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  The merlin (sometimes called the pigeon hawk) is a smallish falcon that seems at home in regular neighbourhoods.  This one I photographed yesterday while visiting my son in Leduc, Alberta.  It had found a favourite perch in a large tree about four houses down from where he lives.  It is not the first time I have seen one in the suburbs. There are three birds of prey I have seen Western Canada that have a stripped red and white breast.  These include the Cooper's hawk, the sharp-shinned hawk, and the merlin.  Of the three, only the merlin is a falcon and is the smallest.  Its swept-back wings clearly identify it.  The males (above) have a bluish-grey back while females sport a brown one. I have seen merlins in the Lower Mainland, in Kelowna, and now in Leduc - all of them quite at home amid a busy human population.  I guess that suitably sized birds such as robins, pigeons, bluejays, and the like are in such abundance that there is never a risk of going hungry. I have been aware o

Purple martins are our largest swallow and have been declining in numbers because of the loss of habitat.  They are very finicky when it comes to selecting a nesting site.  They like snags (dead standing trees) in or very close to stagnant or slow moving fresh water.  They are also cavity nesters, meaning they want a hole to nest in.   The lack of available nesting sites is due to a number of compounding factors.  First of all, we destroy wetlands by either draining them or covering them with fill.  Then we take down dead trees because think they are ugly or that they are of no use.  As if that wasn't enough, there are those species that would usurp available nesting sites, such as the house sparrows in the above photo, and render what little there is even rarer (that's our fault too because house sparrows and starlings are introduced species that came here from Europe).   The availability of drones that fly and take pictures is also a nuisance as they risk scaring the birds of

I love photographing birds in spring.  They have shed their winter plumage and are now attired in their best dress clothes for mating.  You wouldn't know the species has sky-blue coverts on their wings with green primaries when they are on the water, but in flight, they are quite colourful.  You can see the wing colours below in the image I took a few years ago. Male blue-winged teal in flight. I have only ever photographed blue-winged teals in Alberta, never in BC, the province that I live in.  However, they most definitely reside there, as you can see from the map  provided by the All About Birds website. The teals are not diving ducks, but rather dabblers.  They tend to eat aquatic invertebrates while breeding and vegetative matter when overwintering in their southern ranges.  A close relative, the green-winged teal, is one I have photographed in BC but never in Alberta.  You can see the ones I photographed in Kelowna below. Green-winged teal (male in flight - inset) The only sp

Although spring boldly declared its presence some weeks ago in Kelowna, BC, where I live, it is just starting to peek through winter's covers here in Leduc, Alberta.  We are staying at a local RV campground that has a small pond at the back.  I saw breeding pairs of numerous ducks - bufflehead, blue-winged teals, mallards, and the ones I photographed above. The male is immediately recognizable with his cinnamon flank and green head, but it is the duck's bill that really gives it away.  The female, although drab in her appearance, shares the male's bill, and can be readily identified with this common feature.  An interesting fact about these birds is that a bonded pair will stay together for long periods of time, longer than most other ducks. The bird's bill has scalloped edges that allow it to filter out larger food particles from the bottom muddy areas of ponds.  On the water, they feed with their tails in the air in a behaviour called dabbling.   They can be found thr

Honeybee mid-flight Yesterday I went to Kelowna's Kangaroo Creek Farm with my family.  While they perused the various exhibits and paddocks, I wandered about with my 500 mm lens snapping pictures of anything that captured my interest.  One such place was a patch of dandelions being actively solicited by honeybees. A 500 mm (750 mm relative) is not generally my lens of choice when photographing insects.  The minimum working distance is extreme at almost 10 feet.  I used my TC14 (1.4x teleconverter) to increase the magnification providing a reproduction ratio of 1:4.  The resulting system allowed me to capture some decent images. A few things were working to my advantage.  The midday sun provided ample light and I positioned myself with my back to it to reduce shadows.  A modest ISO (400) allowed me to shoot at f/11 with a shutter speed of 1/500th of a second.  The lens and camera system provided near-instantaneous focusing, as long as I wasn't too close, and I took lots of photo

My daughter, Leanne, enjoying our hike on Knox Mountain in Kelowna Each of us goes through hills and valleys, sometimes even mountains and canyons, on our sojourn through life.  Joyous moments seem to last but an instant while depressing lows can crawl along at the pace of a handicapped snail.  Fortunately, it seems, that the bulk of life is about maintenance and upkeep, of both self and invested interests.  It is during that metaphoric walk on the plains of life that an abrupt change in topography occurs, often without warning. I love my daughter.  As a parent, I have watched her grow and borne witness to those life events that have both blessed and haunted her.  Where my wife and I could, we have supported her in the difficult times and celebrated with her in the good.  I would like to think that we have made the valleys less daunting and the peaks even higher.   A recent personal setback has left her reeling, yet she still finds moments to enjoy life and enjoy those things that it o