Snippets of Nature

The Mating Game - Picture Pathway Spring is the time when male birds moult into their breeding plumage and engage in courtship behaviours. In the photo above, this colourful male yellow-bellied sapsucker is drumming on a wire fence. Why drum on a wire fence? The sound produced from striking metal carries much further than on wood an...

Winter Birding - Picture Pathway You really can tell when you’re an avid birder and nature enthusiast when you spend hours and hours outdoors in freezing temperatures appreciating and photographing wildlife. Winter gives us an opportunity to observe some of our common year-round residents like Chickadees, Bluejays and Cardinals i...

Babies In The WIld - Picture Pathway One of the joys of wildlife photography is observing and photographing animal behaviours. I particularly love recording the interaction between mothers and their offspring. Young animals in the wild are extremely vulnerable to a range of dangers including predation by other animals, the elements, an...

Learn how to create beautiful abstract images using reflections in ponds and lakes. Natures Paintbrush is my latest article in Picture Pathway - Life in Pictures.

Nature’s Paintbrush - Picture Pathway During late summer and early autumn, I like to try my hand at a bit of abstract photography. The array of autumn colour combined with the distortion of shapes and lines in ponds and lake reflections can lead to some pleasing results especially when you photograph imperfect surfaces. I look for surfa...

Salt Pans, Sand Dunes, and CamelThorn Trees - Picture Pathway There was a time when I wouldn’t have considered a desert landscape very remarkable. That all changed in 2018 when as part of a trip to South Africa and Namibia, I visited the Namib Desert. At more than forty million years old, the Namib is the oldest and driest desert in the world, its only… R...

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Sandhill Crane
I love photographing these majestic birds. Sandhill Cranes stand about 1.2 metres tall with a wing span of 2 metres. The red patch on the head is actually skin, not feathers.

Sandhill Crane family near Long Point.
Plumage of Sandhill Cranes is normally grey, but in summer the feathers turn a rusty colour because the birds preen themselves by rubbing mud from iron rich soils on their feathers. This can help with camouflage during the nesting season.

Bluebird of Happiness - Picture Pathway Bluebirds, members of the Thrush Family, have always held a special place in our hearts and, over the years, have had several qualities attributed to them, such as: This is a lofty reputation for such a small bird, but the Eastern Bluebird is more than capable of living up to such high expectations....

My latest post to Picture Pathway

Early Morning at the Point - Picture Pathway It’s 4:45 a.m. when the alarm goes off. Groggy and disoriented, I momentarily wonder where I am and what I’m doing here. It takes a few seconds for my mind to clear and to remember. Of course! It’s the month of May and the Point Pelee Birding Festival has just begun. I’m in a motel… Read ...

Yesterday I went on a wild flower nature walk with the Caledon Hills Bruce Trail Club and decided to leave my telephoto lens behind and try some close-up shots on the beautiful wild flowers that we found along the trail. The next week or two will be prime time viewing of wild flowers and the many local trails we have give us easy access to the show.

I'm pleased to be joining this talented group of local photographers and Artists as a regular contributor to Picture Pathway - Life in Pictures. How about taking a few moments to check us out?

Meet the team! See anyone you recognize? This is our initial group of regularly contributing photographers and artists. And there’s more to come! You can take a mental holiday right now and go see some of our work on PicturePathway.ca Art By Ma**ca Nikola Boadway Jim R Sutton Marilyn Matis Snippets of Nature Robert Simeon

Last Saturday morning, the Trumpeter Swans put on quite a show on the Palgrave pond as they displayed several courtship behaviours.

I came across this female Common Redpoll a couple of days ago. These birds breed in the far north. In the winter they tend to settle in the boreal forest, but a few of them will venture this far south. It's always a thrill to see them. This one has found one of her favourite food sources - the seeds of an Alder tree. She fed here for several minutes until an aggressive Red-winged Blackbird chased her away.

Northern Saw Whet Owl
I love photographing these tiny owls which measure only 7" to 8" in height. You might wonder how birdwatchers and photographers fine these tiny birds in a woodlot. Sometimes they are found by listening. Songbirds will often swarm a tree to drive the owl away. That's one way of knowing that something interesting might be roosting in a tree. A second way is to look for the whitewash of their droppings on a tree branch. The third way is to scan the ground under a tree to look for owl pellets as shown in the picture below. Many owls are creatures of habit and will roost in the same tree for several days.

