White Ibis
White Ibis, Black Point Wildlife Drive, Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge near Titusville, Florida (USA). It is amazing how close you can get to the larger waders at Merritt Island NWR. As you drive Black Point Wildlife Drive and the other dike roads of the refuge the birds are often right there, in the little canals and wetlands 20-50 feet from the road. This is an experience relatively unique to Florida. In my experience, you have to work much harder to photograph these birds anywhere else. Florida has both White and Glossy Ibis (with an occasional White-faced in the mix). Again, in my experience the Glossy outnumber the White, at least at Merritt Island, by at least a factor of 2, but both are among the most numerous waders in these waters. Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Polarr and Apple Photos.
Adult Little Blue Heron
Adult plumage Little Blue Heron. I featured a white plumage immature Little Blue Heron yesterday. This adult, in its full blue/purple finery, was at the other end of Black Point Wildlife Drive at Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge near Titusville, Florida (USA) on the same day, high stepping through one of the ponds. Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Polarr and Apple Photos.
Immature Little Blue Heron
Little Blue Heron on its reflection. One of the first birds I encountered on Black Point Wildlife Drive at Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge in Titusville, Florida, USA was this juvenile Little Blue Heron, still in its all white plumage. Though it is about the same size, and similar in color to a Snowy Egret, I don’t find them confusing as they such different shapes overall. The Snowy is slender and elegant. The immature Little Blue is more robust. To me the difference is obvious even at a distance, and certainly up close as in this photo. Sony Rx10iv at 560mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Polarr and Apple Photos.
Painted Bunting again…
I had two encounters with the Painted Buntings that come to the feeders at the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge Visitor Center, near Titusville, Florida (USA) during this year’s Space Coast Birding and Wildlife Festival. It is always way too dark under the trees at the end of the deck at the Visitor Center where the feeders hang, and my last day there and my last shot at the Buntings began with overcast, which meant even less light. I remembered this time to pack my little light cube and my small light panel…led devices which mount in the flash-shoe on my Sony Rx10iv. They are not flashes…they are intended for video and provide a consistent and much softer light…daylight balanced…so that most birds and animals do not respond to them at all, especially during daylight. Even at close distance, it is maybe like the sun just peaked out around a cloud as far as they are concerned, so I don’t feel bad about using the cube or panel for supplemental light when needed. Though I was still using Multi-frame Noise Reduction on the Sony Rx10iv with the well shaded buntings, the light panel provided just enough extra light to capture more detail and to further reduce noise in the background. Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications plus MFNR. Processed in Polarr and Apple Photos.
Also there is a poem 🙂
2/2
The male Painted Bunting came
4 times in the 15 minutes I could
give it between engagements.
The miraculous pallet of the painter
rewarded me past any reason or
expectation. It happens too often
for me to ignore. I am becoming
convinced the creator has a particular
fondness for both birds and birders.
Pink and white…
While I was at the Space Coast Birding and Wildlife Festival, a fresh brine shrimp hatch brought all the wading species along Black Point Wildlife Drive at Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge (Florida, USA) together in one 100 yard stretch of the roadside channel…making for some interesting juxtapositions. Here a Great Egret and two Roseate Spoonbills crown a bush. Sony Rx10iv at 315mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Polarr and Apple Photos.
Black Skimmer!
I published a Day Poem this morning, based on this experience. I love watching Black Skimmers at work…and I certainly enjoy trying to catch them in action. I have my “birds in flight and action modifications” to Program mode programed into the focus hold button on the Sony’s lens, right under my thumb, so all I have to do is press the button to shift modes when I see a BIF opportunity. The Sony Rx10iv’s tracking auto focus makes Skimmers easier than ever before…but it is still a challenge. This Black Skimmer was working the ponds off the short Gator Creek loop at Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge near Titusville, Florida, USA. Sony Rx10iv as above, 600mm equivalent. Processed in Polarr and Apple Photos and assembled in FrameMagic.
And here is the poem.
Day Poem
1/31
Black Skimmers cut the water
the way the lady at the fabric
store cuts cloth…not scissoring
at all, but holding the blades
stationary and sliding, parting
the cloth effortlessly, easily,
as though it were an act of will
instead of muscle…of course water
(unlike cloth) is self healing and
no sooner has the Skimmers bill
parted the waters than the seam
seals, leaving hardly a ripple
behind the bird. I love to watch
them, and to try to catch them
in the act with my camera. Such
grace, such skill, more an act
of will than it is an act of muscle.
Florida Sandhill Cranes
As I probably say every year after my Florida trip to the Space Coast Birding and Wildlife Festival in Titusville, the Florida Sandhill Cranes appear, behavior-wise, to be a different species than the western Sandhills I encounter in New Mexico. You can not get close to a western Sandhill. Florida Sandhills, on the other hand, are not bothered at all by human presence. They might amble away from you if you approach them, but if you stand still, they are just as likely to approach. These were part of a flock that was feeding on the berms and over the fence on the other side of the tree-line at the Ritch Grissom Memorial Wetlands at Viera, Florida (USA). I like the graceful juxtaposition of the heads. 🙂 Sony Rx10iv at 400mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Polarr and Apple Photos.
Red-shouldered Hawk
This Red-shouldered Hawk was sitting so still, close to Black Point Wildlife Drive at Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge in Titusville, Florida, USA, that I almost did not see it. I was about to drive off, after checking a small pond where waders sometimes congregate, when I spotted it…sitting right there! It even let me slide the car forward to put it against a better background (after taking a first burst of shots just in case, of course). Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Polarr and Apple Photos.
Florida Scrub Jay
The Florida Scrub Jay is listed on both the both State and Federal Threatened Species List, due to a decline in both populations and habitat. It is the only bird endemic to Florida. The Helen and Allen Cruikshank Sanctuary in Rockledge Florida, USA was established to protect a little corner of Scrub Jay habitat in suburban Florida and the population of Florida Scrub Jays that uses the sanctuary seems to be doing well. The birds are gregarious and trusting, and either by habit or by training (people will feed them though it is against the law to do so) they are likely to come to visit you when you come to visit them. This year, perhaps because I look at bit like one of the feeding culprits, or at least have similar hat, 6 different birds (one at a time) flew up and sat on my head. It is an odd sensation, to say the least. Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Polarr and Apple Photos.
Roseate Spoonbill
When the Roseate Spoonbills come in close…well there is nothing quite like it. This year the pinks are particularly intense…the brine shrimp hatches must be good. This is along Black Point Wildlife Drive in Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge in Titusville, Florida, USA…in a stretch of ditch maybe 200 yards long where there were several hundred Egrets and Herons and Ibis feeding on the same hatch…along with a dozen or more Roseate Spoonbills. Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Polarr and Apple Photos.