Posts in Category: close up
Ice!
thin ice shell over buds, Kennebunk Maine
We had a day of freezing rain late last week. Every elevated surface was coated with a thin shell of ice. Fortunately the ground and roads were warm enough so that ice did not form underfoot and under tire. I went out to the grocery and was caught by a tangle of brush across the road, bordering the drive and parking lot of a bank. There were some birches in the classic “bent down by ice” posture, and lots of ice-bound buds along the branches in the tangle.
In-camera HDR. Sony HX90V at 24mm equivalent field of view. Processed in Lightroom.
Titmouse in the Snow
Tufted Titmouse. The yard, Kennebunk Maine
The Titmice came back to our feeders about a week ago, after a late winter absence. This Tufted Titmouse shot was taken on the second day of spring 🙂 and is a celebration of our spring nor’easter. I think he looks very stoic there on his branch. Every few moments he would fly across to the feeders and take a seed, then return to this same branch to digest.
Nikon P610 at 1440mm equivalent field of view. 1/250th @ ISO 220 @ f6.5. Processed and cropped for composition in Lightroom.
Reddish Egret Lights Up
Reddish Egret, Merritt Island NWR, Titusville FL
It seems like my last three trips run together, though they where spread over more than a month in real time. Maybe it is because they were such photographically productive trips. The birds were the best they have been at Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge in many years. Honduras was amazing, even better than a year ago, and San Diego had all the usual subjects on display, AND I had two excellent days in Anzo Borrego Desert with flowers in bloom and a Desert Bighorn encounter. I brought home over 700 keepers from each of the three trips, and I have only shared a very few of them. That makes me feel image rich and time poor 🙂
This is Reddish Egret standing against the sun. It is not obvious, except in this pose, that the reddish base of the bill is actually translucent. I saw the same thing on Black Skimmers later this same day, and have already posted a pic of that effect…but I never would have guessed that either bill would let this much light through…would light up like this with the sun behind. This is off Black Point Wildlife Drive at Merritt Island NWR.
Nikon P900 at 2000mm equivalent field of view. 1/500th @ ISO 320 @ f6.5. Processed in Lightroom.
New Born
Harbor Seals, Children’s Pool Beach, La Joya California
Harbor seals can give birth on land, on floating ice, or in the water. This is, I think, a new-born Harbor Seal, making contact with its mother for the first time out of the water. They identify each other by sniffing each other’s breath. I was in San Diego at the height of the pupping season for Harbor Seals, and saw many new-borns on the beach at Children’s Pool in La Joya just up the coast. I have never seen an actual birth. One of these years I will be there at just the right time.
Nikon P900 at 1600mm equivalent field of view. 1/500th @ ISO 320 @ f6.3. Processed in Lightroom.
Desert Bighorn Sheep Browsing
Desert Bighorn Sheep, Palm Canyon, Anzo Borrego Desert State Park, CA
During my encounter with Desert Bighorn Sheep in Palm Canyon at Anzo Borrego Desert State Park in California, the sheep were actively browsing the whole time I watched them…and that is using the word “browse” in its original sense 🙂 They seemed to be stripping fresh leaves, new shoots, and maybe even flowers from the desert bushes. Here you have Indigo Bush (purple) and Creosote Bush (yellow). Note the delicate technique of closing the lips and teeth loosely around the stem and drawing the head back to strip the good stuff! It takes a lot of tiny leaves and shoots to fill the belly of a Bighorn Sheep…which is undoubtedly why they were so intent on their browse.
Nikon P900 at various focal lengths and exposures. Processed in Lightroom and assembled in Coolage.
Rock Wren Singing!
Rock Wren, Palm Canyon, Anzo Borrego Desert State Park, Borrego Springs, CA
I heard both Canyon and Rock Wren singing in Palm Canyon in Anzo Borrego Desert State Park when I hiked it on Tuesday of this week, but only the Rock Wren showed itself. This has to be a classic image of Rock Wren…sitting on fair sized bolder (rock) and singing loud enough to echo off the canyon walls. Such a perky bird…as are all wrens.
Nikon P900 at 2000mm equivalent field of view. 1/800th @ ISO 100 @ f6.5. Processed in Lightroom.
Desert Lily, Anzo Borrego
Desert Lily, Anzo Borrego Desert, Borrego Springs CA
It is a year for Desert Lilies in the Anzo Borrego Desert. The Desert Lily, according to my sources, is not a Lily at all…though it certainly looks like one…but is more closely related to the Agave. It does not bloom every year. The bulbs are up to 2 feet underground and it takes a deep soaking rain, or a series of deep soaking rains, to trigger growth and bloom. This year the conditions must have been just right because they are locally abundant at the end of De Giorgio Road in Borrego Springs and up Henderson Canyon toward the mountains on the west. This is an unusually tall specimen. Most bloom when the plant is only inches tall, so the flowers are practically on the ground. Interestingly most of the Lilies on Di Giorgio Road were tall, and most of the Lilies off the western extension of Henderson Canyon were short. ?? You see lots of Sand Verbina and California Evening Primrose in the background, as well as rain moving in the Laguna Mountains.
