Posts in Category: Cape May
Fall Yellow-rumps!
There can’t be many places that are better for Yellow-rumped Warblers in the fall than Cape May, New Jersey. The birds are abundant, and the birds, busy feeding before crossing Delaware Bay, are fearless. Not that Yellow-rumps ever show much fear. Tom Dunkerton and I stood side by side in a sheltered spot in the shadow of the Hawk Watch Platform at Cape May Lighthouse State Park and shot Yellow-rumps at 15 feet, feeding in the sun and dappled shade of the trees in front of us. At one point I expressed the opinion that I now probably had enough fall Yellow-rumps shots to last me a lifetime! Of course, if I encounter an easy Yellow-rump today, I will undoubtedly shoot some more!
Canon SX50HS. Program with -1/3rd EV exposure compensation. 1800mm equivalent field of view. f6.5 @ 1/1000th @ ISO 640. Processed in Snapseed on the Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 2014.
Front Passing. Cape May NJ
This is the time of year when New Jersey Audubon has someone stationed on the Hawk Watch Platform at Cape May Lighthouse State Park every day, counting the passing hawks. It is a long-standing research project, and the scientific community uses the data from this site, and others like it in Pennsylvania, Texas, New York, Michigan, Wisconsin and many other states, to assess the health of the environment as it is reflected in the numbers and distribution of migrating hawks. Besides…what could be more fun than standing on a open platform all day counting hundreds, sometimes multiple hundreds, of hawks of a dozen species coming over? The official counter is rarely alone…and on weekends there can be an actual crush on the platform…and it s a big platform.
I can also be a beautiful place to be, looking out over the marsh and Lighthouse Pond, north up the coast of New Jersey. And on a day with weather, it can be spectacular. While I was there yesterday, the first cold front of the year was passing, piling up the sky with massive clouds, and shadowing the windy landscape. Drama!
Samsung Smart Camera WB800F in Rich Tone mode. Processed in Snapseed on the Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 2014.
Yellow-rumped Warbler on Deck
Well, it is a actually the new “man-made-material” boardwalk out behind the hawk-watch platform at Lighthouse State Park in Cape May, NJ. It was a dull afternoon with heavy clouds and the Yellow-rumped Warblers were coming down onto the boardwalk to pick up either seeds or bugs…I could not see which. Then they would hop back up to the lower branches of the trees next to the boardwalk. Up and down. Down and up.
I like the feet here. You don’t often get to see a small bird’s feet in this kind of detail. The subdued light, and the plain grey background, really brings out the remaining color in this fall plumaged bird.
Canon SX50HS. Program with auto iContrast and Shadow Fill. 1800mm equivalent field of view (full zoom plus 1.5x digital tel-converter function). f6.5 @ 1/160th @ ISO 100. Processed in Lightroom for intensity, clarity, and sharpness.
Big Grey at Lighthouse State Park
Friday was the only day in Cape May during CMBO’s Autumn Weekend Festival with decent light, and it did not really get bright until 10am when I already had to be at the Convention Center for set up. Still I took the trail early that runs out over the boardwalk behind the Hawk Watch at Lighthouse State Park, past the pond, and on around through the newly manicured pine forest, across the marsh again on boardwalks, past the second pond, and back around below the dunes and behind the pond by the Hawk Watch Platform. It is always further than I think it is, and takes more time, especially if you stop for any photography.
None the less, I could not resist stopping for this acrobatic Grey Squirrel in the pine forest section of the trail. It was making a big deal of scampering up and down a tree trunk about 15 feet from the trail, taking very obvious exception to my being there, but unwilling, for some reason, to give up its tree. Everything is still an experiment with this new camera (Canon SX50HS), and the light was not bright enough to really hope for sharp shots of this rapidly moving critter (or even accurate focus)…but still…I shot off several different bursts and was able to sort 3 keepers from the lot. Not bad at all.
I especially like the bright yellow green leaf behind the squirrel that completes the composition.
Canon SX50HS. Program with auto iContrast and Shadow Fill. 1800mm equivalent field of view. f6.5 @ 1/60th @ ISO 800. Processed in Lightroom for intensity, clarity, and sharpness.
Terns on the Wing
In the same murky dawn light as I found the Gannets in on Saturday, ahead of Hurricane Sandy, in Cape May New Jersey, there were terns fishing. The Gannets in-close were a surprise, but, of course, I expect the terns in Cape May.
These are Forester’s Terns, as were most of the terns fishing along the beach that morning. Despite the dim light I was practicing with the Sports Mode on the Canon SX50HS. I really need to find some birds in flight in decent light to see how it really works. (I will be in New Mexico at Bosque del Apache NWR next month. Maybe there 🙂
Canon SX50HS. Sports Mode. 1200mm equivalent field of view. f6.5 @ 1/640th @ ISO 800.
Processed in Lightroom for intensity, clarity, and sharpness.
The top image benefits from a larger view. Click on the image to open it in the lightbox on WideEyedInWonder.
Carolina Wren at Cape May
Gotta love Carolina Wrens! Or at least I do. This one was singing just around the corner from the Cooper’s Hawk from yesterday’s post, beside the boardwalk behind the Hawk Watch at Lighthouse State Park. It popped up on this branch that sticks out over the boardwalk and posed. I got off maybe a dozen shots before it went back into the bush. Still really bad light, but, hey, gotta love Carolina Wrens!
Canon SX50HS. Program with auto iContrast and Shadow Fill. 2500mm equivalent field of view. f6.5 @ 1/160th @ ISO 500. Processed in Lightroom for intensity, clarity, and sharpness.
And one more, pulled back to 1200mm equivalent.
Coop at Cape May!
The weather could have better when I got to Cape May yesterday. By the time I got out onto the boardwalk behind the Hawk Watch at Lighthouse State Park, at 4PM, it was pretty dark. There were a fair number of birds, mostly Yellow-rumped Warblers, but they were skitterish…never staying in one place for more than a few seconds. Challenging photographic conditions and I am still learning the new camera.
And then, of course, being Cape May, this Cooper’s Hawk flew up into the tree right above my head, and sat there while I took way too many shots. It even let me sidle along the boardwalk for a clearer shot through the branches. Very nice! It was dark. The bird was against the grey sky. Not the best conditions, but it does not matter how bad the light or the angle, when a Coop lands that close and sits, you take pictures!
I got to try all the various focal lengths available, from 2400mm (2x digital tel-converter function, as above) back down to the 1200mm optical zoom.
Canon SX50HS. Program with auto iContrast and Shadow Fill. 2400mm, 1200mm, 1800mm, and 2400mm. f6.5 @ 1/160th – 1/400th @ ISO 125-400. Processed in Lightroom for intensity, clarity, and sharpness. All shots required some purple fringe removal.