Headshots...

I am now home from Toronto and finished my last training session there! Yeah, no more travelling for awhile I hope! Anyway, I also took a Photography Class last week...yep, have to learn how to better use my Nikon D90, so signed up for a Course at Henry's...Part two is in a couple of weeks and I'm looking forward to the more advanced stuff next time!

Here are some shots from the weekend...headshots of the horses!

1st- Amigo (I think)
2nd-Chinook
3rd-Zeus
4th-Casey

The Amazing Merlin!

Here are some pictures of a cute little guy called Merlin, who was hanging around the farm (especially the barn) today. It was minus 24 with the windchill, so I don't really blame him. Keturah did her horse riding lesson today and I thought I'd freeze my butt off, but it wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be...you just have to be prepared with lots of layers!!! Of course, it took me about 4 hours to finally warm up!

1st Pic-Merlin looking in the barn
2nd Pic-Merlin up close and personal (with his nose)
3rd Pic- A far away shot of Merlin looking in the barn

My Favourite Kitties

Here are some shots of Mickey and Bailey, who live in Ottawa and are owned by Anne and Fred...BTW---Happy Birthday Fred! Hope you enjoy the Sens tonight!

These were taken on the weekend when we were in Ottawa, celebrating with Fred!
1st-Bailey
2nd -Mickey

Better Late than Never!

Sorry I have not posted in awhile...Been busy every night it seems, then we went to Ottawa on the weekend---it was Fred's 50th Birthday Party!

Today, I'm posting a couple of pics of a horse named, Zeus...he looked so cute waiting patiently in the barn for this turn to ride a couple of weeks ago.

Short Eared Owl

Today we headed over to Amherst Island again, mostly because the girls didn't want to do any actual "hiking" :-)...So, we drove around the island and saw only a couple of snowy owls, but they were fairly far away to shoot clearly.

We then drove by the Owl Woods area and saw some flying things (we saw about 5-6 altogether) we thought were hawks (brown)...Anyway, we saw one land on a fence post and noticed it wasn't a hawk, but an owl. I shot quite a few pics of it (he wasn't even paying attention to us, he was watching for the other owls).

When we got home, I googled it to see what kind it was..It looks to me like a short-eared owl. Anyway, here are some shots of it, sitting on the fence post. He's pretty cute!

Snowy Owls

As mentioned, yesterday we headed to Amherst Island to check out the birds there. I had found out from the resources/newletters of the Kingston Field Naturalist (we're members), that the Island was a great place to see tons of different birds/hawks/owls...so off we went for a day of adventure!

We saw a few hawks first off and then we started seeing these white owls...we couldn't believe that there are snowy owls so close to home! I didn't get any close up shots of the hawks as they are so skittish and take off at the slightest sound.

We saw most of the owls right from the car and I would get out and try to get as close as I could to take their picture. I felt like an owl-chaser!! We then took a stroll through the Owl Woods--and yep, you guessed it, no owls! We did however see a lot of smaller birds that were red, green, pink, etc.etc..I will post them at some point too (I have to try to identify them first). We saw quite a few of these owls on various fence posts, telephone poles and in trees. We saw a couple of them flying and a couple looked like they were fighting too. PRETTY COOL!!

Anyway, I hope you enjoy these as much as I did taking them!!!

More Birds!

Here are some more shots of birds from our hiking trip the other day...

Today we headed to Amherst Island and saw/shot some owls and hawks...AWESOME!!! I'll post those tomorrow because I had these ones ready to go for today!

Back to work tomorrow (urgh) :-(

1st Pic-Those rare Napanee Birds, Brooke and Keturah
2nd Pic-Kevin feeding the chickadees from his head
3rd Pic-a front-facing shot of a chickadee perched on a hand

For The Birds....

Here is a post that is for the birds! These are the birds I shot yesterday while hiking.

1st-Chickadee
2nd-Nuthatch
3rd-Downey Woodpecker

Oh Deer!

Today we went hiking at Lemoine's Point Conservation Area, even though it was a dreary day. The temperature was great, only minus 5 with the windchill! My kind of weather!

Anyway, I thought I had a great shooting day after finding a Woodpecker, Nuthatch and Chickadees to shoot, but then on our way out of the park, I saw this cute little deer...He was very comfortable with us being there and was just munching on leaves while I took some pics of him.

I'll post the other creatures I shot today later (probably tomorrow).

Brr...It's Cold Outside!

It's only -12 degrees, but it feels colder than that today! Kevin and Keturah went skating, so I tagged along to shoot some pics of them. We then had a hot drink, enough to keep us warm while we walked around the Napanee River a bit. Here are some cute duck pictures that I took today. I took lots, but am only including the ones of the "different" ducks. Out of all the ducks, these 3 ducks really stand out in the "crowd" of the usual mallards. I hope to get out hiking in Kingston tomorrow, so will hopefully get some more/different pics.

1st Pic-White duck
2nd Pic-Male Wood duck
3rd Pic-Female Wood Duck and the White Duck again.