Morning in the Woods

So I have had some time to play around with my Nikon D-300. So far I have to say I am pretty impressed with the camera. I am not an expert in hardware so I do not have access to lab tests to put the camera through, so I am going by the results I have been getting from regular everyday shooting. I love going up to Mud Lake in the west end of Ottawa because the area has lots of potential subjects to photograph. It's one of Ottawa's prime small and water bird areas. It also has numerous turtles and other amphibians. The trails around the lake bring you through a couple of ecosystems from forest to meadows.

One of my favourite times to go out shooting is first thing in the morning, especially when the sun is just coming up over the horizon. The light is coming in a more horizontal direction unlike the direct over head light of the mid-day sun. This leads to some interesting effects on tree trunks and plants. Light in the morning takes on a golden hue due to the greater amount of atmosphere it has to pass through. The exact same thing happens at sunset. The sky turns golden then to red as the sun gets lower in the sky. In the morning it just happens in reverse. The light is also not as intense as when the sun is higher in the sky. This makes it easier to shoot in the forest and get those shots where the sun is high, lighting one area in amongst the trees or light falling onto undergrowth foliage without the need for polarizing filters. Speaking of polarizing filters, if your going to try taking forest shots in the midday it is a good idea to use a polarizing filter on your lens. Shooting without the polarizing filter will cause the sunlight areas to over expose when you expose your sensor to get detail of the forest. If you expose for the sunlight areas the rest of the shot will be too dark. The polarizer will allow the longer exposure time and not have the sunny areas overexposed.

Out with the old, in with the new.

A little less than a year ago I had purchased my second DSLR camera from Henry's Camera Shop. I decides to try out the Sony Alpha 100. It was in the price range that I could afford and was a 10.2 megapixel camera. My Pentax K100D which I am very happy with is only a 6 megapixel. Needless to say I was never very happy with the Sony 100. I found it very noisy even at ISO 400. That was bringing me back to the old days when ISO 400 film first came out. It was very grainy. There were a few other things that I was not happy about with the Sony but won't go into details.

So after doing alot of thinking I decided to trade in my Sony gear since Henry's has a policy of trading in and trading up. As long as your within the year of your purchase you will get 50% of the original purchase price. For me this was great as the Sony was selling for less than 50% on Ebay. Once Sony brought out the Alpha 700 then their new line of cameras the 200, 300 and 350 the price of the Alpha dropped like a rock in water.

I had thought long and hard as to the direction I wanted to go. I narrowed it down to either Nikon or Canon. Both companies make excellent cameras. Canon has a larger selection of lenses and the larger lenses for wildlife shooting are about 20-30% cheaper in price. This is not to say they are cheaper in quality as I have seen the majority of journalists using Canon cameras and lenses.

Both Canon and Nikon have image stabilization built into their lenses. Canon calls theirs IS or Image Stabilization. Nikon has VR or Vibration Reduction on the lens naming. If the lens does not have either of those in their designation then they are more than likely older non-image stabilized lenses. Sony and Pentax both have image stabilization built into the cameras. I am not sure which method works the best.

Lenses with image stabilization will tend to be higher in price than their older counterparts. This does not mean that the older versions of the lens are not still valuable. IS or VR is only really important for hand held shooting. If your shooting from a tripod for landscapes, macro or extreme wildlife photography, where the lens is impossibly big to carry then image stabilizing is not as critical. Some photographers turn off the image stabilization as they find it slows down the lens.

After doing more research and talking to various shooters I have met over the last year I decided to go with Nikon and in particular the D300. The D300 is a 12.3 megapixel camera which does not put it much above the 10.2 MP Sony. But it has alot of features that I found interesting. I won't go into all the features as I would be writing a book to cover them all. If your really into reviews you can read them online at www.dpreview.com. These guys cover just about everything dealing with photography and do so in great depth.

So far I have been impressed with the D300 and the 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6 G VR lens that I got separately. This lens covers alot of the range I use for landscape shots as well as portrait. It retails for about $699.00 Canadian here in Ottawa. It is a great walk around lens for every day use. There are better lenses and worse lenses in the zoom range but this is Nikon's Super zoom with a 11:1 zooming ratio. I took some very nice shots of a sunset at Andrew Hayden Park a couple of nights ago. These can be found on my website under the Scenery/Sunsets2008 page. My website address is www.mtcmediaproductions.com.

