Posts in Category: Everglades NP
Everglades Cooters
Peninsula Cooter (Yellow-bellied Turtle), both, Florida Cooter (Red-bellied Turtle)
The Everglades is such a rich ecosystem, in part, because so many of what would normally be considered separate habitats in their own right, mix and mingle in the Everglades. I an not certain how common a sight this is in South Florida, but we found both of the Florida Cooters (Turtles) sunning off the boardwalk on the Anhinga Trail at Royal Palms Visitor Center in Everglades National Park. And two of almost exactly the same size at that. 🙂 It is easy to figure out which is which. The Peninsula Cooter, or Yellow-bellied Turtle as it sometimes called, is the first frame and on the right in the group shot, and the Florida Cooter, sometimes called the Red-bellied Turtle, is the last frame and on the left in the group shot. You might assume, going by the pattern on the head, that these turtles are closely related, but, aside from obvious color differences, you might note that the front legs are distinctly different (different enough to me to imply very different behavior between the two species), and a practiced eye can see the difference in shell shape, which is distinctive. Not that I knew all of that when I started writing here. Besides color, the only difference I had observed before this morning was the front legs, which I did observe in the field.
We saw at least two other turtle species in the Everglades: a large Florida Mud Turtle, and a couple of big specimens the Florida Soft-shelled Turtle.
Sony HX400V. Processed in Lightroom and assembled in Fotor on the Surface Pro tablet.
Snowy with great bokeh
Snowy Egret. Shark Valley. Everglades National Park
I used this image in a post on Point and Shoot Nature Photographer yesterday as an example of the background making the shot…but it deserves the full Pic 4 Today treatment. And, yes, to my eye, the background does make the shot. The swirling highlights in the dark water elevate an ordinary portrait of a Snow Egret to something really special. And the thing is, this is one of those images that I did not see, could not see, coming. Through the viewfinder or on the LCD the water in the background was in sharp focus and the highlights were still in motion. It was only in Lightroom, when I punched up the image with my standard Sony preset, that the background jumped out! Of course, I love the feather detail in the white bird as well, and the bright yellow of the eye and ceres (skin between the eye and beak). But it is the background that makes the image.
I found the Egret, and a lot of other great birds, in the first mile and a half of the West Road at Shark Valley, in Everglades National Park. West Road is my new most favorite bird photography location!
Sony HX400V at 1200mm equivalent field of view. Shutter preferred. 1/640th @ ISO 320 @ f6.3. Processed in Lightroom on my Surface Pro 3 tablet.
Everglades Zebra Heliconian
Zebra Longwing (Heliconian). Flamingo area, Everglades NP
We did not have a huge number of butterflies the second week in December in south Florida. The temperatures were unseasonably cool, for the area, and most butterflies, even if active in December, were tucked in tight somewhere keeping warm. The exception was the Zebra Longwing (or Heliconian). They were pretty much everywhere we went and flying by mid-morning. Maybe “fluttering” would be more accurate with this bug, as their flight is about as floppy and hesitant as a butterfly gets. I chased a few down when we saw them for photos. This one is on the Coastal Prairie / Bay Shore Loop Trail just at the far edge of the Flamingo campground, about as far south in the Park as you can get. I like the background here (it has, as they say, good bokeh), and I like the exposure, which preserves the saturation in the yellow bands…too often a picture of this bug will show white bands due to the contrast between the black and yellow and the difficulty of exposing for both.
Sony HX400V at just over 1200mm equivalent field of view. Going just slightly into the Clear Image Zoom (digital) zoom range decreases the minimum focus to something in the 6 foot range and gives the best tel-macro effect on the Sony. 1/640th @ ISO 160 @ f6.3. Processed in Lightroom on my Surface Pro 3 tablet.
Mighty Hunter: Happy Sunday!
