Wildlife photography of Greater Toronto Area during the winter freeze and tricky light conditions

I started my hiking trip along the waterfront trails of Hamilton, Burlington, Oakville, Mississauga and Toronto during the winter freeze.

I was covered head to toe with cap, buff, winter rain jacket over a thick hoodie inside, winter mittens with hand warmers inside that I was wearing over glove liners to ease photography, snow pant, winter hiking socks made of wool, and winter hiking boots. I had my hiking camera backpack with photography gear, tea, medical first aid pouch, and other winter hiking accessories that could come in handy.

Photography was not easy as my fingers went numb on several occasions. I did it in quick bursts and then let my fingers take a break inside gloves warmed by the hand warmers. However, I had no cure for freezing toes as I had forgotten to take toe warmers with me.

An advantage of hiking and wildlife photography during extreme winters is that there is a feeling of solitude and calmness in the absence of other people that allows you time to self-reflect. On this trip there was only one other wildlife lover that I met and exchanged views with.

I hiked through the conservation Area near my home after a snow storm as well and took some landscape and wildlife shots. The advantage of hiking during the freeze is that your toes don’t go numb.

Here are some shots that I took. These are Partially Straight out of Camera (PSOOC) images with no post-processing, except some cropping. Please enjoy starting with the long-tailed ducks, my favourites, below:

This northern pintail drake below was doing well alone in the company of mallards and black ducks.

Below: White-winged scoter taking to the air.

With its iridescent colours, the bufflehead drake below stood out whereas a bufflehead duck showed off its wings.

Below: A pair of ducks fly over Lake Ontario waters close to the ice covered embankment.

A pair of tagged trumpeter swans perform a mating ritual below.

Hooded marganser ducks and drakes below with sun hidden behind the dense clouds. A drake looks straight at me.

Below: Red-breasted mergansers are always a welcome addition to the list of waterfowl on Lake Ontario.

Below: (1) Mallard duck and drake, (2) A mallard drake and a rock with frozen water on top, and (3) a mallard duck comes in for landing and hovers for a spot to land.

Hiking inland through a conservation area

During my February 08 hike through ice and snow in the conservation area, I was able to take some wildlife and landscape shots, but the conditions were not quite as conducive due to extreme light. Here are some shots:

I saw a common goldeneye and a common merganser duck on a partially frozen Credit River (below):

In the forest a chipmunk and a pileated woodpecker were busy doing their jobs (below):

The land was covered by snow and the destruction in the woods was clearly visible.

photography gear used

I am a Pentax system user. for these PSOOC/SOOC shots, I used the following:

1. Pentax KP with 1.4TC + Pentax SMC DA* 300 mm
2. Pentax KF with 55-300 mm PLM

I did not use any other accessory, not even a tripod.

final words

Until our next blog, au revoir! Be outdoorsy, embrace diversity, and support causes for the conservation of nature!