guarantee. They're very conservative about how they grade equipment so you'll probably be surprised at what good condition the equipment is in. KEH does charge a little more for shipping than B&H or Adorama, so like with everything, do your comparison shopping.

And that's about it for now, though of course there's Ebay, but I don't recommend that, since there's just no way to know what you're getting.

And remember: the great thing about getting expensive camera equipment is you can usually sell it for close to what you bought it for, so buy, buy, buy!

More Baby Ducks

2008-11-25T15:35:00.003-05:00

Okay, it's pure box office, but I'm showing another pic of a duckling. This is a wood duckling, wood ducks maybe being the most beautiful of waterfowl, or so some say. They're actually reasonably plentiful around Toronto in the spring and fall and even summer but they are shy and the only place I know of to get close to them is the duck pond at High Park. If you see them however, please don't feed them. The feed will attract more birds and pump up the algae content of the water far too high.

I'll post an image of a male wood duckling in full breeding plumage some other time. They really do look cool.

Deer in Area 51

2008-11-23T12:03:00.004-05:00

No, this ain't the greatest photograph in the world but they say a picture's worth a thousand words and I wanted to illustrate something. And please note that if you're really educated the original quotation was that a picture is worth ten thousand words. Look it up.

Anyhow, my point was that there really is a lot of wildlife around, and sometimes when I tell people for instance that there are deer in parks right in the centre of the city or near to it they just don't believe me. But it's true and here's the proof: a deer in a Toronto city park with the added bonus that you can see my car in the background! How cool is that? Now I won't tell you exactly which park this is, I'm going to call it Area 51 to denote that it's a secret but I will tell you it's only a few hundred square meters (or less) and that it's right at the intersection of a major Toronto street and a major Toronto highway. So it just goes to show you that a little protection and encouragement can go a long way for wildlife and you don't need to travel to Algonquin Park or Nunavut to see cool stuff. Just FYI, the image of the frog you can find on here somewhere also comes from my mysterious Area 51 and there'll be more of these in the future. And no, if you email me, I still won't tell you where it is.

Of course if you pay me....

Canada's National Symbol in the Morning

2008-11-15T17:22:00.003-05:00

Though I'm unaware that today represents any sort of National Holiday in Canada (though it should be one, why not?) it was only going to be a matter of time I suppose before I showed an image of a beaver.

I find that these varmints are surprisingly shy, especially if you're on the same level as they are, less so if you're looking down at them from an elevated riverbank which was the case here. Since they are so shy they'll often come at peek at you from underwater if you're at the edge of their pond. Let me also add if you've never seen the kind of damage beavers can do to any and all trees in their neighbourhood, it's pretty impressive. They take out everything, and in some spots the city will place wires around trees to protect them from beaver vandalism.

This specimen swam by in the early morning off the south edge of the Leslie Street Spit. You can probably tell by now I go there fairly often.

Fall Migration, Part III

2008-11-13T16:42:00.006-05:00

Yes, sequels, sequels, sequels, that's all anyone gives you now and I'm no different. Also seen at Colonel Sam Smith park is this American Wigeon (sorry, no Canadian Wigeon), another male in breeding plumage. And of course these guys are just passing through Toronto on their way farther south. With the weather changing since I took this it's likely this guy has flown the coop by now.

And just to show you how resilient wildlife of all kinds can be, the wigeon population of North America was cut in half at least in the 1980's because of drought, and already it's completely rebounded. So there.

Fall Migration, Part II

2008-11-12T12:54:00.013-05:00

This is another of those 'No way this is in Toronto' birds, but it is, yes way. It's a Northern Shoveler male in breeding plumage. The large, flat beak is for straining food that it shovels up from the bottom (I bet you saw that coming). Shoveler couples are usually monogamous and in fact this fellow's wife or significant other was right near him though I wasn't able to get a good shot of her.

Like with the Hooded Mergansers below I saw this bird at Colonel Sam Smith Park. He and his squeeze won't be hanging around for long.

Yes, Virginia You Can Find These In Toronto

2008-11-09T12:14:00.004-05:00

The fall migration is mostly passed now but there are still some ducks and aquatic birds passing through and hanging around.

These two Hooded Mergansers I found only yesterday and they fall into the category of 'no way those are in Toronto!' But they are. The crest on top of their heads isn't always there, they have to raise it and when it's down they can easily be mistaken for Buffleheads (consult your local bird ID book or website). These two guys were with only one other immature male and there were no females about at all so perhaps they're stragglers.

And where in Toronto would you find these? Well, since they're always going to be passing through in the fall or spring they can be in most any pond in the city but these were at Colonel Sam Smith Park along the lake shore right near the Humber College campus. Hurry and you might still catch them!!

