Friday, February 8, 2013

2012 in Photographic Retrospect (Part 1) at The Vermilon River.

 I started out to review my files to make some prints for my frames that I change every so often. I got the idea then that I might do this retrospective on 2012. The photos are ones that I like, new sightings, and changes in my photo habits: for instance, I took up shooting scenery, which led me to the peculiar lighting of the area. Some of them have been published before, others not. The photos also show the diversity of the Vermilon River forest. Canada has very different areas and terrains, many of which are wilderness areas. In that sense we are blessed. After all real wilderness is limited. A wilderness area is not a park where the infrastructure is the equivalent of any urban centre. (My definition), and the delivery of the area is modeled on Disneyland. Opposite: Black-Throated Green Warbler.



I was going to talk about wind chill and ambient temperature, as well as wildfire. But Google is already warning me of space problems. I also think I'll need a part 2 to this post. So click any photo, and enjoy the slideshow. A post to WBW,Our World Tuesday and Id Rather Be Birding.
Indigo Bunting.



Canadian Swallowtail. I also took up shooting insects which are amazing in numbers, and identification difficulties.
Cedar Waxwing

 Chickadees are not rare, but are prime camera subjects. As well they're an indicator of other birds.

 Wild Chicory. Photographing wild flowers opened up another field.
 Chipmunks are ground squirrels which I found out because a visitor asked me about the relationship berween chipmunks and red squirrels.
Great Blue Heron

Female Purple Finch

Fleabane

Gold Sky

Female Red Winged Blackbird.

Immature Yellow Rumped Warbler.

 The Vermilon Forest is a breeding area for some nine warbler species, so you get non-breeding plumage as well as immature plumage, and the resplendent breeding plumage, as well as gender differences. Opposite: Yellow Rumped Warbler.
  Immature Male Red Winged Blackbird changing into his adult plumage.
Oven Bird,a Warbler.


Piper

Frosty Rapids

Red Squirrel In Black Spruce.

Ruffled Grouse

Song Sparrow

Tree Sparrow

 Female Snapping Turtle who will shortly lay her eggs.
Common Buckeye.

Unknown

Sun Rising over a werland

White Throat.



White Throat feeding young. I couldn't id the young until I got this photo.
 Leucistic Purple Finch.
Black and White Warbler

  The little Black Bear that cleaned out my favorite blueberry patch.
Indigo Bunting

Male Northern Harrier

Leucistic Purple Finch.

Evening Grosbeck

Male Redstart


Misty wetland

River Otter

 Tundra.
Midland Red Turtles in wetland

Common Buckeye a little out of his area.

Yellow Warbler

Female Redstart

Cedar Waxwing

Chipmunk with food

Yellow Rump Warbler

Ruffled Grouse.

Male or Juvie Northern Harrier in flight.

Red-eyed Vireo

Male Redstart

Wild sunflowers

Female Ruby Throat

Immature Yellow throat

Northern Harrier in flight

Close up

Female Ruby throat.

Canada Thistle

Father and Son Harriers

Female Northern Harrier

Fox Sparrow.

Great Blue In flight.

Same

River Otter

Monarch on devil's paintbrush

Huey

Dewey

Reproducing Snapping Turtles.

A new werland

Louie

Pine Sisken

Bohemian Waxwing

Wood ducks in flight

Great blue.

Mourning Cloak Butterfly

N Harrie

Frolicing Otter.

Female Redstart

66 comments:

  1. Fabulous photos of wild life to see on a snowy bound day here!

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  2. some really great shots! beautiful variety of birds of all sizes and hues. and that chipmunk and red squirrel just make me smile.

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  3. I so love your photos. And your spot on the planet.
    Today, with our big storm, I'm happy to see flora and fauna of summer! Great post!
    I feel better!
    Cheers from Cottage Country!

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  4. So many great shots!

