Posts in Category: Florida
Spoonbills
Roseate Spoonbills, Black Point Wildlife Drive, Merritt Island NWR, Titusville FL
We had wonderful light late in the day on Black Point Wildlife Drive on Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge, and there were about 300 Roseate Spoonbills feeding in several groups along the drive. Folks who had been there all day said it was nothing compared to the early morning show, of course, but I am happy with Flordia afternoon light and relatively close Spoonbills any day! This group is just about in full breeding plumage. The heads will get greener, and the bodies brighter, but only just a bit. As far as I am concerned it just does not get better than this!
Nikon P900 at 1400mm equivalent field of view. 1/500th @ ISO 100 @ f6.3. Processed in Lightroom.
Regal Darner
Regal Darner, Washington Oaks Gardens, Palm Coast, FL
I am on my way to Ohio and the Biggest Week in American Birding, but this shot is from the Florida Birding and Photo Fest last week in St Augustine. It is, near as I can tell, a Regal Darner. The shot was taken from 16 feet, at 4000mm equivalent field of view using digital enhancement, hand held, with the new Nikon P900.
ISO 400 @ 1/320th @ f6.5. Processed in Lightroom.
Portrait of a Suitor
Snowy Egret, St Augustine Alligator Farm wild bird rookery, St Augustine FL
Ah the Gator Farm in Spring. Bull alligators roaring loud enough to shake the boardwalk. Birds in breeding plumage putting on displays. Storks and Egrets gathering nesting materials and flying them in to prospective mates. Birds feeding chicks in the nest. Raging hormones in aid of a new crop of life! This Snowy Egret in fully in the swing of things…doing his best to attract a viable mate. As a photographer, there is nothing quite like being immersed in the rookery as you are at the St Augustine Alligator Farm. This intimate portrait could not have been taken many other places.
Nikon P900 at just under 1000mm equivalent field of view. 1/2000th @ f5.6 @ ISO 100. -.7EV exposure compensation. Processed in Lightroom.
Red-shouldered Surprise
Red-shouldered Hawk, Washington Oaks Gardens State Park, Palm Coast FL
I was taking a scenic shot of the shadows under the great oaks at Washington Oaks Gardens State Park in Florida when something big flew across my view and up into a tree behind me. Hawk! I spun, changing modes from Landscape to my custom bird and wildlife mode on the camera’s control dial as I moved, and got off two shots before the bird moved on. This shot, and one showing the birds tail-feathers as it left the frame. 🙂 That is the wonder of today’s superzoom cameras. From 24mm wide angle scenic to 2000mm super-telephoto bird shot in less than a second. And a camera like the Nikon P900 does both well. That is way they are so much fun!
P900 in custom bird and wildlife mode (full zoom, 2000mm equivalent field of view, standard manual spot auto focus, standard Program with -1/3 EV exposure compensation, etc.). 1/125th @ ISO 400 @ f6.5. Processed in Lightroom.
Special Delivery!
Great Egret. St Augustine Alligator Farm, St Augustine FL
I had a lot of fun experimenting with Sports Mode for flight shots at the St Augustine Alligator Farm wild bird rookery in Florida. A lot of fun, and, of course, a lot of potential frustration. I was shooting side by side, most often, with folks with DSLRs and medium long lenses…and I could hear the machine gun fire of their shutters as they tracked birds across the open gap above the boardwalk. I was limited to my 7 frames each time I got a bird in focus, which was not on every pass. Still, I suspect that when all is said and done, and the post processing dust settled, that I got as many keepers as anyone on the boardwalk…and even if I did not…the number I did manage was totally satisfying. And I did have enough faith in the camera and my own skill to ward off both frustration and DSLR envy on the boardwalk. 🙂 This bird is bringing in nesting material.
This shot is cropped only slightly, for composition, and was taken hand held in Sports Mode on the Nikon P900 at 600mm equivalent field of view. The birds are close at the rookery and moving fast, so, when trying to catch birds in flight, shorter focal lengths are called for. You would never even find the bird in motion at the long end of the zoom. 1/500th @ ISO 100 @ f5.
Processed in Lightroom on my Surface Pro 3 tablet.
Teenagers in Love!
Cattle Egrets, St Augustine Alligator Farm, St Augustine FL
I actually have little evidence that these are young Cattle Egrets…but, based on their very tentative attempts at mating and nest building, I suspect they are. They just did not have the air of a experienced pair. And there is definitely something about the look of Cattle Egrets in breeding plumage that invokes Happy Days…the Fonz…and all that. Or so it does to me.
