Heat Haze, Bogs, and Frogs
- Matt Lucas
- Aug 14, 2024
- 15 min read
In this post we continue on with the rest of the trip to Ontario, along with several other nature outings throughout the month of July. This month I explored farmlands, marshes, the interior forests of Nova Scotia, and the coasts of Nova Scotia. Some rare birds were seen, some photos of species were improved, and all done with a big, silly smile on my bald, silly head. Canada Day started with 54 species of birds logged on my ebird checklist, my largest recording to date. If that wasn’t a clear indication of how the rest of the month would go, I’m not sure what would be.
July 1:
I returned to the part of the Trans Canada Trail that I had explored the day before with the intention of reaching the Doube’s Trestle Bridge. As I mentioned before, I logged the most unique bird species in a day - 54 different bird species to be exact - but despite the fact that I couldn’t move for birds, I wasn’t able to get a whole lot of great photography opportunities. I found that many of the birds were located in busy or messy compositions, and the sunlight got harsh realll fast.
Surprisingly, it was the insects that were the primary subjects of my photography that morning. That being said, I did get a shot of a Rose-Breasted Grosbeak that I liked, but even in that photo you can tell that the sun is bordering on blowing out the highlights. Also, I logged several new species that day, but one in particular was an Eastern Meadowlark - a species of bird I’ve been wanting to see for a while. I only managed to hear it, confirmed on the Merlin app, but I did get a few shots of them (doc shots) the following day. Another new species I logged during this trip was a Field Sparrow. I did get a shot of one that I liked, but it’s tiny in the frame. Still, pretty excited to see and hear all the birds I saw.
Regarding the insects photographed, my favourites from the day were a few different species of butterfly I hadn’t captured before. My favourite would be the Brown-Eyed Butterfly. There were several flapping near me and they seemed not to mind having their photos taken. Another species of butterfly I captured was a White Admiral crawling over some apples. I also saw my first beehive of Honey Bees. The bees were photographed in Lakefield during a family outing in a nearby park. This was really cool to witness. The beehive was MASSIVE. I don’t know how big it was relative to other beehives, but there were thousands of bees in this cone shape dangling from a tree.
July 2:
This was my last full day in Ontario and I wanted to check out a new area close to where I was staying. This morning I took off towards Fairbairn Meadows to explore more of the farmlands and a large meadow located in the center.
I made an early stop at a wheat field with one of Peterborough’s water towers in the background to take some landscape photos. Directly behind me was the large marsh I mentioned before. From there I heard a unique bird call I hadn’t heard before. I whipped out the Merlin app (seriously, download this app if you don’t have it already), and got to recording. Merlin came up with a Marsh Wren - a new species for me.
Now, the reeds were tall and the birds were low - at first. I heard several of these calls and it sounded as if they were getting closer to where I was standing. I waited about 30 minutes or so and finally one of the wrens crept up a reed high enough that I could get a shot of it. Another issue I was running into was the breeze blowing the reeds around. The Marsh Wren didn’t climb up to the very top, it just lingered 6 inches or so below the point. So whenever there was a slight breeze, the wren would get lost behind the reed and I would lose focus. To remedy this, I switched to manual focus, focused on the wren whenever it would come into frame and blasted the shutter button.
The Marsh Wren was definitely up there for highlights of this outing, but I did manage to see a few other species, some of them new, and obtained a few shots that I did some final edits to. One of the photos was of an Eastern Phoebe that was perched on a fence near a barn that I really liked.
A few other species to note was my first time seeing an Eastern Bluebird, and a Willow Flycatcher. I did manage to get some shots, but only documentation images. I also took better doc shots of Eastern Meadowlarks and a House Wrens, but nothing worth editing.
July 3:
I didn’t go out on any nature outings during my last day in Ontario, but while at the Toronto Pearson Airport I noticed that there were several House Sparrows actually inside the airport. A couple perched on a sign near the gate we were waiting at. I whipped out my camera and took my last shots of the trip.
July 4:
Again, not technically a true nature outing (relative to what I typically do), but I did get another image of a Question Mark Butterfly during a walk on my lunch break. I’ve been finding myself taking more photos of insects this summer, particularly butterflies. I’ve already logged several species and am hoping to document more before the summer is out.