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  5. Gary your posts offer so much visual enjoyment, I start remembering names I want to mention that I enjoyed the most in my comment and then I see more and more to add. The chickadees, wild chicory, yellow warbler and jewey were specials to me

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  6. Huey,Louie and Dewey, truly wonderful, Loved the icy water, the misty wetlands, and all the birds,Thanks you again so very much, my world is wider, my interests encouraged, I love the area where you and Boomer live. Cold, yes it is coming if not already with you.Take care, Greetings from Jean

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  7. You have such wonderful photos displayed here, and there many are my favorites. The turtles, raccoon, thistle an the butterflies.

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  8. With all the winter weather you have it must be nice to review some of these images of warmer times.

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  9. I love your serie of photos!
    A great post for the theme!

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  10. Just in awe of your skill and of the beautiful place where you live! Thank you for doing this retrospect. I recognize a few old favorites, but would be happy to see any and all of these amazingly lovely photos every day. Thank you for doing this.

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  11. Gary I too love seeing all of your photos. It is a great series for the themes you are linking too.

    I just love love love all of your shots. I can't pick a favorite!

    I hope you guys have a great week. My hubby is on vacation and won't be in Ontario this week, anyway!

    Have a good one!

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  12. Lovely flowers and birds, Gary.

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  13. Great image series showing. Wish you a good Sunday :) Hanne Bente

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  14. Wow!!! What an amazing collection of photos. You captured each critter very well. I really enjoyed seeing this collection. I have two little chipmunks that frequent my back yard and garage. They are so precious, I love watching them scurry about.

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  15. You have such diverse wildlife to photograph Gary. Love the Canadian Swallowtail picture. Didn't know there was such a thing, but I do now.

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  16. Wonderful series of wildlife photos. And I love your wilderness area. A great review!

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  17. So much enjoyment here today!! Wow...where do I begin. Love the flowers [that chicory blossom is so pretty] The butterfly is gorgeous. Would love to photograph a redstart [saw only one here, and no camera at the time]...the indigo bunting is so very pretty with it deep sea blue colors. All your photos are spectacular.

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  18. Hi Gary

    You have some real gems here and it serves as a nice introduction to the people in your neighbourhood.

    Hi to Boomer.
    Guy

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  19. Amazing shots!! I've never seen anything like the Indigo Bunting before!!

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  20. These are all such amazing shots. You have a truly beautiful piece of the world around you.

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  21. What a fabulous retrospective Gary, I love H,D, & Louie. How lucky you are to live in a place with so much natural beauty and so many critters.

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  22. Fabulous year, Gary! Wow...some really beautiful shots. I enjoyed seeing them very much!

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  23. Great photos you view here. I enjoyed all the pictures and am very impressed by your diversity of species.


    Ottar

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  24. this series of nature photography is simply spectacular.

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  25. Such a fantastic collection, Gary, and you do indeed live in a beautiful world! I love your birds and critters and the nature that surrounds you! And you are fortunate indeed! Thanks for sharing!

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  26. Great images, Gary. I especially like the grouse and the indigo bunting.

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  27. You would have a great gallery of wildlife, especially the birds!~

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  28. A fabulous recap Gary. The Yellow Warbler is striking; the Red Squirrel a cutie (when aren't they?!); that Cedar Waxwing is a handsome fellow; what I guess to be Racoons (Huey, Dewey & Lewey?) look mischievous and the butterflies are beautiful. Thank you so much for sharing your beautiful part of the world and its wildlife inhabitants.

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  29. A great series of photos for your retrospective. I had a chuckle at your definition of a wildlife park!

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  30. Such exquisite wild life photos. How I would love to share your world with you for a day.

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  31. This is an excellent collection. These are all wonderful shots.

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  32. Great catch, I like this delicious photos, beautiful colors.

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  33. Always amazing wildlife shots ~ Love the raccoon ones!

    Carol of (A Creative Harbor) on blogger ^_^

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  34. A great collection of photographs. You are a skillful, knowledgeable, and hard working photographer.

