Posts in Category: p&s 4 wildlife
3/8/2012: Bushtits in the bush. Famosa Slough, San Diego CA
Bushtits are not easy to photograph. They are hyper-active and they feed, most often, deep in the bush. Then too, I don’t encounter them much, even in my travels, so they are always a treat. These individuals were part of a small flock that was literally attacking a bush at the south end of Famosa Slough in San Diego. For a few moments there they were all over, or rather all through, the bush.
The only hope with a bird like this, in a chance encounter, is to shoot bursts of shots (the Canon SX40HS manages something between 3 and 4 frames per second) and hope for the best…that is, select the best later.
These shots are all uncropped at 1240mm equivalent field of view (840mm optical plus 1.5x digital tel-extender).
The final shot, though I barely managed to keep the Bushtits in the frame, has, I think, a tension about it that is consistent with the hyper-active subjects.
Program with iContrast and –1/3EV exposure compensation. Because of the rapidly changing light the ISO and shutter speed were all over the place, from 1/640th at ISO 400 (1) to 1/250th at ISO 125 (2).
Processed for intensity, clarity, and sharpness in Lightroom.
3/7/2012: La Famous La Jolla Ground Squirrel
Leaving the Children’s Pool at La Jolla, where I had enjoyed an hour of watching and photographing, and videoing, the seal pups with their mothers (see Seal Love from last Saturday) I walked up on this Ground Squirrel sitting on the top of the hedge that separates the sidewalk from the rocks of the sea cliff. I stopped, not 8 feet from it, and fumbled my camera out, thinking all the time that it would be off before I got a shot. It just sat there. It sat there while I took as many pics as I wanted. It sat there while a group of tourists came up and asked me what I was doing. It was still sitting there when I walked on. Squirrely! Or rather, most un-squirrely.
And a bit of googling this morning tells me that I was shooting a celebrity unknowing. It appears the La Jolla Ground Squirrels are famous. There are lots of pics of them on Facebook. They have featured on Google+. They have several YouTube videos. They do not have their own wiki entry yet, sharing the glory with the general population of California Ground Squirrels, but it is clearly only a matter of time.
Canon SX40HS, Program with iContrast and –1/3EV exposure compensation. I appear to have had the camera in 1.5x digital tel-extender. I am not certain if that was intentional or not, but it did keep the shutter speed high. 1) 370mm equivalent field of view, f5 @ 1/500th @ ISO 100. 2) 126mm, f4 @ 1/1250 @ ISO 100. 3) 1134mm, f5.8 @ 1/500th @ ISO 100.
Processed in Lightroom for intensity, clarity, and sharpness.
3/6/2012: Nothing like an Egret for Elegance, Famosa Slough
On Saturday, on my way out to Point Lomos and Cabrillo National Monument, I was crossing Famosa Slough, and thinking, of course, of digiscoping the Kingfisher there in high wind on Wednesday, when it occurred to me to stop and see if it was still hanging out on the pilings on this windless Saturday morning. There would be hummingbirds at any rate, and it seemed like a good idea. I could always go to Cabrillo on Sunday.
The Kingfisher was faithful…right there on the pilings where the Slough channel passes under West Point Lomos Drive, and there were hummingbirds too, but this shot is one of those serendipitous, too-good-to-pass-up, opportunities that happen when you are busy doing something else. I was set up on the Kingfisher with my digiscoping rig, moving from one vantage to another, when this Snowy Egret squawked and flopped down into the water trapped against the road embankment. Down went the tripod and scope, and up came the Canon SX40HS. I got off a few shots, first at full optical zoom, and then at 2x digital tel-extender. The bird was just tall enough to be in full light against the dark water in the shadow of the bank. I could not have planned it better if I had actually planned it. In less a 60 seconds (90 max) the bird had moved in under the shadow of the bank and the moment was over…but I am left with this intimate study of the form and texture of the living bird…studio perfect.
Canon SX40HS in Program with iContrast and –1/3EV exposure compensation. f8 @ 1/1250th @ ISO 100. 1680mm equivalent field of view.
Processed in Lightroom for intensity, clarity, and sharpness.
3/5/2012: Handsom and We Know It. Sea Lions. La Jolla CA
Sea Lions are big, loud, and very full of themselves, or so it seems to this casual observer. Though these shots look like the might have been taken at the zoo. I assure you these are real wild Sea Lions from the rocks below Scripps Park in La Jolla California.
All taken with the Canon SX40HS in Program with iContrast and -1/3EV exposure compensation. Processed in Lightroom for intensity, clarity, and sharpness.
Short and sweet today as I am composing this at the airport on my way home 🙂
3/4/2012: Pelican Glory. Happy Sunday!