July 10:
Word was going around on social media that a rare bird had been sighted in the Halifax Public Gardens. At this point, the Yellow-Crowned Night Heron had been spotted at the gardens for a few days, and I had made plans to go out paddleboarding with a friend after work. I was worried that I was running out of time to capture this rare bird so I decided to come home from paddleboarding before the public garden closed, planning to get there by 8 while the light was still good. I rushed home, packed up my camera and took off for the gardens.
I picked a spot near the large pond figuring that would be the likely spot the heron would be found at. I waited there for 15-20 minutes or so as I watched the sun slowly go down and people vacating the gardens. That’s when I noticed a large bird flying in low towards the pond, directly from the opposite side of where I was positioned. The Yellow-Crowned Night Heron landed near the pond’s edge, only for a moment, before it was spooked by some people walking nearby. It flew over to a nearby tree on a branch overhanging the pond. That’s where I took my best photos of the heron. Even as I was being ushered out of the gardens by security, I walked backwards, camera raised, snapping away like a good little photographer.
July 11:
I took this night to explore Sandy Lake Park in Bedford. I’ve been wanting to do more photography in the area for a while. The area is threatened by housing development, but there is a chance to save the total area, provided the developers receive alternatives of equal value selected by the city. You can read more here: https://sandylake.org/
Anyway, I was hoping to take some unique wildlife and landscape photography this evening. Unfortunately, the photography side of things was lackluster as it was fairly dark at this point and most of the trails in the park are covered by a dense tree canopy. One of my favourite photos from the trip was a cute, backlit photo of a Blue-Headed Vireo.
Something cool I did see was a pair of Barred Owls trying to escape a Blue Jay terrorizing them. I heard the commotion before I saw it. I listened to the pair of owls off to the left of a trail I was on. I got really excited and hussled with my gear in the direction that I heard them from. About 5 minutes up the trail is where the two owls burst from the forest towards the dense woods on the other side with a Blue Jay hot on their tailfeathers. Unfortunately, I was too slow to raise my camera to get a shot of them, but it was still awesome to watch. I tried going into the woods to search for them, as I continued to hear the birds in the area freaking out with their unwanted neighbours of prey, but to no avail.
July 13:
I finally had the chance to get out first thing in the morning to do a longer nature outing. Today, I went back to Grand Desert Beach and walked from there to Three Fathom Harbour and back. There had been some cool species of bird located in the area at the time and I took my camera out to hopefully try and capture some of them.
The weather was moody with fog and drizzle. I haven’t shot in these conditions in a while so I was happy for the switch in atmosphere. My first subject of the morning was the Nelson’s Sparrow, a bird I witnessed for the first time a few days prior during a beach day with Beth, but the heat haze blurred my photographs something fierce, so I was thankful for the opportunity to see them again, with much less heat haze this time. My favourite photo of the Nelson’s Sparrow of the day was of one dangling on some shrub surrounded by thick grass. They weren't too hard to locate when you're going by their call. They have one of the most unique sparrow calls, relative to others in Nova Scotia, sounding more like a harsh whisper and chirp than actual song.
For every one Nelson’s Sparrow, there would be three Savannah Sparrows calling in the background. One of the shots I settled on for a final edit of the Savannah Sparrow was of one on top of some sweetgale, singing away, with a clean background.
The area around Grand Desert lended a couple more photography opportunities for me while passing through. I watched a young family of American Black Ducks cross a muddy part of the marsh. I opted for a high key final edit with those images. I even experimented with some black and white edits. Another image I liked from this area was of a couple of Short-Billed Dowitchers in flight. There were at least 50 or so flying in groups over the marsh looking for places to feed.
The photography kept going as I made my way through Seaforth. I watched a couple of Common Terns diving for minnows along the shoreline. There was also a Wood Duck in its eclipse plumage feeding in a nearby pond. Eclipse plumage I learned means that male birds, typically ducks, moult their breeding plumage and showcase a duller colour for a couple of months before changing back to their more vibrant plumage for the rest of the year. There was also an Osprey carrying a flatfish off to its nest, presumably. Again, I opted for a high key edit on this photo.
I ran into a lot of deer during this outing too. One that I came across was about 50 yards ahead of me in the middle of the trail I was walking on. It stood in the middle of the path, with the fog only just obscuring a large house in the background. I took a vertical shot of it standing there in the center of the frame. The White-Tailed Deer eventually turned around and took off into the low shrub nearby. I found it later with its head only just high enough to peek over the top of the shrubs, munching away on some delicious plants.