Because I like to shoot wildlife the 18-200mm does not have the range I need. So I have ordered Nikon's 200-400mm f/4 . This is a good sized lens, from talking to the people who own this lens it is very sharp at both ends of the zoom. Being a f4 I would recommend only adding the 1.4x extender. This will drop your lens to an f5.6 which is good for birds in flight. If your shooting stationary slow moving animals then a 2x extender on a tripod should work fine in high light conditions. A 2x extender will drop your lens 2 f stops. I do not have the lens yet so I cannot comment on any degradation of the sharpness. But I would recommend using a Nikon extender even though they are pricey. Cheaper third party extenders might decrease the lenses sharpness.

When the lens comes in I will update my blog to let you know how it works.

Canadian Tulip Festival

The cool weather we have been having has been good for the annual Canadian Tulip Festival in Ottawa. For those who are unfamiliar with the Tulip Festival it began back in 1953. It has now grown into the worlds largest Tulip Festival. The Tulips were a gift from the Dutch Royal family. During the second world war the Dutch royal family were given refuge in Ottawa. Princess Margriet was born in the Ottawa Civic Hospital, her room was declared Dutch soil so she could keep her Dutch nationality.

Over the next sixty years the Tulip Festival has grown in size and in importance. Many tourists come to Ottawa just to see the tulips. At Dows Lake alone they plant over 300,000 bulbs. You can find them also along the canal, Parliament Hill and Majors Hill Park. Each spring over 600,000 people from all over North America, Europe and Asia visit the tulips.

Through the 1990s and into the new millennium, the Canadian Tulip Festival celebrated the Tulip as a symbol of Peace and Friendship creating an annual international bond by twinning with Friendship Countries including the Netherlands, Turkey, France, Japan, the United States, Great Britain and Australia.

I would highly recommend going down to see the festival or visiting Ottawa from out of town. At Major's Hill Park which is situated behind the Chateau Laurier hotel. Not only are there hugh amounts of tulips to see in the daytime, there is also tents full of entertainment going most of the day and evening.

Mud Lake

It has been a very busy week so I did not get any chances to get out shooting. On Sunday April 20th I decided I needed a fix of photography so headed out to Mud Lake near the Britannia filtration plant. Last time I was there the trails were still snow covered and walking was too difficult, but Sunday the trails were good for walking. There were a few wetter spots but these were easy to go around. It was such a beautiful spring day and many of the forest denizens took advantage and came exploring. While walking the trail with my head looking up for birds I heard a sound from the forest floor. Kind of a buzzing sound. I first thought it was bees but then I noticed this cute little one. Fortunately when it noticed me it froze long enough for me to approach and get this shot. While many people do not like or are actually afraid of snakes I think they are extremely beautiful reptiles. Mind you I am not about to run to the pet shop and start purchasing every snake I see, but in their own environment they are an important part of the ecosystem.

After the little Garter snake slithered off we continued on our trek around the South Western end of the lake. The small bay is quite often the home of turtles and various ducks. Earlier on in the spring I got pictures of a pair of Wood Ducks. It seems they moved into the small bay area as the area by the road is getting quite busy with people coming to see the spring birds and the greater number of Canada Geese that have moved into the lake to breed. But while in this area we spotted another of the lakes reptiles. This medium sized snapping turtle at first had just it's head in the water maybe looking for food to swim into range of its jaws. But I know they could not hold their breath forever so I waited for it to come up for air. I say it is a medium sized turtle even though its shell was probably a good 1.75 to 2 feet from end to end. But on a previous trip last year we had the opportunity to see the granddad of snapping turtle. I have pictures of it on my website. This one's shell had to be a minimum of 3 feet across in width. The head was like the head of some prehistoric creature.

We spent about 2 hours wandering around Mud Lake that day. Other creatures we saw and photographed were Wood Ducks, Canada Geese, Painted Turtles, Common Flicker, White Breasted Nuthatch and a male Cardinal. There are still many more spring birds that have not arrived, but the walk is well worth taking.

The Elusive Wood Duck

Many times while shooting water fowl I have seen the very beautiful Wood Duck far out in the middle of Mud Lake. Yesterday I decided to do another tour of the birding areas in Ottawa. The Duchense Rapids were fairly busy last week with the usual Mallards, Canada Geese and Ring Billed Gulls. While I was there a group of about 8 Pintailed Ducks flew in and settled on the open water. Unfortunately this week the water was pretty much free of ice to the Quebec shore, so the number and variety of birds was greatly diminished.

