Halifax Walks and Ontario Parks
- Matt Lucas
- Jul 18, 2024
- 10 min read
June was a relatively quieter month for nature photography (compared to May anyway). The trip around mainland Nova Scotia was highly productive, so much so that I had to bury myself deep in my already deep, dark cave of an apartment and edit until my eyes turned red from staring at a screen too much. I emerged towards the end of the month, pale and gaunt, hand out-streched towards the sun in an attempt to shield my unconditioned eyes. Then I remembered I had a trip planned to Peterborough, Ontario, to visit my grandmother and seized on the opportunity to get back out there and see what Ontario’s wildside had to offer.
June 1:
I was still juiced up from my trip around Nova Scotia and I knew I should’ve started focusing on getting the edits done rather than going out with my camera, but felt a 30 minute jaunt wouldn’t hurt anyone.
I visited my parents in Lake Echo and took my dad out for a walk near McCoys pond with my camera in hand. As I mentioned, this wasn’t a long outing, only 30 minutes or so, but I did get some fantastic shots of Cedar Waxwings feeding on the apple blossoms in the early morning sun. These are by far my favourite Cedar Waxwing photos to date.
June 20:
This was my first outing of the summer and the heat was on, literally. I took off from home after work to Point Pleasant Park. I think the wildlife felt that too as it was a quiet outing - barely heard a gull. Maybe I was rusty, but I did get a few photos that made it to the editing stage.
Towards Black Rock Beach, about an hour or so before the sun went down, I tried incorporating the low light and the containers from Halterm to give an urban touch to the photography. The reflection of the loading cranes on the water as a Double-Crested Cormorant flew by was one of the first keepers, followed shortly by an American Crow cawing with the containers stacked in the background.
One of my favourite shots from the day was capturing a large group of Common Eiders and their ducklings feeding near the shoreline. I was having difficulty getting a low perspective.
I was attempting to lay down on the jagged rocks on the beach in shorts and a t-shirt, which isn’t my typical garb for nature outings, but deemed it too hot to wear anything else. To remedy this, I chose a vertical crop where the eiders were at the bottom of the composition, and the container yard near the centre, hoping to highlight both the eiders and orange lighting reflecting from the port.
June 22:
The weather was looking good and I was jonesing to get out for an early morning walk along the Mainland Trail heading towards Belchers Marsh. On the way there I came across something super cool, and according to Avian Report, (https://avianreport.com/how-rare-leucistic-albino-birds/#:~:text=Only%20236%20of%20the%205.5,very%20rare%20occurrences%20among%20birds), this occurs in 1 and 30,000 birds. Of course I thought this was some kind of bird I hadn’t seen before, but turns out it was a little Song Sparrow with leucism, which was affecting its head. I’ve been to the area a couple more times since, but haven’t seen it around.
This was a great start to the day and it only got better from there. Aside from the multitude of different birds like Red-Winged Blackbirds, American Robins, Mallards, and Canada Goose, there were plenty of other species of mammals to photograph. I was taking pictures of a family of Tree Swallows that were coming in and out of a hole in a tree, feeding their young inside, when I heard a commotion from the culvert I was standing close to. I angled my lens in the direction of the entrance of the culvert and two very large North American River Otters came huffing and puffing towards me. At first they didn’t notice me, and continued to sniff around the entrance of the culvert as if I wasn’t there, but the moment they caught a whiff of me they backed into the culvert again, periodically peeking their head out to see if I was still there or not. I got what I needed photography-wise after the second time they emerged from the culvert and I backed off. They soon came bounding back and made their way through the grass and reeds in the marsh and started playing with each other before going off to feed.
I did a couple laps around the marsh, amassing a large collection of decent shots by this point. I wanted to make another stop by the tree that the Tree Swallows kept returning too, hoping to improve what I had already taken. The light was a little flatter by this point, but I did manage to get one shot of a Tree Swallow that was sporting the latest in bird fashion: a little green aphid hat.
Even the walk back along the Mainland Trail was highly productive. I managed to get some fantastic shots of a pair of Northern Cardinals, one of which, the male, was framed nicely by the deep green leaves of the tree it was perched in.
