Yellow-bellied Sapsucker

The appropriately named sapsuckers are highly specialized woodpeckers that use their sharp beaks to drill neat rows of small holes in the bark of trees. Then, with brush-tipped tongues, they lap up the sap that oozes out and eat the insects it attracts. They sometimes snatch insects in midair, as well, and occasionally feed on wild fruit. In typical woodpecker fashion, sapsuckers excavate nest holes in trees, often dead. Females incubate the eggs during the day, and males take over at night. Both parents share in feeding the young. Unlike other woodpeckers, the sapsuckers are strongly migratory: Yellow-bellied sapsuckers, for instance, travel thousands of miles when the seasons change.

Yellow-bellied Sapsucker (Sphyrapicus varius, Pic maculé, YBSA) from my SONGBIRDS OF PELEE WORKSHOP at Point Pelee National Park of Canada in Leamington, Ontario, Canada ©Christopher Dodds All Rights Reserved. Sony Alpha a9 III Mirrorless camera & Sony FE 600mm f/4 G Master OSS Lens with Sony FE 1.4X Teleconverter @840mm. ISO 6,400, f/7.1 @ 1/5,000s Manual exposure.

Eastern Kingbird

There was no shortage of Eastern Kingbirds during my Songbirds of Pelee Workshop at Point Pelee National Park of Canada. This image was made while waiting for a Prothonotary Warbler to drop down from the top of a tree.

Eastern Kingbird (Tyrannus tyrannus, Tyran tritri, EAKI) Photographed during my SONGBIRDS OF PELEE WORKSHOP at Point Pelee National Park of Canada in Leamington, Ontario, Canada ©Christopher Dodds All Rights Reserved. Sony Alpha a9 III Mirrorless camera & Sony FE 600mm f/4 G Master OSS Lens with Sony FE 2X Teleconverter @1,200mm ISO 3,200, f/8 @ 1/5,000s Manual exposure. Full frame image.

Black-throated Blue Warbler Point Pelee Workshop Opening

Here is a beautiful Black-Throated Blue Warbler from an incredible afternoon during my Songbirds of Pelee Workshop last May 8, 2023.

Due to a medical emergency, I suddenly have space available for my May 7-11 Songbirds of Pelee Workshop (Get well soon, Dave) that sold out last July. Join me for this epic experience at the peak of the spring songbird migration at one of the top 10 birding destinations in the world! I am a fully licenced operator in the park.

Point Pelee National Park is one of the best inland locations to observe bird migration. Its location on major migratory flyways and the north shore of Lake Erie make it a migrant trap—a place that attracts a wide diversity of species in a tiny area. More than 390 species of birds have been recorded in the Point Pelee Birding Area.

Black-throated Blue Warbler (Setophaga caerulescens, Paruline bleue, BTBW) from mySONGBIRDS OF PELEE GALORE WORKSHOP Point Pelee National Park of Canada ©Christopher Dodds All Rights Reserved. Sony Alpha a1 Mirrorless camera & Sony FE 600mm f/4 G Master OSS Lens with Sony FE 1.4X Teleconverter @840mm. ISO 3,200, f/14 @ 1/400s Manual exposure. Full-frame image.

Golden-winged Warbler

A Golden-winged warbler from my SONGBIRDS OF PELEE WORKSHOP at Point Pelee National Park of Canada in May.

Prothonotary Warbler Launching

Another image from my recently concluded Songbirds of Pelee workshop. As this Prothonotary warbler was foraging on this great perch, a Northern Waterthrush flew over it, and the Prothonotary warbler quickly gave chase. This was a lucky catch for me, as I was reorienting the camera from horizontal to vertical when I noticed it happening :)

Prothonotary Warblers are unique among the warbler family because they breed in nest cavities instead of making nests on tree branches. They choose tree cavities, dug out by woodpeckers or chickadees, that are either standing in water or within 5 m (16 feet) of water.

Prothonotary Warblers get their name from papal clerks, called prothonotaries, who wore yellow robes. However, it is also possible that the name derives from the notaries (known as protonotaires) who played a significant role in the 18th and 19th-century legal system of Louisiana, the state where the bird was first described. One point against that theory is that the notaries did not wear yellow.

Summer Tanager

Here is a Summer Tanager from my Songbirds of Pelee workshop in 2005 that I recently rediscovered while looking for the Ruby-crowned Kinglet image posted HERE.

For all intents and propose, it is simply a “bird on a stick,” but I love the monochromatic setting that accentuated the bird's colours. I significantly desaturated the red channel to prevent it from looking fluorescent, as the older digital cameras had a really hard time with the reds.

I had skipped over this one because there was too much noise (for me). I am blown away by the new AI-powered noise removal in the recently updated Adobe Camera Raw. The unfortunate side of this discovery is the time I will have to invest in reprocessing my older images.

