Posts in Category: p&s 4 wildlife
Dragonfly fake-out!
For my last field trip of the Potholes and Prairies Birding Festival in Carrington North Dakota, I went with a small van and a few people to explore the very edge of the drift prairies where they meet the Missouri Coteau…the terminal moraine of the last round of glaciers to scrub the area. They call the uplands there Hawk’s Nest Ridge, and it is a unique habitat in North Dakota: A tall hill or small mountain covered in Burr Oak forest. Until European settlers arrived on the prairies of North Dakota any trees were restricted to the deeper river valleys, right along the water…and the only real forest was found on the top of Missouri Coteau…where the Burr Oaks grow.
I was totally delighted to come to an open glade in the Burr Oaks and find it full of dragonflies. I can honestly say I have never seen as many of one species in any one place at any one time. There must have been a hundred of these bright golden, fair sized dragons working the bushes and low growth at the edge of the trees. There were also two Common Green Darners patrolling, and bunches of damsels and dancers in the grass. There was no hope for a shot of the Darners, but I tracked down a couple of the big golden guys who posed just long enough for some photography. I was excited. I was convinced that I was seeing something new to me.
So I got back to the hotel and processed the images in Lightroom. Still excited. Then I began to try to id the bugs. Oh. On closer look they were just Four Spotted Skimmers, one of the most abundant dragons around my home in southern Maine…the first dragon I photographed in Maine this year…and one that I have hundreds of images of already.
I was a little let down, I will admit. There in the clearing in the Burr Oak forest up on Hawk’s Nest Ridge the Missouri Coteau of North Dakota, with the skimmers all around me in the bright sunlight, I thought I really had something new. Four-spotted Skimmers! Who knew.
At the same time, having seen them in that number and in that light, I will never look at a Four-spotted Skimmer quite the same way again. They are a work of art, no matter how common.
Canon SX50HS with my usual tweaks to Program. 1800mm equivalent field of view. f6.5 @ 1/1000th @ ISO 640. Processed in Lightroom.
Yellow-headed Blackbird: Potholes and Prairies
There are probably a lot more exciting birds on the high drift prairies of North Dakota than the Yellow-headed Blackbird, but the fact is that North Dakota is about the only place I see them anymore…and there is no bird more striking than the YHBB. Males were defending territory at our last stop on the Drift Prairie Field Trip at the Potholes and Prairies Birding Festival yesterday, and I got my fill of them (for this year).
Canon SX50HS. My usual adjustments to straight program. 2400mm equivalent field of view (1200 plus 2x digital tel-extenter). f6.5 @ 1/1000th @ ISO 250. Processed in Lightroom.
Snapper!
I was returning from a fruitless dragonfly prowl down by the mouth of the Mousam River over the weekend, and came upon this fine lady. She had just finished digging a nest, and was laying her eggs. She was only 3 feet from a fairly busy strip of blacktop, between the edge of the road, and a fancy iron fence that keeps the public out of one the larger estates in Kennebunk (last owned by one of the young stars of a recently very popular TV show). They have a large ornamental pond, with a rustic bridge, daffodil banks, manicured white birch trees, etc. She, hopefully, made the pond her home (since otherwise she was on the wrong side of the road from the nearest water…not an issue for her maybe…but a definite hazard to her hatchlings, when and if.)
I mean, this is one tough old lady Snapping Turtle.
Such character! Such power. Such a lady.
Canon SX50HS. My usual modifications to straight Program. 1) 425mm equivalent field of view. f5.6 @ 1/1000th @ ISO 800. 2) 2400mm equivalent. f6.5 @ 1/1000th @ ISO 800. Processed in Lightroom.
Herring Gull: Acadia National Park
I suppose, in the winter, the Herring Gulls of Acadia National Park actually have to work for a living. During the summer months though, tourist season, they mostly hang out where people gather, and live off the bread-crusts, Fritos, and Cheezits (with the occasional whole hot dog and bun mixed in) that they extort from the tourists. They are absolutely without fear. They practice a kind of open sheath approach, sidling up in plain sight, ever closer, until they are, often, within arms reach. They will steal food right out of the hands of unsuspecting children. Of course they never make eye-contact. They seem to believe that if they can’t see your eyes, you can’t see them. That is a reasonable assumption if you are a gull. Not so much when dealing with humans, but since we are, gull wise at least, a fairly tolerant race, they get way with it. 🙂
Canon SX50HS. Program with iContrast and Auto Shadow Control. -1/3EV exposure compensation. 1200mm equivalent field of view. f6.5 @ 1/800th @ ISO 400. Processed in Lightroom for intensity, clarity, and sharpness.
Magge at Magee.
The Magnolia Warbler is on of the brightest spring warblers to pass through Magee Marsh and northern Ohio during migration. I heard Bill Thompson describe the Magnolia this way: it has one of every field mark. It has an eye-ring, an eyebrow, a mask, a black cap, wing-bars, streaking on the breast, under-tail patches. and white outer tail feathers. One of every field mark…and yet is uniquely and beautifully, unmistakably, itself. Magnolia!
Canon SX50HS. Program with iContrast and Auto Shadow Control. A collage of two shots, both at 1200mm equivalent. Processed in Lightroom. Assembled in PhotoShop Elements.
They’re Back!
It has been a long (snowy) winter and a late spring in southern Maine, but the Odonata are finally returning in numbers and variety to our ponds and streams. A few really (unseasonably) warm days last week warmed the waters to the point that dragon and dameselflies are emerging daily now.
