Posts in Category: wildlife
Humming in the rain. Happy Sunday!
Rufous-tailed Hummingbird. The Lodge at Pico Bonito, Honduras
“If your eye is generous, your whole being is full of light!” Jesus
On my last morning at the Lodge at Pico Bonito in Honduras, while I waited for the bus to the airport, I spent 3 hours around the Lodge in the rain…mostly shooting from the covered decks and walkways. I made the occasional foray out into the grounds with my umbrella when something worthy presented itself and tempted me to chase it (the Toucans for instance). This Rufous-tailed Hummingbird was using one of the flowers right off the deck at the restaurant for a perch. It was a favorite perch…I saw Rufous-tailed, Crowned Wood-nymth, Jocobin, and Saberwing use it over the course of the three hours. Despite the subdued light, there is a lot to see in this image. You get a bird-in-the-hand view of the feather texture. You can see where the angle of the light catches color from the feathers under the neck, and what they look like when the light is not refracting through them. I love the little drops of water on the head, and the rain streaks caught in the back and foreground. I love the clarity and the liquid perfection of the eye.
The shot has an intimate feeling to it…I think because it captures something shared: a shared attitude. Both the the hummer and I were enduring the rain…making the most of a “bad” situation…or rather transforming a potentially bad situation into a good one by the persistence of a positive attitude. A little rain is not going to stop either of us from doing what needs to be done…and, in my case at least, from doing what I enjoy doing. It would be ungenerous of me to think less of the bird. I suspect, from the look of him, that he was enjoying the morning too. It is a shared moment of enjoyment…in the rain. Intimate.
I would like to think that God looks into my rainy days in the same way…enjoying my enjoyment…sharing an intimate moment. It would be ungenerous of me tho think otherwise of God, don’t you think? And when your eye is generous, God is always the third in any intimate encounter between two creatures. Enjoying the enjoyment! Or that is what I think.
Happy Sunday!
Stripe-throated Hermit
Stripe-throated Hermit, Rio Santiago, Honduras
The tiny Stripe-throated Hermit, which can, in comparison to the other hummers around it (and especially to its much larger hermit counterpart…the Long-billed Hermit), appear not much bigger than a large bumble bee, is indeed one of the smallest hummingbirds in Central America…one of the smallest hummingbirds anywhere for that matter. It does not stand out in coloration either…rufous brown over most of its body, with just a hint of rarely seen greenish iridescence over its head and shoulders, and a white-bordered black bandit’s mask on the face. The stripes on the throat that give it its name are often so faint as to be barely visible. What it lacks in size and flash though, it makes up in aerobatics. It feeds on the nectar of flowers in flight, and often, as in these images, pierces the base of flowers to extract nectar it could not otherwise reach. It is a fun hummingbird to watch, and often appears to prefer flower feeding, even when there are many human-tended sugar-water feeders around. You have to admire its independence.
Nikon P610 at 1440mm equivalent field of view. Shutter preferred @ 1/320th. ISO 1000 at f6.5. Processed in Lightroom and assembled in Coolage.
Bare-throated Tiger Heron
The Bare-throated Tiger Heron is relatively common around the waters of the Cuero y Salado National Wildlife Refuge in Honduras. I have been there twice, a year apart, and seen it on both trips. This year we saw several. This was my best view this year, but it was a very difficult shot. I was in a moving boat, in the first place, and the bird was highlighted by the sun against the dark background of foliage. This is when I am thankful to be a Point and Shoot photographer. The Active Image Stabilization on the Nikon P900 handled the boat motion (once I got the bird in the frame) and the auto exposure managed to keep enough detail in the highlighted bird so that I could bring it out in Lightroom for what is, overall, a very satisfying image. It is a strange bird, with the large patch of yellow skin exposed at the throat.
Nikon P900 at 400mm equivalent field of view. 1/125th @ ISO 220 @ f5. Processed in Lightroom.
Black-cowled Oriole
Black-cowled Oriole, the Lodge at Pico Bonito, Honduras
Another gift of the flowering and fruiting trees off the deck at the Lodge at Pico Bonito in Honduras: this Black -cowled Oriole put in an appearance just after breakfast one morning. Again, this is a bird of slightly higher elevations, forced down by unseasonably cool temperatures in the lower cloud forest almost straight above the lodge. We only saw it once…but once was enough!
