Cottle Lake Blues

Hi There,
Just came back today from another visit to Cottle Lake in Linley Valley. Lots going on there but a very challenging environment for photography. All of the birds there seem spooked about making a close appearance. In the past it has always been a real Tanager Town and home for the Black-Headed Grosbeaks. This year is no exception apart from the fact that you can't get within 150 feet of them. Lots of Tanagers in the alder trees and Grosbeaks singing from a distance but not one picture with any real clear composition. You can often hear Tanagers and Grosbeaks before you see them and the air is filled with song most of the time.
I must have spent close to three hours today in silence waiting for an opportunity for a photo with no luck. I may need to change my methods or try to find another location. It would seem that most of these neo-tropical birds each have their own personality. Two years ago at Neck Point I found a Tanager nest and was able to photograph the parents as they fed their young from about 20 to 30 feet away. The nest was right next to the path and only about 10 feet off of the ground. I didn't realize at the time that this was something very rare and not often repeated. Another time last summer that I managed to get close was when the immature Tanager was branching close to the ground. The male adult followed it in order to feed the chick and I was then able to get a couple of full frame shots. This was short lived as the chick kept changing branches every half an hour or so.
I will include a couple of pictures in this post that I got last week. I must appologize for these photos as they are not up to my usual standards. These are only suitable for display as small thumbnail images on the blog as they are quite a large crop. Certainly not the lighting or composition that I have been after the past few weeks. I'm not sure if these birds are different from the ones that I see there now but they came quite a bit closer than this week's visitors.
Until my next installment. Take care and happy birding,
Steve

Neck Point Killer Whales

Hi There,
I was out doing my usual rounds today. I started off at Cottle Lake in hope of getting a close up shot of some tanagers. Just too many people coming and going with their dogs and lots of people on their morning jog. It was extremely hard to get enough quiet time for a photo. I did have a mated pair of tanagers in my sights at one point but they were scared away before I could get set up. After nearly three hours of similar situations and much frustration I set out for Neck Point to see what was happening there. The scene was just the opposite of what it normally was as it was very quiet with only 3 or 4 cars in the parking lot. I had heard on the rare bird alert that there might be some great horned owls about so I set my hopes on that. It had been a nice day but now the rain was threatening. As I climbed up towards the upper viewing platforms I noticed that the aircraft from CFB Comox was on maneuvers again and so I started watching it through the lens of my camera.

Shortly afterward I caught something out of the corner of my eye and jerked my head over to see a pod of killer whales coming in fairly close to shore from my left hand side. You can often see them farther out in the straight doing their thing with breaching and jumping but not so close up as this. I managed to get off a few shots from up on the ridge but I figured that if the tide was out that I would be really close if I got to Neck Point itself. I started running full tilt with all of my gear but by the time I got there they had already passed the point and were on their way towards Piper's Lagoon. Talk about fast swimmers! Anyway, you could say that I really got my exercise on this shoot.

Take care until next time and good wildlife shooting,

Steve