Photos from yesterday back to the 1970s.
The new Cee’s Black and White Photo Challenge is Fences and gates.
I had forgotten about this selective colour treatment until finding it with some shots of Swallows on barbed wire fences. I have also forgotten why I did a monochrome conversion with the selective colour.
The old license plate holding the fence post together gives a big clue about where the photo was taken. A male American Goldfinch peeking around a fence post at the photographer. Taken one summer in Saskatchewan .
Throwback Thursday travels back to Saskatchewan in the 1990s. With no sign of spring arriving in Ontario I thought a spring photo of a species that arrives in Canada for the summer would be nicer than another photo of snow and ice.
This male Red-winged Blackbird (Agelaius phoeniceus) has recently arrived in Saskatchewan to spend the summer and is singing to establish a breeding territory. I’ve always liked the backlighting on the bird that’s illuminating the red epaulettes that give the male birds their name.
The new Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge is Shiny.
My initial ideas involved ice as winter seems to be dragging on in this part of Ontario.
I then started thinking about some of the bird species with iridescent plumage and thought of the male Common Grackle (Quiscalus quiscula) that should be arriving in Ontario soon. They’re quite a colourful species in the right light although not very popular with some people who feed the birds when they descend in large flocks.
A portrait of a male Common Grackle on the South Bruce Peninsula, Ontario in the spring.
This week’s Cosmic Photo Challenge is A Hint of Spring.
Definitely a case of digging into the archives as our weather seems to be worse since the middle of February with no hint of a spring.
In this part of Ontario one of the first signs of spring is the arrival of the American Robins (Turdus migratorius) that will spend the summer with us. The males normally arrive first and fight one another establishing territories hoping to attract a mate when the females arrive.
I picked this shot because this recently arrived male looks like it’s spoiling for a fight with the camera. Taken on the Lake Huron shoreline in Southampton, Ontario.
Cee’s latest Black and White Photo Challenge is Tender Moments.
I had a few ideas for the challenge before thinking of this story of a pair of Eurasian Blue Tit nesting. Taken in 1987, this is a monochrome conversion of one of the colour shots. However, at the time I was taking black and white shots along with the colour as a local newspaper was running the story of the birds nesting.
This got me wondering if this photo project was the last time I shot black and white film. Certainly by 1987 most newspapers had gone to colour apart from a few local newspapers. If a publication wanted a black and white photo they would often convert a colour original.
To the photo, the eggs are laid. Now the female is incubating them while being fed by the male. In this photo the male has just given the female a caterpillar.
Or giving the photographer a look of disdain?
The new Weekly Prompt Photo Challenge is Up.
The attitude of this male Common Kingfisher (Alcedo atthis) makes me think it’s a look of disdain for the photographer sitting in the portable canvas hide a few feet away.
Normally they’re looking down, watching for a fish in the water or an insect on the ground. It’s possible the bird was watching something in the air that could be a potential meal or a threat.
