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Male and female Brewer's blackbirds photographed at Munson Pond, Kelowna. Too small to be crows, ravens, or grackles, these birds may seem hard to identify to some.  The blackbird moniker is somewhat misleading as the males actually have a greenish iridescent tint to the body feathers; it's only the head that is really truly black.  And to top it off, the males also have a bright golden eye.  The females are relatively dull, a flat brown colour with a black eye.   The species is very hardy and can be found in most environments.  It thrives in regions occupied with people and undisturbed nature equally well.  They cover most of the North American continent, with the exception of the far eastern states and provinces.   These blackbirds, like their other kin, feed on a wide variety of foods including grains, seeds, and insects.  They will take protein in other forms too as they have been seen taking frogs, nesting chicks, and small rodents....

View from John's Family Conservancy with (above) and without (below) a polarizer filter. Whenever I am shooting landscapes, especially scenes of nature involving water and sky, I like to have a polarizer filter on my lens.  Although the effect of such a filter is more dramatic when clouds are either absent or sparse, even cloudy days benefit from its use.  Blue skies become more vivid, water loses some of the reflection, and the land loses some of the day's blue cast.  The effect the polarizer has on the image relies heavily on the time of day and your angle to the sun. Photos from Akoara, New Zealand.  Above - with polarizer.  Below - no polarizer. You can see from the photos above that a polarizer doesn't always have the same dramatic effect on a scene.  The images on the left show a significant difference with the colours of all the elements being strongly affected.  The shots on the right show only subtle changes; the most dramatic being the colour...

A shutter speed of 1/3200th of a second freezes the action. If you look closely, you can see where dust is knocked off the ball from hitting the bat.  Yup, the ball is screaming away from the bat after being hit, and it is frozen in time.  The shutter speed is fast; not fast enough to freeze a bullet (1/16,000th of a second - with flash), but still enough to capture the moment in clarity.   The degree of frozen motion is relative.  In the above image, every aspect seems to be crisp, even the end of the bat appears motionless.  A closer look changes that illusion though.  Look at the image below; it is the ball and bat (and dust) enlarged.  It seems that the closer you get, the more motion is shown.  This is true, and you can see it when shooting an image from a moving car.  Foreground objects show motion blur while things in the distance appear in greater degrees of definition.   Close up of the above photo - as you get closer ...

Slow shutter speeds at a creek at John's Family Conservatory - shot with iPhone and Mirrorless Nikon It has been said that smartphone cameras can take photos as good as DSLRs and mirrorless cameras.  That is true - sometimes.  One of the conditions required to make the most of your phone's camera is to use the right settings.  This pertains to choosing the right file type, file size, and not over-zooming.  Another is holding the device in a steady manner, especially when doing long exposures or using live view on iPhones.   Of course, the same can be said for DSLRs and mirrorless cameras.  The wrong settings will likely produce poor results.  I did discover that the iPhone's vibration mitigation tech does a wonderful job at keeping the camera steady while my mirrorless Z7ii struggles with the 0.8 second exposure.   The advantage of a DSLR or mirrorless camera is that you can pick the desired lens, exposure, and settings while such choice...

Google Maps image of Munson Pond as it currently lies. I have been a resident of Kelowna for almost four years now.  I do a lot of wildlife photography, mostly of birds and insects, and was looking for a local ecosystem where I could capture the kinds of images I wanted.  I was thrilled to discover Munson Pond, a lovely little wetland with an enormous variety of wildlife, close and easy access, and well-maintained trails.  It was everything I could hope for. I have made numerous trips to the park and have taken hundreds of images.  I recently created a Facebook group called “Friends of Munson Pond” that shares some of those images.  The purpose of the group wasn’t to show my work as much as it was to draw attention to the plight of the wetlands.  There is a road to be constructed in the spring of 2025.  The development is called the Burtch Road extension project.  You can view the plans for it at the city’s link given below. My concern doesn’t...

 Squirrels are a huge group of rodents divided into 14 different genera in North America.  These include the tree squirrels, the ground squirrels, and the flying squirrels.   Ground squirrels have 8 of those genera and can be divided into chipmunks, prairie dogs, and marmots.   I took the above photos while visiting John's Family Conservatory a few days ago.  The Columbian ground squirrel, sometimes called the Louisiana marmot, is a different species from the golden-mantled ground squirrel.  The former are larger and tend to live in less mountainous regions.   I saw quite a few of these marmots/ground squirrels on my walk in John's Family Conservatory in Kelowna.  They live throughout the region; I often see them while walking along the banks of Mission Creek in town.  They are only ever seen in warmer months as they hibernate throughout the cooler ones.  I saw my first one of the year only last week.  In the spring t...

Yellow-rumped (Audubon) warbler.  They have finally arrived. I can remember seeing my first yellow-rumpted warbler just over 30 years ago.  Actually, there was a flock of them, and they briefly alit on a tree at the confluence of two streams in the town I lived in.  It was the bright yellow patch on the birds' rumps that caught my eye and led to their identification.  Since then, I have seen them numerous times, but have only gotten poor shots of them.  My luck turned the other day. I have only ever seen the birds near water bodies.  Mostly, it is fresh water, although I saw one way out on Portland Island once.  Last year, I saw a number of them flying around capturing insects on the wing at the pond on the back-side of Knox Mountain.  While visiting Munson Pond on Tuesday this week, I saw another small group.  This time, I managed to get a few nice shots. There are two variants of the Yellow-rumped warbler.  The one above does not have ...