Posts in Category: wildlife
Magee Marsh First Fruits
I got to The Biggest Week in American Birding, along the Erie Shore in Northern Ohio, a day late due to other commitments, so the first order of business was getting ZEISS set up. We are the lead sponsor this year so we have more at stake 🙂 I didn’t out to the Magee Marsh boardwalk sometime after 5pm, and spent a good, if quiet, two hours there. There were birds but they were not overly cooperative and there were not the great numbers you get on the best days…but I am not complaining. Two hours on the Magee boardwalk in May is always good!
This Yellow Warbler makes the most of the late day sun. Olympus OM-D E-M10 with 75-300mm zoom. 600mm equivalent. Shutter preferred. 1/800th @ ISO 200 @ f8. Processed in Snapseed on my tablet. Cropped slightly for composition.
Odd Couple
Colonial nesting brings several species that might otherwise only share general feeding grounds into very close proximity. The Rookery at High Island is mostly Snowy and Great Egret, and Spoonbills. Rookeries in Florida generally add the smaller Herons, Ibises, and Wood Storks to the mix. At any rate, shots like this are easy to get at any rookery worth the name. A Great Egret and a Roseate Spoonbill just hanging out together at Smith’s Oaks Rookery in Texas.
Olympus OM-D E-M10 with 75-300mm zoom. 600mm equivalent. Shutter preferred. -2/3rs EV exposure compensation. 1/800th @ ISO 200 @ f10. Processed in Snapseed on my tablet.
Golden-crowned Sparrow
I have seen all my Golden-crowned Sparrows in Arcata California. They are so common, and so tame, at Arcata Marsh Nature Center that you have to pay attention so you do not step on them as they forage in the trails. Exaggeration : ) but not by much. I have had them literally at my feet. In fact, they spend so much time on the ground that it is a challenge to get one perched up on bush. I don’t know about you, but Sparrow on the ground shots are not my favorites. Though it is, of course, for many species, completely natural…it never looks natural to me. That is why I was happy to find this specimen up in the bush.
Olympus OM-D E-M10 with 75-300mm zoom. 600mm equivalent. Shutter preferred. 1/800th @ ISO 1000 @ f7.1. Processed in Snapseed on my tablet. Cropped for composition and scale.
One More Marsh Wren
I can not actually promise this this will be the last of the Arcata Marsh Wrens that I post this season. I have hundreds of images from this past trip 🙂 They are just so much fun to watch and to photograph. On this second day of cold rain in a row in Southern Maine, the singing Marsh Wrens of Northern California make a nice antidote. Or that is what I think anyway.
Olympus OM-D E-M10 with 75-300mm zoom. 600mm equivalent. Shutter preferred. 1/800th @ ISO 800 @ f7.1. Processed in Snapseed on my tablet.
Egret Brings the Branch
Despite suffering my worst bout of Acid Reflux ever, the trip to Galveston Texas for Feather Fest, and then on to Arcata California for Godwit Days, was, photographically, one of the most productive 14 days of my life so far : ) I was able to capture behavior shots that I have always wanted and never gotten before…and more behavior shots that I just can’t seem to get enough of. Terns hovering in mid-air. Closeups of Spoonbills in full flight. Reddish Egret canopy feeding. Pelicans gliding by at point blank range. Egrets bringing in nest materials. And, of course, that is what we have here. The Great Egrets at Smith’s Oaks rookery in High Island Texas had chicks in the nest, but Egrets never really stop building a nest once they start, and the males were still bringing branches. This handsome fellow is just landing.
Olympus OM-D E-M10 with 75-300mm zoom. 600mm equivalent. I used my custom “flight” program (9 spot, center, continuous focus. Auto ISO.) f9 @ 1/640th @ ISO 200.
If you have never visited High Island in the spring, the rookery will make the trip worth your while, even if, as on this day, there is no “fall out” of trans-gulf migrants. On day when the the Warblers and Orioles are dripping off the trees, you might not be able to spare a glance for the rookery. : )
Arcata Song
The Marsh Wrens of Arcata Marsh are certainly special, but so are the sparrows. Golden-crowned Sparrows are, sometimes literally, underfoot everywhere. Occasionally they will even get up in a bush and pose nicely. And it is always a treat when a Song Sparrow pops up on something and sings, right out in plain sight, 10 feet away…paying not the least attention attention to you and your camera. This specimen let me walk all around the back side of it with my bean-bag-head monopod, looking for better angles. For a bird photographer it simply does not get any better than this!
