Song Sparrow

It is so nice to be serenaded by the Song Sparrows as Chester and I walk along the Red River.  Now that there are leaves on the trees, I can’t always find them, but this one decided that the top of the tree was the best place to be.  The river behind him makes a nice background to the pictures.

Since he was so co-operative by staying in his spot, I was able to try 3 different zoom levels to get these pictures.  He was a good distance away – but I don’t judge distances well, so I’m not even going to try to guess how far away he was.  I’ll show the pictures re-sized but not cropped and then cropped and re-sized.  I’m just looking at the quality issues when using the zoom to where it stops and then by pushing it a bit more until the full 2nd zoom is reached.

May 26 Song Sparrow 1R

The first picture is exactly how it came out other than being re-sized to fit here.  Just below it has been cropped and re-sized to fit here.  The R at the end of the picture name indicates re-sized and the CR indicates cropped and re-sized.

May 26 Song Sparrow 1CR

On the first picture only, I also decided to crop it to match the size of the fully zoomed in one to see if the picture would be clearer than the others.  I may have to re-do this entire study using a tripod for the fully zoomed in pictures.  Even using the post to hold the camera steady I found some movement.

May 26 Song Sparrow 1CC

May 26 Song Sparrow 2R

Zoomed in a little more.

May 26 Song Sparrow 2CR

May 26 Song Sparrow 3R

Zoomed as far as it would go.

May 26 Song Sparrow 3CR

May 26 Song Sparrow 4R

May 26 Song Sparrow 4CR

I was using my Nikon Coolpix with 36x zoom for all these pictures.  I think the first picture is using the 36x and the others are using digital zoom.  I do have a tripod, which should help with getting better pictures using the digital zoom, but I don’t normally take that with me when walking Chester.

So far on Africam today, we have seen Lion, Leopard, Giraffe, Elephant, Waterbuck, Nyala, African Harrier Hawk, Woolly-necked Stork, Zebra, Black Eagle, Impala, Spotted Hyaena and Side-striped Jackal.  It won’t be long now until we get to watch the Cheetah cubs again too.  I’m excited to be able to see them again soon.  Click here to see all the pictures from May 28th.

Another Ducky Day

Chester and I found both Mallard and Wood Ducks on our walk along the Red River yesterday.  The Wood Duck did not cooperate much, but I managed to get a 1/2 decent picture of him.  The female Mallard cooperated, but I tried to use that extra zoom and ended up with blurry pictures.    I do have to be careful, but I used the post to support the camera and thought I had done ok until after looking at the pictures on the computer.

Mallard May 24

Mallard May 24

Wood Duck May 24

I hope the Wood Duck is standing guard over the nest and we’ll soon be seeing lots of ducklings.  

Back to Africam, where so far today we have seen Elephant, Nyala, Duiker, Fiscal Flycatcher, Giraffe, Waterbuck, Zebra, Kudu, Black Eagle, Hamerkop, Impala, Hadeda Ibis and Helmeted Guinea Fowl.  Click here to see the rest of the pictures from May 25th.

We can now take videos on the cameras and one of the sightings on the 24th was a Porcupine.  This is something we do not see every day.  You can see the Porcupine video here.  Look around there a bit and you will see some of the recent lion and leopard sightings also.

Mushrooms

My old Elm Tree trunk always seems to have a new interesting mushroom growing on it.  The elm tree was lost to Dutch Elm Disease several years ago now and the city removed it to prevent spreading the disease. I still have two huge Elm Trees in my yard, but there had been four when I bought the house many years ago.

I have put pictures of some of the mushroom from other years in here and you can find them by using the search feature and entering mushroom.  This one is similar to one another year, but not exactly.  And it looks like there is another kind that grows in the fall.

Mushroom

I know nothing about mushrooms and will end up putting this one in the next garbage pickup.

If you notice the little flower behind the mushroom, that is the Creeping Charlie week that keep trying to take over my back yard.  I can’t use weed killer there because Chester spends so  much time in the yard – not that most weed killers seem to work with it anyway.

Here is a close up of it.

Creeping Charlie

There were no critters, other than several bunnies, to be seen on our walk yesterday.  There were even more of the long boats with students on the Red River though.  It was cloudy and a bit foggy when Chester and I walked, so it wouldn’t have made much of a picture.

So far on Africam today, we have seen Lion, Elephant, Nyala, Waterbuck, Porcupine, Warthog, Impala, Cape Buffalo, Hamerkop, Zebra, Helmeted Guinea Fowls, Black Eagle, Red-billed Oxpecker, Wildebeest, Kudu, Cape Turtle Dove, Spotted Hyaena, Grey  Duiker, Black-backed Jackal and White-tailed Mongoose.  Click here to see all of the pictures from May 24.

Rowers on the River and Chester

The rowers were out on the Red River in full force when Chester and I went for our walk yesterday.  They seem to treat the river the same as a highway and they keep to the right – so when I saw them, they were on the far side.  Once they get as far as they are going, they move over to my side of the river to return.  I don’t know if this is something that the rowers have come up with on their own – or if it is common practice among boaters and rowers alike.

