Migration Adventure Part Two: Saturday

  On day two of our Migration Adventure, the morning started out by taking some more Detroit Skyline pictures by day. After taking in this spectacular view for the last time, we had some breakfast in the hotel before hitting the road.

European Saker Falcon.

  We started out in the morning heading out to Holiday Beach Conservation Area for the Festival of Hawks. The drive seemed very short after the very long drive the day before. As we arrived, the gate attendant asked if we wanted a map. I quickly took one as I had no idea where we were suppose to go. It was a longer drive than expected to get near the Hawk Lookout stand, but maybe this was just because of the anticipation that was building up for the day. 

  After we parked the car, we followed the road and followed the people. First thing we saw was an artist painting a picture of the view overlooking what seemed to be a pond. I regret not purchasing that picture, because it was finished and for sale on our way out. I also wished I got a name because her work was incredible. I need a bigger house and bigger bank account to purchase some of the art that I see while traveling around.

Have you ever seen a happier Owl?

  The next thing we saw was a little display featuring three large birds. A Snowy Owl, a Harris Hawk, and a Saker Falcon. For five dollars you could have your picture taken while holding one of these birds. This was a great idea, but I wanted to get to the lookout to see what I could see.

  On our way to the lookout we quickly browsed the vendors that had lots of good stuff for sale. There were lots of books for sale, including bird identification books and lots of pictures and art, and also binoculars in case you needed some help to see what was going on. There were also different guest speakers on a variety of topics about birds and nature. They had everything covered.

Great Blue Heron getting ready for flight.

  But the reason I was there, was to see some hawks. So up the lookout I went. First thing I noticed is that there was several Swans. Nothing wrong with seeing some Swans. I also noticed a Great Blue Heron. Then another Great Blue Heron. And another Great Blue Heron. My camera was sure getting a workout. Then I looked out and saw a large white bird. It seemed to be standing up too straight to be a Swan, so I looked through my camera and saw a Great Egret. Then I saw a few more. Of course my camera got quite the workout taking lots of pictures of these large birds. Strangely, I seemed to be the only one that was excited about these birds. Perhaps they are always there, and it was nothing new for them. But to me, it was an amazing sight.

Great Blue Heron moving on.

  I also saw several types of Hawks. Most of which this amateur wasn't able to identify. But luckily for me, there were members of Bird Studies Canada there counting birds. So any questions I had, they were eager to answer for me, and they were crazy quick on identifying all species of birds. What made the identification difficult is that not only do you have different colouring for the male and females, but you also have different colours for the juveniles. Definitely not a hobby for the faint of heart. 

  Some of the Hawks we saw were Sharp-shinned Hawk, Cooper's Hawk, Broad-winged Hawk, Rough-legged Hawk as well as a juvenile Bald Eagle. Unfortunately seeing these Hawks and getting great pictures are two different things. The Hawks just seemed to appear out of nowhere and disappeared the same way. You certainly needed to be paying attention.

Great Egret doing a fly by.

 Other birds that we saw were Cormorants, and many Cedar Waxwings. I have never seen that many Cedar Wax Wings before. I believe the number I overheard was five hundred, that had passed through that day. One comical thing I observed was a Cormorant standing drip drying, when I Great Blue Heron decided it needed to take another swim, and pushed it back in the water. It gave me a good laugh as it looked liked something straight out of a cartoon.

Great Blue Heron just before it pushed the Cormorant back into the water.

  We spent a lot of time on the tower, and finally decided it was time to call it a day there. So I thanked the Bird Studies group for their help, and we headed out to make our way to Leamington where we were staying that night. We didn't get very far, as I found a road that headed back towards the water on the other side of Holiday Beach Conservation Area. I always like exploring roads along the lake that I am unfamiliar with. This road reminded me a lot of Long Point.

  We drove to the one end, and slowly made our way back to the main road. On the way back I noticed another Great Egret not far from the road so I did my best to sneak up on it while it was fishing. I was able to get a few pictures, but I wasn't able to get one with a fish in its mouth. It was disappointing, but to be that close while it was fishing, and just observing it was a great experience.  I hopped back in the car and slowly made my way down the road. I think I upset a few locals behind me, but I was more worried about missing a bird, than who I was holding up behind me. 

