Posts Tagged “American robin”

This October was a great month to shoot birds in Kitimat, not only in my backyard, but on the ocean at Kitamaat Village and MK Bay Marina.

Dark-eyed junco, also enjoying the mountain ash berries among fall colours in early morning light. (Robin Rowland)

I usually take a morning walk through a forest park near my house. We had the first major frost this morning, and so the resident birds, steller’s jays, American robins and juncos were very active.

I looked out into my back garden on the morning of October 2, 2019 to see more flocks of birds flying around in an early October downpour. Far more birds than I expected. It is bear season and there are more black bears around town than usual, which means my feeders are currently empty. No matter, the birds were concentrating on a mountain ash tree in the backyard.
In less than a hour I visited by a raven, a varied thrush, a northern flicker, steller jays, juncos and too many robins to count. I managed to get good photographs of the robins, the raven, the northern flicker and the varied thrush. I had no luck capturing the juncos and steller jays. I didn’t see any sparrows.
I used two cameras for this shoot. I normally keep an older Sony Alpha 55 with a Tamron 70-300 lens on my dining room table all the time to shoot birds in the garden. Once I realized that the feeding was going to continue for a while I grabbed my Sony RX10-iii which has a 24 to 600 lens.
This morning the garden was quiet, so it looks like that for some reason, the gathering only happened yesterday,
Today is the first day the snow has melted enough that I could go for a walk in the play bush near my home. An American robin was on a tree branch and kept stretching its neck to try to get berries that were just beyond reach. After numerous tries, it finally realized it was a futile effort and flew off another branch where the picking was easier.
On Thursday, April 19, was a soggy, to say the least, with wind-driven, cold, pouring rain when I went down to Kitamaat Village and Kitimat harbour to photograph the spring bird migration. The highlight were the snow geese I saw both at MK Bay (above) and at the Kitamaat Village soccer field. (Robin Rowland)
A bald eagle, drenched in the pouring rain, at the mouth of Whatl Creek near MK Bay Marina. (Robin Rowland)
A crow takes off from the sea grass in pouring rain near Kitamaat Village. (Robin Rowland)
Snow geese feed at the Kitamaat Village soccer field (Robin Rowland)
A snow goose at the Kitamaat Village soccer field. (Robin Rowland)
Snow geese fly past MK Bay. (Robin Rowland)
An Oregon junco on the waterfront. (Robin Rowland)
Mallards take to the wing as a bald eagle passes overhead (Robin Rowland)
A gull passes two bald eagles in the low tide puddles of Whatl Creek near Kitimat Harbour (Robin Rowland)
Two bald eagles in the low tide puddles of Whatl Creek near Kitimat Harbour (Robin Rowland)
Raindrops fall on the head of an American robin who posed on a log beside my car just as I was getting ready to leave. (Robin Rowland)