I haven't posted anything on this page for about a year, so I thought that it was time to get a bit more active. I photographed this trio of red-breasted Mergansers participating in a mating ritual. Spring is a great time to visit lakes and ponds to observe this kind of behaviour.

Here a couple of Red-breasted Merganser drakes are vying for attention from the hen. The drake in the rear of the image is saluting her with head held high while the one in the foreground curtseys by tipping his rear in the air and holding his bill high - looks rather awkward. Eventually the hen will accept a mate (not necessarily this pair) to form a monogamous bond for the mating season.

Back to the beach 2022-2 fi**ed Gary!

It's the iron in a beaver's teeth that give them incredible strength and toughness and prevents tooth decay. The iron also accounts for the orange colour of the teeth. In the top photo you can see where this beaver severed a branch from the bush in the background. It then carted the branch back to the river where it settled down for an afternoon snack. The teeth which never stop growing are self-sharpening and chewing on wood all day keeps them from growing too long. The bottom photo shows a closer view of its teeth.

It’s encouraging to see how the Bald Eagle population has recovered since the ban on DDT use 50 years ago. However, a new threat to the Bald Eagle population has been recognized. Eagles can be exposed to lead poisoning by scavenging animals, that have been shot with lead bullets. Hopefully a transition to non-lead ammunition will ensure that an eagle’s food source is not negatively impacted in the future and that their populations will continue to thrive.

Bald Eagle: Photographed earlier this week - just for you Nancy Girvan.

Evening Grosbeaks are members of the finch family. They are northern birds that occasionally venture into Southern Ontario. These birds (male - top image and female - bottom image) were photographed in Algonquin Park earlier this year.

Early in January I took a couple of days off from my virtual African Safari to visit Algonquin Park - temperature minus 21 Celsius. These are images of a couple of American Martens photographed in the park. American Martens are often incorrectly called "Pine Martens" because of their close resemblance to their European relatives. Martens are in the same family as weasels, mink and fishers. They are larger than the weasel and mink, but smaller than a fisher.

As the sun sets behind an acacia tree in Amboseli National Park in Kenya, it's time to say goodbye to East Africa. Thanks for joining me on this virtual safari. I also enjoy winter photography here at home and will post some of my winter images soon.

On a typical day on safari there is a game drive in the morning followed by time for lunch and relaxing at a lodge and another game drive in late afternoon. Here, Dave Taylor, good friend and fellow wildlife photographer, is relaxing at the Serengeti Sopa Lodge recording the morning's adventure in his journal. Over the last month, I've spent a lot of time revisiting my photo files and journals reliving my adventures in East Africa. It's been a wonderful way of escaping from this ongoing pandemic.

Male Ostriches perform elaborate dances to attract the attention of females. In the second image a female ostrich joins in on the fun. Eventually a second female approaches to see what all the fuss is about. As it turned out, both females decided that he wasn't worth it and marched off to possibly check out another male. Life can be tough for a poor male ostrich looking for love!

Ostriches are the tallest and heaviest of any living bird with males weighing up to 150 kg. and standing 2.5 metres. When threatened, they can sprint up to 70 km. per hour and can jog for up to 50 km. per hour for 30 minutes. They can also deliver a powerful deadly kick to defend themselves. There are two species of ostrich in the images below. The top image is a Masai Ostrich, a sub spesies of the Common Ostrich, that roams the open savannah of Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda. The bottom image is a Somali Ostrich that prefers territories thick in vegetation in northern Kenya, Somalia and Ethiopia.

Lake Nakuru is located in the Rift Valley in Kenya. The lake is always dotted with thousands of flamingos. It is also home to two species of Rhino - the Black Rhino and the White Rhino. Both species are grey in colour. Both images here are of White Rhinos. The "white" in their name is derived from the Afrikaans word "weit" meaning wide. The broad flat lip of the White Rhino is adapted for grazing. Black rhinos have a have a narrower hooked lip that permits them to browse for food.