Posts in Category: p&s 4 wildlife
Red-tailed Hawk with prey
Juvenile Red-tailed Hawk with prey, Laudholm Farms, Wells ME
I included a poem in yesterday’s post that highlighted this juvenile Red-tailed Hawk that swooped down from a tree ahead of me and pounced on something in the grass. It then proceeded to kill its prey…which evidently took some doing…as the hawk repeatedly jumped up into the air and pounced again. I thought at the time that the hawk might have taken a snake…which would definitely fight back and be hard to kill, but in hindsight it might have been that the juvenile was just inexperienced and would have had trouble with anything. 🙂 It was a great encounter. I felt privileged to be a witness, and was so excited that it was difficult to hold the camera still enough for shots. My primary impression was the size of the hawk. You rarely see them down on the ground like this and this close, and the bird looked huge!
Sony RX10iii at 600 and 1200mm. Exposure on Program but all about 1/640 @ ISO 100 @ f4. Processed in Lightroom and assembled in Coolage.
Cedar Waxwings
Cedar Waxwing, Wells National Estuarine Research Center at Laudholm Farms, Wells ME
I took a photoprowl to Laudholm Farms yesterday (Well National Estuarine Research Center at…). It is always good to be there, and it is only about 6 miles from home (shorter as the crow flies), but yesterday was especially wonderful. I wrote a poem about it.
Any photoprowl that begins with
Wild Turkey in the tall grass beside
the road, and ends with a juvee Red-
tailed Hawk swooping in on prey,
killing it, and eating it in front of me,
not 40 feet away in low brush,
is a good photoprowl! And that is
not to mention the flock of 100
Cedar Waxwings moving through
the wild apple trees in the wood
beyond the Monarch Meadow, or
the Rose-breasted Grosbeak singing
against the sun, or magic of spring
light on new leaves and the forest
coming alive, or the Thrushes, or
the Blue-eyed Grass, or the Red
Squirrel, or wild Geraniums, or
the unbelievable cluster of Jack-
in-the-pulpit growing right beside
the boardwalk…I mean, Jack-in-
the-pulpit! So strange, so beautiful.
And for all that…all that wonder seen
and shot, home in time for lunch.
Now that is a good photoprowl!
This is one of that flock of 100 Cedar Waxwings, one of two large flocks I encountered on my prowl. I think Cedar Waxwings are among the most elegant of birds…silky feathers and subtle colors set off with crayon bright flashes on the tail and wings. Beautiful altogether.
Sony RX10iii at 1200mm equivalent (600mm plus 2x Smart Tel-converter which crops a 5mp image out of the center of the sensor to achieve twice the magnification). 1/640th @ ISO 100 @ f4. Processed in Lightroom.
If you are interested in my daily poems you can follow them at Day Poems 2016 (http://daypoems16.blogspot.com) or on Facebook in my stream or in my Day Poems 2016 collection on Google+ (https://plus.google.com/u/0/collection/0uunr}
Baskettail?
Baskettail Dragonfly, Day Brook Pond, Kennebunk Plains Wildlife Management Area, W. Kennebunk ME
The dragonflies are coming out these past few days. At Day Brook Pond there are many tenerals…newly emerged dragonflies…and a few fully hardened off adults. This is, I believe, one of the Baskettails…probably the Common Baskettail. You hardly ever see the adults perched, and I am not familiar enough with the tenerals to be sure.
Sony RX10iii at 600mm plus 2x Clear Image Zoom. 1/500th @ ISO 100 @ f4. Processed in Lightroom.
Grooming
Tricolored Heron, St. Augustine Alligator Farm wild bird rookery, St. A, Florida
Birds spend a lot of time on maintaining their feathers: grooming, preening, oiling, rearranging, etc. Not surprising. When they are not hunting, feeding, breeding, or feeding young…they are probably grooming. This Tricolored Heron at St. Augustine Alligator Farm’s wild bird rookery is busy on the underside of his wing. A long neck comes in handy that way.
