Love among the feathers...

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Tags:   Rock Dove Columba livia wildlife bird wild nature Esquimalt Lagoon Colwood Victoria Vancouver Island BC British Columbia Canada

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Recently I drove out to Lonetree Lake in the pre-dawn glow. It's good to have a destination, a plan, even if it only serves as motivation to get out the door. As the first warm rays from the rising sun were flooding across the prairie landscape, I spotted this Mourning Dove on a gravel road south of Bracken, and it posed nicely for me. Birds on fence posts are the norm here, not the exception. Usually they fly away, but about 10% don't, and out of those, two or three might be well situated for a photo op, and if the light is good and I don't mess it up somehow, it can end up on Flickr.

This dove was still sitting on its perch when I drove away. It was a good start to what turned out to be a good day. More to come...

Photographed near Bracken, Saskatchewan (Canada). Don't use this image on websites, blogs, or other media without explicit permission ©2022 James R. Page - all rights reserved.

Tags:   Mourning Dove Zenaida macroura wildlife bird dove dawn dawn light fence post beauty beautiful wild prairie morning Bracken Saskatchewan Canada copyrighted James R. Page

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Another year round resident is the Eurasian Collared-Dove, an extremely wary invasive species. Photographed last January in Val Marie, Saskatchewan.

Tags:   Eurasian Collared-Dove Streptopelia decaocto wildlife bird invasive introduced flying flight winter cold January wild prairie Val Marie Saskatchewan Canada copyrighted James R. Page

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The Mourning Doves at Grasslands National Park usually hang out in small groups on the road margins, and fly away when a car comes along. But occasionally one stays. Here I was able to shoot this dove foraging through the grasses next to the road, using my car as a blind. It reacted only minimally to movement inside the vehicle, and not at all to the sound of my shutter, and my session lasted six minutes, quite a long window of opportunity with such a skittish subject.

Don't use this image on websites, blogs or other media without explicit permission.
© James R. Page - all rights reserved.

Tags:   Mourning Dove Zenaida macroura wildlife bird dove profile grass grassy wild prairie Grasslands National Park Saskatchewan Canada

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Another shot from the unusual late May snowfall of a year ago. Of the hundreds of frames I shot in two or three hours, the ones with a touch of green were the most pleasing. Although I was focusing on birds throughout, I maintained at least a dim awareness of their surroundings, because every element in a shot is important. Backgrounds matter as much as the main subject. I've seen countless shots ruined by poor backgrounds. Been there, done that. I'm no Ansel.

Much of wildlife photography is instinctive. Once we lay the groundwork - find a subject, anticipate its behaviour, determine the POV and which lens we will use, etc. - random factors come into play. Some compelling action will happen, or it won't; the light will break for us, or it won't. And then there is the last second fine tuning. Perhaps here I should have taken one or two steps to the right, to separate the background branch from the top of the dove's head, but that might have spooked it and cost me a shot. At least the branch is out of focus, and part of a tangle of branches. We've all seen those family portraits with a tree or telephone pole sprouting from the top of Dad's head. Unlucky overlap.

Almost all the wildlife images we look at on Flickr - not all, but most - have been cropped during processing. In effect, we get to recompose, and often recover an image from earlier mistakes. And once again, attention to surrounding and background detail is critical. I had to leave the green in. Not only does it give the image a nice hit of colour, but it conveys information: this isn't winter, it's spring, an unusual time to see snow (except maybe across the prairie). It's a secondary visual component, but the image needs it.

Could I have shot this better? Yes, of course. Most images could be improved with minor - if not major - adjustments. (Get a catch light in the eye! Straighten that horizon!) But there's still a lot to like, and that includes the diffused light we've been talking about for several days. Light this good, this unusual, is a rarity. The birds themselves look extraordinarily beautiful, bathed in bouncing photons.

One more shot to come, and then we'll move on...

Photographed in Val Marie, Saskatchewan (Canada). Don't use this image on websites, blogs, or other media without explicit permission ©2021 James R. Page - all rights reserved.

Tags:   Mourning Dove Zenaida macroura wildlife bird dove perched spring snow white green diffused light bounced light reflected light prairie light nature wild prairie village Val Marie Saskatchewan Canada copyrighted James R. Page

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