Posts in Category: close up
Red-bellied Woodpecker
Red-bellied Woodpecker, Enchanted Forest Preserve, Titusville FL
It is not often that you get to see the red belly on a Red-bellied Woodpecker. I always figured the bird got is name because they were running out of more descriptive woodpecker names. It is there though, as you can clearly see in this photo taken at just the right angle. This shot is from Enchanted Forest Preserve in Titusville Florida, and though I have seen lots of Red-bellied Woodpeckers in the field all up the East Coast, and photographed quite a few, this is the first time I have had such a good view of the red belly.
Nikon P900 at 2000mm equivalent field of view. 1/500th @ ISO 220 @ f6.5. Processed in Lightroom.
Florida Scrub Jay. Happy Sunday!
Florida Scrub Jay, Merritt Island NWR, Titusville FL
“If your eye is generous, your whole being is full of light!” Jesus
This is my third post of Florida Scrub Jay pics from my encounter with a pair on my last day in Florida for the Space Coast Birding and Wildlife Festival. It was an extra, as in unplanned, day. My flight home was canceled, so, after a morning in the flied with my daughter Sarah, and after dropping her off at the airport in Orlando for her fight back to New Mexico, I made one last run out to Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge to catch the afternoon/evening light. Since it was extra time, I took the time to go look for Florida Scrub Jays where Sarah and my friend Rich had seen them one day when I was busy teaching a workshop. And they were there! Just two, likely a pair, but it was my first FSJ encounter in over 10 years, and my first ever on Merritt Island. I took way too many pictures. This is a collage of two shots that provides evidence for my contention that the Florida Scrub Jay is the most beautiful of eastern Jays.
The encounter was even more special because it was shared. A couple, the husband a fellow photographer, came up behind me and, feeling generous, I waved them up to stand with me so they could get photos too. (By then I was confident that the Scrub Jays were not alarmed at our presence at all…and in fact they were still sitting on their bushes when we decided we had devoted enough camera memory to them and walked on.) Sharing an experience like this with others, even if strangers, deepens my pleasure considerably. It is the shared wonder…awe reinforces awe…and the result is more joy. It is even more intense if you are sharing the experience with someone you already love, and I really wished Sarah were still there in those moments, but it is impossible not to love the ones you share with…or at least it is for me. I felt like I was radiating good will…good will that encompassed the cooperate Scrub Jays, and certainly my fellow photographer and his wife, in one big bubble of delight.
And I feel a bit of that right now. Partially it is memory, but it is also this sharing by proxy that is this post. I intend for you to share in the joy of discovery, in the wonder I experienced there in the field with these Jays. The thing about the generous eye is that light builds on light. In generosity you always get back as much or more than you give. Always. Because the light in you is met by the light in others, and is amplified. That is the way it works. Always. God is just good that way. God is good in all ways.
Happy Sunday!
Florida Cedar Waxwing
Cedar Waxwing. Enchanted Forest Preserve, Titusville FL
I had only a few hours before a workshop at the Space Coast Birding and Wildlife Festival in January one morning, so I decided to visit Enchanted Forest Preserve, which 1) I had never been to, and 2) was only 7 miles from my hotel. Enchanted Forest is a chunk of mixed habitat along the abortive Addison canal, at the very south edge of Titusville. It was early, and it was unseasonably cold, so there not many birds were moving yet at the Enchanted Forest, but I got back to the parking area by the Visitor Center just in time to encounter a small flock of Cedar Waxwings moving through the trees and feeding on berries. Always a treat, no matter what state I am in.
Nikon P900 at 2000mm equivalent field of view. 1/500th @ ISO 320 @ f6.5. Processed in Lightroom.
Aracari in the sun
Collared Aracari, Rio Santiago Nature Lodge, Honduras
I have already posted a shot of a Collared Aracari in the rain…looking slightly bedraggled, so here is one in the sun. My conclusion: Aracaris always look slightly bedraggled. 🙂 It is just their look…the Aracari way. This bird has its tail cocked off sharply to the right (our right, his left), so he looks a little tail-less. This was taken at Rio Santiago Nature Lodge, on the slope above the hummingbird feeders, while taking a break from photographing hummingbirds (always the real business at Rio Santiago).
Nikon P900 at 1000mm equivalent flied of view. 1/400th @ ISO 100 @ f7.1. Processed in Lightroom.
White-necked Jacobin
White-necked Jacobin
I sat for most of an hour in the little gazebo-like tower on the back of the Rio Santiago Nature Lodge, in a chair at one of the tables, and photographed hummingbirds as they rested in the trees between me and the feeders. This is a White-necked Jacobin. You can just see the white patch at the nape of the neck that gives it its name. Besides being a portrait of the bird, I like the out of focus branches which provide a frame and a context for the bird.