Nikon P900 at 1000mm equivalent field of view. 1/500th @ ISO 400 @ f5.6. Processed in Lightroom.
Blackburnian Warbler x 4
Blackburnian Warbler, Magee Marsh, Ohio.
Back to Ohio and Magee Marsh today for this 4 shot collage of Blackburnian Warbler…certainly one of my favorite warblers. Like a live spark. 🙂
Nikon P900 at 1600mm equivalent field of view. 1/500th @ ISO 280 @ f6.3. Processed in Lightroom and assembled in Coolage.
Northern Water Snake
Northern Water Snake, Day Brook Pond, Kennebunk Plains Wildlife Management Area, W. Kennebunk ME
This is neither Florida or Ohio. 🙂 With spring finally in the ascendancy here in Southern Maine, the Water Snakes (Northern) have come out to sun along the shore of Day Brook Pond on the Kennebunk Plains Wildlife Management Area. This young fellow, only half the size to the biggest I have seen in the pond, was making use of the fallen birch over the water. This is a common posture…they raise their head even when stretched out, and certainly when swimming, probably for better vision.
Sony RX10M3. 600mm equivalent field of view. 1/320th @ ISO 100 @ f4. Processed and cropped slightly in Lightroom.
Immature Red-shouldered Hawk
Immature Red-shouldered Hawk, Washington Oaks Garden State Park, Florida
Back again to Florida for today’s pic. This is an immature Red-shouldered Hawk at Washington Oaks Gardens State Park south of St Augustine Florida. I saw a similar hawk last year when I visited, so I was kind of looking for this hawk when it appeared in the huge Live Oaks above the water features in the shaded part of the garden. It appeared as though on cue, and my students (it was a Point and Shoot Nature Photography field trip at the Florida Birding and Photo Fest) were duly impressed 🙂
Nikon P900 at 1200mm equivalent field of view (pulled back for context). 1/160 @ ISO 400 @ f6.3. Processed in Lightroom.
Another Oriole in Apple
Baltimore Oriole, Magee Marsh, Ohio.
Back to Ohio today for this Baltimore Oriole in Apple blossoms. An action shot.
Sony RX10iii at 600mm equivalent field of view. 1/250th @ ISO 100 @ f4. Processes and cropped for scale in Lightroom.
Passing the twig: courtship
Roseate Spoonbills, St. Augustine Alligator Farm, St A. Florida
In late April and early May each year I have two events. The Florida Birding and Photo Fest and the Biggest Week in American Birding at Magee Marsh and Ottawa National Wildlife Refuge in Ohio. Essentially I go direct from one to the other and have about 15 days of excellent bird photography…mostly nesting waders in Florida, and migrating warblers and songbirds in Ohio. I also come back from the two trips with well over 1000 images…keepers that is…I probably take close to 4000 frames. I share a few images from the events, while I am there, but clearly I have a lot more that I have not shared. All of which is to explain why, after several weeks, we are back to a Florida image for today’s post, though I have been back in Maine for several days now. 🙂
These two Roseate Spoonbills at the St. Augustine Alligator Farm wild bird rookery spent most of a day attempting to build a nest in this low Mangrove…an odd place to begin with. They abandoned the attempt overnight, but while they were active, I had a chance to observe courtship and nest building activity up close. Here the male is passing a bit of viney twig to the female.
Nikon P900 at 400mm equivalent field of view (I told you they were close). 1/125th @ ISO 125 @ f5. Processed and cropped slightly for composition in Lightroom.
Blackburnian Warbler
Blackburnian Warbler. Magee Marsh, Ohio
Blackburnian Warblers are small, fast, restless, and beautiful. There is nothing more striking than a Blackburnian among fresh spring foliage. At Magee Marsh in Ohio during the Biggest Week in American Birding, you often see them close, but they are hard to catch, as they are in constant motion and feed among the leaves. I have very few photos of them in which the bird is not at least partially obscured by leaves. 🙂
Sony RX10 iii at 600mm equivalent field of view. 1/500th @ ISO 100 @ f4. Processed and cropped slightly for scale in Lightroom.