Green Heron. Anhinga Boardwalk, Everglades NP
As I posted before, Roy Halpin and I spent 30 minutes or more, observing and photographing this Green Heron hunting tiny fish (and a few caterpillars) only a few feet from the Anhinga Boardwalk at Royal Palm Visitor Center, Everglades National Park. We were well above the bird’s eyelevel, on the boardwalk above it, and it appeared to be totally unaware of us. With that much time, I was able to frame the bird in just about every imaginable way…including this tight portrait of one very intent bird. The Florida winter light and the long zoom capture such a lot of detail in this image: from the intricate and highly various structure and subtle iridescent colors of the feathers, to the hard textures of the folded leg and the extended beak, to the light refracted in the lens of the eye. So much to see! So much to appreciate. And that is without the tension, the drama, captured in the pose.
It is Sunday, and several more spiritual thoughts inspired by this image and this experience are competing for my attention. None of them are revolutionary :). I, personally, need a creator, working in love, and with great inventiveness, to explain this vision of bird…beyond the aesthetics of the design, which are simply too wonderful not to exclaim, there is the unique and supremely intense and focused life of the hunting bird…the pattern of its being and how it lives. I see no room for chance in any aspect of Green Heron. I see intent. I see intelligence. I see love. I am compelled to give thanks. I am compelled to worship. As someone said, if I had not already met God in the living presence of his Son, I would be forced to invent a God to explain the Green Heron. While I fully accept that there are others who see the universe and life differently than I do, I can not claim to understand it. To me, loving creation is so self-evident that it sweeps all my objections aside…and I do have objections, especially to many of the things that are done in the name of religion and of God…but they are irrelevant in the face of the Creator I encounter in Jesus and in the Green Heron…my objections do not diminish, can not diminish, what is so evidently real and so evidently present.
The heart is a mighty hunter. I believe that in the end, we have to be able to love creation…if for no other reason than that creation so clearly loves us. That is the message of Christmas. In Christ, in the baby born, God enables us to fully love. How can we not bow down before the mighty hunting heart of the Creator God? Such magnificent intent. Such wonderful love. Such a gift. Happy Sunday, and Merry Christmas.
Alligator Cuteness
Baby Alligators. Shark Valley. Everglades NP
I suppose it is part of our nature to find babies cute…and not only the babies of our own species. This appears to be a nursery pile of very young Alligators. There were more than 30 in a short stretch of channel along West Road in the Shark Valley of Everglades National Park…too many to be single clutch. There were also two adolescent gators, perhaps 3 years old (though there is no safe way to judge the age of an alligator), too young, I would think, to have babies of their own, apparently on-guard…and I assume a couple of larger females in the immediate area in case of attack, though I did not see them. The Alligator is not vulnerable to predication…except at this age, when even an ambitious Great Blue Heron might do for and unprotected hatchling. This is also the age when they are taken for the pet trade, though I can’t imagine anyone in their right mind buying an animal that they know will grow to 2 feet long at one year, and will totally out-grow any cuteness and reach 6 feet long in six.
Sony HX400V at 1200mm equivalent field of view. Shutter preferred. 1/1250th @ ISO 2000 @ f6.3. the high shutter speed was necessary, as I had to hand hold this above my head, using the flip out LCD, to get over the foreground grasses and brush. Processed in Lightroom on my Surface Pro 3 tablet.
Everglades Limpkin
Limpkin. Shark Valley, Everglades NP
I have to admit, I was not expecting to see a Limpkin at Shark Valley in Everglades National Park. I associate Limpkin with a few Apple Snail rich areas up around Orlando and Titusville in Florida, but I guess they must range the state wherever there are Apple Snails to be found. (The Limpkin exists on a diet of only Apple Snails.) I know the Everglades has a population of Snail Kites…the other Apple Snail specialists…so I should have expected Limpkins. But I didn’t. What a surprise this bird was, only a few yards up West Road from the Visitor Center. 🙂
Sony HX400V at 760mm equivalent. Shutter preferred. 1/640th @ f5.6 @ ISO 2000. Processed in Lightroom on my Surface Pro 3 tablet.
Handsome Couple!
