Like last year I tried but failed, to reduce the number of favourite "eye catchers" to a reasonable number. Again this year,I didn't succeed. But having kept over 13,000 photos in 2024, maybe I shouldn't expect to get down below 38.... đ
"Favourite" to me doesn't me the top "wow!" photos, but the ones that resonate with me because of the image itself, the subject, or just the memory. So with that in mind, here are the 38. They are not in order of favouritism, but loosely group by subject.
Starting with birds, juvenile birds
The storm water ponds on Colonade Road produced at least two (?) families of green herons. It was the first time I've seen juvenile green herons. Amongst all the photos I have of them I selected a shot of three juveniles together down at the water.
Three fully gown juvenile mallards at Mud Lake. I like the family portrait feeling I get from it.
Again Mud Lake, not a great image, but again a first for me. Hooded merganser mom and two juveniles.
Two (of three) young osprey peeking out behind some grass growing in their nest in a platform on top of a 30' pole at the Iroquois Locks on the St Lawrence River. This nest has been used by osprey every year for a very long time
While no juvenile birds are in sight, one of the parent tree swallows is bringing in a morning snack to its young in the nesting box along the Airport Parkway at Sawmill Creek Ponds
No juvenile birds... yet
Likely wonât be too long before these two cardinals at Fletcher Garden build a nest and produce some offspring.
While at Petrie Island one morning we spotted a female Baltimore oriole 20â up in a tree. It quickly became apparent there was a problem. She had tied herself to the tree branch while trying to start a (sock shaped) nest. It took a long while, but with the help of others we finally had her free from the string. Presumably she went on to build herself a nest
A male red-winged blackbird announcing his presence at Mud Lake in the spring. Announcing his territory and announcing his availability to mate with a willing female.
On-hand/bird in flight
I produce a lot of deletes trying for bird in flight photos.
All three at Mud Lake. One chickadee leaves and one arrives, a female downy woodpecker has had her fill and a chickadee firmly telling a male downy that heâs been there long enough and move on.
Misc Birds
The heron who forgot to go south. I found it on Sawmill Creek in Blossom Park. It managed to feed itself all winter
An engagement photo đ of a wood duck pair at Mud Lake
A barred owl we unexpectedly came across at Fletcher Garden in the late fall
For several days a male pileated woodpecker made itself available for photographers and visitors to Mud Lake at the end of the year.
Twenty large black birds lumbering down the trail at Mud Lake can be very disconcerting to anyone not familiar with the turkeys. They were looking for a handout, but are not aggressive. In the early spring mating season, some of the males (who drop into Mud Lake) can be an issue as they are not used to people being so close and may become aggressive.
Two of many photos from the Raptor Conservancy near Lake Erie. Two, if you can spot them, screech owls on a stump and a kestrel in flight. The one keep out of way too many tries. They are very fast.
Four legged animals
Three eye catching close encounters with beavers in 2024 provided some good photo ops.
The first photo is a beaver at Petrie Island eating a plant root. It was wary of me, moving around, but never far. There were several more beavers active that evening.
The second photo is also at Petrie. There was a beaver up on the ice while another was swimming in the water that the beavers had been keeping clear of ice. In a closeby second body of water no beavers were seen, but a large expanse of water was clear of ice in the area of a beaver lodge.
The third close encounter was with a young beaver seemingly lost in the channel of the Ottawa River by Mud Lake. It came very close (within 2 feet) at times. He was hugging the shoreline as he couldnât swim against the current.
I couldnât decided which photo of two Parc Omega bears brought a larger smile, so here are both
"They" say to get down to the level of your subject and get close......
Three flower photos made the finals.
A clump of mocassin flowers (wild orchids) at a friendâs cottage north of Gananoque. These flowers, while not rare, are only found in a few locations, including Mer Bleue, but not in the quantities seen here.
The second flower, and its dew drops, catch my eye year after year. It is a âtouch-me-notâ/jewel weed, an impatiens.
The last photo is Indian pipe(stem) This is a plant I look for every year. They are often mistaken for a mushroom, but are a perennial flower.
Some insects
A Halloween pennant dragonfly â first one Iâd seen, the colours caught my eye.
A tiny fly on a black-eyed susan. I had fun that day taking many macro shots of insects in the flower bed.
The first caterpillar photo are two admiral butterfly caterpillars. I have seen less than 5 or 6 admiral butterflies over that last few years, they are becoming rare. Here at least two eggs hatched and will hopefully survive to evolve into butterflies. The last caterpillar is a hickory tussock moth caterpillar. There were a great number of them wherever we went this year, usually gently blowing in the breeze hanging on a thread from a tree branch. They are venomous and can cause severe skin irritation. I avoided touching all the ones I came across.
On the first day of very cold temperatures (-20°C or below) beautiful fragile frost crystals form on the âridgeâ at Mud Lake. There is warm air that comes up through the jumbled rocks that make up the ridge. Best photos are had as the sun comes up. It was hard to pick just one photo
Mushrooms
âshrooms are a favourite subject for me.
The first photo of deadmanâs fingers, from Mud Lake, are a fungus, not specifically a mushroom. Not only do they look like a dead personâs fingers sticking up out of the ground, they are very poisonous if one were to try tasting them.
The second shot is of some wizened mushrooms at Murphyâs Point Provincial Park
A farming education. There is a dairy farm, within the city limits, that I frequently drive by, I never paid much attention to it except to notice the barn and the cows in the field. A few years ago the barn burned to the ground. A new fabric structure was built a year or so later. I never thought much about what was going on inside until they had an âOpen Houseâ. It was amazing; the entire places was automated. Feed was carefully mixed and delivered by robots (photo). Cows entered a robot milking stall whenever they wanted to and were milked (if they had recently been milked but were there for the treat they get when they were milked, the robot boots them out of the stallđ) The cows are free to move around in the barn, the manure is machine collected on an on-going basis.
I have an extensive collection of murals. This was one, in Rockport, was one of the nicer ones I found in 2024
Elk head in the car? Boring.....
I had to shake my head at the young girl who seemed totally unfazed with the elk sticking its head in her car window at Parc Omega. The car had a US licence plate, and was just inside the entrance gate to the Parc. Maybe it wasnât her first visit? But perhaps she doesnât need to go again.
Just thought these translucent seed thingamajigs looked neat.
