India! Purple Swamphen
Purple Swamphen: Keoladeo National Park, Bharatpur, Rajasthan, India, March 2023 — A common bird of the marshes, and certainly common at Keoladeo. This shot gives you a good look at those huge toes, adapted for walking on floating pond and marsh vegetation. Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Pixelmator Photo and Apple Photos. ISO 100 @ f4 @ 1/500th.
India! Rosy Starling
Rosy Starling: Keoladeo National Park, Bharatpur, Rajasthan, India, March 2023 — This might have been our only sighting of Rosy Starling during our stay in India. Not close, but close enough! Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Pixelmator Pro and Apple Photos. ISO 100 @ f5.6 @ 1/1000th.
Biggest Week in American Birding! Canada!
Canada Warbler: Magee Marsh Wildlife Area, Oak Harbor, Ohio, USA, May 2023 — Canada Warblers are one of the “less seen” warblers at Magee Marsh in May. They certainly come through and certainly in numbers, but they can be very hard to find, and very uncooperative when found. They tend to sulk deep in foliage, and they are very active, never posing nicely for a good look or a photograph. This nice bright male keep a crowd of birders along the boardwalk entertained literally all morning. It was there and being seen when I got to the boardwalk at 7:30am, and it was still there at least after 1PM when I left. I have no reason to believe it did not stay through the afternoon. Getting this photo was a three step process. First you had to insert yourself into the scrum of birders and photographers on the boardwalk that extended many yards on either side of the brush where the warbler was feeding, then you had be in the right place at the right time when someone gave up their place at the rail facing the warbler, and then you had to wait for the warbler to appear in the open for long enough to achieve focus, and then you had to be ready to shoot. (So that is actually four steps!) Fortunately the Olympus OM-1 with the 100-400mm zoom is a very capable camera, with about as fast and accurate bird’s eye focus as you can get, and I managed 3 good shots in about 10 minutes before I surrendered my place at the rail to another. OM-1 at 700mm equivalent. Program mode with my evolving bird modifications. Processed in Pixelmator Pro. ISO 500 @ f6.3 @ 1/640th.
Biggest Week in American Birding! Scarlet Tanager, for Carol
Scarlet Tanager: Magee Marsh Wildlife Area, Oak Harbor, Ohio, USA, May 2023 — Carol once told me that the Scarlet Tanager was her favorite bird. We don’t see them often in southern Maine. They are there every summer, nesting, but they stay high in the canopy. We hear them sing, but they stay mostly out of sight. Seeing one at eye-level, as you occasionally do from the Magee Marsh boardwalk is a real treat. This might be a first year adult as it still has some yellow in the feathers. Olympus OM-1 with the 100-400mm zoom at 770mm equivalent. Program mode with my evolving birds modifications. Processed in Pixelmator Pro. ISO 250 @ f6.3 @ 1/640th. Plus .3EV.
Biggest Week in American Birding! Swans in love…
Trumpeter Swans: Metzger Marsh Wildlife Area, Beno, Ohio, USA, May 2023 — It seems that Metzger might be the place to go for Trumpeter Swans this year. There were many pairs courting and at least a few on the nest, and all within reach of a long lens from the access road. Some years I have struggled to find even one…but that is probably because I just did not know where to look. Anyway, I enjoyed a good half hour watching the mating behavior and these majestic birds gliding on the still water. It got more exciting than this, but I like the simple tension of this shot. Olympus OM-1 with the 100-400mm zoom at 800mm equivalent. Program mode with my evolving birds modifications. Processed in Pixelmator Pro. ISO 500 @ f6.3 @ 1/3200th.
Biggest Week in American Birding! Prothonotary Warbler
Prothonotary Warbler: Magee Marsh Wildlife Area, Oak Harbor, Ohio, USA, May 2023 — The other yellow warbler! and one of my favorite warblers of Magee Marsh. The Prothonotary Warbler nests at Magee, and is one of the most fearless warblers…or at least has the least fear of man. This one repeatedly crossed the boardwalk between the legs of admiring birders and photographers while feeding on tiny spiders on either side. You have to have been at Magee to appreciate the situation. There were at least 30 people packed between the side-rails of a 5 foot wide boardwalk on either side of where the warbler was working, all trying to position for a clear view or more often a clear shot. It was close enough so that people were photographing it with cell phones. This is an uncropped shot at 800mm equivalent. Olympus OM-1 with 100-400mm zoom. Program mode with my evolving birds modifications. Processed in Pixelmator Pro. ISO 200 @ f4 @ 1/800th. Minus .3EV.
Biggest Week in American Birding! Yellow Warbler close
Yellow Warbler: Magee Marsh Wildlife Area, Oak Harbor Ohio, USA, May 2023 — How close do the birds get on the Magee Marsh boardwalk? I had to zoom back to 488mm equivalent to fit this Yellow Warbler in the frame. This is not cropped at all. That close. At least sometimes. At least once in a while 🙂 Olympus OM-1 with 100-400mm zoom. Program mode with my evolving birds modifications. Processed in Pixelmator Pro and Apple Photos. ISO 200 @ f6.3 @ 1/500th.
Biggest Week in American Birding! Ruby-crowned Kinglet
Ruby-crowned Kinglet: Magee Marsh Wildlife Area, Oak Harbor, Ohio, USA, May 2023 — A couple of things. When I should have been doing my Pic for today post this morning, I was on a plane from Portland to Detroit on my way to the Biggest Week in American Birding for a few days. I am doing a couple of Point and Shoot for Warbler workshops and one on the 7 Fold Path to Better Birding. So my posting schedule may be a bit off over the next days. Magee Marsh on the shore of Lake Erie is THE place to put a new camera to the test. Photographing warblers feeding in dense brush and foliage is one of the greatest challenges for any camera, or any photographer. A good place to see whether my new Olympus OM-1 and the 100-400 zoom is up to the task. This morning I encountered this Ruby-crowned Kinglet out on the boardwalk at Magee, and anyone who has tried will be happy to tell you that if there is one bird harder to photograph than a warbler, it is a kinglet. Kinglets do not sit still for more than 10 seconds (or so it seems). I was very happy with the few shots I got with the OM-1. Both of these are at 800mm equivalent, using my evolving bird modifications to Program Mode. I did some experimenting with focus modes as the day went on, but already I am thinking the OM-1 is definitely up to the task. ISO 400 @ f6.3 @ 1/640th. Minus .7EV.
Maine! Goldfinch, nothing so yellow
American Goldfinch: Kennebunk, Maine, USA, May 2023 — there is nothing so yellow as a fresh spring male Goldfinch. We suddenly have a small host of them in the yard. This one posed outside my pop-up backyard bird blind as I was learning the new OM-1 system. Olympus OM-1 with the 100-400mm zoom at 800mm equivalent. Program mode with my evolving bird modifications. Processed in Pixelmator Pro. ISO 320 @ f6.3 @ 1/640th. Minus .7EV
India! Indian Cormorant
Indian Cormorant: Keoladeo National Park, Bharatpur, Rajasthan, India, Marc 2023 — The Indian Cormorant is not the most common Cormorant in India, at least where we were in Rajasthan. That honor goes to the Little Cormorant by a factor, if what we saw was typical, of 2 to 1. And, despite names, the Indian Cormorant is actually smaller than the Little Cormorant (as well as lacking that distinctive forehead knob). The bronze mantling is also quite striking in the right light. Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Pixelmator Pro and Apple Photos. ISO 640 @ f4 @ 1/500th. Plus 1.3 EV.