Moving on to Mud Lake I finally got a chance to get some very nice pictures of the elusive Wood Duck. Like most birds the female of the pair are fairly plain in colour. This is to make camouflage easier for them when sitting on their nest. The male on the other hand looks like it has been painted by a master artist.

Hopefully these tamer Wood Ducks will stick around the close shore areas and I will be able to get more photographs.

After touring the west end of the city I decided to go out to the Wall Rd area in Orleans. Wall Rd is a very good place to see Northern Harriers and Rough Legged Hawks during the summer time. I did see a couple of Harriers in the fields but they were too far off to get good shots so late in the day. What got me the most was the amount of water running along the road side. They were like small rivers, complete with rapids. One area even had a foot wide whirl pool. With the amount of snow still in the fields I imagine this draining of the fields will be going on for a while yet.

St. Lawrence area

On Thursday March 27 I returned to the St Lawrence area to see how the spring migrants were going. The river was still well covered in ice. This allowed me to get close to the thousands of Canada and Snow Geese that have stopped over on the journey north. When I had a chance to return to the area yesterday the geese had either moved on or moved to another location. There was alot more open water than before so this may have had something to do with it.

While driving along the parkway one has to go slow as any number of interesting animals and birds could be missed. I have seen Turkey Vultures circling over head many times but Thursday I was given the opportunity to observe one closely. This one was perched in a tree just over a Raccoon carcass. It did not seem too interested in it as it was pretty much intact.

I knew they were large but did not realize just how big they were until this one took off as I was moving towards it to try to get a better shot.

Further on the road very close to the Turkey Vulture I had another opportunity that does not happen very often. Sitting all by itself taking in the territory was a juvenile Peregrin Falcon. This was my first time seeing a Peregrin for any length of time. I could not see the feet under the feathers so its hard to tell if this is a wild birthed one or a baby from the ones that were banded in Ottawa or another city close by. I was hoping to get closer but a couple of local people came by and asked me what type of bird it was, this led to a pleasant conversation but the Pergrin flew away while we were talking.

I find the St. Lawrence region to be a good area for nature shooting during this time period as not many people are around and the animals are closer to the roadside. Every day is different and this summer should be interesting to see what summer birds are around.

Three sets of Eyes better than one

Had the opportunity to join two other Ottawa photographers on an outing yesterday. While the clear skies and sunshine we had hoped for did not show, the pleasure of the company made up for the lack of sun. We decided to travel the back road towards the St. Lawrence River to see what migratory birds had arrived. On the way there we stopped at Forest Park to see if the Tufted Titmouse would make an appearance. I was under the impression the feeder was in the park area but as it turned out the bird was seen at a private feeder in someone's back yard. Looking through binoculars we could see some Evening Grosbeaks at the feeder so I politely knocked on the residence door and asked permission to take some pictures from the back side of the house. The resident was very accommodating to us and gave us permission. Both male and female were present, with the males being a beautiful bright lemon yellow with white and black on their wings.

After that we continued our journey to the river keeping an eye out for anything unusual along the way. When we reached the area we were looking for we drove along the road searching for something to photograph. There were robins and starlings everywhere along the road so spring must be around the corner. Along some of the waterways there were a few spots here and there with open water but for the most part the river is still frozen over. In one small open area there were a couple of Canada Geese, some Red Headed Mergansers and a Bufflehead. Canada Geese could be seen flying in squadrons over head. Sometimes there were just to many to possibly count. Further along we did find a larger area of open water and found where these squadrons were landing. The picture shown is just a small percentage of the geese that were in the area and more were coming in all the time. Also mixed in with the Canada Geese were a number of Snow Geese. These unfortunately were to far away to photograph.

After touring the area for a while and stopping for a bite to eat we were on the way back through the parkway and I happen to spot a Raccoon in a tree. Usually raccoons are higher up a tree but this one was only about 5 feet or so. I have to admit most of my experience with Raccoons is usually in my back yard trying to get into my garbage cans so they are not usually looked on favourably by me or most people. But this little darling must have been a young one, maybe a year or more old. While it did not seem to be too frightened of us we did not want to be two threatening and get too close to it. But I will tell you I was not the only one that wanted to go up and pet it like it was a domestic animal. Which as we all know would not be a good idea. Wild animals are exactly that "wild". They are not used to human contact so always stay a considerate distance away from them no matter how cute they look. It made our day being able to get some good shots of this animal and to just see it in another way other than an urban nuisance. They are actually quite beautiful animals.

