American White Pelican – David M's photoblog

Tuesday Photo Challenge – Connect

25/03/2020 David M20 Comments

I had a couple of ideas for the Tuesday Photo Challenge – Connect.

I went with the following idea because there’s two types of connection involved.

The first is a channel connecting a marsh to a section of the Last Mountain Lake National Wildlife Area in Saskatchewan, Canada.

The second is the connection between the birds and the photographer. It was a hot summer afternoon and my options were to lie in the hot sun on the edge of the channel or sit in the water with the birds. After I had been sitting in the water for a while the birds got used to me being there and pretty much ignored me. That’s the sort of connection you want, the birds behaving naturally as if you weren’t there.

Tuesday Photo Challenge - Connect

The reason for me sitting in the water, a flock of American White Pelicans fishing in a channel where a marsh drains into a section of the lake.

Tuesday Photo Challenge - Connect

I noticed that I was also sharing the channel with a Red-necked Grebe.

Tuesday Photo Challenge - Connect

After a while the Pelicans would swim out of the current in the channel and paddle past me back to the start.

Tuesday Photo Challenge - Connect

The Grebe also got used to my presence in the water and would surface anywhere around me after a dive.

Tuesday Photo Challenge – Spread

19/03/2020 David M10 Comments

This is my contribution to the Tuesday Photo Challenge – Spread.

When I read the prompt I thought of wide angle landscapes that take in a spread of view wider than the human eye can see without moving. I had actually started editing photos for the post before thinking of birds with spread wings.

Tuesday Photo Challenge - Spread

Spreading its wings. A Great Crested Grebe stretching its wings on Hurleston Reservoir near Nantwich, Cheshire, England and the photo I thought of that caused me to rewrite this post.

Tuesday Photo Challenge - Spread

Two pairs of spread wings. Two American White Pelicans gliding between Little Quill Lake and Middle Quill Lake, Saskatchewan, Canada.

Black-capped Chickadee for Six Word Saturday.

Wings spread for take off. A Black-capped Chickadee on the South Bruce Peninsula, Ontario, Canada.

Lens-Artists Photo Challenge: Special Spot Shots

Tail spread, trying to impress a female in the spring. A male Yellow-headed Blackbird displaying near Punnichy, Saskatchewan, Canada.

Fan Of… Olympus OM Zuiko 350mm

17/02/202006/04/2020 David M17 Comments

This is a contribution to Jez Braithwaite’s Fan Of… #55 and a ramble about a lens I have been using for 24 years.

I brought the Olympus OM Zuiko 350mm f/2.8 used in 1996 and over the past 24 years it has been used to photograph a wide variety of subjects. The idea for this post came from exchanging comments with Jez after my recent Fan Of… Olympus Cameras post.

Having owned the lens for so long I have thousands of photos taken with it and I was having a very hard time selecting just five or six for this post. So this will be part one of two, this post will cover bird and wildlife images while the second post will cover everything else.

Fan Of... Olympus OM Zuiko 350mm

The 350mm lens on my home made ground pod. The ground pod dates back to the early 1990s.

Flying Osprey with flying fish.

An Osprey with a White Sucker on the Lake Huron shoreline in Southampton, Ontario in 2008.

Sunlit Squirrel.

An American Red Squirrel in dappled sunlight on the South Bruce Peninsula, Ontario in 2018.

Cee's Fun Foto Challenge: Summer Scenes

American White Pelicans on a channel where a marsh drains into a section of the Last Mountain Lake National Wildlife Area, Saskatchewan in 1999. I was sitting in the water with the lens on a tripod in the water with me.

A displaying Eurasian Wren

A Eurasian Wren singing in the spring of 1997 at a reservoir in south Cheshire, England.

Ruby-throated Hummingbird juvenile.

A juvenile Ruby-throated Hummingbird in flight on the South Bruce Peninsula, Ontario in 2018.

Recently emerged from hibernation.

A Richardson’s Ground Squirrel looking for something to eat having just emerged from hibernation in the spring of 1998. Taken close to the town of Punnichy, Saskatchewan, Canada.

Friendly Friday: All in a Row

01/02/2020 David M25 Comments

This is my contribution to the Friendly Friday: All in a Row photo challenge.

A row of ducklings behind a female Common Merganser on Lake Huron, Ontario, Canada in the late summer.

Ducks in a row.

A row of Double-crested Cormorants fishing where the Saugeen River flows into Lake Huron, Ontario, Canada.

Friendly Friday: All in a Row

A row of restored veteran commercial vehicles on display at a steam rally in Cheshire, England.

Tuesday Photo Challenge - Transport

Rows of Snow Geese flying to roost at sunset in the autumn at Little Quill Lake, Saskatchewan, Canada.

Friendly Friday: All in a Row

A row of trees and their shadows, Bickerton Hill, Cheshire, England.

Trees and their shadows on farmland.

A row of American White Pelicans fishing in a channel where a marsh drains into Last Mountain Lake National Wildlife Area, Saskatchewan, Canada.

Feeding party of American White Pelicans.

CFFC: Summer Scenes

23/01/2020 David M2 Comments

This is my contribution to Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge: Summer Scenes.

The first image that came to mind wasn’t really a “scene” in the sense of a landscape. It was more to do with the memory of a hot summer day and sitting in the water with a large group of American White Pelicans. They were fishing in a channel where a marsh drained into a section of the Last Mountain Lake National Wildlife Area in Saskatchewan, Canada.

Cee's Fun Foto Challenge: Summer Scenes

An early summer morning on the Lake Huron shoreline in Southampton, Ontario, Canada.

Friendly Friday: Sunrise.

The low sun of a summer evening illuminates the tops of the trees on Bickerton Hill, Cheshire, England.

Low sun on tree tops.

The low evening sun casts long shadows and illuminates an old barn on the South Bruce Peninsula, Ontario, Canada.

An old barn 30 minutes before sunset.

Lens-Artists Photo Challenge: Special Spot Shots

07/01/2020 David M14 Comments

This is my contribution to the Lens-Artists Photo Challenge: Special Spot Shots.

I ran through a list of locations in my head and one location quickly made it to the top of the list. Last Mountain Lake, also known as Long Lake is a prairie lake in south central Saskatchewan, Canada. The northern end of the lake is a National Wildlife Area which includes the Last Mountain Lake Bird Sanctuary.

I thought I would put a post together covering a 12 month period.

A section of the National Wildlife Area at sunset in the winter.

Lens-Artists Photo Challenge: Special Spot Shots