Ospery on the nest. Falmingo Campground. Everglades NP
I posted a shot of the male in this pair bringing in nest materials a few days ago…this is a more conventional portrait of the couple on their nest at the Flamingo Campground, in Everglades National Park. Osprey are so common in the US, especially in Florida, that they cause little to no comment…but in other parts of the world, especially the UK, they are so rare that birders can tell you on any given day how many pair there are, and where each one is nesting. This pair clearly have been nesting here for many years…or took the nest over from another established pair. If they get it much bigger, Eagles will move in and take it from them.
Sony HX400V at 1200mm equivalent field of view. Shutter preferred. 1/640th @ ISO 80 @ f6.3. Processed in Lightroom on my Surface Pro 3 tablet.
Everglades American Bittern
American Bittern. Anhinga Trail, Everglades NP
It was rainy, dark, and cold (for Florida) when I made my first visit to the famous Anhinga Trail boardwalk at Everglades National Park, and I only had 90 minutes before I had to leave for an appointment. I had spent the early morning on an even colder and wetter airboat ride an hour north of the Royal Palm Visitor Center, but I was not about to let my first day in the Everglades go by without hitting the most famous spot. Well worth it! Besides the expected Alligators, Anhingas, Herons, Storks, and Vultures, this American Bittern made a short appearance at the edge of the water before I even got to the boardwalk. And it was my only Bittern for the whole trip, though I returned to the Anhinga boardwalk twice after.
I am, as I have written on my Point and Shoot Nature Photographer blog (see Fear not the darkness…), totally amazed at the quality the most recent Point and Shoot super-zooms manage at higher ISOs. These shots area at ISO 2500. Not bad!
Sony HX400V at 990mm equivalent field of view. Shutter preferred. 1/1600th @ f6.3.
Red-shouldered Hawk Poses
Red-shouldered Hawk Portrait
I decided on my last day in the Everglades (for this trip) that I would rent a bike and bike out West Road at Shark Valley as far as time allowed. I had no more than left the parking lot when I passed this Red-shouldered Hawk sitting on the “No-In-Line-Skates” sign just about at eye-level. I though, “he will be off as soon as I stop the bike” but when I stopped, about 30 feet in front of him, he sat there for long enough for me to get the camera out and for a sequence of shots at two different focal lengths. That is what I call cooperative. And, other than rehabilitation birds, you simply do not get opportunities like this!
Sony HX400V at 1200mm equivalent field of view. Shutter preferred. 1/640th @ ISO 100 @ f6.3. Processed in Lightroom on my Surface Pro 3 tablet.
Special Delivery. Happy Sunday!
Osprey on the nest. Falmingo Campground, Everglades NP
Roy Halpin and I met another friend, Robert Hunt, yesterday for a brief exploration of the south end of Everglades National Park. The Falmingo area suffered greatly in Hurricane Andrew is has not been fully restored even yet. It was one of those days when it would have been easy to be disappointed, because not much seemed to be happening…the trails were muddy, and the mosquitoes thick…and we did not find any crocodiles at the Marina…but when we got back to the hotel and went through our images, it became apparent that we had indeed had a good day! We had several excellent photo-ops, including a healthy adult Eastern Diamonback Rattlesnake, a Red-shouldered Hawk on the ground hunting lizards, and this nest of Osprey. The nest was right in the middle of the Falmingo Campground, surrounded by campers in tents, so the birds were pretty calm. While we were there they were being photographed from 6 different angles :). They were still building the nest, or at least repairing it for the season, and the male flew out frequently and returned with sticks and twigs. It was fascinating to watch…and delightful to photograph. Along with about 30 shots of three different species of butterflies, some flight shots of American White Pelican, some scenic landscapes of the mangroves along the bay, the Rattlesnake, the hawk in the grass, etc…this nest made for actually quite a good day!
Roy and I were talking about it…how if you seize the highpoints of any day, and celebrate them…even an apparently disappointing day becomes something to rejoice in. And that is a great attitude to take into life…to make into a lifestyle and a worldview. And, on the spiritual side, it is certainly the only way to live. We need to seize the highpoints…those times when we feel both connected to the creator of all, and blessed by creative love…and fully celebrate and fully enjoy them. If we do, our lives, in hindsight, will be full of blessing…just as full as our day in Falmingo! And that is a good thing. Happy Sunday!