Posts in Category: p&s 4 wildlife
Kestrel on the Hover: Happy Sunday!
While hiking at the Tijuana River Estuarine Reserve south of San Diego, I had a close encounter with an American Kestrel. She sat on the barbwire top strands of the Imperial Air Base fence hunting grasshoppers in the tall brush of the Reserve. She was so intent on her hunt that she paid little attention to me. There was no way to avoid walking past her, as that is were the path went. Twice she got up and moved down a few sections of fence, before finally circling back around to land on the fence behind me, very close to where I had first seen her. And she was still there, an hour later, when I came back by on my way to the car.
Of course I took a lot of pictures, both going and coming back.
In my world, the Kestrel shares favorite bird status with the Green Kingfisher, so this was a very special treat! On the way back, as I pushed by her, she got up and hovered over the brush. I had just the presence of mind to shove the control dial on the camera over to Sports Mode, and get off a burst of images while she hung in the air above me at 35 or 40 feet. The lead shot here is the best of the hover shots.
It was not until I got to processing the image that I realized what I had captured. Anyone who has ever watched Kestrels for any length of time knows they hover, but I, for one, had never thought about how they manage to do it. There are only a few birds that actually hover…that is, remain in one spot in the air, while beating their wings to maintain both altitude and position. Hover, as opposed to “kite”, which is, as the name implies, to hang in the air, weight balanced by force of the wind, with extended wings more or less stationary. It is a quiz I like to give when teaching birding. Name the birds that can hover. And then, name the birds that kite.
The hummingbird is the most obvious of the hoverers, and one almost everyone knows. I know, from my little study of hummingbirds, that they manage to hover so effectively because they, unlike most birds whose wings are relatively fixed at the horizontal, can rotate their wings on the axis of the wing to almost any position. Until I saw this image of the Kestrel, I had not thought through the implications. Rotating the wing toward the vertical is a requirement for any bird to truly hover. The bird has to spill air on the upstroke. And, from the image, the Kestrel actually does rotate at least the outer half of its wing to remain stationary. Amazing.
Now there might be many people who already know this about the Kestrel, but I was not one of them, and I have not found another in showing this image to quite a few birders. The Kestrel, like the hummingbird, can rotate at least part of its wing to the vertical. You learn something new every day!
And that brings us to the Sunday Thought. “You learn something new every day.” That is what attracts me to birding, and photography, and watching dragonflies and butterflies, and to reading, and to watching good movies, and to social media, and to the life of faith. You learn something new every day! I love to learn, even more than I love to know. The love of learning new things is a different motivation than the accumulation of knowledge. Knowledge is the by-product. The satisfaction comes in the learning itself. And I truly believe that the love of learning is inherent to the human, to all of us in our native state. Like the children in Jesus’ parable, those who love learning, will inherit the kingdom of heaven. Those who love to learn…those who great every day, every moment, as an opportunity to learn…those who live to learn…are already well on the way to the Kingdom of Heaven.
Cabrillo Red-breasted Nuthatch
I mentioned a few days ago that you don’t necessarily go to Cabrillo National Monument for the birds. It is justly famous for the view out over San Diego, and out to sea…as well as the dramatic cliffs and tide pools at the tip of Point Loma where it meets the Pacific. And, for history buffs, there is the whole story of Spanish exploration and settlement, the monument to Cabrillo himself, and the interpretative materials in the Visitor Center, as well as a little military museum showing how the point was used during two wars, and the old Point Lomas lighthouse to explore. But the fact is that I almost always find enough birds there to fill in the moments between scenic views. And lizards too. Lots of lizards.
This Red-breasted Nuthatch was in the little grove of pines just down the hill from the lighthouse. It was well back in and the light was not the best, but I managed a few shots at the long end of the zoom.
Nuthatches are such interesting birds. You have to admire their agility as they maneuver their way up and down the tree, as often upside down as right side up.
Though this bird appears to be going about its business, it was certainly aware of us watching it.
Canon SX50HS. Program with iContrast and Auto Shadow fill. –1/3EV exposure compensation. f6.5 @ 1/125th and 1/160th @ ISO 800. Processed in Lightroom for intensity, clarity, and sharpness.
