Posts in Category: biggest week in american birding
The Biggest Week in American Birding! Female Yellow Warbler
Female Yellow Warbler: Magee Marsh Wildlife Area, Oak Harbor, Ohio, USA, May 2023 — Though the male Yellow Warblers are very visible at Magee this spring and every spring…singing from, it sometimes seems, every branch tip, the females are there and busy too. This one has been gathering spider web or plant fuzz for her nest. The rim-light effect of the pose and the lovely background of out of focus leaves makes this look a little like a studio portrait. 🙂 OM System OM-1 and 100-400mm zoom at 800mm equivalent. Program mode with my evolving bird modifications. Processed in Pixelmator Pro. ISO 320 @ f6.3 @ 1/640th. Minus .7EV exposure compensation.
Biggest Week in American Birding! More Swans in love, happy Mother’s Day.
Trumpeter Swans: Metzger Marsh Wildlife Area, Beno, Ohio, USA, May 2023 — The Trumpeter Swans at Metzger Marsh were displaying a lot of courting and mating behavior during the Biggest Week in American Birding. As I mentioned, a few were already on the nest. I got to see several different kind of displays. This pair were really at it! OM System OM-1 with 100-400mm zoom at 800mm equivalent. Program mode with, actually, my evolving birds-in-flight modifications. Processed in Pixomator Pro. ISO 1000 @ f6.3 @ 1/3200.
Biggest Week in American Birding! Scarlet Tanager, for Carol
Scarlet Tanager: Magee Marsh Wildlife Area, Oak Harbor, Ohio, USA, May 2023 — Carol once told me that the Scarlet Tanager was her favorite bird. We don’t see them often in southern Maine. They are there every summer, nesting, but they stay high in the canopy. We hear them sing, but they stay mostly out of sight. Seeing one at eye-level, as you occasionally do from the Magee Marsh boardwalk is a real treat. This might be a first year adult as it still has some yellow in the feathers. Olympus OM-1 with the 100-400mm zoom at 770mm equivalent. Program mode with my evolving birds modifications. Processed in Pixelmator Pro. ISO 250 @ f6.3 @ 1/640th. Plus .3EV.
Biggest Week in American Birding! Swans in love…
Trumpeter Swans: Metzger Marsh Wildlife Area, Beno, Ohio, USA, May 2023 — It seems that Metzger might be the place to go for Trumpeter Swans this year. There were many pairs courting and at least a few on the nest, and all within reach of a long lens from the access road. Some years I have struggled to find even one…but that is probably because I just did not know where to look. Anyway, I enjoyed a good half hour watching the mating behavior and these majestic birds gliding on the still water. It got more exciting than this, but I like the simple tension of this shot. Olympus OM-1 with the 100-400mm zoom at 800mm equivalent. Program mode with my evolving birds modifications. Processed in Pixelmator Pro. ISO 500 @ f6.3 @ 1/3200th.
Biggest Week in American Birding! Prothonotary Warbler
Prothonotary Warbler: Magee Marsh Wildlife Area, Oak Harbor, Ohio, USA, May 2023 — The other yellow warbler! and one of my favorite warblers of Magee Marsh. The Prothonotary Warbler nests at Magee, and is one of the most fearless warblers…or at least has the least fear of man. This one repeatedly crossed the boardwalk between the legs of admiring birders and photographers while feeding on tiny spiders on either side. You have to have been at Magee to appreciate the situation. There were at least 30 people packed between the side-rails of a 5 foot wide boardwalk on either side of where the warbler was working, all trying to position for a clear view or more often a clear shot. It was close enough so that people were photographing it with cell phones. This is an uncropped shot at 800mm equivalent. Olympus OM-1 with 100-400mm zoom. Program mode with my evolving birds modifications. Processed in Pixelmator Pro. ISO 200 @ f4 @ 1/800th. Minus .3EV.
Biggest Week in American Birding! Yellow Warbler close
Yellow Warbler: Magee Marsh Wildlife Area, Oak Harbor Ohio, USA, May 2023 — How close do the birds get on the Magee Marsh boardwalk? I had to zoom back to 488mm equivalent to fit this Yellow Warbler in the frame. This is not cropped at all. That close. At least sometimes. At least once in a while 🙂 Olympus OM-1 with 100-400mm zoom. Program mode with my evolving birds modifications. Processed in Pixelmator Pro and Apple Photos. ISO 200 @ f6.3 @ 1/500th.
Biggest Week in American Birding! Ruby-crowned Kinglet
Ruby-crowned Kinglet: Magee Marsh Wildlife Area, Oak Harbor, Ohio, USA, May 2023 — A couple of things. When I should have been doing my Pic for today post this morning, I was on a plane from Portland to Detroit on my way to the Biggest Week in American Birding for a few days. I am doing a couple of Point and Shoot for Warbler workshops and one on the 7 Fold Path to Better Birding. So my posting schedule may be a bit off over the next days. Magee Marsh on the shore of Lake Erie is THE place to put a new camera to the test. Photographing warblers feeding in dense brush and foliage is one of the greatest challenges for any camera, or any photographer. A good place to see whether my new Olympus OM-1 and the 100-400 zoom is up to the task. This morning I encountered this Ruby-crowned Kinglet out on the boardwalk at Magee, and anyone who has tried will be happy to tell you that if there is one bird harder to photograph than a warbler, it is a kinglet. Kinglets do not sit still for more than 10 seconds (or so it seems). I was very happy with the few shots I got with the OM-1. Both of these are at 800mm equivalent, using my evolving bird modifications to Program Mode. I did some experimenting with focus modes as the day went on, but already I am thinking the OM-1 is definitely up to the task. ISO 400 @ f6.3 @ 1/640th. Minus .7EV.
Tennessee Warbler
Tennessee Warbler: Metzger Marsh Wildlife Area, Oak Harbor, Ohio. USA, May 2022 — While looking for my life-photo-op for a Canada Warbler around the Metzger Marsh parking area, I spent a while in front to this tree long the dike above the parking watching a variety of warblers hunting among the catkins. This Tennessee was among them. Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Pixelmator Photo and Apple Photos. ISO 100 @ f4 @ 1/500th.
Red-winged Blackbird
Red-winged Blackbird: Metzger Marsh Wildlife Area, Oak Harbor, Ohio, USA, May 2022 — One morning later in the Biggest Week in American Birding, I went to Metzger Marsh instead of the boardwalk, as I had heard reports of several Canada Wablers there the morning before, and I had yet to see, let alone photograph a Canada Warbler. I posted that pic a while ago, my first ever of Canada Warbler. 🙂 While there, of course, being the Erie Shore and May, there were lots of other birds. This Red-winged Blackbird, which just might be the most numerous common bird in North America, was insistent that we all take note that this was his patch! Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Pixomator Photo and Apple Photos. ISO 100 @ f4 @ 1/640th.
Mourning Warbler
Mourning Warbler: Magee Marsh Boardwalk, Oak Harbor, Ohio, USA, May 2022 — The Mourning Warbler is a hard bird to see, let alone photograph, at least at Magee, where they tend to say low in the vegetation, mostly under the ground cover. And there is a LOT of ground cover at Magee this year, due to the massive blow-down of the mature cottonwoods that used to provide shade for the forest floor. This one hopped up on a twig two inches above ground for a brief look-around, just as I came up on a group of birders who had been tracking it by the movement of the undergrowth for twenty minutes already. 🙂 Right place, right time, and ready! That is my wildlife photography recipe in a nutshell. Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Pixomator Photo and Apple Photos. ISO 250 @ f4 @ 1/500th.