Seeking the Snowy Owl

 I had the day off today, so I decided to go looking for snowy owls.  I wasn't confident I would find any but I saw pictures on Facebook.  I decided to head up to Fish Point since that is where I usually see them.

I didn't see any snowy owls but I did see quite a few red wing blackbirds.  Normally, I wouldn't do a picture like this but I liked the cattails.

Most people call the robin the harbinger of spring but I think a few of those stay behind for the winter.  When you see them come spring, usually those are the ones until you see lots of them.

I consider the red wing blackbird the harbinger of spring because they are generally one of the first birds to come back and one the first birds to leave.

Because they leave the earliest, you are not likely to see ones that wintered over.  So when you start seeing them, spring is around the corner.

I also like them because they are very regal looking birds.

I liked this guy.

I love the colors.

They have a very unique song too.

I was able to get a few pictures.

I like this one.

But I think this was my favorite of the bunch.  I might try to go see snowy owls this weekend but I'm not confident.

A Sunny But Windy Day at the Airport

 I took Friday and Monday off this weekend.  I have some vacation time that I have to burn before the end of March.   On Friday I headed up to the Fish Point area to see if could catch any snowy oils.  Sadly, I saw some birds but they weren't close enough for pictures.  I did not see any owls.  It was pretty cold yesterday, so I decided to work on a model that will eventually be the Yankee Lady (when I get the decals).  Today was warmer but it was windy, so I decided to head to the airport.  There was at least one plane coming in that I wanted to catch.

 

First up was an A330 coming in from Amsterdam.

It was followed by an A321 from Fort Myers.

This was a Spirit Airlines A320neo that was also coming in from Fort Myers.

One of the planes that I wanted to catch.

This was a 787 coming in from Amman, Jordan.

A CRJ-900 coming in from Rochester.

The other plane that I wanted to catch.

I am always happy when I get a beacon shot.

The straight out shot.

And this beauty was coming in from Fort Lauderdale.

A CRJ-700 belonging to American Airlines coming in from Philadelphia.

A Cessna Citation coming in from Toronto.

I was pretty happy with this shot because I caught the A319 belonging to American Airlines and the business jet that was flying into Willow Run.

This A330 was coming in from London.

A CRJ-900 from Raleigh-Durham.

An American Airlines 737 coming in from Charlotte.

This is an A321neo belonging to Frontier Airlines.  The tail is Stewart the Red billed Steamertail.

A 737 from Miami.

And the last plane of the day.

It is another 757.

This particular one was coming in from Fort Lauderdale.

Much like the other one.

It was starting to cloud up and while the temperature was in the 50s, the wind made it colder.  I got what I wanted to get though.

A Return to Ottawa

 I decided to head down to Ottawa today because I found out that the wildlife drive was open.  I think it will be open one weekend a month until March or April.  It has been a while since I have been down there and I've seen some pictures on Facebook, so I was happy to go.

It was a little on the windy side so most of the birds that were there were probably hunkered down.

There was still some ice on the water, so I think many of the other birds wont be here for another month or so.

This is a trumpeter swan.

Another one.

And a pair of them.

A heron that was just standing there as I was about to leave.

And he started to leave.

As I went through the first pass, I saw an eagle in one of the nests.  I was hoping that he would be back, so I took another pass through.

He was back and the light wasn't too bad.  If I could have gotten closer on my first pass, I could have caught him flying.

I think I saw a couple more but this was the only one within camera range.

He was looking around for dinner, I think.

This is probably my favorite of the bunch.

Although this one is a pretty close second because he is looking like a fairly proud bird.

The wind was picking up a little bit and it was starting to get late, so I headed out.  I was hoping that he would take off while I was there.

A trumpeter swan on the way out.  I'm am hoping that I can get up north next week to get some pictures of the snowy owls but we will see.

Catching a Bird of the Feathered Variety

 As I was taking pictures of the planes, I noticed some birds nearby.

It wasn't too close but telephoto with some blowing up helps.  I think this is a house finch.