Besides seals and sea lions, you go to La Jolla in March for breeding plumage Brown Pelicans. I have never been sure what part of the Brown Pelican is brown. Certainly the predominate color, in all seasons, to my eye is a lovely silver gray. And in breeding plumage the bird is spectacular, with its cream or white cap, rich brown neck (there it is, but I can’t believe they named the bird after its neck), and vivid red and rust pouch skin boarded in pure white, all set off by the silver plumage of the body. And that does not cover the pink eyelid, and the old ivory tooth on the end of the bill. This is not a brown bird. (So, okay, if you catch one standing up tall, you can see, under the silver mantle of the wings, the brown lower belly and under tail…but, come on folks, this should be the Silver Pelican at the very least.)
And, once you get by the colors, the variety of textures in the feathers is just as interesting. You have fur like feathers on the head and neck, fine silver feathers like course shaggy hair over the upper chest and wings, and only a few conventional feathers showing in the spread wings and tail.
Spectacular bird.
And their habit of nesting in colonies, and traveling in squads hugging the crests of waves and riding thermals along cliffs…their plunge diving as they feed…all very hard to ignore. This is one great bird.
All these shots with the Canon SX40HS, in Program with iContrast and –1/3EV exposure compensation. 1) and 4) at 1680mm (840mm optical equivalent field of view plus 2x digital tel-extender). 2) and 3) at 840mm optical.
Processed in Lightroom for intensity, clarity, and sharpness.
And for the Sunday thought: people who live with Brown Pelicans year round, and know them in all seasons, are often surprised, in my experience, when they see a close up of one in breeding plumage. Even when they see them in flight, which is always a miracle of grace, they don’t look closely, and they don’t marvel at the way these huge birds ride the wind. They are just pelicans. Brown Pelicans. “We have lots of those in California.” (Or Florida, or Texas, or where ever.)
Me, every time I see them, which is not so often as I would like, I have to stand and stare. I can watch them riding up the beach and over the waves for hours in any season, just to see how they do it. And, in breeding plumage? To be honest, I sometimes don’t get up to La Jolla on my March trip to San Diego, even though it is only 20 minutes from the hotel where I stay, and even though I have been there often enough to know what I am missing, and, this morning, I am wondering why. I would hate to think I am loosing any of my ability to see these birds as they are…full of glory…and shouting glory to anyone with eyes to see and spiritual ears to hear. I would hate to think I am getting full or fat or spiritually lazy or whatever you get when you think you have seen enough Brown Pelicans in breeding plumage.
Never enough please.
3/3/2012: Seal Love, La Jolla CA
I spent a few morning hours yesterday at Scripps Park in La Jolla California. In a relatively short stretch of spectacular coastline, you have breeding plumage Brown Pelicans, Cormorants, Sea Lions, and Seals. Oh, and of course gulls. Lots of gulls. For the patient, scanning the sea from the heights of the cliffs often turns up pelagic species, or a passing pod of Gray Whales. Since my time was limited, I concentrated on the easy stuff…Pelicans, Sea Lions, and Seals.
At the south end of Scripps Park (just beyond the south end of park proper in fact) is a sheltered beach with a massive curving sea wall that is known locally as Children’s Beach. In March it is closed to humans, since the Harbor Seals have begun to use it as a pupping beach. Yesterday there were probably 50 adult female seals lolling on the beach or swimming in the sheltered cove, and at least that many pups of various ages. Many of the pups were in the water with their mothers…but the mother’s seemed intent on herding them up onto the beach. Not an easy task with the very active pups, who seemed equally intent on getting by their mothers and into the water again. Kids. What can you do?
Other pups were nursing. If you look closely here you can see the mother’s teat were the pup is attached.
Observing (and photographing) the seals from the top of the cliff that forms the inland side of the cove, it is impossible not to get an impression of affection between the mother’s and the pups. Much of what they do looks speciously like play or cuddling. I know we are not supposed to project human emotions onto other species, but until someone proves otherwise, I am going to remain convinced that what I was seeing on Children’s Beach in La Jolla was seal love…a mother’s love for her pup…and a pup’s love for its mother.
I have some video of the seal pups at play in the water that I will post when I get it processed.
One last shot. Note that the pup’s head is resting on it’s mother’s spread flipper.
All shots with the Canon SX40HS out near the long end of the zoom (840mm equivalent). The nursing close-up with 2x digital tel-extender added for 1680mm equivalent. All hand held.
Processed in Lightroom for Intensity, clarity, and sharpness.
3/1/2012: Famosa Kingfisher
As I see it, any day with a Kingfisher in it is a good day. Any day with a cooperative Kingfisher in is a spectacular day. You may remember my last encounters with Kingfishers was at Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge in Florida, where they are, perhaps abnormally, skittish and hard to photograph. They will not sit still.
Well here I am in San Diego, at Famosa Slough, a 37 acre wetland preserve surrounded by urban housing just around the corner from the Sports Arena, and this Kingfisher was working the deeper water where the slough channel passes under West Point Loma Drive. There are some old pilings there, and some water gauge pipes she could use for perches and she fished the area for at least the 2 hours I was there. I photographed her for about 30 minutes before moving on down the channel between the slough and the river to see what I could see.