Sony HX90V. 1/320th @ ISO 80 @ f6.3. Processed in Lightroom.
Pelican Ponders the Prospects
Brown Pelican, La Joya California
I described La Joya Cove, Scripps Park and the Children’s Pool in La Joya California in some detail yesterday. One of the attractions of the area is the large colony of nesting Brown Pelicans. They are always in full breeding plumage when I visit in early March, and for a big bird, they are strikingly colorful. This bird was resting with a group of 15 or so, on a rock ledge above the Children’s Pool. He has, I think, a very “pondering” air, as though the weight of the universe rests on his hunched shoulders. Maybe it does. 🙂
Nikon P900 at 400mm equivalent (the birds are close!). 1/1000th @ ISO 100 @ f5. Processed in Lightroom.
Brants in breeding posture. Happy Sunday!
Brant’s Cormorant, La Joya California.
“If your eye is generous, your whole being is full of light.” Jesus
My friend Rich and I, being in San Diego for the San Diego Birding Festival, drove the short way up to La Joya cove, Scripps Park, and the Children’s Pool yesterday before work. I am always amazed that this little strip of park along the clifftops is there, right in the heart of urban, touristy, La Joya California. And more than just being there, it is home to a large colony of Brown Pelicans, always in full breeding plumage when I visit in March, both Brant’s and Neotropic Cormorants (also in breeding plumage), a colony of Sea Lions at the north end and a pupping beach and nursery for Harbor Seals at the other end…not to mention California and Heermann’s Gulls, Black Turnstones, Song Sparrows, Anna’s Hummingbirds, thousands of Ground Squirrels, and assorted other birds and wildlife…and all of this in less than a mile of protected cliffs and beaches. Yesterday the sea was wild with a coming storm. The waves were huge with big breakers and water fountaining high into the air when they hit the cliff. That simply added to the sense of wilderness surrounded by city.
I admire the generosity of eye, and of spirit…the light within those who have struggled to keep this bit of wilderness right there in the heart of the city. There is a lot of that around San Diego, and, for me, that adds to the undeniable attraction of the place. Generosity is in the air, and there is a feeling of blessing over all. If God has special places, then I can believe that the coast of southern California is one of them.
What we have here in the image is a breeding plumage Brant’s Cormorant, displaying over his, as yet meager, pile of nest materials. What he lacks in material possessions, he attempts to make up in flash and style. Whatever it takes to attract a mate. It would take a very stingy eye not to see the beauty, and the humor, in a bird like this…doing its thing. Or that is what I think. No light at all in someone who can not see and value a Brant’s Cormorant in full breeding display. 🙂
Happy Sunday!
Anna’s Hummingbird
Anna’s Hummingbird. Famosa Slough, San Diego CA
I spent my first morning in San Diego, as I generally do, at Famosa Slough, a urban wetland which is basically between my hotel and the convention center where they hold the San Diego Birding Festival…pretty much in downtown San Diego…or at least in downtown Point Lomas. It is maybe a half mile inland from the San Diego River mouth and the Pacific Ocean, in a little basin with a wide channel flowing out of it. I don’t know the history of the place, but I admire the instincts of those who fought to preserve the wetlands, against what must have been pretty intense pressure to drain and build. It is literally surrounded on all but one side by apartment buildings and condos, and the forth side is bounded by the expressway. My friend Rich came out to San Diego a day early and had already visited Famosa. He emailed to say “your hummingbird is still there.” There are actually at least 2 resident hummingbirds…or perhaps it is more accurate to say that there are two frequented perches. I have no idea if the hummingbirds I see on the those perches year after year, day after day, or moment to moment are always the same hummingbirds. One perch is frequented by Black-chinned Hummingbirds, the western cognate of the Ruby-throated Hummingbird, and the other is frequented by Anna’s Hummingbirds. Over the years I have noticed that neither species likes to sit facing the sun, so it is difficult at Famosa to get a gorget shot like the one above. Patience. Patience. And more patience. I won’t say luck, because I don’t believe in the stuff, but certainly you have to be in the right place at the right time, and the recipient of a small measure of grace. 🙂 This Anna’s Hummingbird showing the full helmet is the only full gorget shot I got yesterday, and I took a lot of pics!
Nikon P900 at 2000mm equivalent field of view. 1/800th @ ISO 100 @ f6.5. Processed and cropped slightly for composition in Lightroom.