Symmetry and the Egret
Even on my busiest days in San Diego, I managed to get out birding for at least a few moments. This was taken in Southern Wildlife Preserve on the San Diego River Flood Control Channel, only a mile or so from the Marina Village Conference Center where the San Diego Birding Festival is held. It is a longish walk from the Conference Center, so I don’t get to the landward end of the Preserve that often, but this day I drove out Sea World Drive to the entrance to Old Sea World Drive. Old Sea World Drive is closed to through traffic and is home to joggers, walkers, bicyclist, and the occasional drive in birder.
I like the total symmetry here: bird and reflection, rock and rock. I like the way the light is enfolding the bird from the back. And I like the pose of the bird, with one foot tucked u[, but still showing. It is not the best portrait of a Snowy Egret, and the brightest highlights are blown out…but I still like the overall effect.
Canon SX50HS in Program with iContrast and Auto Shadow Fill. –1/3EV exposure compensation. 655mm equivalent field of view. f5.6 @ 1/1000th @ ISO 320. Processed in Lightroom for intensity, clarity, and sharpness.
And just for fun, here it is as a B&W.
Eagar Bee! Anza Borrego Desert
It is, of course, the Eager Beaver and the Busy Bee…but this bee, or these bees since there were many of them, were so eager for nectar that they were attacking the barley opened blossoms of this flowering succulent shrub at the Anza Borrego Desert Visitor Center.
Canon SX50HS. Program with iContrast and Auto Shadow Fill. –1/3EV exposure compensation. 1800mm equivalent (1200 optical zoom plus 1.5x Digital Tel Converter) from about 5 feet. f6.5 @ 1/1000th @ ISO 500. Processed in Lightroom for intensity, clarity, and sharpness.
Summer Tanager: parking lot bird!
The San Diego Birding Festival has turned up numerous great “parking lot birds” over the years. A few years ago it was the Red-shouldered Hawk nesting in one of the big trees that shade the lot. For many years there was a Belted Kingfisher who lived under one of the Marina Village buildings built out over the water and frequently sat on the ships’ rigging in the Marina.
This year the excitement was a Summer Tanager, who sat in a big pine and flew out to catch bees that had a nest in the main Marina Village Conference Center sign. The Summer Tanager is a rare sight right in San Diego or anywhere along the Southern California Coast. It is more likely well in-land, behind the first range of mountains. In fact, range maps in the common guides do not show the Summer Tanager in San Diego at all. The Marina Village parking lot tanager was a treat for those attending the Birding Festival, and for local birders as well!
The Summer Tanager is not an easy bird to photograph at the best of times. The RED RED RED tends to overload digital sensors in any kind of exposure that will show the surroundings to advantage, and you end up losing detail in the breast feathers. This bird was tucked back in the shadows of the pine, with full sun on the pine, so it was especially difficult. Add the fact that it was too high up for anything less than the full 1200mm reach of the Canon SX50HS’ zoom, and you see the difficulty.
Still, I am satisfied with these shots. Canon SX50HS in Program with iContrast and Auto Shadow Fill. –1/3EV exposure compensation. 1200mm and 1800mm equivalent fields of view (1200 cropped slightly). ISO 800.
Processed in Lightroom for intensity, clarity, and sharpness…and to remove some purple fringing in the highlights behind the bird.
Desert Bighorn Sheep Revisited
Of course I have lots more shots of my Anza Borrego Desert, Palm Canyon, encounter with the small group of Desert Big Horn Sheep. If you remember from last Wednesday’s post, I found myself unexpected surrounded by half a dozen Desert Big Horn Sheep on my way back down Palm Canyon. A few were going up parallel to the trail I was on, at distances of 30-40 feet, and more were coming down the same ridge. It was a very special half hour.
I like this shot because of the way the Sheep is suspended between the foreground rocks and the brilliant green Ocatillo. I am even willing to leave the out of focus branch in the foreground as an atmospheric element. It leaves no doubt that is was a “wild” shot, not something posed in a zoo 
The light in the Sheep’s eye also adds life to the image.
Canon SX50HS. Program with iContrast and Auto Shadow Fill. –1/3EV exposure compensation. 1200mm equivalent field of view. f6.5 @ 1/1000th @ ISO 400. Processed in Lightroom for intensity, clarity, and sharpness.