An male American Goldfinch gave me a wonderful composition opportunity by clinging on to a bright red brick wall. I’ve been messing around with including urban elements to more of the nature photography I do within the city, and this was a nice change in colour as a lot of my summer photography showcases the greens of the season. The American Goldfinch popped against the brick and it might be one of my favourite shots from the day.
Another highlight on the way home was a Racoon marching towards me from the other end of the trail. I got some cool shots of it with people out of focus, walking in the background, but I ended up editing a closer cropped image when it was by a small bushel of wildflowers, before it took off into the woods. I like the crossing sign in the background, which I thought was a nice urban touch to this photograph.
My girlfriend, Beth, and I returned to Belchers Marsh later that evening to look for some birds and other wildlife, also hoping to get a glimpse of the otters again. All the usual suspects were at the marsh, but we didn’t see any otters. What we did end up seeing were a butt-load of White-Tailed Deer. I didn’t take my camera out for this walk, but we both took many photos with our phones. Not a huge fan of them so I didn’t bother editing any of them, but it’s good to know that so many deer are around next time I have my camera handy.
June 23:
Beth and I took a trip up to Pictou county to visit her family near Kenzieville and we went out for a quick walk around the area with her sister and her boyfriend after lunch. While we were only there for a few hours, from what I could tell, the location would be a great place for an extended nature shoot.
We followed a wide path along a river towards one of the overpasses nearby. It wasn’t a particularly long walk, but there were plenty of Pickerel Frogs along the path, seemingly lining up to have their photos taken. I was very thankful for the opportunity as they provided the best amphibian photographs I have to date. I lowered myself to my standard prone position and started shooting away.
Beth might be a birder prodigy lying in wait. Twice she managed to point out a couple birds before I managed to get a sight on them, one of them being my new favourite warbler species, the Blackburnian Warbler. It only appeared for a few seconds, but I did manage to capture it at a decent eye level, and facing in my direction. Admittedly, I erased a few of the messier branches behind the subject in post to help nullify the distractions. I try my best to avoid doing this too much as it gives me a weird feeling - messing around with what was there in the moment - but I’m already making slight changes to the rest of the image anyway so that’s just something I’m going to have to get over, but also use responsibly when editing.
The other bird Beth pointed out, thanks to a little help from the Merlin app, was a young White-Throated Sparrow (I mistakenly pegged it for a Song Sparrow #embarassedbirder). I confess the images taken may not have been the sharpest, but the lighting was too good not to try and get a final image to edit. I really liked how the final edit turned out. I shot through some green leaves giving the feathering look I’ve been loving to incorporate in my photography lately, and the framing is chef’s kiss.
June 29:
My mom, dad and I planned a trip to visit some family in Peterborough, Ontario, during the Canada Day weekend, give or take a couple extra days. For me, the trip was specifically planned to see my grandmother, whom I’m incredibly close to and is dear to me. She unfortunately had an incident at my uncle’s place where she is currently living, where she injured her hip and has great difficulty moving about. When I was a wee lad, my grandmother (who I call Grammie) and I would go on long walks around Dartmouth, and no doubt influenced my love of walking around, particularly in nature.
While she wasn’t able to physically join in the walks this time, I channelled her love and support during my early morning explorations throughout the duration of this trip.
I mostly kept to the trails that were nearby my uncle’s place, but there were plenty around so I certainly wasn’t bored. One of the trails near his place connected onto the Trans Canada Trail, so for the next couple days I spent most of my time wandering those trails for my nature photography outings.
I didn’t venture too far the first day I was there. To be honest, I didn’t feel like I had to. My uncle’s backyard was a treasure trove of wildlife. From birds like Northern Cardinal and Brown-Headed Cowbirds, to black Eastern Gray Squirrels to the bountiful Eastern Cottontails - I was in wildlife heaven. I knew it was going to be a fruitful trip when as soon as I sat down in the living room to unwind and say hi to the family after just getting there from the airport did I see my first Chipping Sparrow in a nearby bird feeder.
I found it incredibly difficult to sit still inside as all the bird action was happening on the other side of the window next to me. Fatigued be damned, I grabbed my camera and took off outside.
