Friday, November 7, 2008

River Walk This Morning

It was a chilly -5º this morning when I left the house and the sky quickly turned overcast.
I decided to hike over to the weir to see what was at the river and then made my way back through Cosmopolitan Park.

Here is what I saw :

Common Goldeneye - 9 south of the CN Bridge , and another 15 north up the river.
American Coot - 1 near Goose Island
Mallard - 45+
Canada Goose - 175
Cackling Goose - 12
Black-billed Magpie - 7
Blue Jay - 1
Ring-billed Gull - 30 on a sandbar south of Goose Island
Northern Shrike - 1 feeding juvenile at Cosmopolitan Park.
Great Horned Owl - 1 just north of the railway bridge
Hairy Woodpecker - 2
Downy Woodpecker - 3
Common Redpoll - 30+
Black-capped Chickadee - 11
Red-breasted Nuthatch - 1
House Finch - 4
House Sparrow - 15

Snowshoe Hare - 1 pure white rabbit at Cosmo Park
Muskrat - 1 swimming on the river


Here are 3 photos taken today. Unfortunately, they suffer from poor light, and obstructive branches, but I was extremely happy to find both of these species ,as they are both new finds for me along the river on my usual route :

Northern Shrike - This 1st winter bird was busy eating its meal when I found him..





Great Horned Owl - I spotted this Owl from quite a distance away and got off this shot before it decided to fly onto the west side of the river..

10 comments:

Jayne said...

OK Nick, when I grow up, I want to be able to use my camera like you use yours. :c) Um, so if I come to Saskatchewan, you can show me the proper way to utilize my honking camera, right? ;c) Beautiful, beautiful photos!

Jayne (who is declaring right now that she will read the manual...ack)

Nick S said...

Thanks Jayne. I'll give you a free lesson when you come down :-)
PS. Who reads the manuals ? :-)

NCmountainwoman said...

What a walk that must have been! Great photographs (as usual)

Shelley said...

Um...can I tag along w/ Jayne for that lesson???!!

Your owl photo is making me very envious!

Nick S said...

Thanks for the kind words. Sure you can tag along Shelly :-)

I wish the Owl photo was better actually. The sky was gray, and he was pretty far from me.

kjpweb said...

Excellent! Great Owl catch!
Cheers, Klaus

Nick S said...

Thanks Klaus :-)

Unknown said...

3 beautiful images and the shot of the Owl is awesome...Thomas

Nick S said...

Thanks Thomas :)

Peggy said...

Love that Shrike! Gorgeous details and bonus!-He was feeding too! Owls are always a great catch, gray sky or not!