Western Tiger Swallowtail
I am back in Maine after a week in San Diego. I am actually in the car on my way to Montreal where my daughter Kelia has a piano audition today. 🙂 The image, however is definitely California. Western Tiger Swallowtail. As I mentioned a few days ago, on this trip to the San Diego Birding Festival, I spent time in the Tijuana Valley for the first time. This shot is from the Bird and Butterfly Garden at the Tijuana River Open Space Preserve. It is actually the only butterfly I saw there, but it was certainly worth the visit. I suspect in summer the Garden is full of interesting species.
Canon SX50HS in Program mode with iContrast and Auto Shadow Fill. – 1/3EV exposure compensation. 1800mm equivalent field of view. Processed in Lightroom for intensity, clarity and sharpness.
That Pelican Shot! Happy Sunday.
This post sort of follows up on yesterday’s gift theme hummingbird shot, but while the hummingbird shot was fairly unique, I have lots of pictures of Pelicans in flight. Pelicans are relatively easy, since they ride the updrafts at the crests of waves, often well inshore. One of my favorite places to photograph them is the Tide Pool area at Cabrillo National Monument on Point Loma in San Diego. There, the combination of the wave lift and the lift of the abrupt cliffs brings the Pelicans in as close as you might like. Add the often vigorous breaking surf for a background and you have the makings of some good Pelicans in flight shots.
This year I also have the advantage of the new Canon SX50HS, with its Sports Mode. Sports Mode has proven to be ideal for birds in flight (ideal being a relative term…it certainly makes birds in flight very possible with what is, after all, still and Point and Shoot.) I have come to appreciate being able to spin the control dial to Sports, and catch an approaching bird in flight just about as fast as I can think to do it.
And sometimes Sports Mode surprises even me. This bird was coming so fast and so close that I only managed get it in the frame in time for a short burst. I had no time to pre-focus so I was pretty sure I had not gotten the shot. Imagine my delight when I got the images up on the computer! This is the first shot in the sequence. In the following shots the bird is already leaving the frame.
This one, as I see it, has it all. The light. The position of the wings. The foam of the heavy surf behind. It is a shot that I can look at for a long time! It makes me smile out loud!
Canon SX50HS in Sports Mode. 1200mm equivalent field of view. f6.5 @ 1/1250th @ ISO 80. Processing in Lightroom for intensity, clarity, and sharpness.
And for the Sunday Thought: Both this shot and yesterday’s hummingbird are shots that I could feel proud of. I am indeed very happy to have been able to take them, but, somehow, pride does not come into it. Pride would imply that my skill played a predominate roll in their creation…and that thought just amuses me. I mean, what part of the making of these images was not a gift?
I feel blessed to have a camera that can catch these moments. I had nothing to do with its creation. The engineers at Canon should be proud of the camera. I am just delighted to have it to use.
I feel blessed to have a job that takes me to places like San Diego, and justifies my spending time at Cabrillo National Monument watching the Pelicans fly by the Tide Pools. And I would have to say honestly, that while I do a good job at my job, by any objective standard I did not earn it…I just kind of fell into it…in a way that only builds my faith in a loving God. It is a gift that I am well aware of.
And even the eye to see the possibility of a shot like this when the bird is still in the air and the camera in its case…the appreciation of the wonder of nature around me that keeps me alive to photographic possibilities…and that drives me to keep taking pictures…that has grown in me since I was a child. It is so deeply part of who I am now that it just is. It continues to grow and develop without any conscious effort on my part. I consider a gift certainly…and more…a part of my inheritance as a child of God.
So where does pride come in? Delight? Certainly. Thanksgiving? Certainly. Like I say, shots like this make me smile out loud! And, far from making me proud…they keep me humble! Happy Sunday.
That Hummingbird Shot!
I got an unexpected gift on Thursday. I decided to go down to the other end of San Diego, to the Tijuana River Estuary, right along the US border, to see what I could see. The San Diego Birding Festival does field trips there every year, and the names of the places there: Dairy Mart Pond, Border Field Park, The Bird and Butterfly Garden, Tijuana Slough National Wildlife Refuge and the Tijuana River National Estuarine Research Reserve come up in in any good description of the top birding places in San Diego County. And yet, in my 10 years of visiting San Diego for the Birding Festival, I had never been in the Tijuana Valley. Past time to do something about that. And besides, it seemed like the fresh water Dairy Mart Pond might be my best bet for early dragonflies. 