Closer to Three Fathom Harbour is where I found a Northern Parula feeding low on a spruce tree amongst some old man’s beard. It, along with Common Yellowthroats, Yellow Warblers, American Redstarts, and a Magnolia Warbler were a few of the warbler species I found that day. Another warbler I found was the Tennessee Warbler, which was the first time I saw one. Now, I heard the Tennessee Warbler before I saw it, but it managed to elude me and my camera the whole time I searched for it. I saw it in a very dense part of the woods just off trail, but it didn’t stay still long enough for me to get a shot off of it - go figure.
July 14:
No nature outing today, but I was at my cottage with Beth and she pointed out a few Red-Breasted Nuthatches feeding in a nearby tree. I had my camera on hand at the time and took some shots of them while I had the chance.
July 20:
I wanted to explore a couple new areas that I hadn’t been to before, so starting off this weekend I took off for Avondale, located in Hants county. I haven’t done much photography in Hants county before and found a trail to introduce myself to the beauty of the area on Alltrails, an app I use for almost all the trails I explore.
Before I got to the trail I spotted two Red-Tailed Hawks on utility poles overlooking a field with a river running through it. I excitedly pulled my car over to attempt to take some shots of these magnificent birds of prey. I briefly, and stupidly tried to think of ways to get to a higher point so as to be eye-level with the hawks. My idea was to climb on top of my car to remedy this, but the moment I heard my hood buckle from the first step, I decided this was probably not the wisest choice and returned to my car in shame (though I did manage to take some shots that I really liked regardless).
I did manage to see a bunch of cool birds including a quick glimpse of a Great-Horned Owl being chased off by a Blue Jay and a couple of Black-Capped Chickadees egging the jay on. I also captured some great shots of a Cedar Waxwing. The background is soft and I gave it a bit of a matte look by raising the shadows of the colour grading.
July 21:
The following day, I went to check out the Bowater Trail along Hiking Trail/Pipeline Road in Head of St Margarets Bay. This location seemed to be a popular spot for birding with several checklists submitted on Ebird. I got there at dawn and started along the road towards Pipeline Road. I did manage to find the trail, but found it overgrown and a bit cumbersome to navigate. I didn’t want to spend my time in the heat bushwhacking along this trail so I just went back out onto the dirt road and continued along from there.
There was a lot of wildlife to be seen during this outing. There were many Snowshoe Hares along the road. One of them was riddled with ticks, especially on its head, as seen in one of the final edits above. There were also many species of warblers abound, like Northern Parulas, Ovenbirds, American Redstarts, Magnolia Warblers, Black-and-White Warblers, and Blackburnian Warblers. My favourite shots of the warblers were of the Common Yellowthroat and Black-Throated Green Warblers. Each photo highlights the feeding habits of these birds.
Another bird to highlight is the Alder Flycatcher. I’ve captured Alder Flycatchers before, but wasn’t a huge fan of any of the photos. The photos I captured this day changed all of that. One photo in particular shows an Alder Flycatcher curiously looking upward with some lovely soft lighting. It was cool watching it leap from its perch to chase insects and incredible accuracy and agility in mid-air.
One of the last photo highlights from this trip was coming upon a small pond just off to the side of the road. I was photographing Common Yellowthroats feeding their young nearby when I started to hear the symphony of Green Frogs playing behind me. I made my way to the shoreline of the pond and was greeted by several Green Frogs, all resting near the pond’s edge. Much to my surprise, most of the Green Frogs remained in place as I lowered myself to eye level with the frogs. I took a lot of great shots of these frogs, some of my favourites of the entire month. My favourite shot of a Green Frog was of a male croaking near some bright red roots of the plant life around, and a clear reflection of itself in the water.
That was all of the photography highlights from the trip. I did end the day with seeing a Red-Tailed Hawk screeching from a tree overlooking a lake near to where I was parked. I only managed to get doc shots of the hawk, but it was still awesome to watch it hollering out menacingly before it took off. I did see a Bald Eagle soaring above not long after so I wondered if the eagle spooked off the hawk.
July 27:
Today I decided to return to Taylors Head Provincial Park to complete the trails I didn’t get to back in March. I was staying at my cottage this weekend so it was only a 45 minutes drive from there, but I still had to get up around 3:30 AM and paddle boat my way to where my car was parked. It was pitch black so I wore a headlamp during the journey, but I thought it was kind of cool paddling that early in the morning, in complete darkness.
