Jump to content

Owls Of Amherst Island - (nf Pics!)


JustinHoffman

Recommended Posts

Hello All,

 

Made the trek over to Amherst Island (just west of Kingston at the town of Millhaven) with the folks to do some owl and raptor watching. Spotted 9 red-tail hawks on the drive down the 401, so spirits were high.

Jumped on the ferry at 9:30am for the 15 minute crossing over to the island.

Started driving the north-east loop of the island, spotting numerous hawks along the way. Made our way down to the southern shore, when my mother pointed out a bird that was flying to the left of our car right along the shore. Before I could make visual contact, she stated it was only a seagull. I finally spotted it 5o feet ahead of us, and knew by the size and shape that we had our first snowy owl sighting for the day! To make things even more exciting, it landed on a fence post a mere 200 feet away!!

Got the camera ready with my 300mm telephoto, and began shooting out the side window. Every so often, I would creep the car forward, eventually getting less than 20 feet from it!

 

Here's some closeups of this female snowy..

 

Snowy4.jpg

 

Snowy3.jpg

 

Snowy2.jpg

 

At this point, a car had pulled up a distance behind, and was waiting patiently to pass. We decided to drive right past the owl, and park further down on the shoulder. The other fella got out of his car and starting taking shots, and we did the same.

 

Snowy7.jpg

 

At this point, I had the camera trained on the owl and was just about to press the shutter button, when the girl got spooked and flew up. The amazing thing is that the owl flew directly at me! I really love this next shot - not 100% in focus, but not bad to say I wasn't ready for a motion shot..

 

Snowy1.jpg

 

After this bird flew off, we spotted a male hunkered down in the brush a mere 100 yards from this girl. The one was pure white, but was too far away for a decent shot.

 

We decided to stop for lunch at this point, then hike in to Owl Woods. This is a neat area of trees that houses quite a few species of owls, although the most common is the Long Eared. After a lengthy hike, we make our way into the woods.

 

Within 30 seconds, I'm greeted by this fella..

 

Snowy6.jpg

 

We saw 25+ of these Long Eared in the woods! At one point, I witnessed four of the birds perched on one branch together...It's tough to get a decent shot in here, because there is so many twigs and branches on the trees. Also, the sky was pretty washed out and it was fairly dark under the canopy. Nonetheless, a couple turned out ok..

 

Snowy5.jpg

 

Headed back into the car, and began the western loop. Many, many raptors, including red-tailed, Merlin, Kestral, Northern Harrier etc... Conservative figures would put the raptor count at around 30+

 

So, a pleasant four hours spent on Amherst. Grabbed the 3pm ferry back to the mainland, and back to civilization.. :blush:

 

Good Fishing,

Justin

Edited by JustinHoffman
Link to comment
Share on other sites

real good shots

but I think you are trying to fool us..I think you photoshopped a bunch of the pictures..as their heads seem to be on backwards in some of the pictures..........they sure can turn their heads around...lol..great stuff

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Pic # 5, couldn't ask, or predict, a shot like that one.

 

Awesome

 

Thanks for that Justin.

 

P.S...........any chance of me getting a pm of the full sized pic of that owl in flight, that would make an awesome background pic for my pc, not that the one you posted would not work also.

And I think you should put a watermark on that picture also, before it gets all over the net, with other people taking credit for it.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Excellent shots Justin.

 

What day did you go? We were there on Saturday. Rain, cloudy, snow, Sun.... we had it all! We never saw that Snowy you got pics of, all ours were in the full white plumage. Do you go there often?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hey Ron,

 

We were there on Sunday. Gorgeous day to be out, although the owl woods hike was muddy and wet as you know what! :blush: Good thing I brought the winter boots...

We saw two snowys for the day - one pure white male, and the one I got the photos of.

This is only my second time going. I do plan on heading there later this month, and am actually thinking about staying at a B & B for a night, just so I can do the early morning shoot and spend more time.

Definitely a neat place, with plenty of birds to see!

 

Good Shooting,

Justin

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
  • Recent Topics

    Popular Topics

    Upcoming Events

    No upcoming events found

×
×
  • Create New...