Great Egret fishing.

  The one time I did take my eyes off the water to check the mirror and see how close the truck was behind me, I missed a very cool bird. But luckily for me, my better half Shannon saw it and told me to go back. So back I went. When I looked at first I thought it was a Green Heron, but as I got closer, I could see the colouring was certainly different. What else that was different were the eyes. The incredible orange eyes. I still can't get over how incredible those eyes looked. I was sure this was a Heron, but what kind of Heron I had no idea. Even looking it up in my book, I still wasn't sure. But after some Google searches and checking my book again, I found out it was a juvenile Back-Crowned Night-Heron. This was certainly a highlight of the weekend for me, as I have never saw one of these gorgeous birds before.

Juvenile Black-Crowned Night Heron.

  After a few pictures of this beautiful bird, we continued our journey to Leamington to get some food and relax after a long day. After a quick search in my Spotcast App, I found a restaurant that seemed perfect for me. It was Gilligan's. Needless to say I'm fan of Gilligan's Island. And this was a great choice. The service was great and so was the food. I'll certainly go back the next time I'm in town. After our supper, we just went back to our room, and relaxed with some television and rested up for our third day of our Migration Adventure.

 Till next time,
 

Backup, Backup, Backup!

  After a rather long hiatus due to an unfortunate flood event that I had, I have returned. It took me a long while to get a working computer back up and running, but here I am.
  
  Fist of all, I have to thank Canon for making an incredibly weather resistant camera and lenses. I also have to thank Sigma for making great water resistant lenses. The outcome of this flood, could have been much, much worse. One thing is for sure, I will be much less paranoid of a few raindrops while out in the field.

  So this brings up another issue that everyone needs to think about. Backups! After learning a hard lesson a couple years ago about backing up to more than one drive, I have learned another valuable lesson. Not only do you need to backup to a couple different places locally, you need to have an offsite backup location as well. 

Grey Catbird in Waterford, Ontario.

  After losing a drive a couple years ago, I learned that I need to backup to two different backup drives. If one fails, I would still have a copy of all my pictures. When it happened to me last time, I lost a lot of pictures due to not thinking things through properly. So since then, I have been backing up to two drives. 

  I recently filled my two backup drives, and had purchased a couple new 4 TB drives. I had just copied the old drives to the new drives, and thought I was doing pretty good. But the more I thought about the situation, I realized I also need offsite storage in case the worst case scenario happens. 

  I just started copying my pictures to the cloud storage, and literally only a few folders of photographs copied and my worst nightmare happened. Yes, that's right. The Flood! I was devastated. The worst feeling in my stomach as you could imagine. As I was scrambling to dry things off and salvage as much as I could, I had a look at my computer and drives and they were ok. I have no idea how they survived, but they did. This made me happy and upset at the same time. Happy that they survived, but upset that I didn't start the cloud storage earlier. It was the scare of lifetime. I thought I had lost all my pictures in my collection.

Moon shot from the front yard.

  The insurance company has said that my camera and lenses are fine, but of course I had to test that theory out for myself. I have to say they didn't check anything other than turning them on and looking for visible corrosion. Hopefully this doesn't cause a problem later on. 

  My first trip out was a late day adventure in Waterford, Ontario at my favourite birding spot. Certainly not an ideal time of day to go looking for bird picture possibilities, but yet again the location didn't disappoint. The only unfortunate thing was I could only look at the picture on the LCD screen on my camera because I didn't have a computer to use right away. This was torture.

  The second photographic adventure was a few moon shots. I always love night photography, except that time when something was growling at me in the dark, but that's another story. 
  
  The latest was getting out during the Perseid Meteor Shower. I only went out to my backyard, but seeing all the meteors was great even if there wasn't photography involved.

Shot from my backyard during the Perseid Meteor Shower, August 2017.

 But now I have most of my computer back. Enough to look at my pictures and do what I need to do, while I patiently wait for my house to be put back to the way it was before.

  So I pass on to you this valuable lesson that I learned. Always backup your photos to two different local locations, and also to an offsite location. Because you never know when the worst can happen. Always be prepared!

  Till next time,