This is an extreme tel-macro shot (2400mm) of an immature male Common Whiteface (Plathemis lydia) from the sunny parking area at Old Falls on the Mousam River.
Canon SX50HS. Program with iContrast and Auto Shadow Control. f6.5 @ 1/1000th @ ISO 400. Processed in Lightroom for intensity, clarity, sharpness, and some noise reduction.
Rhodora and the Bee: Acadia NP
Rhodoa, a New England relative of the rhododendron family, was in bloom all over Mt Desert Island…in any damp spot with sun, from hollows in the tops of the mountains, to the edges of marshes in the valleys. I caught this bee making the most of it along the shore of Jordan Pond.
Tel-macro. Canon SX50HS. 1200mm equivalent from 5 feet. f6.5 @ 1/1000th @ ISO 640. Program with iContrast and Auto Shadow Control. -1/3EV exposure compensation. Processed in Lightroom for intensity, clarity, and sharpness.
Blackburnian Contrast
My on-going lesson in relativity was renewed yesterday when I joined Bill Thompson, the editor of BirdWatcher’sDigest and creator of the “Bill of the Birds” podcast, and local guides for a field trip at Indian Point Nature Conservancy Reserve on Mt Desert Island, ME. It was an afternoon trip so you expect the birding to be somewhat slower, but, really, birding in Maine is hard work…especially compared to my recent “height of migration” visit to Magee Marsh and the shores of Lake Erie in Ohio.
At Magee, on a good day, the warblers drip from the trees, and many, like the Blackburnians, Chestnut-sided, and Black-throated Greens, are feeding at or just above eye-level, often within 10 or 20 feet of the boardwalk. And, of course, there are a lot of each warbler.
Birding Maine on a May/June afternoon is far different. We had Black-throated Green (heard not seen), a single Blackburnian high in the tree tops, and a Magnolia, not quite so high, but still up there! And we had to work for all three. We walked miles, with long gaps between birds, and Bill had to call the warblers we did see in with his iPhone app, after hearing them off in the woods. And the leaves are approaching full out, so we got glimpses of the birds as they worked in and out. It was fun, but it certainly was not Magee Marsh! This second shot is the best I managed of the Blackburnian in Maine.
On the other hand it is my first shot of a Blackburnian in Maine. 🙂 And I am reminded that all things, and that includes birding, are relative. What we experienced yesterday, with 4 or 5 species of warblers, was a good afternoon of Maine birding. In a way, it is more representative of a good day of birding than an afternoon at Magee when a wave of warblers comes through. It is the good day most birders in the US experience, on most of their good days birding. And it was, and is, good.
Both shots with the Canon SX50HS. Processed in Lightroom for intensity, clarity, and sharpness.
Swan in Flight: Happy Sunday!
To me there is a “wild beauty” in the lone Tundra Swan flying against the massed clouds of a gloomy Ohio day along the Erie shore, that simply lifts my spirit. (To get an idea of just how big a swan is, this is a 24mm equivalent wide angle shot, and the swan was actually on my side of the trees.)
The image was taken while at The Biggest Week in American Birding, on the “other” trail at Magee Marsh, off the boardwalk. The Crane Creek Estuary Trail, during the festival, was open all the way from Lake Erie, along Crane Creek, across the marshes, deep into Ottawa National Wildlife Refuge. During the slow days between the two waves of warblers that hit while I was there, Crane Creek Estuary Trail became very popular, as there still were a few birds happening there each day .
If nothing else, there were swans, gulls, herons, egrets, shorebirds, and various other open water birds in the Estuary itself, and in the larger enpondments on the other side of the dyke. Tundra Swan winters in Ohio, and, of course, there are increasing numbers of the unambitious, invasive, and troublesome Mute Swans. I was happy to see, when I looked closely, that this swan is a native Tundra.
Canon SX50HS. Sports Mode. -1/3 EV exposure compensation. 24mm equivalent field of view. f5.6 @ 1/1250th @ ISO 200. Processed in Lightroom for intensity, clarity, and sharpness. A little extra attention to the sky with the healing brush set to clone to moderate a few spots where the white burned through.
And for the Sunday Thought. I took this image several weeks ago now, and consciously set it aside for a Sunday post (and then, of course, forgot to use it until now). It is, to my eye, one of those evocative images that sets the spirit yearning for release. Not release from “this earthly coil…this too encumbering flesh”…no hint of death-wish here. Release from gravity. Release from everything and anything that keeps our spirits from cutting across the cloudy skies in beauty, from wringing every drop of significance and substance from each day. Freedom from the habits and passive acceptance of compromise that fog our days with mediocrity. A wild desire to soar, to unfurl our hidden wings, and leap into the sky to meet the future that is growing from our days. From days like this, with swans aflight against the drama of a stormy Ohio day.
Black-throated Blue Warbler: Magee Marsh
Compared to the Black-throated Green Warblers, which were everywhere and very visible…often right in your face, the Black-throated Blue Warblers at Magee Marsh during The Biggest Week in American Birding, were scarce and very hard to see. They were especially hard to photograph as they feed deep in the foliage, not at the edges like the BTGW. I did manage a few half way decent shots over the course of the 11 days I spent at Magee. On the other hand, I have lots of shots of where the bird was when I started to press the shutter. 🙂
Canon SX50HS. Program with iContrast and Auto Shadow Control. -1/3EV Exposure compensation (unneeded for this shot!). 1200mm equivalent field of view. F6.5 @ 1/1000th @ ISO 800. Processed in Lightroom for intensity, clarity, and sharpness.