Unbelievably hard to find, it can be right in front of you yet invisible, then once you see it, you can’t miss it, but don’t dare take your eyes off of it, because it’s just as hard to find the second and third time even tho it’s hardly moved!
Small white goose with black primary feathers and stubby red based bill. Often in company with other geese. Our smallest goose found in Ontario, this one was at the Minesing Wetlands.
Almost all of my snipe photos include a fence or fence post… yes a road is boring but it’s nice to have a change of Snipe scenery! It was sitting in the middle of the road, I’m amazed that I didn’t run over it while driving past the peat swamps south of Dundalk. Anyhow, here it is, a Snipe on the road lol.
If these aren’t Solitary Sandpipers, let me know and I’ll change it!
Just when I was thinking it would be nice to have a candle in a little lantern on the canoe incase it got too dark on the river, I realized the opportunity to get these bright white birds on a dark background. My favourite look for photographing horses, finally I would have the opportunity with wildlife. While others looked on wonder what the heck I was photographing in the dark, I created these. The wonders of shooting on manual.
Paddling in the evening … I love it
The critical pieces of information needed to make your observation valuable are band combination, sighting location, and date. We recommend the use of a spotting scope when reading colorbands from any distance farther than a few yards. When looking through a spotting scope use one eye and then the other; each eye perceives color slightly differently. As a bird moves and turns it often becomes easier to recognize individual colors. As a result, it is not uncommon for even the most experienced band readers to observe for more than 10 minutes before they are confident in a combination. As a result of time, UV radiation and salt water, colorbands often fade and do not appear exactly as one would expect (see below).
Although good observations may be made during any time of day, the best light for identifying colorbands is early morning or evening when there are fewer direct shadows on the bands and legs of the bird. Make an effort to ensure that the sun is behind you and not backlighting (behind) the bird and shining directly into your eyes.
Report a colorband combination by recording the combination seen from top to bottom on the left leg and then recording the combination seen on the right leg in the same manner. Colorblind individuals may have difficulty identifying some of band colors but should keep track of the relative lightness and darkness of each band observed. If possible, all observers should work in pairs and compare results.
The colors of bands listed above are used on Great Lakes Piping Plovers. If you see colors that do not match the options above or extended bands (“flags”), do not try to “make” them fit. Other populations of Piping Plovers are marked using flags and different band colors. Report what you see and your observations will be passed on to Piping Plover recovery coordinators and researchers. Second only to the bands, the location and date of the sighting are very important (see the Color Band Sighting Report Form [PDF]).
I had seen this little fellow several times, always too far away, finally he came closer in the fading light.
Driving along a Grey County road we spotted these three tiny Killdeer chicks, two fled for the ditch and one decided to blend with the road, so of course we had to stop and take a photo.
This fellow was most indignant when I almost backed into him while taking a photo of another bird, his head popped up as if to say “excuse me but thats close enough”. I was caught off guard, however I did mange to take a photo as I retreated. 
Hoping the Plovers had arrived … nope they had not, but the Killdeers had!
