We enjoyed a few days of sunny warm spring weather making it very pleasant to be out and about.

This crow was welcoming spring also … caw caw caw.

Some more practice with the Panasonic 100-300 mm long lens at minimum focus distance (just over a metre) on the Panasonic GH4 Micro Four Thirds camera.

A pair of Hooded Mergansers on the Still River:

The beaked hazelnuts buds are swelling.  In a week or so we’ll see them show their unique blossoms (shown on the link).

On the following day the pair of Hooded Mergansers split when I stopped beside the River.  Here is a better photo of the male:

 

All of the following photos were taken with my new Olympus 60mm f/2.8 Macro lens.  My first attempts need a lot of work to compete with expert photographer Robin Wong’s review of the lens.   That lens has a minimum focus distance of about my open hand span, 20 cm, 8″ so it gets me out of the car. The photos have some good detail, to it’s worth clicking on them to view full size.

As the snow disappears I will be able to get close to more objects of interest.  I am keeping my eyes open for Mourning Cloak butterflies which overwinter under loose bark in adult form.

Here is a yellow lichen, which I’ve photographed many times with my long tele lens.  With practice and good light I will eventually get a good image of it.  Lichens are fascinating symbiotic plants.  I could easily spend the rest of my life studying and photographing them exclusively.  Not for me though, as variety adds spice to life.

Shield lichen on a Jack Pine branch:

 

Same Pixie cup lichen as above (after the crow) taken with the macro lens, (with very thin depth of field when magnified so much).  The width of the tops of those cups is about 1/8″ or 3mm .

Shot from a bit further away to give better depth of field (range of focus.)

British Soldiers on one of Glen’s  fence posts, corner of Old Legion Lane and Riverside Drive.  Another member of the Claydonia family of lichens.

While stepping over a rock to photo some more lichens I saw this very old fence staple shielding a parachute with seed as it slowly decomposed, along with the fallen post that it was embedded in.   Worth clicking on to see the texture.

Shield lichen on rock this time.

More pixie cup lichens showing the “stem” structure on an older specimen.  I wonder how old this plant is?!  Years?  Decades?

It is raining hard here now, in the wee hours so it will be interesting to see how the lichens respond later in the day.

Mary Holland has been keeping busy, this time a post about how spiders cope with cold winters.  I find her column to be very useful as a indicator of what’s to come a little further north.

A southern DEW Line, advising us of spring’s arrival and telling us where fall goes.

Speaking of traffic, these forecasts of bird migration are interesting and worth perusing.

Finally have a look at the Great Lakes in mid-May and late-August to see something very special on this Mesmerizing Map of Migration.

And this will help develop your eye-brain coordination:

https://www.allaboutbirds.org/mesmerizing-migration-map-which-species-is-which/

Fun, eh?