Morning Doves in our hanging flower pot. 

 A few days after birth until leaving the nest

Male Dove looked after the little one during the day and the female at night

                                           

                                          

 Cardinal, Dove and Sparrows in the bird feeder

 

 Sparrows in my bird feeder after a rain

Hawk in a tree across from my house

I don't know what kind of hawk this is as I think it is not a local bird and maybe a migrating one.  I was a very large bird and not seen one in this part of the city before.

 

 Hawk with sparrow from my bird feeder

Lately a hawk has be around my bird feeder as I have caught it on the lawn and under our cedar trees. I found this one on my neighbors fence with one of the unfortunate sparrows. I only had my cell phone with me when I took these pictures. 

 Morning Dove nesting in our planter

Morning Dove made a nest in one of our hanging plants at our back deck.  She laid two eggs shortly after. After a couple of weeks only one egg hatched. It only took two weeks after that the the baby dove left the nest but stuck close by. The growth rate is very fast as Doves only live about one and a half years. Father sits on the eggs during the day and takes of the little one during the day. Mother looks after the young one at night.

July 25, 2022

August 15, 2022

August 15, 2022

August 16, 2022

August 19, 2022

August 22, 2022

August 19, 2022

August 19, 2022

 This young raccoon was following my wife and my self up and down our driveway when we were shoveling snow on a very cold morning. He or she was lifting it's feet from the cold pavement in discomfort.

Followed me up my back deck stairs and tried to climb up my leg to get warm. We discouraged it and it finally went on it's way.

Coopers Hawk

This picture was taken by my son-in-law Jauuary 19th 2021 on the edge of their garden box.  I believe it to be a Coopers Hawk which is common in the Toronto area.

A beautiful shot 

Swan (winter)

 White Swan 1

I took this picture of a lone white Swan swimming at the edge of the ice covered rocks in the Humber Bay Park in Etobicoke.  Taken February 24, 2014.  Sorry, did not have anything to feed this bird, if that is why it came over to me.  Picture taken with my Canon EOS Rebel T3i and a 250 mm lens, Focal Length: 90 mm, f/4.5.

White Swan 2

Don't know where this Swan went after I left this spot while taking scenery pictures.  Taken with my Canon EOS Rebel T3i and a 250 mm lens. Focal length: 70 mm, f/4. Too cold to take anymore pictures a the park today. Some brave people walking their dogs out here as it is treacherous to walk in most places. 

Butterflies at the Toronto Zoo

 Butterfly-1

     Picture was taken with a Canon EOS Rebel T3i  (18 mega pixel), focal lenght 35mm, f/7.1 with flash
This picture was used on my header with my Title.  The Title was hard to read on the background so I made the background using a gradient effect to allow the Title to be readable.  I could not figure how to do this with Adobe Photoshop as I was eager to get the blog site up and running, so I used the Graduated Filter in Corel Paintshop Pro X5 to get the effect I needed.  To do this, I opened Effects, then Photo Effects, then chose Graduated Filter.  The setting was Linear Graduated Filter, Preset: Colour to Transparent, Colour was White (R255,G255,B255) Opacity was set to 87, Blend was set to 55, and Rotate was set to 89.0.  I used Image Effects for the Page Curl.

 Butterfly-2

  Picture was taken with a Canon EOS Rebel T3i (18 mega pixel), focal lenght 35mm, f/7.1 with flash

 Butterfly-3

Picture was taken with a Canon EOS Rebel T3i (18 mega pixel), focal lenght 35mm, f/5.6

Butterfly-4

     Picture was taken with a Canon EOS Rebel T3i (18 mega pixel), focal length 55mm, f/5.6 with flash

These butterfly pictures were taken at the Toronto Zoo.  Again  the colour was removed and replaced only on the butterflies.  Colouring was replaced by hand and was a challenge on the legs on picture 4. I had to do the legs a few pixels at a time.  I had cropped four of these pictures for framing so that is why they are square.  There is the Butterfly Conservatory in Niagara Falls Ontario that is fantastic as you get to walk through hundreds of different species.  I hope to go there again this year. I was worried my wife would squash them when they landed on her, but she controlled herself.

Wolf

Wolf

  I took a picture of this Wolf on March 2013 that was displayed from a zoo while at Wizard World.  Wizard World runs every March Break at the CNE grounds.  We take the grandchildren every year.  I cropped the picture because I didn't like the look of the heavy chain they had holding him on the stand.

Young Lion, Tiger

 Young Lion

  Picture taken March 12, 2014 at Wizard World in Toronto.  We were sitting just a few feet from the cage with this young Lion and a Tiger while watching a the animal show. The Lion still had some of it's young spots on the legs.  I took the pictures with as much zoom as I could to allow the wires on the cage to vanish.

Picture take with a Canon EOS Rebel T3i.  Focal length: 123mm f/5 1/60 sec.

 Tiger-1

  Picture take March 12, 2014 at Wizard World, Toronto with a Canon EOS Rebel T3i.  Focal length: 131mm f/5 1.60 sec.  He kept watching us as we sat so close as to almost touch the cage he was in. A truly beautiful creature. 

 Tiger-2

  Picture taken March 14, 2014 with a Canon EOS Rebel T3i.  Focal length: 250mm f5.6 1.50 sec. He was intent on watching the grandchildren as we watched the show.  Loved the eyes.  

 Tiger-3

  He was so calm waiting for his turn in the show and would get quite excited when a trainer came buy to take them out for their performance.  Picture taken March 14, 2014 with a Canon EOS Rebel T3i. Focal length: 171mm f/5.6 1/60 sec.

 Tiger-4

  That tongue could give you a good face wipe.  I did not have enough zoom to remove the cage wires completely as some is still visible in this picture.  Taken March 12, 2014 with a Canon EOS Rebel T3i.  Focal length: 116mm f/5 1/60 sec.

Tiger-5

  Picture taken March 12, 2014 with a Canon EOS Rebel T3i. Focal length: 250mm f/5.6 1/50 sec.  Hard to believe with a face like that it's a wild animal.