Leslie St Spit - Snowy Owls, Great Horned Owl and more

[Iain]

At about 1pm this afternoon two fellow birders pointed me towards a single, heavily barred Snowy Owl.  They had flushed the owl from the first southern point just passed the second gate.  It later returned to this point which is where I left it.  Upon arriving back at the parking lot, another birder informed us that there were in fact two snowies, one on the first point and another, also heavily barred on the second point which I did not see.

Among the other birds spotted were: 6 Common Loons, 1 Bonaparte's Gull, 1 White-winged Scoter, ~30 Snow Buntings, ~25 American Pipits, 1 late Red-winged Blackbird and Great Blue Heron, 2 Red-tailed Hawks, 1 Great-horned Owl.

The Northern Hawk Owl and Boreal were nowhere to be seen, but the Snowy was a welcomed alternative.

Iain

[ichiro17]

this is really exciting - never seen a snowy...would like to get pictures too...will do it with a blind so i don't disturb them

[Anonymous]

A blind is not necessary if one DOES NOT approach the Owls too closely. That goes for all Owls as well as any species of Birds or Animals.

  It seems to me that many, many dollars are spent for cameras and lenses so that one does not have to approach too closely so why would one need a blind or to approach close enough to flush the Owls, etc. like the one that had been flushed on Sunday or the need to break branches or get in the face of Owls for that "great shot" ?

 From the size of some of the lenses I have noticed on some of the cameras out there on The Spit I would think you could get the shot from Cherry Beach  

[ichiro17]

you'd be surprised that those lenses do not have the amount of magnification as you'd think.  They are big not because they zoom a lot but because they are designed to product sharp, high-quality images.

In comparison, some scopes are so much more powerful in terms of magnification that it would dwarf the big lenses.  If you were to put a camera on them however, you'd end up with blurry shots.  

The blind isn't necessarily important for getting close, as it is for watching the bird do its thing naturally.  If there's an oddball with a giant shiny piece of glass hanging around, the bird will be curious/frightened/confused and won't go about its business.  In the course of that business, if the bird decides to fly fairly close would be awesome.

I am not going to go harass the animals...especially snowy owls because I know they are sensitive right now and I've been reading about it a lot.  Very sad

[Marek]

Hello Iain. It was nice to meeting you. Here they are. Regards Marek.

[ichiro17]

lovely photos!

[DavidB]

I'm not sure that I'm following the discussion/participants correctly, but are these new/recent photos? The Red-tail's been banded - neat. I don't suppose anyone sees anything in the photo which might help to track it's history or movements?

[Craig McL]

I am wondering why photos of common birds ( or any birds) are being posted hear is their not a area for this tipe of hobby on this sight

Craig

[frozenice7885]

does it really matter if i clicked on this post i don't want to click on another so its nice to just see a picture of the birds that their talking about here in this post rather than going to another post

[Anonymous]

It may be convenient that you clicked on this site and found photos of birds so that you didn't have to take a nano second to click on the proper place for photos but Craig is right. The proper place for Bird Photos is called would you believe by coincidence "Bird Photo Corner" Who would have thought to look there ??  :shock:  :roll:

[McNally]

I know I'm much to newer to this (both birding and the forum) than Craig and Norm, but according to the guide posted as a sticky at the top of the "Reports" section of the board:

"It is OK to include photos to illustrate some of your sightings, but please consider using the Bird Photo Corner forum for extensive sets of photographs."

Personally, I don't think a single shot of each of the birds being discussed is "extensive".  Rather this seems like exactly the sort of illustrative use that the forum moderators have deemed to be a-ok.


Now back to the topic at hand - man, I have got to get out to the spit soon!  

[Craig McL]

Ok I must be missing somthing  :?  haff of this  thred is bird photo related and ther is a area on this
bord for that ( as ther is for this post ), the photos are of comin birds ( seen at lest once a year ) and
the Sticky posted at the top of the page is this

 Use this forum to post bird sightings in the Greater Toronto Area.

Please consider using other forums at this site for any other topic. For example: general requests for information, help with bird identification, discussions about birding sites, bird migration (e.g. first/last sightings), environmental policy, jokes etc. do not belong here.

Some guidelines:
Please use a descriptive subject for your post: e.g. where, when and what.
Always add a location description so that other birders can locate the birds you have reported.
It is OK to include photos to illustrate some of your sightings, but please consider using the Bird Photo Corner forum for extensive sets of photographs.
Further suggestions to revise this guideline are welcome.

so how dos this not matter ?? this is a bird sighting form not a bird photo form !?

Craig

[Ann Brokelman]

I must admit I am getting frustrated by this bickering.  If you have an outstanding photo of a an unual sighting then let them post it or tell people you are posting it in the photo section.

End of story.

Let just enjoy the birds.

[ichiro17]

Please, lets get back to the birds

i log in and i think that I'm going to see a new posting in here that says there's snowys and eagles everywhere on the spit but to no avail

[P1Guy]

Man is this every comical. All you need is a cartoonist to draw some pictures.
I think Anne has the right Idea. And I don't see the difference between viewing birds with bin's or cameras.
Too close and the birds will normally fly, and some people that are really interested in Bird Photography should invest in longer lenses so that they don't have to flush the birds.
This debate will never end it seems.