There is still limited space for my free Sony Photo Walks at the end of May. The walks will be in English on Saturday, May 27, and in French on Sunday, May 28. There is a $15 charge to prevent no-shows with limited seating, but you will get a $15 Gosselin Photo gift card at the event. Click on the image below to register:

Black-and-White Warbler (Mniotilta varia, Paruline noir et blanc, BAWW)

Black-and-white Warbler vertical portrait (Mniotilta vary, Paruline noir et blanc, BAWW) Point Pelee National Park of Canada (Southwestern Ontario, Canada). Image Copyright ©Christopher Dodds www.chrisdoddsphoto.com All Rights Reserved. Canon EOS-1D MKIV, 500mm F4L IS USM and 2X II Tele-extender. ISO 800, 1/320s F9. Canon 580 EX II Flash in manual mode. Tripod and Wimberley Head II. CLICK HERE TO PURCHASE A PRINT or LICENSE IMAGE FOR PUBLICATION.

Black-and-white Warbler singing (Mniotilta vary, Paruline noir et blanc, BAWW) Point Pelee National Park of Canada (Southwestern Ontario, Canada). Image Copyright ©Christopher Dodds www.chrisdoddsphoto.com All Rights Reserved. Canon EOS-1D MKIV, 500mm F4L IS USM and 2X II Tele-extender. ISO 800, 1/320s F9. Canon 580 EX II Flash in manual mode. Tripod and Wimberley Head II. CLICK HERE TO PURCHASE A PRINT or LICENSE IMAGE FOR PUBLICATION.

Black-and-white Warbler singing vertical portrait (Mniotilta vary, Paruline noir et blanc, BAWW) Point Pelee National Park of Canada (Southwestern Ontario, Canada). Image Copyright ©Christopher Dodds www.chrisdoddsphoto.com All Rights Reserved. Canon EOS-1D MKIV, 500mm F4L IS USM and 2X II Tele-extender. ISO 800, 1/320s F9. Canon 580 EX II Flash in manual mode. Tripod and Wimberley Head II. CLICK HERE TO PURCHASE A PRINT or LICENSE IMAGE FOR PUBLICATION.

Point Pelee Workshop report ... continued

In keeping with tradition, my annual bird photography workshop at the Southernmost tip of land in Canada, Point Pelee National Park of Canada, kept us all on our feet for hours at a time. We hiked far and wide while carrying our camera gear; Robert Parent (from Quebec) called it "Extreme Bird Photography". I would hate to think just how far we really did walk each day. Everyone in the group remained in good spirits, despite the cold, and sometimes wet, weather. These images of this Black-and-white Warbler were all made within minutes of each other, they are the same bird we found foraging a pile of discarded sticks along Woodland trail early in the workshop. I enjoyed using the relatively noiseless high ISO capabilities of Canon's newset professional camera body, the Canon EOS 1D mark IV. I have always forced myself to never use more than ISO 400 with it's predecessor, so pulling-off consitently sharp images in low light during this trip was much easier than with earlier cameras.

Canon Auto-focus, Instruction book, firmware, and LensAlign

I was sitting on the tram on the way to the tip discussing Canon's latest camera bodies when a well known photographer said that he wasn't happy with the 7D he had purchased for his wife. Quick check of the custom settings showed it still had the old firmware, few of the custom functions had been properly set-up , the camera was even set to sRGB colorspace and there had been no micro-adjustment made. I downloaded the latest firmware that night and installed it the next morning for him; making a few adjustments to his custom settings. "Its much better now" was shouted-out across the parking lot that afternoon.

Perhaps Canon unleashed a beast when they decided to offer such a wide variety of user defined custom functions; few people read the instruction manual and really know how to set them. Before you decide that your camer'a AF isn't working properly, take the time to make sure it is set-up and be sure to micro-calibrate each of your lenses using LensAlign Pro.....please!

Black-and-White Warbler (Mniotilta varia, Paruline noir et blanc, BAWW)

The Black-and-white Warbler, Mniotilta vary, Paruline noir et blanc, BAWW, has an unusually long hind toe and claw on each foot. This adaptation allows it to move securely on the surface of tree bark. They are known for their habit of creeping around tree trunks and along larger branches in search of insect food in crevices or under the bark; hence its old name, "Black-and-white Creeper." Unlike the Brown Creeper, which only moves up a tree, the Black-and-white Warbler can climb in any direction. Unusually aggressive for a warbler, the Black-and-white Warbler sometimes attacks and fights Red-breasted Nuthatch, Black-capped Chickadee, Tennessee Warbler, and other species. It is the only member of the genus Mnitila, which means "moss plucking".