All in all with the company of the other two photographers and the photographs we got it made for a very enjoyable day. Time sure does fly when one is having fun.

Merlin the Magician

After disappearing for a number of weeks I am happy to report the Merlin that has been frequenting the Shirley's Bay feeder made an appearance on Saturday March 22. He was being photographed by two other photographers when I drove up. So being the nice bird that it is, it stayed in the cedar tree and allowed us to get some good shots.

Raptors are sometimes difficult to get shots of as most are wary about being observed. Try and take a picture of a Red Tailed Hawk. These birds must be telepathic. As soon as you think about them they seem to take flight. But that is part of the challenge of bird photography.

Sunsets

Sunsets can be a very interesting time to take photographs. As the sun gets further down closer to the horizon the colours keep changing from golden yellow to red. This is due to the amount of atmosphere the light has to go through. There is a whole science around this but to keep it simple the more atmosphere the light rays have to go through the more other colours get absorbed and the golden yellow to red tones get scattered and bounce back to your eye.

While the colours are wonderful to see with the naked eye as a photograph just a coloured sky has a tendency to be a little boring. I find that introducing some item in the foreground adds some dimension and interest to the photograph.

An item I use to shoot a sunset or sunrise as the process is pretty much the same but in reverse, is a polarizing filter or a neutral density filter. I use the Polarizing filter because I have not purchased a ND filter for my lenses. I just find the polarizer brings out the richness in the colours.

When shooting sunsets play around with your exposure or iris if you have one of the older lenses that have an iris ring. You will find that if you close the iris or lower the exposure (under exposing) the colours become darker and richer. This technique can be done to many other types of photography.

Fungi

On Wednesday March 19th I decided to take a walk around the Mer Bleu bird feeders. The silence of the forest is very relaxing, the air was cool and clean that only be had during winter. Of course I happened to bring my cameras just in case I came across something interesting. While walking I noticed a variety of fungi growing off quite a few of the trees and stumps. I am not sure if this is an indicator of a problem with the trees or just a natural part of the forest process.
Fungi is probably the most unobserved items in a forest but if one takes the time it can be quite beautiful. It also makes a very interesting subject for photographs. There forms are infinitely variable even within the same species.

I just thought I would share some of the photographs of the fungi I shot that day. I have others that were shot last year and this year on my website. The address is www.mtcmediaproductions.com.

Another slow birding day

Yesterday I decided to take advantage of the clear weather that has been so rare this winter. I started out by going to find the feeders that are in Forest Park near Embrun to see if the Tufted Titmouse was around. Now I feel something needs to be cleared up as to where Forest Park actually is as most people consider it to be part of Embrun. While its address may be part of Embrun it is not in actuality in the small town. Forest Park consists of 4(four) roads that are on concession road three. This is a continuation of the main Embrun road that runs east-west through the town. You have to cross over road 5 which takes you to St. Albert, which just happens to make some of the best fresh cheese. Like I mentioned earlier Forest Park only has four parallel streets. These are Maple Grove Street, Forest Lane, Larose Lane, and Manitou Street. Each one of these ends in a wooded area. I did not spend alot of time looking for the feeders as the woods are extensive.

I decided to go over to the Snowy Owl area as some Horned Larks were seen in the area. At first I did not see any of the owls or the larks, it was pretty empty of birds. On my way back to Concession 20 coming up Ste Rose Rd, the White Snowy was right on the snow bank the plows made. Unfortunately I did not see it until it took off and flew into the field. Nice to see its still around but would have been nice to get a real close picture before they go North again.

So a little disappointed i headed back into Ottawa and headed out to Bates Island off of Island Park Drive. It was also pretty quiet. Then off to Mud Lake to see if anything was happening there. I was able to get a fairly descent shot of a young male Cardinal. he stayed fairly calm while I took some photos. Also around were the usual Chickadees, Crows and a small flock of Cedar Waxwings.