Just a Sparrow

2008-11-07T10:41:00.004-05:00

Going on our theory that it's better to have a good shot of a bad bird than a bad shot of a good one here's a nice look at one of your most common and (seemingly) forgettable birds: a sparrow. But before you write off sparrows completely as wildlife too mundane and dull to bother with, realize there are thirty-two species of sparrow in North America. Not all pass through or hang out in Toronto but many do, all kinds of subtle variations and varieties, so always pay attention to what's around you. And if you have a camera and see a bird, take its picture quick...you may be surprised at what you've captured an image of.

To drive my point home, this is easily one of the most common of the common sparrows, an American Tree Sparrow, likely a male, and really, I think he looks pretty cool.

One Curious Amphibian

2008-11-06T09:30:00.004-05:00

This bullfrog came to check me out at the edge of his pond in the Don Valley and did so from many different angles to be sure I wasn't causing trouble. Yes, I'm a broken record (or possibly a broken CD) but like so much stuff frogs and toads are plentiful anywhere in Toronto. Just check around any pond or marsh-like area and if you can't see them just listen: if there's a weird sort of noise you keep hearing that's not a bird and seems to come from nowhere in particular, you can be almost sure it's some type of frog. You can also spot them by looking for a sunny area in a pond because they like to catch rays in the morning to warm up.

The Syrphid Fly

2008-10-31T14:18:00.006-04:00

I scratched and scratched my head to try to think of a good image for Hallowe'en (always remember to put in the cool apostrophe) and I finally hit on the ingenious Syrphid fly, pictured to the right. Also called hover flies, these guys are in costume so to speak all year-round by pretending to be wasps and bees (which sting) when they're only a bunch of flies (which don't sting). There are hundreds of syrphid fly species so I'm not really sure exactly which one this is, but it's small, even for a fly. In the summer you can almost always find syrphids hovering around flowers since like real bees they feed on nectar and pollen. Bear that in mind in case any come by tonight for a treat.

European (Super) Starling

2008-10-30T13:12:00.009-04:00

I've just always liked these birds for some reason. In the fall you can see some really big flocks of them gathering about Toronto, often near bridges and overpasses. They're 'European' because they aren't native to North America...in fact all the starlings here descend from about one hundred that were released in Central Park in the 1890's as part of a Shakespeare festival and an attempt to introduce all the birds mentioned by the Great Bard into the New World! There are now about two hundred million starlings in North America and they can be found from Mexico to Alaska. They must have some very crowded family reunions.

This is actually the non-breeding plumage of the starling and it's more striking than the breeding phase, which is unusual.

Please Sir, Can I Have Some More?

2008-10-27T15:34:00.006-04:00

The answer was no, of course, I turned this young American Red Squirrel into the street with nothing, or, at least, I turned him out into the forest with nothing.

Smaller than your typical grey and black squirrels which are of course just about everywhere, including your attic when you don't want them to be, these guys (also called 'chickarees') are not nearly so common about TO, though they aren't endangered at all so far as I'm aware.

The main reason for bringing them up really was I just felt this picture was pretty much irresistible.

Where to Find Wildlife and Birds in Toronto

2008-10-23T14:07:00.011-04:00

Well, as I've said before, you can really look just about anywhere: the nearest reasonably big park, your backyard, you name it. But for those of you wanting slightly more specific ideas, here are some of the best places to look for birds and wildlife in Toronto and 'Greater Toronto.' In no particular order you can try:

Glen Rouge Park--a very big park in the general vicinity of the Toronto zoo accessible off Kingston Road just east of Port Union Road. Filled with (often poorly marked) trails you can find deer, fox, coyotes, woodpeckers, kingfishers, herons, geese, various other birds, and several army divisions of black squirrels. Realize however the park is very large so the animals aren't exactly lined up for you to see them, and you can get lost here quite easily, so always be prepared to walk a couple of hours.
High Park--a large park on the west side of Toronto that stretches from the Queensway north to Bloor and that can be entered at several points with lots of (free!) parking. At various times of the year there are many aquatic and shore birds, and on a more permanent basis, fox, mink and raccoons. I've even heard there's a deer in High Park though how it got in there I have no idea.
Leslie Street Spit--open to the public only on weekends and holidays and located at the foot of Leslie Street (duh!) south of Lakeshore you can find most anything on the spit: tons of birds if you're lucky, turtles, fox, and probably all sorts of other stuff. Be warned again that this park can trap you into taking a very long walk because whatever distance you walk on your way in you've got to walk again on the way out. Pace yourself accordingly.
The Don Valley--this may not seem like such specific advice but the Don Valley is fantastic for animal life. Just as traffic engineers saw the valley as a great place for traffic to get through and built the Don Valley Parkway, the Don Valley river system is a natural highway for animal life. Check your handy GPS or buy a map for $5.00 from CAA and go poking around in any park near, in or adjacent to the valley and who knows what you'll find. I've seen deer within a couple of hundred yards of the Don River all the way from Sheppard to the Lakeshore and often within a stone's throw of major streets.

