Posts in Category: Florida
Ovenbird on the Dry Tortugas
Though it was not one of those trips to the Dry Tortugas that turned up an amazing number of Neo-tropical Migrants on their way north, we did see a few. This Ovenbird was in the thick brush around the campground. Sony RX10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Polarr.
Bridled Tern
I am back in Key West for the night after 3 days on the Dry Tortugas with Wildside Nature Tours. The Dry Tortugas are a small chain of 7 coral islands, 70 miles off Key West, Florida. Just after Florida was purchased from Spain in 1824 and through the Civil War, the United States, and then the Union, attempted to build a fort, Fort Jefferson, there as a base to guard the sea lanes and shipping routes from the Mississippi River and the Gulf to the Atlantic seaboard. The Fort was never finished. Conditions proved too difficult. It went through several incarnations: as a prison during the Civil War, as a coaling station and then a quarantine center after. It’s 243 heavy canons were never fired in combat. It was, and still is, the largest brick masonry structure in the western hemisphere. The surrounding islands have been a bird sanctuary since 1908, and Fort Jefferson is now a National Park…the only one accessible only by boat and seaplane.
Besides being home to the only nesting colonies of several Caribbean sea birds, during spring and fall migration, the islands can, deepening on the winds, serve as a rest stopover on the journey across the Caribbean for warblers, orioles, tanagers, flycatchers, etc. Therefore they are popular destination for birders.
What we have here is a pair of Bridled Terns, a pelagic tern that nests further south in the Caribbean, and in small numbers on the islands, and ranges in summer along the inland edge of the gulf stream sometimes as far north as Connecticut.
Sony RX10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Polarr.
Red-eye
There is nothing quite like a Roseate Spoonbill in breeding plumage. The bright pink body and wing feathers, the green skin on the head, the white feathers on the neck, and the bright, bright red eye, here caught in full sun for the full effect. Orlando Wetlands Park, Christmas, Florida. Sony RX10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. 1/1000th @ f5.6 @ ISO 100. -.3EV. Processed in Polarr.
Portrait of Great Blue Heron
Not only portrait…but head and shoulders! Another close shot of a heron from Orlando Wetlands Park in Christmas, Florida. Walking the trails along the dikes at Orlando Wetlands can bring you very close to the wildlife. Once again, as in yesterday’s Tricolored Heron, the variety of texture in the fine feathers of the head and neck of the bird always fascinates me. If you can view the image large enough, check out the fine fluffy feathers behind the eye and to the back of the head. Sony RX10iv at 600mm equivalent. My birds and wildlife modifications of Program mode. 1/400th @ f4 @ ISO 100. -.3EV Processed in Polarr.
Tricolored Heron, very close
This morning we are back to my pics from Florida and the Space Coast Birding Festival in January. This is another close encounter from Orlando Wetlands Park, this time with a Tricolored Heron. It was feeding right at the edge of the water right next to the dyke and the trail. This is only cropped on the horizontal dimension so it is basically a full frame shot at 600mm equivalent. It captures all the feather texture and subtitle shades of purple-grey of the bird…and the pose catches the energy of the hunter well…or that is what I think. 🙂 Sony RX10iv. My birds and wildlife modifications to Program mode. 1/1000th @ f4.5 @ ISO 100. -.3EV. Processed in Polarr.
Alligator
No trip to Orlando Wetlands Park in Christmas, Florida would be complete without an Alligator or two. They have some big ones there, and they are in the habit of hauling out at the water’s edge to warm up in the sun. On occasion they even get right up on the pathways. My rule is “never get closer to a gator than twice the length of its body” and don’t get close at all if you can help it. This shot was taken at 212mm equivalent from about 15 feet away…which was a little closer than I was completely comfortable with, but the alligators never even blinked as I edged by on the path above it. The worst part was that there was a Little Bittern in the reeds behind it, and I could not get a good shot of the bird without getting closer to the Alligator…such is life at Orlando Wetlands Park. Sony RX10iv at 212mm equivalent. My birds and wildlife modifications of Program mode. 1/800th @ f4 @ ISO 100. -.3EV. Processed in Polarr.
Companionable Cranes
I have written before about this pair of companionable Florida Sandhill Cranes that walked up the Limpkin trail with me at Orlando Wetlands Park in Christmas Florida. This shot was taken at 30mm equivalent, so I was just out of the frame behind the closest crane, and, as I said before, if I stopped to take a photo, they stopped and waited for me. It was so strange and so wonderful. And once more, I just can’t say enough about how great a place Orlando Wetlands Park is, in that it allows this kind of close encounter, on foot, with the bird and wildlife. Sony RX10iv at 30mm equivalent. My birds and wildlife modifications of Program mode. 1/1000th @ f4.5 @ ISO 100. -.3EV. Processed in Polarr.
Here’s Odd
This is, admittedly, a somewhat odd photo. I was walking down Limpkin Way at Orlando Wetlands Park, perpendicular to the birding trail and there was this Great Blue Heron standing on the dyke ahead of me. I took a few shots and walked closer. And it just stood there. So I took a few more shots, and walked, and it stood. I was close enough so that I had to zoom back to fit the bird in the frame, and then I went for a head shot at full telephoto. Of course just then it jumped into flight and all I got was its head and a piece of a wing in the frame. The crop is what seemed most effective. Sony RX10iv at 600mm equivalent. My birds and wildlife modifications of Program mode. 1/1000th @ f5 @ ISO 100. -.3EV. Processed in Polarr.
Wood Stork in a tree
Yesterday I posted a Wood Stork feeding from Orlando Wetlands Park, but the first Wood Stork of my last Florida trip was actually standing tall in a tree beside the road at Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge, near the Visitor Center. I pulled off in the chigger grass and walked back to get the shot. This is a juvenile, as you can tell by the feathers on the back of the neck and crown. Sony RX10iv at 535mm equivalent. My birds and wildlife modifications of Program mode. 1/1000th @ f6.3 @ ISO 100. -1EV. Processed in Polarr.
Wood Stork and Snowy Egret
There is a difference between walking the dykes at Orlando Wetlands Park in Christmas Florida and driving the dykes at Blackpoint Wildlife Drive at Merritt Island, or even the dykes at Viera Wetlands in Viera. You might not actually be any closer to the birds, but its is definitely a more intimate experience. I came up on this odd couple feeding together as I was walking back down Bobcat Alley toward the main birding trail at Orlando Wetlands. They were working a patch of water plants just out from the shoreline in the angle between the two trails…close enough so they made a nice composition in a 600mm frame. Sony RX10iv at 600mm equivalent. My birds and wildlife modifications of Program mode. 1/1000th @ f5.6 @ ISO 100. -.3EV. Processed in Polarr.