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Canon Camera Misfires, So I Drew This Conclusion…

Picture it now… The eagerly awaited spring migration has finally arrived after a long winter, it was finally time to get out into great outdoors again. Equipment primed and at the ready, bird reports further south indicated a good migration season lay ahead. Then all of sudden the hoped for South winds that would push the bird’s North over lake Erie did not happen. A few dribs and Deb’s of Migrants made their way into Essex County, Ontario. So I set about getting shots of them, practice, I hoped for the more exciting birds to come.

A wet morning, that usually helps to make birds stop in the area got me out of my house and into the field but… All of a sudden my “weather-sealed” camera malfunctioned and then totally died just as I was getting onto a much sought after Prothonotary warbler!! Oh no!! To left of me a Great Egret caught a frog and elegantly flipped it a round and ate it right at optimal shooting range. My heart sank!

I got home and tried to dry my camera out in a bag of rice to no avail. Distraught at the thought of not being able to shoot the migration I recalled a chat I had to my friend Nick on the recording of Rambling About podcast in which I said about traditional naturalists who would make field notes and sketch what they saw in the field as Identification. So it was time to practice what I preached, I got my daughters art supplies out and channeled my inner Van Gogh and took to the sketch pad. This is where the problems began, you see that inner Van Gogh did not translate thought to pencils onto the paper and what I was left with was some drawings that my 5 year old nephew could compete with.

That being said, I did add enough field marks that the drawings could, albeit comedically, be identified as the real thing. So I posted each drawing to my social media with a light hearted writeup on each of the sightings and how you could tell what it was from the field marks I included. Much banter and fun ensued in the comment sections with the followers of the pages. The local CBC News reporters contacted me to feature the drawings which caught their attention and a second wave of fun happened.

So as I wait to resolve my camera problem this levity has been a great way to deal with the situation and followers repeatedly ask for new sketches to which I try to oblige.

Full descriptions and comments section can be found on Facebook @donnymoorephotography