Goodbye 2014

It's New Year's Day .... January 1st 2015 and I get to sit for a while. It's been a busy year with not as much time for Nature Photohraphy as I would have liked.

On previous years, I have always posted a retrospective of my favourite photos of the year - always 12 - the favourite by month. This year I will break the pattern, mostly because I have not been very active in Nature Photography since July. I did say Nature Photography -- I have taken more pictures than ever during this time but mostly portraits, family pictures and even weddings which I cannot share on this blog.

Initially I had not planned to do this because I thought that there were no pictures to share. What I remembered seemed so long ago. First impressions were that some of my better pictures must have been years ago such are the tricks that memory sometimes plays. Only when I started browsing did I realize that I did get some decent shots in 2014 and quickly put this post together.

So what is my favourite Nature photo of the year. It has to be this picture of an 'Ice Bridge' at Presqu'ile Provincial Park taken in March during the extreme winter of 2013/2014 - the so called 'Polar Vortex'. In order to take this picture I had to go to the edge of the 'slob ice' and lie down over the edge. I guess that this ice is not really solid, but an aggregation of snow and frozen spray. Terry Sprague thinks that only idiots would do what I did so I guess that makes me a good candidate for a Darwin Award.

In keeping with the theme of the extreme winter, the plight of the large and increasing population of Mute Swans was a constant subject for debate throughout the winter. Regardless of which side one takes, there was no denying the beauty of these birds and a magnificent day at Cobourg amplified the evidence of this.

When the call went out that a Great Grey Owl was spotted in Prince Edward County, I followed the throngs. Fortunately there was no Owl Baiting at this location, a subject that got Photographers a lot of flak during the Owl Irruption of 2013/2014. As this season has just started, I'm sure that there will be more of the same very soon.

A close encounter with a family of Red-necked Grebes in Bronte Harbour - Burlington - gave me a ringside view of the birds that have taken up residence in the Marina. These birds nest in a floating platform placed there for that purpose and return every year. They manage to have some young survive most years.

During the spring migration, the focus is always on Warblers especially the more colourful ones. Previous anthologies of my pictures have included Blackburnian, Magnolia, American Redstart etc., but this year instead of a Warbler to represent the May migration, I chose a drab sparrow .. a Lincoln's Sparrow. This little sparrow has eluded me for many years and while walking through the Point Traverse Woods, suddenly there he was.

I sort of gave up chasing rarities this year .... I have decided that I am not a 'lister', travelling large distances to see a rarity, but when an uncommon bird like a Hudsonian Godwit shows up close to home and lingers for a few days, it is difficult to resist the temptation to check it out. I was rewarded with a low light photograph but certainly a better one than I have obtained of my only other Godwit taken a couple of years ago at the Brighton Marina in extreme contrasty lighting.

Some others.

A White Phase Snow Goose in Cobourg Harbour was not unusual but a pleasant surprise in November.

And a definitive Cackling Goose at the same venue. What I love about this photo is that it places the Cackling Goose next to, and in the same perspective as a Mallard. The similarity in size is obvious.

No retrospective would be complete without at least one insect. My prize this year was to capture a Snowberry Clearwing Moth otherwise known as a Hummingbird Moth in flight. This guy was very active, and unlike other insects like Dragonflies, fed in flight (like a Hummingbird) and rarely, if ever, sat still long enough to get a sedentary photo.

This final image is the Presqu'ile Salt Point Lighthouse under storm clouds. I rather like it.

So I wish you a Happy New Year and Good Birding in 2015.

I hope to see some of you on the trails around Quinte.