Today on my walk at Claireville Conservation Area I noticed a lot of little critters were out and about in the park. Usually I hear the birds but they are not always that keen to show themselves around us humans. Today for some reason they were more than happy to give me a brief view.

In one of the ravines I was able to capture this shot of a Catbird before it flew away. Birds are particularly difficult to capture because they rarely sit still unless they are eating at a feeder and even then you have to be quick and anticipate their movements. If you want to practice photographing birds I found it helpful to plant myself near a feeder with the camera on a tripod. Make sure to have a very high shutter speed to capture them as they move about the feeder. 1/500 of a second or faster will usually do the trick.

The animals are just as quick as the birds when you want to take their photo but I do find a lot of them will freeze before they run off while others are a little more on the friendlier side. This chipmunk appeared to be gathering some leaves, possibly for its nest. I was lucky that she decided to pose for me a few times before finally running off.

On my walk back to the car I was trying to photograph some Blue Jays high up in a tree when I noticed this osprey with something in his talons. After reviewing the photos I quickly snapped as he flew by, I realized it was a fish! Talk about lucky capture!