Next leg of todays journey took me to, where else.......Shirley's Bay feeders. By this time the nice clear skies of the morning had been taken over by a gray-white cloud bank. So shooting was not the best. The feeders were very busy with lots of Chickadees, woodpeckers, red squirrels. The area also had an unusual large flock of Blue Jays. I would estimate there were at least 15-20 in the area. I don't know if you have ever been in an area with 15-20 Blue Jays before all making lots of noise, but let me tell you if you did not have a headache before you got there you surely will if you stay there for long. I did manage to get a few shots of the Blue Jays but the white skies make it difficult to truly capture the beauty of the birds.

My next stop was the Trail Road dump site where a Gyrfalcon had recently been seen. Apparently a couple other birders had the same idea. However much to our disappointment the Gyrfalcon was not evident. There were however a couple of Redtailed Hawks flying around, more than likely hunting. There were also large flocks of Starlings along the road side in the Sumac trees, also the ever present Crows in hugh numbers. This time I was very surprised to see that the gull population had also greatly increased in not only the shear numbers of Gulls but the varieties. Unfortunately I am only beginning to get to know the bird species but I did see some Ring Billed Gulls, and Greater Black Backed Gulls, some others that I am not familiar with that were pure white and a quite a bit smaller than the Black Backed Gulls.

I think I will head back there first next time the skies will clear. Maybe I can get some shots of the gulls for identification.

Another storm on the way

So with another storm on the way for this weekend I decided to take a little time to get some shooting in today. I went to the west end in the March Rd area as the Red Shouldered Hawk had be see recently. No Hawk once again but went for a tour of the area. There are many things besides birds to photograph if one looks around. These are Sumac cones. They make interesting subject to shoot in the winter time since their red colour stands out.

Not all subject to be photographed have to be living things in the winter time. While touring down a road I came up to a house that had a lamp post close to the road. Yes, I know not the most spectaular subject to shoot, but I thought it was interesting. It had a nice shape standing out against the landscape.

The day was not a complete loss as when I was driving down another road in the area that has some forested area I did spot another Ruffed Grouse in a tree. I did manage to grab a couple of photographs before it flew off into the trees.

Unfortunately I found out about the feeders at Shirley's Bay late in the winter season. There was a Ruffed Grouse that was quite tame and would allow photographers to come close for some excellent shots. These wilder Grouse are a little wary of people and its not easy to get a close up shot of one. Hopefully I will catch one not so skitish.

Grouse

Today was a day of driving, driving and more driving. Started off looking for the Tufted Titmouse in Embrun, unfortunately I did not find the right park I think. So on my way back I went via Frank Kenny road to Wall road. Wall road is a very good place to find Northern Harriers and Rough Legged Hawks in the summer. I turned on 10th line to get to Navan Rd and spotted three Roughed Grouse in a tree. I managed to get two good shots before the flew off into the brush.

After that I headed out to Trail Road to see if the hawks were still present. One was circling overhead hunting. This is also a good place to see hawks, starlings, crows and various gulls. The hawks are usually found passed the entrance of the city dump.

I decided to head to Lanark by going through the country roads. One never knows what can be found driving along country roads. However it was very quiet except for some deer I say grazing down a hill .

I went to the area I got pictures of the Cooper's Hawk last week but it was quiet there as well. So I drove down Riddell Avenue and turned onto March Valley road. There I saw a Red Tailed Hawk close to the road. Did not get any good pictures as too many branches in the way. Shirley's Bay feeder were very busy with the usual crowd.

So where to go next, well Fletcher's on the way home and was talking to another birder yesterday and he had flushes out a Merlin at the back feeder as he was entering the wildlife garden. It was pretty active as well with the usual birds, Chickadees, Cardinals, House Sparrows and a mixing of red and black squirrels.

Not a great day shooting but nice to get out before the snow moves into the area again. I don't think winter wants to give up.

Gatineau Park

Another beautiful day today after that larger than expected snow storm yesterday. I got up early and headed out to the Luskville, Quebec area of Gatineau park where numerous Bald Eagles have been spotted recently. It was a gorgeous sunrise as I was heading out. The area is quite beautiful at the base of the Hills. Very peaceful at that time of the morning.

The eagles have been spotted along the Eardley-Masham Rd, which runs into the park off of Highway 148 just passed Luskville.

Entering the Park, I took advantage of the Hoar Frost and snapped some interesting pictures that I do not normally have the opportunity to see in the city. Deer were also in abundance along the roadside. They are fairly docile and are easily photographed.