Olympus OM-D E-M10 with 75-300mm zoom. 600mm equivalent. Shutter preferred. 1/800th @ ISO 800 @ f6.7. Processed in Snapseed on my tablet.
California Darners!
It is still, possibly, weeks before the first real Dragonfly hatch in Southern Maine. I will get out to check the ponds today. I did, however, get my first dragonfly fix of the season in California this past week with this pair of what I make to be California Darners from Arcata Marsh Wildlife Center. Fine specimens and the first test of my new camera rig on dragonflies. I think it might work : )
Olympus OM-D E-M10 with 75-300mm zoom. 600mm equivalent. At least 2 of these use the 2x digital extender for 1200mm equivalent field of view. Shutter preferred. 1/800th @ f6.7 @ various ISO. Processed in Snapseed on my tablet. Assembled in Pixlr Express.
Purple Gallinule!
The Purple Gallinule is not particularly a hard bird to see. You just have to be in the right place in its limited range at the right time. It is just that I never seem to be there. I saw a male in Florida on my first birding trip there 11 years ago, and a female two trips back, but other than that…nada. So to say that I was excited to see one at the Smith’s Oaks rookery on High Island Texas is an understatement. I got some shots of it peaking and poking among the vegitation, but just before I left, it popped up on top for just a few seconds and I got off a few full body shots. I did not have time, even, to shift the camera out of flight mode, so the rapidly moving bird is not tack sharp. Not the best, but my best so far!
Olympus OM-D E-M10 with 75-300mm zoom. 600mm equivalent. ISO 400 @ 1/250th @ f6.7. Processed in Snapseed on my tablet.
Smith’s Oaks Spoonbills
We will drop back this morning…a week and a bit…to my visit to the Rookery at Smith’s Oaks on High Island in Texas. I have seen Spoonbills nesting before but never in the numbers that frequent High Island. I took the opportunity to practice my flight shot techniques, since I had numbers of cooperative subjects. There are really few birds as striking as a Roseate Spoonbill in full breeding plumage. Odd. But still striking. 🙂
Olympus OM-D E-M10 with 75-300mm zoom. 600mm equivalent. My custom flight program. Processed in Snapseed on my tablet. Assembled in Pixlar Express.
Nesting Building among Wrens
Along the edge of one of the ponds at Arcata Marsh Nature Center there was a male Marsh Wren guarding territory and building a nest every 100 feet or so. We had a chance to compare three males working closely together. Nearest the corner of the pond was Macho Wren. He seemed to think that zipping rapidly back and forth across the corner of the pond, singing loudly (and not very musically), with his tail cooked up tight over his back in maximum excitement posture would win him a female, even though we never saw him actually do any work on a nest. Next down the shore was The Rookie. Clearly a first year male, this wren picked up the right materials and brought them to the nest site, but generally dropped them before getting them into the nest. He had read the instructions in his genetic code…but did not quite understand the point of them. Finally we had Home Depot Wren, utterly competent, filled with porpose, building not just a nest but a castle. He never dropped a thing. He was weaving a base of wet reeds and roots of cattail pulled up from below the water line. I suspect it will be waterproof when dry, and lining and thatching it will cattail down. The roof arched up several inches. Spacious accommodation for a growing family! And, on each trip out for materials, he took time to find a reed and sing his best song! Now that is my kind of Wren! I hope the females of his species recognize and reward his efforts. He deserves to pass on his genes.
I have to say…for me, there are few things in life more filled with quiet joy than an intimate view of a Wren building a nest.
Olympus OM-D E-M10 with 75-300mm zoom. 600mm equivalent. Shutter preferred. 1/800th @ f7.1 @ various ISOs to suit. Processed in Snapseed on my tablet. Assembled in Pixlar Express.