The wind was blowing way too hard, so the images are not as crisp as I would like, but still, you do not (or at least I do not) pass up an easy Kingfisher.
Canon SD100HS behind the 30x eyepiece on the ZEISS DiaScope 65FL spotting scope. Program with –1/3EV exposure compensation.
1) and 3) 3420mm equivalent field of view. 1/320th @ ISO 200. f9 effective. 2) 2958mm equivalent. 1/400th @ ISO 200. f8 effective.
Processed in Lightroom for intensity, clarity, and sharpness.
2/29/2012: Purple Gallinule, Happy Leap Day!
I am in San Diego this morning, so I am all out of sync with my posts…besides which it is leap day…a day that only exists once every 4 years. You would think they would make it an automatic holiday. I mean, I did not have to work on February 29th last year, so why should I have to work on February 29th this year? Let’s start a movement 🙂
But seriously, I have at least one more bird to add from my trip to Florida last month. On my final morning, before my drive back to Orlando and the airport and the flights home, I stopped for a few hours at Blue Heron Wetlands, which was actually about 400 yards from my hotel the whole time. Blue Heron is another settlement pond complex that has been converted to marsh and opened for birding. Unlike the more famous and popular Viera Wetlands, the ponds at Blue Heron are full of vegetation. Reeds are tall, and brush lines most of the dyke roads, so it is much more challenging to observe the wildlife. And, there is not, apparently, as much of it. Birds, other than the Common Gallinule (Moorehen) were pretty scarce. Rumor had it though that a Purple Gallinule was being seen there most days, so I drove the dykes twice. On my first trip around I found a group of birders looking for the Purple where it had been seen, scoping the far reaches of the reed line, but the bird was not visible. On my second pass there was only a single car at the spot, but I got out anyway. I set up the scope and started scanning before the two nice birder ladies walked up and said, “There is a bird right here in the reeds we have been watching and we think it is a female Purple Gallinule.”
So, where? The bird was literally right there in the reeds, only maybe 30 feet from the road, going about its (her) business, walking and climbing on the downed reeds. And indeed it was a female Purple Gallinule. It was too close for the digiscoping rig, so I took a lot of shots with the Canon SX40HS in digital tel-extender mode.
The shot above shows the wonderful green feet, with toes made for walking on water vegetation, as well as the tricolor beak. It was a dull bird, with very little purple showing, but unmistakably as Purple Gallinule.
Here is a full-on view of the tricolored beak.
And an even better view of the feet.
So, a fitting last bird for my trip to Florida for the Space Coast Birding Festival…and see less then 400 yards from my hotel.
No if we could only do something about getting leap day made a holiday.
2/27/2012: Reddish on the Hunt. Merritt Island NWR
There is nothing in this world quite like a Reddish Egret hunting. There is a certain crazed intensity…an apparent randomness…it is almost like watching a demonstration of Brownian Motion, but with only one visible molecule. And the shapes the egret gets itself into…quite astonishing. But always the overriding impression is one of intensity!
Canon SX40HS in Program with iContrast and –1/3EV exposure compensation. 1) and 2) 1240mm equivalent (840mm optical plus 1.5x digital tel-converter function), f5.8 @ 1/500th @ ISO 100. 3) 1240mm equivalent, f5.8 @ 1/1000th @ ISO 200. 4) 1640mm equivalent (2x digital tel-converter function), f5.8 @ 1/1000th @ ISO 200.
Processed in Lightroom for intensity, clarity, and sharpness.
And here is the video.
2/25/2012: Head Shots, Great Egret
I am late posting today because difficult connections and delayed flights got me into Portland airport at mid-night and home at 1 AM this morning. I slept in. 🙂
A few days ago I ran a series of Great Blue Heron head shots. Today’s offering is another head shot series, this time of Great Egrets. Egrets and Herons, of course, are closely related, and display the same photogenic tendencies. They pose a lot in the course of their normal activities, and, at places like Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge and Viera Wetlans in Florida, they allow relatively close approach.
The first two shots are, clearly, of the same bird at Viera Wetlans. The bird was on the bank of the dyke and I pulled up next to it and shot it at 840mm equivalent out the window of the car. I love the delicacy of the back-lighted bird. The next shot is at Merritt Island and the bird was a little further away. This took the 1.5x digital tel-extender function on the Canon SX40HS for 1240mm equivalent. The final shot, again at Merritt, was even further away, and I used the Canon SD100HS behind the eyepiece of my ZEISS DiaScope for a 1600mm equivalent. The last two are cropped for composition.
All shots in Program with iContrast and –1/3EV exposure compensation. 1) and 2) f5.8 @ 1/640th @ ISO 100/125. 3) f5.8 @ 1/640th @ ISO 200. 4) 1/500th @ ISO 160. f4.3 effective.
Processed in Lightroom for intensity, clarity, and sharpness.