Rowers May 22

There were these 2 long boats plus a lot of individual boats going this morning.   I’m guessing that this is a class of beginners.

It is now 10 weeks since Chester’s last seizure!  He spotted and stalked a bunny not far from home on our walk yesterday.

The Prey

They Prey Has Been Spotted

The Stalking Begins

Of course Chester has a leash on, but the leash distracted from the picture, so I removed it.  I don’t usual doctor pictures much, and I kept the original with the leash on in case anyone complains that my dog was off leash.  We have a leash law in the city for dogs and cats.  Since cats don’t normally walk on leash, its more of an indoor cat law.  That explains why we have so many bunnies in the city now.

So far on Africam today, we have seen Leopard, Kudu, Waterbuck, Nyala, Elephant, Impala, Starling, Terrapin, Zebra, Warthog, Black Eagle, Warthog, Cape Turtle Dove, Helmeted Guinea Fowl, Wildebeest and Side-striped Jackal.  Click here to see all of the pictures from May 23.

Mallard Pairs

I guess finding a good and safe place to nest must be difficult for Mallards (or any ducks for that matter).  The pairs set up territories and defend this area from other ducks – especially same species ducks from what I can tell.  I did see a Wood Duck beating up a Mallard duckling that got too close to her babies one time though.

I was watching a Mallard pair swimming along when another male Mallard chased them away.  I didn’t get a picture of the chase though – just the pair out for a swim.  Then I found another Mallard pair who have chosen (for one reason or another) to nest away from the river – although not too far.  They were hanging out at a little puddle on the street.  I don’t know if they were hanging out there because they couldn’t find a suitable space on the river or if they just prefer a residential nest. 

Mallards May 21

As I watched this pair, they crossed the street and went into a yard.  I had trouble getting better pictures of these two because we were fairly close and as far as Chester was concerned, they were as good as bunnies to chase.  This is one of the reasons, I seldom get bunny pictures too.

Mallards May 21

Mallards May 21

Chester watches the ones in the river, but doesn’t try to chase unless we are past the area where there is the large drop down.

So far on Africam today, we have seen Leopard, Black Eagle, Elephant, Nyala, Vervet Monkey, Kudu, Wildebeest, Zebra, Helmeted Guinea Fowl, Cape Turtle Dove and Duiker.  Click here to see all of the pictures from May 22.

Jail House Rock

We spent an enjoyable evening at Celebrations Dinner Theatre on Sunday.  As you may have gathered from the title, it was Jail House Rock and so many familiar singers from several years back were there in person to sing for us. 

Headlining the show were Johnny Cash and Elvis Presley, with appearances by June Carter, Dusty Springfield, Jerry Lee Lewis, Grace Slick, Johnny Rivers, Eric Burden, Nancy Sinatra, Roy Orbison and Bobbi Gentry.

The show was dated in 1967 and held at the Moose Jaw Jail, where John Storm, the Guitar Doctor was being held for not paying his taxes.

The shows at Celebrations are always a lot of fun and this one was no exception.  The music was great and the singers were wonderful!  The serving staff are always part of the show and their interactions are a lot of fun also.

To top it off, one of the meals offered was prime rib.  This used to be a regular selection there, but it suddenly disappeared some time ago.  For several shows, I moaned about it on the comment card, but gave up awhile ago, thinking it was gone forever.  This time I commented on how great it was and hoped it would be back again very soon.

The show is almost over with less than a week to go, and the next show – Starting June 1st is Ghostbusted.

I just looked at the schedule and realized that the shows only run for 2 months each now.  I’m sure they used to go for 3 months.  This explains why it was so crowded there on Sunday.  It has been awhile since I’ve seen a full house in the crowd, but with less shows, the audience will have fewer dates to choose from.  With fewer shows, they will run more in a year – instead of 4 shows per year, there will now be 6.  I’m not sure when this change happened, but it must have been very recent – maybe Jail House Rock was the first.  There is also very little down time in between shows now.  There used to be about 2 weeks and now it is just 6 days from when Jail House Rock ends on May 26th and Ghostbusted starts on June 1st.

Jail House Rock

So far on Africam today, we have seen Elephant, Waterbuck, Wildebeest, Impala, Nyala and Zebra.  We are still (im)patiently waiting for the outdoor camera to be installed and working so we can watch our Cheetah Salome and her cubs again.

Watching the Garden Grow

There is nothing like spring flowers to brighten up a yard.  This is the weekend when normally the annuals are placed out as we typically do not get frost after this.  I didn’t say we never get frost, but usually we do not get frost from now until fall.

It is raining though and much as I enjoy playing in the dirt, I don’t enjoy it in the rain – so we still just have the perennials.  I had planted pansies last year in the hopes they would come up again this year, but there doesn’t seem to be any.  I’m thinking that the newer, larger pansies are not as tolerant of winter and I had some beautiful large flowered pansies.  I will stick with the basic size if I get pansies again.  I know I used to have some that would come up every year for many years.