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  35. Wonderful series of photos! Loved the Bunting and the Leucistic Purple Finch (hadn't seen or heard of such)...
    Thanks for sharing :)

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  36. wow - an amazing set of shots!

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  37. These are all just wonderful. Some remind me of home here. Others remind me of our home away from home way up north. Our cottage is north of Pickle Lake.. have you been up that way?
    Keep up the great work of appreciating & sharing awareness of all these great living things in 2013.

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  38. They are all excellent photos, Gary! It was a great idea to do a review. My favorite was the Canadian swallowtail 0stunning! as well as the purple finch -pretty:)

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  39. Great collection. Tasmania really is rather special - and it has snow!

    Have you read "A Sand County Almanac" by Aldo Leopold - it has some interesting things to say about wilderness and its uses.

    Cheers - Stewart M - Melbourne

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  40. Wow! If I had a favorite, it would the gorgeous indigo bunting. Love that color of blue.

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  41. You always take such beautiful photos! My favorite this week is the chipmunk holding food.

    Happy Tuesday!

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  42. beautiful images. Thank you for taking us to your corner of the world. The Vermilon River looks like an amazing place to be.
    Have a wonderful week. and thank you for stopping by my blog today.

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  43. Great idea to do a retrospective of your year. Interesting to see the "artsy" change in your scenery shots since I began looking at your blog. Indigo Bunting perhaps my favourite, but some wonderful flight shots as well. And neat to see the snapping turtle, the bear..

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  44. Great shots of your diverse wildlife.

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  45. Yay! I am always jealous! You always get stunning photos!

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  46. What a nice resumé of your wildlife pictures ! I am still in love with your squirrels !

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  47. This is really a great nature and impressive photos.

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  48. Gary I have just taken a walk through your patch.... or at least thats what it feels like. Great work, and dont worry I only left footsteps!

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  49. Just beautiful, Gary - you are in a nature lover's paradise! Especially love the one of the orange butterfly - outstanding!

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  50. We all could learn to be more thankful for the great things this past year. Wonderful photos.

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  51. your photos never fail to amaze me once again. great job Gary.

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  52. A feast for the eyes, these. The colors are beautiful. The marshy landscape at the top is my favorite.

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  53. I for one am glad you added scenery. It gives us a good look into your surroundings. I thought a couple of weeks ago I would go through and pick out one or two of my favorite photos per month and have a photo book made. Umm....I take too many pics. :)
    Some of my favorites from today are the Swallowtail, the Leucistic Finch and the Sunflowers and Hummingbirds. I'd hang that sunflower one on my wall!
    (Your unknown plant reminds me of ironweed but I'm not sure)

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  54. What some wonderful bird and wildlife photos. I would love to visit the area on day - bucket list!

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  55. Fantastic photos from our free nature!
    Compliments! Hard to pick out any special, but I like the herons very much!
    /Pia

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  56. Wonderful post! I look forward to Spring!
    McGuffy's Reader
    http://www.mcguffysreader.blogspot.com

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  57. Wonderful reminders that spring will be here soon!

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  58. What a wonderful retrospective post with an abundance of wild flora and fauna!

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  59. An absolutely incredible array of photos. You captured some of my favorite birds that I rarely get to see here: wax wings and indigo bunting.

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  60. Hi Gary,

    Beautiful serie ;-)
    Céline & Philippe

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  61. This is a really nice collection! Wonderful glimpse into your world. Thank you for sharing.

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  62. Brilliant array of shots Gary. Such variety.

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  63. Your saying that a wilderness area is not modeled on Disneyland reminded me of the time we were with our kids at Yellowstone (I know that's not a wilderness, but it's also not Disneyland)...anyway, this big car with 4 people and a California license pulled up by us (we were just hanging out looking at scenery at an overlook). These people jumped out, slammed all their car doors at once, looked around, said "I don't see any elks, this is a dumb park, let's go" slammed all the car doors and roared off. We couldn't believe how stupid these idiots were to think that Yellowstone could produce animals on call. Even our six year old knew the difference between a National Park and Disneyland!

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