Nikon P900 at 2000mm equivalent field of view. 1/200th @ ISO 400 @ f6.5. Processed in Lightroom.
Rufous-winged Tanager
Rufous-winged Tanager, The Lodge at Pico Bonito, Honduras
On our first morning at the Lodge at Pico Bonito in Honduras, after ordering breakfast at the restaurant, someone spotted a mixed feeding flock moving through the trees just off the deck. We, of course, all leaped up and ran for binos and cameras. Olive-backed Euphonias were in the lead, but the flock also contained a Shinny Honeycreeper and a Rufous-winged Tanager, both birds of higher elevations and not common on the grounds of Pico Bonito, as well as Black-cowled Oriole. What a treat! We were still busy with them when the waiter came looking for us to tell us our breakfasts were on the table. 🙂 Now that is service! and that is what makes the Lodge at such a great birding and photography destination. It is not like that every morning, of course, but it is like that often enough to make it simply wonderful!
Nikon P900 at 2000mm equivalent. 1/320th @ ISO 400 @ f6.5. Processed in Lightroom.
Year of the Monkey
Howler Monkey, Cuero y Salado NWR, Honduras
I gather from various posts on the internet that it is the Chinese Year of the Monkey. Last year when we visited Honduras we saw no monkeys at all. This year we saw two troops of Howlers and two troops of White-faced Capuchins. The Howlers were in the forest beside the Cuero y Salado rivers on our visit to the Wildlife Refuge there, as was one of the troops of Capuchins. The other troop of Capuchins was high on one of the trails above Rio Santiago. This shot is from the moving boat on the rivers. I had only a second to grab it as the Howler was working in and out of the vegetation. Not a zoo shot at all. In the wild you take the chances you get. 🙂
Nikon P900 at 2000mm equivalent field of view. 1/200th @ ISO 400 @ f6.5. Processed in Lightroom.
Shinning Honeycreeper
Shinning Honeycreeper, The Lodge at Pico Bonito, Honduras
After ordering breakfast, and before breakfast came, a mixed feeding flock visited the trees right outside the Restaurant at the Lodge at Pico Bonito this morning. Being birders we all grabbed binos and cameras and headed for the deck. We did not see any Honeycreepers at the Lodge last year, but we have already seen 2 different species this year. It does not get any better than this photo.
Nikon P900 at 2000mm equivalent. 1/125th @ ISO 400 @ f6.5. Processed in Lightroom.
Collared Trogon. Happy Sunday!
Collared Trogon. Panacam Lodge, Honduras
If your eye is generous your whole being is full of light. Jesus
I will admit to liking large, or at least larger, birds with a lot of color. Some of the most interesting birds in any country, including Honduras, are small plain birds that are hard to notice and harder to photograph. I know this, but I still prefer to photograph the showy birds. Call it a character flaw!
This Collard Trogon was right on the grounds, showing early, at the Panacam Lodge in the mountains of Honduras. I was very happy to get it, even if the light was not ideal. That is an aspect of the generous eye…being happy with what is there. It is part of being full of light. The light inside illuminates all you see with a touch of wonder. Now if I could just convince my mind that small, dull birds are just as worthy, and reflect just as much light as bigger showy birds. If only.
Happy Sunday!
Turquoise Browed Motmot
Turquoise-browed Motmot, Lake Yojoa, Honduras
Okay…this is what Honduras is all about. Near Lake Yojoa this afternoon. It tried to elude us, but another photographer and I tracked it down!
Nikon P900 at 1200mm equivalent field of view. 1/200th @ ISO 400 @ f6.3. Processed and cropped for composition in Lightroom.
Glossy Ibis. Very Glossy!
Glossy Ibis. Viera Wetlands, Viera Florida
You have to catch the angle of the light just right to see the iridescence in feathers…as in this shot. Ritch Grissom Memorial Wetlands, Viera Florida.
Nikon P900 at 1500mm equivalent field of view. 1/640th @ ISO 100 @ f6.3. Processed in Lightroom.