Last year the Forget Me Not flowers covered the whole flower bed – but this year they are just popping up in the lawn and are hardly in the flower bed.  My late blooming Tulip is almost open and the first Iris is now open.

May 18 Forget Me Not

May 19 Iris and Forget Me Not

May 18 Tulip

Iris May19

Chester and I had a shortened walk due to the rain and the Iris pictures were taken in the rain also.  Although we need the moisture, it is not supposed to rain during the day, especially on weekends and especially on long weekends.

The Boat and the Zoom

The more I use my Nikon Coolpix camera with 36x zoom, the more I learn.  I noticed yesterday that when I zoomed, there was a little bar that slide across the viewer and it wasn’t going all the way across.  So – I zoomed more and it got me even closer.

I tried it out on the river bend where a boat happened to be up against the shore to show the difference.  It is really hard to hold the camera steady at full zoom though.

May 18 Boat

This is what I thought was my max zoom.  When looking at the properties of the picture, it says focal length 230 mm, but then just below that it says 35 mm focal length 1296.  I don’t know what those mean, but 230 mm is just slightly more than the Sony’s 210 mm zoom.  The next picture was zoomed in as far as it could go.

May 18 Boat

I did not crop these pictures at all – they are only re-sized.  This picture says focal length is 576 mm and the 35 mm focal length is 3240.

I will have to study a bit more on this Nikon.  I remember that with my old Canon, it had 2 steps to zoom also.  The first zoom would stop at the end of the optical zoom and if you continued, you were using digital zoom.  Typically it was not as clear once you got into the digital zoom, so I did not use it and appreciated having it stop like that.  This picture is still pretty good if that is what it is doing here.

I was surprised at how close I got the Western Grebe yesterday and I am thinking that I must have gone the extra bit without realizing it and those pictures turned out fairly good considering that the bird was moving.  Its just a matter of either having a tripod or something else to put the camera on to keep it steady.  There are fence posts along the Red River that I can use.  In Africa, I will be using the car to steady most of my shots, but am also bringing a tripod.

The only critters that Chester and I saw were a pair of ducks – I think they are Mallards, but the movement combined with the distance make it hard to say.  I didn’t have full zoom on these guys and this picture is cropped.  Just for comparison, the numbers on the full picture (not this cropped version) are – focal length 144 mm and 35 mm focal length is 810.

May 18 Ducks

So far on Africa today, we have seen Lion, Elephant, Giraffe, Baboon, Helmeted Guinea Fowl, Black Eagle, Waterbuck, Wildebeest, Impala, Duiker and Nyala.  Click here to see all the pictures from May 19th.

Western Grebe

I managed to get my best pictures yet of the large black and white grebes that I have seen a few times and now I can say for sure that they are Western Grebes and not Clark’s Grebes.  The birds are very similar, but the one way that I now know how to tell them apart is that the Western Grebe has black around the eye and the Clark’s Grebes have white in that area. The black is a little higher on the top of the head on the Clark’s Grebes.  The Clark’s Grebe also has a bright yellow beak, where the Western Grebe has a yellow beak with a green tinge.  Until recently they were considered one species with a colour variation.  According to the range maps, the Clark’s Grebe does not come to this area though.

Click here for information on the Clark’s Grebe and click here for more information on the Western Grebe if interested.

Western Grebe May 17

Western Grebe May 17

Western Grebe May 17

So far on Africam today, we have seen Elephant, Zebra, Osprey, Black Eagle, Impala, Waterbuck, Oxpecker, Cape Turtle Dove, Nyala, Swainson Spurfowl, and Wildebeest.  Our Cheetah Salome has moved her cubs to another location, so we have lost sight of them for now.  Click here to see all of today’s pictures.

Critters

Finally after days of not seeing any critters on our walks along the Red River, Chester and I found a nice variety yesterday. 

There was a Robin, so high up at the top of a tree that I didn’t know what it was.  I actually thought it was a much larger bird – so maybe it is a giant Robin.  I was thinking hawk or falcon perched up there, but once I uploaded the pictures, I could plainly see it was a Robin.

Robin May 16

There was a Song Sparrow, singing on a bush close to the Red River – again too far away to plainly see and I didn’t even notice that some twigs were in between us, but he finally moved a bit for the last picture anyway.

Sparrow May 16

Sparrow May 16

You can tell that he looked at me here and thought “she’s not getting a great picture of me with these twigs in the way” – so he moved.

Sparrow May 16

Next, we saw a pair of Mallard Ducks.

Mallards May 16

And finally a Wood Duck came swimming by.  I haven’t seen much of the Wood Ducks at all this year, so it was nice to see him.

Wood Duck May 16

Speaking of critters – so far on Africam today, we have seen Elephants, Black Eagle, Gymnogene (African Harrier Hawk), Nyala, Kudu, Zebra, Waterbuck, Wildebeest, Giraffe, Impala and Helmeted Guinea Fowl. Click here to see all of the pictures from May 17th.