No dragonfiles, but I did find a lot of songbirds and raptors in the valley, some of which you will see here in due time. And then there were hummingbirds. Lots of hummingbirds almost everywhere I went in the valley. Mostly Anna’s in various stages of maturity. So the Tijuana River Valley itself was a gift, and I will certainly spend a morning there on future trips to San Diego…but of course it is this hummingbird shot that is the real gift! I believe it is a female Anna’s, by the chunky build and the location, but also by the sound it made in flight. Anna’s have a sharp, cracking energy to their flight that actually produces a unique sound that you can hear at close range. I was at the back end of the Bird and Butterfly Garden near the “Trail Staging Area” on the Tijuana River Open Space Preserve. This bird was in the red flowering bush for only 90 seconds total, visiting maybe a dozen flowers. I made several attempts to catch her at the flower. Most were empty frames…but this one! This one is the gift. This one made me smile out loud when I pulled it up on the LCD after the bird had flown off. When I got it up on the computer monitor that afternoon it gave me a little shiver.
It is not perfect. I would really like one like this with the gorget flashing in the sun, and the bird could be a touch higher in the fame. And, of course, there are lots of hummingbird shots like this one…and better than this one…with the bird at a flower. It is just that I have never taken one! Considering the difficulty of the shot, it still a wonderful gift!
Canon SX50HS. Program with iContrast and Auto Shadow Fill. –1/3EV exposure compensation. 1800mm equivalent field of view (1200 optical plus 1.5x digital tel-converter). f6.5 @ 1/1000th @ ISO 250. Processed in Lightroom for intensity, clarity, and sharpness.
Desert Bighorn Sheep: Anza Borrego
I spent some time at Anza Borrego Desert State Park yesterday. Let me tell you, there is no easy way to get to Anza Borrego! The roads that connect Borrego Springs to the coast and population centers are mountain roads as steep and twisty as any I have ever driven. The type where a moment’s inattention spells disaster. On the plus side, they are well maintained and as safe as it is humanly possible to make them, given the terrain.
That said, Anza Borrego Desert itself is certainly worth the trip. I was hoping for early wildflowers. Anza Borrego Desert is justly famous for its spring wildflower show, and this year, given rains and snows at about the right time, looks to be a good one. I knew I was really several weeks early, and that turned out to be exactly the case. Hummingbird Bush and Desert Lavender were the most obvious plants in bloom, and I did find a few Ocotillo pushing out their flower spikes at higher elevations in Borrego Palm Canyon…and was really about it…oh…and there was a Century Plant in bloom at the Visitor Center. You will see some flower shots as the week goes on.
The highlight of yesterday’s trip, though, had to the the Desert Bighorn Sheep. I decided, despite the dearth of wildflowers, to make the hike up Borrego Palm Canyon to the Palm Oasis. There was some mention of Desert Bighorn Sheep in the canyon, and I was hoping, of course, to see some. About half way up I spotted a lone sentinel sheep on the skyline of the canyon…way up and way wee…and I would have been happy with that. However, on the way back down, just were the Alternative Trail branches off (if you have ever been up the canyon), I saw a couple studying something in the stream bed with binoculars. They waved me on to were they were. There were two Desert Bighorn Sheep feeding and drinking along the stream not 40 feet away. Now that was a treat. But that is just the beginning.
Knowing no better, I decided to take the Alternative Trail back to the car (the alternative trail is to trails what the roads from the coast are to roads…it climbed and followed the contours of the mountain around the head of every gully feeding the stream below). However, for the first half mile it also follows the ridge the Desert Bighorns use to travel down to the stream to drink. The two sheep from the stream headed up the ridge at the same time I did and paralleled my course for 20 minutes, never more that 40 feet away, and often less then 30. Twice sheep came bounding down the ridge, passing within 20 feet of me at speed. And then, while taking yet another shot of the sheep from the stream, that you-are-being-watched feeling came over me and I turned to find a Desert Bighorn standing on a bolder right behind me, no more than 15 feet away, and just high enough to make for the classic Desert Bighorn on a boulder shot. I had to dial the zoom back to 300mm equivalent to fame the animal against the slopes behind. I took about every kind of shot you could take, from 24mm wide to intimate telephoto.
And the sheep stayed there while I walked on up the trail, which came around on the other side of the bolder.
Canon SX50HS at various zoom equivalents. Program with iContrast and Auto Shadow Fill. –1/3EV exposure compensation. Processed in Lightroom for intensity, clarity and sharpness.