Capt Mondo's Photo Blog

While I have been going to the Canadian International Air Show for years (as the many entries on this blog will attest), for the first time I decided to spring for a ticket. I shelled out the non-refundable $130 (plus taxes) the morning of the show, as the weather forecast said that this was likely to be the best day, as thunderstorms were predicted for Sunday and Monday. I managed to not cross any picket lines by entering via Ontario Place and making my way along Lakeshore Blvd. until I found the reserved, ticketed viewing area. My camera gear included my trusty Olympus E-620 and the fast F2 200mm lens.

I was running a bit late but I still managed to catch a lot of the first “act” of the day, which was the US Air Force Thunderbirds:

This was followed by a fan favourite, Mike Wiskus flying his bright red Lucas Oil Pitts S-1-11B. He always puts on a great show.

This was followed by a newcomer to the show: Kyle Folwer flying the canard-winged Rutan Long-EZ:

After this came another favourite performer: the 76-year old Gord Price flying his prototype Yak 50:

Next up was a CF-18 Hornet, with a paint scheme to commemorate the 60th anniversary of NORAD.

This was followed by a USAF F-35 alongside a WW II-era P-51 Mustang in what is called the “heritage flight”, combining old and new:

The back to some acrobatic prop planes, including Martin Hivon in his Christen Eagle (not “Christian Eagle” as announced at the show):

Followed by Mike Tryggvason in the Giles 202. This was a particularly hard plane to photograph, as it is small and the performer didn’t spend much time in “center stage” (I noticed a passenger flight take off from Billy Bishop Airport during this performance, so for safety reasons am guessing he was asked to shift things westward).

It was at about this point that the over-loud speaker system cut out, which fitted the more peaceful Air Cadets Glider fly-by.

Luckily a fellow siting in front me had his portable radio system tuned into the aviation channel being used by the pilots, so it was easy to figure out where the Snowbirds were coming from for the conclusion of the air show:

After the show Mike Wiskus came around signing autographs and getting his picture taken with admirers. I shook his hand and thanked him for several years’ worth of great performances at the air show.

There was also a falcon handler from Falcon Environmental Services showing off one of their beautiful working birds, a hybrid falcon used to chase away other birds from airports.

The handler was saying that this particular bird had a liking for duck, and would often chase a whole series of gulls or geese and somehow single out the one unfortunate duck that has managed to get into the area.

So was it worth the money for a ticket? The price was rather steep but I did get a genuinely good, comfortable seat with an unobstructed view. The food/drink lineups were short (though the food was not cheap), and there were free calendars and other giveaways sponsored by aviation firms attending the show. While the views were great, I also realized that the venue almost places the viewer under the show, and there were several times when a performer would drive their plane skyward, and it would get lost in the glare of the overheard sun. The place where I normally shoot the show in previous years is up on a small hill on the CNE grounds, putting me at higher ground during the flybys. I guess I will have to compare the results from this year’s shot to those from previous years to decide whether to reserve a ticket for next year’s show.

Rented a bike, slathered on much sunscreen and went back to see the nesting site of the Black-crowned Night Herons in Tommy Thompson Park. The Great Egrets were also there but none were posing for my camera, so I spent my time concentrating on the herons.

Watched this bird for about 10 minutes, and it never did stop preening itself. But given its gossamer-like feathers, I think this is understandable. 😉

It was odd to see a mass of these large, slender birds making nests in the middle of a thicket of trees. But it clearly works for them!

Last full day at the villa down here in Costa Rica, and this bright fellow turns up as I was strolling through the garden. I got a few annoyed chitter sounds from him as I inched closer, but he stayed around long enough for me to take some nice pics.

These birds were always around the villa, usually too far away or moving too fast for me to get a decent shot of them. But in this case they both perched on a branch at roughly the same level as the second floor patio of the villa, and one started preening the other. This gave me enough time to get close and take some shots. This one was the best of the bunch (many of the other ones were plagued by the perennial branch-in-front-of-bird problem).

This brightly coloured bird appeared near the villa near Tamarindo only the one time that I witnessed, and was very skittish, with this being the sole shot that was not fully obstructed by tree branches. Still not completely happy with the shot, but it at least hints at the iridescent colours of the bird.

The last time I was in Costa Rica, I managed to see this bird once, and of course it was when I only had my camera phone with me. This time a pair of these birds appeared semi-regularly at the villa near Tamarindo, but they often moved on to presumably greener-pastures (or more likely, greener trees) elsewhere. Today they stuck around long enough for me to get a few decent shots of them. Even so, there’s a shot of one of them in flight, and the pics with the ocean in the background is just before they decided to push on.

The seem to follow roughly the same body plan as the North American blue jay, but a bit bigger, with a longer tail and a fancy top-knot of feathers instead of a crest. Unlike our millifluous Blue Jay, these guys only seem to make a very gutteral squawk.