While I did not see any of the Bald Eagles I was able to get some great landscape shots with yesterdays snow still on the Coniferous trees.

The road is not very long maybe a couple of kilometers but it does offer some interesting sites to take pictures. I will be returning to see what changes the different seasons make. I definitely recommend taking the drive out to see the area if you have not been there before.

Cooper Hawk

Got a fairly early start to shooting yesterday. Was out at Fletcher's Wildlife garden at around 7:30 (boy was it cold). I think I got there a bit early as the birds were not even up yet. I first went to the feeder behind the Info Center and not much was happening. So I tried the feeders out in the open area south of the duck pond. The Chickadees were awake and so were the crows (like when do crows actually sleep). After about 10 minutes or so about 30 House Finches started flying in for breakfast, followed by a couple of Juncos. Not long this was followed by a couple of pairs of Cardinals.

Seeing as I was in the area I decided to try and find the Townsend Solitair. However I did not see it in the Juniper that it normally hangs out in. I did not want to stay too long as it is a residential area.

I next moved out to look for the Grey Partridges that were spotted by the Bell Sensplex. However there was no sign of them either.

So off to my usual standby, Shirley's Bay. There is lots of activity there on any given day. I just wanted to see if anything new had been in the area. After staying there for a bit of time I moved off to March Valley Rd. It was also pretty quiet. But one never knows when something interesting will turn up.

After touring the back roads for a while I decided to see if I could find the Red Shouldered Hawk that was seen off of Carp Road. Apparently a couple of regular birders had the same idea. So we got chatting for a bit and off in the woods we could hear a raptor call. We went looking for it from the road but to no avail. Suddenly out of nowhere a small Cooper's Hawk flew into a tree just close to where we were. Apparently he has been around people before, as he graced us with his/her presence for about 45 minutes. I have to say this was my first siting of a Cooper's Hawk and I was thinking they were bigger. However they make up for their smaller size by their attractive plumage. I have some other photographs of the Cooper's Hawk on my website www.mtcmediaproductions.com

All in all it was well worth taking a trip out to the area as there are lots of other birds to see and deer by the gazillion. Well maybe not that many but lots.

Hurdman's Area Feeders

Last Monday, February 25, 2008, I decided to go looking for the Hermit Thrush that had been frequenting the feeders at Hurdman's Station. There are two ways to get to the feeders. One is by public transport to the Hurdman's Station and then going north along the path. The feeders are about 150 yards along the path on the right side. If you want to take your own vehicle it's best to exit the Vanier parkway at Queen Mary St. At the end turn left and park at the very end of the road. Take the bike path South under the Queensway, go past the walking bridge. Turn right onto the walking path that follows the river. Look for a low gnarled tree on the left side. The path is about 50 feet further on the left. I am giving directions so you won't have to walk around the area for an hour looking for the feeders, like I did before I found them.

While walking along the path to the feeders you will notice many Mallard Ducks close to the bank, Common Goldeye are usually further out in the water. I also spotted some Mergansers close to shore. On the edge of the ice and water I also saw a pair of Greater Black Backed Gulls.

The feeders were quite busy. Besides the ever present Chickadees, there were numerous Hairy and Downy woodpeckers. About 20 winter plumaged Goldfinches. Nice to see as they were starting to get their summer colours. Maybe spring is actually around the corner after all. A few Common Redpoles were also out an about. Off in the woods a Pileated Woodpecker could be hear calling.

After about a half hour the Hermit Thrush made it's first appearance. It actually flew in when my back was turned to the feeders (the little sneak). It stayed low to the ground and was very wary of my presence. This is not the time for fast movements. It came is twice to feed and then left for about 20 minutes. It came back again to repeat the process. After the second feeding which was going on to about noon it and most of the birds stopped feeding (guess they were full).

So as I was making my way back I stopped on the walking bridge south of the Queensway to see if I could get some close pictures of the Goldeye's. While looking north I could see a small raptor circling at a very fast pace. Not thinking much of it I continued on my way back to my car. About 75 yards from the Queensway I found the raptor sitting quietly in a tree. It was very co-operative and allowed me take some good photos before taking off. I later found out that it was an juvenile Goshawk.

All in all I found the area to be quite interesting from a birding and photography aspect. I highly recommend taking some time to visit the feeders. I know I will be making it a regular on my shooting circuit.