Rare Townsend's Solitaire | Myadestes townsendi | Solitaire de Townsend at Sandbanks Provincial Park, Prince Edward County, Ontario, Canada

            A foggy Christmas Eve morning and we were out for a hike in Sandbanks Provincial Park on the shore of Lake Ontario. Our route took us along an abandoned and overgrown road through the pine/cedar barrens behind Lakeshore Beach. There was no wind and the mist was thick, creating a pleasantly spooky atmosphere. 

After a time, I caught the sound of a distant group of chickadees, and given that there had been no other birds to see, we called them in. As they arrived out of the gloom to investigate, a larger shape came with them and alighted nearby. It was slim, long-tailed, with rusty wing bars and a prominent white eye ring. Oh my goodness (or words to that effect), a Townsend's Solitaire!

A bird of western North America, there are only a few records of this species for Prince Edward County, with none seen since December 2015. Having identified it, the task became to obtain a photograph to confirm the sighting - a challenge in the dark conditions.

Rolling the ISO to 5000 and opening the aperture all the way, I focussed on the eye and pressed the shutter button. Back in the day ASA 800 was considered a fast film, and 600mm at f/4 was even harder to come by, so there would have been no chance at a photo at all, so I fired away.

Opening the images in Adobe Lightroom, the photos were a grainy/noisy mess. Pre-digital there would not have been anything salvageable, but a click on the program's new noise reduction tool produced this decent enough result. It does have the glossy/waxy look of an overly worked on image, but for me it captures the moment beautifully.

Taken in: Canada / Ontario / Sand Banks (show map)

Taken on: December 24, 2023

Tags:

Lakeshore Beach

Sandbanks Provincial Park

PEC

Ontario

Canada

Townsend's Solitaire

Myadestes townsendi

Solitaire de Townsend

Bird

Birding

Birdwatching

Rare Bird

Rare

Nature

Wildlife

Noise

ISO

High ISO

Lightroom

Canon

EOS 90D

EF600mm f/4L III

90D

600mm « less

Sets appears in: • Prince Edward County

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Camera: Canon EOS 90D, f/4.0, 1/800 sec, 600mm, ISO 5000 (more info) (hide info)

Camera:	Canon EOS 90D
Lens:	EF600mm f/4L IS III USM
Aperture:	f/4.0
Exposure Time:	0.001 sec (1/800)
Focal Length:	600mm
ISO:	5000
Exposure Bias:	0 EV
Flash:	No Flash
Exposure Program:	Aperture-priority AE
Exposure Mode:	Auto
Metering Mode:	Multi-segment
White Balance:	Auto
Color Space:	sRGB
Software:	Adobe Photoshop Lightroom Classic 13.1 (Macintosh)
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