Nikon P900 at 1100mm equivalent field of view. 1/400th @ ISO 280 @ f5.6. Processed in Lightroom.
Toucan in the rain…
Keel-billed Toucan, the Lodge at Pico Bonito, Honduras
The avocados were ripening in the trees on the grounds of the Lodge at Pico Bonito in Honduras when I was there, and avocados attract birds…Lovely Contingas in the high canopy, and Collard Aricaris and Keel-billed Toucans lower down. This year Emerald and Yellow-eared Toucanetts joined them from higher up in the mountains. On my last morning there, waiting for my bus to the airport, shooting hummingbirds from the cover of the porches and decks at the Lodge while it rained, a group of Aricaris and Toucans came through the grounds. I love Toucans, so I put up my umbrella and chased them around the corner and out to the big trees around two of the cabins where I knew they might stop to feed on the avocados. And they were there, feeding in the rain. Shooting from under an umbrella is not easy. You have to balance the umbrella somehow while holding the camera, and you have to pay close attention to the angle of your cover while you attempt to track and frame moving birds above you. As this shot attests, however, it is possible. The rain streaks add to the portrait and the colors of the wet bird are as rich as they get.
Nikon P610 at 1330mm equivalent. 1/100th @ ISO 400 @ f6.3. Processed in Lightroom.
Florida Scrub Jay!
Florida Scrub Jay, Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge, Titusville FL
The Florida Scrub Jay is an endangered species. Loss of habitat as Florida is paved over and urbanized is the culprit, but there is still a population on the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge. I have visited Scrub Ridge Trail at last 15 times in the last 15 years and never seen a Florida Scrub Jay. I was tempted to put a note in the suggestion box at the visitor center (supposing they had one) saying they should change the name of the trial to “No Scrub Jays Here” trail. And other people see them various places on the refuge…but not me. My daughter Sarah and my friend Rich saw them this trip…right on the Scrub Ridge Trail where they should be, so late in my last (unexpected: canceled flights) day in the area, I decided to give the trail another chance. As usual…I saw on Scrub Jays…until…most of the way around and almost back to the car…one teed up on the top of a bush. Hallelujah! I was working closer for a better shot when a rustling in the bush next to me turned my head. Woooh! Florida Scrub Jay at 8 feet! I had to zoom back to get the bird in focus. Now that is a Scrub Jay encounter and redeems the guy who named the trial in my eyes! Late afternoon light. 2 Jays. Close. It does not get any better than that!
Nikon P900 at 800mm equivalent field of view. 1/640th @ ISO 100 @ f5.6. Processed in Lightroom.
My best duck! Hooded Merganser
Hooded Merganser, Viera Wetlands, Viera Florida
The Hooded Merganser is my favorite duck. Not only is it elegant and beautiful, but I don’t get to see it that often, and it is incredibly difficult to photograph well. That, for some maybe slightly perverse reason, makes it my favorite 🙂 Camera exposure systems have gotten very sophisticated…with built in Dynamic Range Optimization (or whatever your maker chooses to call it) that reads the brights and darks in a scene or subject and automatically compensates for excesses in processing. This shot, thanks to the camera, not to me, is almost perfectly exposed. Detail in the back, and detail in the white. Impressive for a machine.
It was also taken, hand-held, at just shy of 4000mm equivalent field of view. That is an impossible magnification for any camera but the Nikon P900, with its excellent lens, excellent image stabilization, and excellent Perfect Image zoom digital enhancement to reach. 1/640th @ ISO 100 @ f6.5. Processed in Lightroom.
Odd Couple. Blue Bird and Goldfinch
Blue Bird and American Goldfinch, Roger’s Pond, Kennebunk Maine
Another from my birdy morning at Roger’s Pond. Though they were just a bit too far apart to focus on both, this Eastern Blue Bird and winter American Goldfinch were certainly sitting close together. You do not often see this…especially with two different species, especially not with song birds. Winter makes for strange bed-fellows…or at least companions. 🙂
Nikon P900 at 2000mm equivalent field of view. 1/500th @ ISO 160 @ f6.5. Processed and cropped slightly for composition in Lightroom.
Robin in Red Berries
American Robin, Roger’s Pond, Kennebunk Maine.
The other day I had a very birdy day at Roger’s Pond while looking for Eagles. This fruiting tree near the picnic shelter is a favorite with Robins all winter. I have seen Blue Birds, Goldfinches, and Cardinals in it too. This handsome Robin sat still while I approached to closest focus distance on the Nikon P900 (16.5 feet). I like the way it is nested among the berries.
Nikon P900 at 2000mm equivalent field of view. 1/500th @ ISO 180 @ f6.5. Processed in Lightroom.