This young House Finch eating on one of our many bird feeders was born earlier this spring in front of our house. Every year there is a pair of house finches that builds a nest in one of the shrubs near our front entrance, this year they had three young ones that hatched and now flying around on their own. Photo was taken by my finance with the Olympus 70-300mm zoom lens, click on the image above for a large photo.

This young male deer (antlers) was walking alone in the field behind me around sunset. He was aware of my presence but did not scare away while I’ll snapped a few pictures with my camera and zoom lens. The deer population in the Caledon, Ontario area appears to remain fairly high. Be sure to keep an eye out at night when driving down some of the lesser traveled roads, I have had a number of deer jump out of the woods in front of my car.

This slithering intruder, an adult milk snake some how snuck into garage last month. This was the first different kind of snake I have found around my property other than the more common garter snakes. After taking some photos of him we set him free back into the field behind us.

The Milk Snake is a species of king snake, there are 25 subspecies among the milk snakes including the commonly named scarlet kingsnake. The subspecies have strikingly different appearance, and many of them have their own common names. Some authorities suggest that this species may be split into several separate species. They are distributed from southeastern Canada, through most of the continental United States, to Central America, down to western Ecuador and northern Venezuela of northern South America. Milk snakes grow 20 to 60 inches (51 to 150 cm) long. Across the wide range of this species, habitat varies. Typically, milk snakes live in forested regions, however, in some regions they can be located in open prairies. In various parts of across its distribution, milk snakes often abide in rocky slopes. For more info on Milk Snakes, click here. Click on the images above and below for larger pictures.

I managed to sneak up on a small group of deer to get these pictures, they were caught off guard but did not spook immediately, I was still able to get snap a few pictures before they took off back into the woods. Pictures were taken in north-east Caledon, click on the images for larger pictures.

With the much welcomed unseasonably warm weather this Easter long weekend across Ontario and the Caledon area the wildlife is literally buzzing around everywhere now. While sitting on my deck enjoying a few beers I managed to capture this Red Tailed Hawk flying around over the field behind me, a few times he flew right over top of me. I was able to grab a couple nice pictures of him that show off his feathers quite nicely, click on the photos for larger versions. Photos taken with my Olympus 70-300mm zoom lens, for more info on Red Tailed Hawks click here or two see to previous close up photos I have taken of them click here.

Found this large bee’s nest or hornets nest in the woods, not sure exactly what kind it is.

A wild turkey eating in Caledon, Ontario.

Photo taken with my zoom lens in the late afternoon.

This little guy, an American Red Squirrel visits my place every morning to steal seeds from the bird feeders. The American Red Squirrel are widely found across North America. Their range includes most of Canada, and extends into the United States in the Rocky Mountains, the North Central and North East, so they are no stranger to Caledon, Ontario. There are 25 recognized sub-species of red squirrels. Click here for more info on American Red Squirrels. The photo was taken on my backyard deck back in the fall by my fiance.

Don’t let the photo fool you, I found this wandering coyote in a much more urban environment than it looks like. On my way home later afternoon yesterday by Hwy 7 & 427 I happened to notice in the corner of my eye something moving. When I stopped I was surprised to find a very healthy looking coyote staring back at me. Given that there has been so much development lately in the area with the new Vaughn Industrial park, new commercial building at Hwy 50 & 7 and new subdivisions going in on Hwy 50 just a little north I didn’t expect to see a coyote wandering around so freely in an area that is starting to become a lot busier. This was the first time I had gotten a good close up look of one in a long time, he appeared much more healthy looking than then ones I see near my house up further north in Caledon, I guess there is more urban garbage to feed on. Photo was taken with my 70-300mm zoom lens and the lighting was only slightly adjusted in Photoshop, click on the above photo for a larger image.

Quite often I see Hawk’s in Caledon, they are territorial and usually stay in certain areas so after a while you know where to find them. However getting good pictures of them even with a big zoom lens is often a challenge. You may see them on the sides of the roads, sitting on power lines or dormant trees looking down into the fields, they for the most part ignore the traffic of cars focusing only on finding their prey. Unfortunately they don’t stay still for long, if you happen to stop for a picture you literally have a second or two at most before they see you and take off. So quite often in order to get a good hawk photo you need to stalk them, sneak up on them when they are looking the other way or like my other close-up photo stop in the middle lane of highway 50 and shoot from inside the car. This particular red-tailed hawk I followed from tree to tree for a few minutes, seeing me as a threat he would keep flying away to another spot but generally would still stay in the same area. Click on the above and below photos for larger pictures.