Thinking about Saskatchewan

I'm looking forward to my next birding trip where I'll be visiting Saskatchewan again with my friend Tom Hince.   Here are a few images from a trip we took last year to the western portion of the province, from Turtle Lake south to the Cypress Hills and Grasslands National Park. 

 Sunrise near Turtle Lake

American Avocet

Family of Richardson's Ground Squirrels

a Nuttall's Cottontail relaxing in Grasslands National Park

vista from Jone's Peak

 Pronghorns were commonly seen during the trip. 

I've never seen a Pronghorn  jump over a  fence.

Alkali flat south of the Cypress Hills

Marbled Godwit

Northern Harrier with vole nest

Yellow-headed Blackbird

outhouse, south of Cypress Hills

Prairie Rattlesnake

Ojibway Park feeders

male Red-bellied Woodpecker (if you look hard you can even see a hint of red on the belly!)

The nature centre where I work has been closed since the middle of April due to the current strike by city workers but the park and trails are still open. The feeders behind the nature centre are a favourite spot for birders and nature photographers.  The regular winter feeder visitors such as Black-capped Chickadees, Red-bellied Woodpeckers, American Goldfinches and Tufted Titmice have been joined by Rose-breasted Grosbeaks, Baltimore Orioles, White-crowned Sparrows and Ruby-throated Hummingbirds.  In addition to birds the feeders also attract Eastern Chipmunk, Woodchuck, Eastern Gray Squirrel (abundant) and the occasional White-tailed Deer. 

Whirlpool Galaxy

Last night was a clear night so I spent a few hours at the observatory. One of the more interesting images obtained through the C14 scope was of the Whirlpool Galaxy, M51. It is a conspicuous spiral galaxy about 23 million light years away. The smaller object below is NGC 5195, a smaller galaxy captured by M51. They are located near the handle of the Big Dipper which is high in the night sky at this time of year.

Hummingbird Video and Images

I updated some of my hummingbird images and added a hummingbird video taken with the Canon 5D Mark II on the recent Ecuador trip. You can see them at my  Hummingbirds of Ecuador page.

The Leo Triplett

Last night I was out at the Hallam Observatory. The image below was captured with the 111 mm refractor telescope (equivalent to a 777 mm lens at f7).  This group of three galaxies is called the M66 group or the Leo Triplett and consists of the Messier objects M65 (NGC 3623) and M66 (NGC 3627) as well as the edge-on spiral galaxy NGC 3628.  

All the stars we see at night  (at least here in Canada) are part of our own galaxy, the Milky Way, although if you look carefully in the summer you can see the faint smudge which is the Andromeda Galaxy.  The Leo Triplett is much more distant,  the light from these galaxies took 35,000,000 years to reach my camera sensor! 

Saturn

This year Saturn reached its closest point to Earth on March 8. This image of Saturn was taken March 13 at the Hallam Observatory. The rings are nearly edge on this year!

This image is from a short movie (about 30 sec) of Saturn that I took with my Canon SLR through the 14 inch telescope. The image looked quite dark and fuzzy before it was processed. Once home I used a free program called Lynkeos that aligns and stacks the individual frames of the video into a still image.

Tundra Swan migration

Mid March is the peak of Tundra Swan migration in southwestern Ontario. The sight (and sound) of hundreds, sometimes thousands, of these impressive birds descending into a flooded corn stubble field is truly memorable. Here are a few images taken on March 16, 2008 from the fields adjacent the St. Clair National Wildlife Area near Chatham.