I packed light for this trip and didn’t check any luggage for the 5 day trip, and therefore reluctantly decided to leave the 200-500mm at home, choosing to opt for the 70-300mm instead, and attached it to my D500 (my regular wildlife camera), which is a combo I usually don’t do. With the D500 and 70-300mm lens combo in hand, I headed out into the rain and captured whatever I could within proximity.
Some of my favourite shots from the morning were of Chipping Sparrows, Brown-Headed Cowbirds, House Finches - all new species for me, along with Common Grackles, Mourning Doves and Black-Capped Chickadees. I also took some of my favourite Eastern Gray Squirrel shots to date, and some cute Eastern Chipmunks photos too.
I was also tipped off that there had been some Wild Turkeys spotted recently in the area. I didn’t find any that morning, but I went out for a walk later that evening just before sunset and found them. The storm had broken at this point, but the cumulus clouds were still dark and heavy, making for some spectacular lighting opportunities. Fortunately for me, as I was looking out of a massive cornfield as the sun was going down, I just so happened to spot about 12 Wild Turkeys all roosting in a nearby transmission tower. It might be one of my favourite shots of the trip! I even watched a Wild Turkey fly up from the field to join the rest of them, which was pretty amazing to witness.
June 30:
I was up bright and early and was excited to get out and do my first nature shoot on the Ontario trails. The plan was to walk across the development near my uncle’s place to get to the Trans Canada Trail (Jackson Creek Trail) heading towards Jackson Park then back towards the direction I came, going as far as time allowed that morning. It did not take long for me to find wildlife. In fact, this day and the next would be my most fruitful nature outings, as far as bird species go, I’ve ever experienced.
There was a small pond in the subdivision just before the main trail where the action began. A Killdeer, another new species for me, greeted me on a dirt path leading to the pond. It was feeding near a large puddle on the dirt path I was on, and I managed to get low and get some shots of the Killdeer’s reflection, with the dawn light colours in the mix. This was shortly followed by a Turkey Vulture scanning the nearby fields for carrion, and a Spotted Sandpiper feeding in the pool, doing its best to avoid the numerous Killdeer squawking at it.
Near Jackson Park, I spotted a North American Porcupine up in a tree, but the branches were too dense to get a clear shot. Not long after that did an Eastern Cottontail come bounding towards me and again, I got low to get some great shots of it. I also took some pretty great shots of an American Robin hopping along the trunk of a nearby tree. The lush greens and unique textures of the tree made for some wonderful photos.
I continued along the Trans Canada Trail heading in the direction of Kawartha Lakes County. A couple of highlights from this section of the trail was coming upon a Cooper’s Hawk hunting a Black-Crowned Night Heron. Unfortunately, I only managed to take doc shots of the two birds. The action happened so fast, but it was pretty amazing to watch the hawk nearly capture the heron that was twice its size, in mid-air. Shortly after that, I came across another new heron species for me, a Green Heron.
I was super excited to come across this Green Heron. It’s a bird I’ve been wanting to see for a long time, and this one didn’t fly off immediately like the Black-Crowned Night Heron did. The Green Heron was watching for prey on a large log that had fallen over a river just off trail. Just as I brought the viewfinder up to my eye did the action begin. The Green Heron practically dove for its prey from the log (or gracefully fell off), and managed to climb back onto the look, seemingly empty beaked. The Green Heron shook the water off itself, all captured on camera, and sauntered off towards the grassy bank. The light hitting the heron was practically perfect, and decided on a longer crop image, highlighting the heron and the length of the log on which it was perched.
Other photo highlights from this outing were of American Redstart, a juvenile Hooded Merganser, Savannah Sparrows and various landscape shots. There were other new species of birds that I captured that were used as doc shots were Warbling Vireos, Eastern Phoebes, and an American Kestrel soaring way up with the clouds.
You’ll need to stay tuned for the July blog to hear about the rest of the trip. The outing on Canada Day had me log 54 species of birds, including several new species, and some unique butterflies species I hadn’t photographed either. Again, I always appreciate you reading about my little nature outings and I hoped you enjoyed the photography. July is already shapping up to be a fantastically abundant month for photography, and we're only halfway through. I'm excited to showcase what I've managed to caputre so please come back - you won't be disappointed!
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