That should keep you busy for awhile, and if you're really serious about spotting something cool remember to go early in the morning (think: sunrise) or near sunset.

What Bees Do in the Nighttime

2008-10-22T16:16:00.008-04:00

I thought I'd add in some racy material to drive up my google ranking. So I've got you here now and you're wondering, waiting with bated breath to find out just what is it exactly that bees do in the nighttime. Well, the wait's over. I'll tell you.

They sleep.

Whew. Thank goodness you don't let the kids read this. Anyhow, bees are hard to get a good shot of because they're well...busy as bees. They move about constantly when they're on flowers, searching for pollen and scooping it up, antennae flitting about all over when they're not actually flying. I was able to get a nice, crisp shot of this bee because she (and it's almost certainly a she) is sleeping, just clinging to this spot on a flower stalk overnight. You can often catch bees in this state early in the morning so this is always the best time to get a good shot of them. It also seems to me with only anecdotal evidence that there are more bees lying around like this after a heavy dew. It puts them right out I guess.

Trumpeter Swans

2008-10-21T09:37:00.009-04:00

Okay, this is something you don't see around the middle of Toronto every day: two trumpeter swans flying by. Which raises the question of how exactly we define 'Toronto.' For our purposes here Toronto stretches from about Oakville in the west to Whitby/Oshawa on the east and maybe about as far north as Richmond Hill...in other words anything that looks like it's part of the same city if you were looking from space. And I have looked from space so I know.

In any case I saw this couple around Whitby, and it's pretty remarkable to see these birds fly because they're very large. You can hear the hum of their wings flapping from a considerable distance. What's more these birds were once essentially extinct in Ontario and have been re-introduced the last few years to what seems like great success, because while you won't see them flying around downtown I see them quite often in local marshes and wetlands. Almost always they'll have large yellow tags on their wings which shows they're part of the tracking program used to monitor the species' re-introduction. One of these swans was in fact tagged, you just can't see it in this shot.

Let me also add, after saying that the sound of a killdeer is nothing like the sound 'killdeer,' trumpeter swans are very aptly named. They can make a lot of noise, and because they're very territorial they're especially loud if other birds come too close to them . Canada geese send them right over the edge, so please never invite both of these species over for dinner. You'll regret it.

The Sly Killdeer

2008-10-16T15:50:00.007-04:00

Killdeer are another species of bird that lots of folks are probably unaware of though like I keep saying with so much else they are very common throughout Toronto (except during winter). They can be found near most shorelines and rivers and sometimes even supermarket parking lots and they're easy to zero in on because you can hear them making a little peep sound which is what gives them their name. No, they don't kill deer, and no the sound doesn't sound like 'kill-deer' to me but that's how it is.

Because I spend far too much time looking at myself in the mirror I thought this particular killdeer was trying to mate with me...but in fact this is a 'broken wing' display performed when a bird feels you (or any potential predator) are getting too close to their nest. The idea is to look as vulnerable as possible so you'll be distracted away from the nest and chase the wounded bird. It doesn't seem like a great strategy to me however an adult bird certainly has a better chance of escaping a predator than an egg does. I should note that this time everyone survived quite happily.

Encounter with the Deadly Baby Mallard

2008-10-15T16:25:00.009-04:00

You should NOT go near areas where birds breed during breeding season since they are easily disrupted and can abandon a nest. But if you go looking for birds you will run into some young 'uns from time to time and that's okay. Just use a little common sense.

This is a baby mallard duck, and as you can see they're incredibly dangerous. I was able to photograph this one with a super-telephoto so while it looks like I was close I was really safe about a half mile away. Until you've stared a baby mallard in the eye...well, you just don't understand death. It's that simple.

Turkey Vultures

2008-10-10T16:30:00.005-04:00

If you think insects are icky and all birds nice, don't look at any turkey vultures too closely. When I was a kid growing up in Toronto I had no idea that anything like a turkey vulture could be found 'round these here parts, but like with a lot of the creatures (not all) I mention at Toronto Wildlife they're pretty easy to find. I've seen them around the DVP, the Gardiner, High Park, all up and down the lakeshore, and sometimes in large groups as numerous as a dozen or more. The problem is they're usually high up (and I mean really high up). I've seen them up a couple of thousand feet easy.

This one was with a bunch of his compatriots near the bluffs by the lake and they were quite low, which let me get this shot. I made sure to act alive so I wouldn't get eaten, because these guys do eat carion mostly.

Click the photo to enlarge and get a better view.