Killdeer babies - found!

I finally managed to track down the little fluff balls of cuteness known as baby Killdeer. They - and their parents - are pretty skittish, so I wasn't able to get very close. But I was able to work with the lighting conditions and distance as best as I could to get a few shots of them.

Crippled hummingbird

Discovered something very sad yesterday - our male hummingbird has a broken leg/foot. He seems to be doing okay - flies and feeds no problem, and still does the courtship dive for the females - but when he perches, he straddles the branch and his bad leg just dangles. It breaks my little heart to see him like this. :(

Tree swallow family

We were finally able to get a peek at the babies in the nesting house in our backyard. There are at least two, but you can only see one in this shot.

Finally, some pictures!

Friday night I was able to spend half an hour shooting out my living room window (which is where I take a lot of my yard bird photos). Two female hummingbirds were semi-cooperative, and a male Baltimore Oriole posed all pretty-like just long enough for me to snap a couple of shots. Here are the results:

Published!

I received a lovely surprise in the mail yesterday from the Canadian Wildlife Federation. I'd submitted some images to a competition of theirs back in November, and while I didn't place at all, they chose one of my photos to include in their April issue of WILD magazine.

It was this photo of a Viceroy butterfly on a coneflower:

And earlier this year, I found out two of my images submitted to a competition hosted by Cornell Lab of Ornithology's Celebrating Urban Birds calendar.

This cardinal was January:

And this hummer shared one of the summer months, but I can't remember which one off the top of my head.

So yay! I guess I can now say I'm a published photographer. :)

Spring is in the air

Happy March!

As much as I love my winter birds, I'm really looking forward to Spring migration. I'm anxious to get my garden cleaned up and start planting... which is nuts, considering we've still got two-foot-deep snow drifts in parts of our yard, and the Horned Larks are still singing away in our fields. (I love listening to them when I'm out in the yard with the pup. Such a pretty sound.)

Regardless, though, I saw my first signs of Spring this week: the maple trees around us are being tapped for syrup, and I saw a robin fly across the road on my to work yesterday. Yeah, yeah, I know, some robins are over-wintering here now. But I'm going to go with it being a migrant. Makes me feel better. ;-)

I also watched Mr. Northern Cardinal attack his reflection in my car's side-view mirror this morning. I figure that's a sign that he's ready to start fighting for mating rights.

The downside to Spring is that all of a sudden we've got flocks of Starlings taking over our feeders. I hate those birds so, so, sooooo much. Them and the House Sparrows. Ugh. The Starlings are also brilliant mimics, and have fooled me and Dave more than once. They have a stellar red-tailed hawk cry, and lately they've been singing the first few notes of the male cardinal's call.

Haven't been taking many pictures around the yard, but I've been visiting a really lovely park down in Cambridge and getting some nice shots of the usual winter suspects - Black-capped Chickadees, American Tree Sparrows, Northern Cardinals, White-breasted Nuthatches. I even saw a beautiful male House Finch a few weeks back, and a Song Sparrow. It's early for a Song Sparrow, I think, but since the winter's been so mild, maybe it's not that unusual.

Here are a couple of my faves:

New Book!

I've published a book of my favorite bird photos from the past year and a half. Take a peek, and if you feel so inclined, place an order. (It makes a great gift for the bird lover in your life!) :)

Birds: The obsession begins by Photography by Jen St. Louis | Make Your Own Book

Bald Eagle portrait 1

Bald Eagle portrait 1, a photo by Jen St. Louis on Flickr.

One of the perched shots from Saturday's workshop. As expected, my in-flight shots were horrid. Won't attend that workshop again until I've managed to upgrade my camera. I love my Nikon D90, but it's just too slow for BiF.

Yard visitors

Some of our more amusing yard birds over the past couple of days: the Indigo Bunting intermingling with some Godlfinches, and a male Baltimore Oriole playing hummingbird at a feeder that's most definitely intended for smaller, hovering-type birds.

Tree swallow

Tree swallow 3, a photo by Jen St. Louis on Flickr.

Spent some time out at Snyder's Flats a couple of weekends ago with a friend and fellow photographer. We were really hoping for some Osprey shots, but they were very uncooperative. Had to settle for some song birds, and even then I was disappointed in most of my shots. This tree swallow picture is probably my best of the day, I'm afraid.

The more I look at it, the more I like it, though... :)

Osprey 13

Osprey 13, a photo by Jen St. Louis on Flickr.

This is the elusive bird we were hoping for yesterday morning. Unfortunately, the pair were feeling a bit camera-shy.

This shot was taken the weekend prior, in Cambridge, Ontario.

House finch 3

House finch 3, a photo by Jen St. Louis on Flickr.

Another lovely little finch that seems to enjoy the lilac buds.

Goldfinch eating lilac buds

Goldfinch eating lilac buds, a photo by Jen St. Louis on Flickr.

Our yard is overrun by these little guys, right now. We maintain a healthy population of them all year 'round, but over the past month, their numbers have increased fairly dramatically. We've been watching the males challenge each other, chasing each other around the yard, spinning together and falling towards the ground, only to part and fly upward at the last minute. They're so pretty, and so entertaining... I just wish they wouldn't eat the lilac buds.

Eastern screech owls 1

Eastern screech owls 1, a photo by Jen St. Louis on Flickr.

For my first photo post, I thought I should go with one of my personal favorites. These two eastern screech owls were featured at a photography workshop I attended last Fall at the Mountsberg Raptor Centre.