Wild Life

Subject: Wild Life Thu May 06, 2010 12:20 pm

Not being a professional photographer, nor having the right types of equipment for getting good wildlife shots, it is difficult to get good photos of the abundant wildlife in Muskoka. The few wildlife photos that I have are mainly of those magnificent creatures, mainly small, that one comes across daily. The larger wildlife requires that one sit in a blind and patiently wait for them to pass by, and for me that is an impossibility, so I must trust to chance and grab a photo whenever the opportunity presents itself. There is one thing I have noticed about wildlife photography, and I suppose this goes along with Murphy's Law, "Whenever a really good opportunity to get a great photo presents itself, you will not have a camera close at hand." But that is not all, there is a second part to this law, "Should you have the camera at hand, 9 times of 10, the image you get will be distorted or blurry."

All of the photos that I post were taken by me using either a Sony Mavica FD73 or a UMAX AstraPix 590 digital camera. I particularly like the UMAX because I can get some really good close ups, as you may have noticed in my posting of the Muskoka Flowers and in these wildlife photos.

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The common Chipmunk. They love Black Berries or Thimble berries as they are also known. We have loads of Black Berry bushes on the property and as a result lots of Chipmunks.

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Muskoka is a summer haven for ducks of all species, due to the many lakes, rivers and streams. The Mallard is one of the most prevalent and can befound anywhere there is open water. This is a photo of a Male and Female taken in early spring. A few weeks after this photo was taken I saw the same pair with 8 chicks. I took some photos, but not one turned out well enough to post here.

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A few years ago I chanced upon this femal moose on the side of the road leading into the Eaglenest. She had come out of the bush to get away from the Black Flies. The photo was taken in spring and she is shedding her winter coat. She was more distrubed by the Black Flies than by me stopping to take photos and I was able to get a number of really good shots, this being the best of them.

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This is a photo of a Milksnake. I knew we had them but had never even seen one before until one morning I was in the basement of the house. I heard a rustle above me and looked up. There crawling along the water pipes above me was this beautiful, Milksnake. How he got into the house and up onto the rafters is beyond me. I carefully got him off of the pipe and took him outside and let him go. I also made sure I got some photos of him as well.

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Here is a nice photo of a Garter Snake. Due to the abundance of Field Mice, Frogs & Toads, Garter Snakes, as well as a variety of other snakes thrive here. The Garter Snake is completely harmless and quite a beautiful creature.

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This photo is not quite as clear as the two above, but getting a photo of a Northern Water Snake is difficult under even the best of circumstances. These snakes can grow quite large, but they are harmless. They are very wary of humans and usually stay clear of areas where we reside, so it is not often one comes near our beach. It was only with a bit of luck, that I happend to have my camera with me when this one came close to shore.

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As with lakes and rivers, Muskoka also has hundreds, perhaps thousands of ponds and marshes, the preferred home of Painted Turtles. In the spring painted turtles often come up to the road to bath in the warmth of the ashphalt and get the maximum sun light.

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Now here we have a small Snapping Turtle, one of the most dangerous creatures, other than Bears, in our area. Dangerous not because they will attack, but because people are ignorant or stupid and try to handle them. The Snapping turtle can nip off a finger or give a bite so strong it can break an arm. They don't have teeth, but do have a bony ridge around their mouths that is excellent for grasping, holding and tearing. The Snapping Turtle can also grow quite large. These are not a creature one wants to fool around with, and is one of the few small creatures that I never handle.

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The Wild American Turkey. Wild Turkeys in Canada were hunted to extinction over a hundred years ago. The government in it's wisdom decided that we should try introducing the Wild American Turkey to Ontario, to replace what we had lost. So a number of years ago, we made a trade with the Americans and brought some Wild Turkeys to Ontario. From the few hundred that were seeded in southern Ontario, the birds have succeeded to the point where it is estimated we now have over 50,000 of these great birds in Ontario. Over the course of the last few years they have migrated from southern Ontario, into the muskoka area and we quite often see them in fields or scattering into the bush from the side of the road when we pass by. But getting a photo was near impossible. then one day I went out onto the deck of the house and low and behold there were seven of them down near the cabins. I quickly went back into the house and grabbed the camera and started snapping photos. Unfortunately, only one photo turned out, the one above.

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A few years ago we set out a couple of bird feeders hoping that it would draw some of the birds out of the bush and we would get to see the variety. It worked beyond our wildest imaginations. We had more birds then I would have ever thought possible. Big ones, small ones, beautiful colours, drab colours, a fantastic variety of species. Of course I tried to take photos and as usual, very few turned out. But one did, this is a photo of Rosebreasted Gross Beak. We had to take the bird feeders down because as well as birds it was also attracting unwanted creatures such as mice, and even Raccoons.

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The final photo for today, is a White Tail Deer. Unfortunately, I cannot take credit for this photo, it was taken by a neighbour. The deer are very skittish and getting anywhere near them to get a really good photo is next to impossible for someone like me. [You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

» Wild Flowers of Muskoka, Ontario, Canada