I got to the park by dawn, hoping to get to some spectacular landscape scenes to practice my panoramic photography. I’m not sure how the pano turned out as I haven’t edited it yet, but it was another good day for wildlife photography.
Not far from where I photographed my first panoramic shot is where I found a North American Porcupine climbing up a tree. I have several photos of porcupines in trees and most of them are shot from a low angle looking upward. Fortunately, the location I found the porcupine was located near a cliff edge with a set of stairs built over the rock to help hikers navigate the trail safely. I used this to shoot at eye level with the porcupine and am happy with the results.
I found several shorebirds during this trip. One of which was the Whimbrel, a new species for me. I only managed to capture doc shots of the Whimbrel, but a species that I hadn’t had photos of and that I’ve encountered before was the Lesser Yellowlegs.
Lesser Yellowlegs are very VERY similar looking to Greater Yellowlegs, the primary differences being the overall size of the bird, the call, and the length of the bill. If both species aren't in the area at the same time it can be difficult to determine which species you have by size, and if they aren’t calling then it’s no good determining which species you’ve found by sound. Since I didn’t have the first two differentiating qualities to go by, it was the length of the bill that helped me determine what I was looking at (even though I still had to get the photo of the species verified by an expert).
Another favourite photo of all the shorebirds I saw was of Willets. There were quite a few around and were feeding along the rocks. I liked the textures of the rocks that they were feeding on, along with the yellows of the seaweed and dark waters in the background so that’s what I went with for some of the final compositions.
There were more warblers to be found. One unique warbler species I found was the Blackpoll Warbler, a species I hadn’t seen since my trip around Nova Scotia in May. There were a couple of females feeding with some Magnolia Warblers in spruce trees. Didn’t get any great shots of the Blackpoll Warblers, but did take some of the Magnolia Warblers.
Lastly, and this is one I’ve been excited to share and photograph for some time, is of a Masked Shrew. Now, I’ve been trying to figure out how I was going to photograph the small mammals of Nova Scotia for some time. I figured I was going to have to stake out a few areas where I’ve seen them before, wait for hours to get a glimpse of one and hope that I was ready with the camera once they appeared. I just happened to notice quick movement under some rocks that I was standing on. I looked down and pointed my camera hoping and praying that whatever it was that I saw would come back and give me an exposure opportunity. And that’s exactly what happened. This little Masked Shrew just peeked its head out from an underground path between some rocks and soil and that’s when I held the shutter button down, praying I got a decent image to show for it.
July 28:
Mom and I went out for an early morning paddle in the paddle boat and, as always, I brought my camera along with me. Shoutout to my mom who patiently waits for me to attempt to get a clear shot of whatever wildlife we see on our journeys. This morning, the highlights were of a Belted Kingfisher, a species I only seem to be able to get great shots of while I’m in a boat of some kind. The other was of Double-Crested Cormorants taking off from the water. I’ve photographed this behaviour a few times, but to no avail. But I did manage to capture one taking off in the moody fog that I really like the final edit of.
July 29:
Beth and I went out for another walk to Belchers Marsh. I did bring my camera with me, but I wasn’t able to capture a whole lot. I found that the species I captured this evening weren’t as good of quality compared to the photos of the same species caught earlier in the summer. Animals like Killdeer and Yellow Warblers were photographed, but no unique compositions that spoke to me were acquired. Something that was awesome to see was a mother White-Tailed Deer feeding with her fawn by her side. Again, Beth was the one to point them out as I was probably getting distracted by a squirrel or something (she's a serious wildlife observer prodigy, I’m not joking). We watched them from a safe distance as they fed together and they eventually wandered deeper into the woods. I didn’t get any great shots of this, but it was nice just to watch a beautiful moment in time without worrying too much about getting the shot. I sometimes have to remind myself to enjoy the simple observation of wildlife, rather than hyperfocusing on documenting those moments with my camera.
Overall, July was a great month for wildlife and nature photography. Definitely the warmest month I’ve done nature photography at the level I’ve been doing it since last October. My outings have been shortened because of the heat, but I can already feel the mornings cooling off. August is already shaping up to be an excellent month for nature photography and I’m excited to showcase all the wonderful images captured next month.
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