Breeding season is the one season of the year when Cattle Egrets are actually attractive…again, in my opinion. Most of the year I find them stocky, dingy, and boring…totally lacking the elegance of their Great and Snowy cousins. And then too, knowing that they are not native birds in North America…even if they did reach our shores under their own power…adds to my general disregard. Still, in breeding season, at the wild bire rookery at the Alligator Farm in St Augustine, it is hard to ignore them…and hard to deny their beauty!
Nikon P900 at 450mm equivalent field of view. 1/250th @ ISO 180 @ f5. -1/3 EV exposure compensation. Processed in Lightroom.
Life goes on…
Tricolored Herons, St Augustine Alligator Farm wild bird rookery.
You certainly get a unique view into the intimate lives of the birds that nest at the St Augustine Alligator Farm wild bird rookery. Spend a spring morning or an afternoon there and you will see every aspect of the breeding and nesting behavior, from inception to the fledging of new chicks. These Tricolored Herons are clearly at the inception stage…and very intent on the act at that. My friend Pual, fellow photographer and wildlife enthusiast, when he saw this photo, complained that he had been just a few yards down the boardwalk. “Why didn’t you call me?” The whole thing, of course, was over in seconds. I barely had time and the presence of mind to lift the camera. 🙂
Nikon P900 at 448mm equivalent field of view. 1/250th @ ISO 100 @ f5. Processed in Lightroom on my Surface Pro 3 tablet.
Display! Happy Sunday.
Great Egret in full breeding display, St Augustine Alligator Farm, St Augustine FL
Many of the Great Egrets at the wild bird rookery at the St Augustine Alligator Farm already have chicks in the nest, some at least 3 weeks old, but there are also still male Egrets in full breeding display…apparently attempting to attract a mate. They might have come late to the party, or they might be young birds in their first mating cycle and still learning the ropes, or they my have been unsuccessful on the first round and are making a brave show in hopes of still finding a female willing…or they may just be stimulated by all the Snowy Egrets just coming into display around them. Whatever the reason, I am always amazed by the grace and beauty of the Great Egret in display. The delicacy of the breeding plumage, only deployed once a year, the arch of the neck, the single minded concentration implied by the pointing bill, the energy of the dance the male preforms…it is truly eye-catching, breath catching, wonder inducing…and I am not even a female Egret!
Nikon P900 at 380mm equivalent field of view. Program with -1/3 EV exposure compensation. Because the dance is so energetic, you have to zoom back you to keep the bird in the frame even at its most extreme gyrations, so this is slightly cropped from the full frame. Processed in Lightroom on my Surface Pro 3 tablet.
And for the Sunday thought…well all I can say is that anyone who believes this display, and the feathers and the body that support it, evolved by chance mutations and survival of the fittest has a lot more “blind faith” than is required for me to believe that what I see here is the work of a loving creator. Just saying. I can not believe that such beauty evolved…any more than I can believe that it is an accident that both female egrets and human beings can, apparently, appreciate it. It is a matter of wonder…and gratitude. Happy Sunday!
No Nut for You!
Grey Squirrel, Washington Oaks State Garden Park, Palm Coast, FL
I came upon this Grey Squirrel with an acorn, while photographing mostly dragonflies, at Washington Oaks Garden State Park in Palm Coast Florida. Washington Oaks is always good for flowers, butterflies, dragonflies, lizards, and some birds…as well as just the scenic beauty of the place. It is a great place for a morning of casual photography. I was there scouting for a field trip I have scheduled for tomorrow morning…which now looks unlikely to happen as rain is moving in. Glad I took the day to go down and check it out. I am never disappointed in Washington Oaks, and I certainly would have missed this squirrel!
Nikon P900 at 1500mm equivalent field of view. 1/125 @ ISO 560 @ f6.3. Program with -1/3EV exposure compensation. Processed in Lightroom on my Surface Pro 3 tablet.
Look at me Little Blue!
Little Blue Heron, St Augustine Alligator Farm, St Augustine FL
So far, at the St Augustine Alligator Farm wild bird rookery, the Little Blue Herons are outnumbered by Tricolored Herons (somewhat similar bird) about 20 to 1. And of course the Tricoloreds (as befits their name) are a flashier bird, with stunning breeding plumage. It is easy to overlook the Little Blues. This specimen however, is not about to be overlooked! He has the most intense coloration of any Little Blue I have ever seen, and enough attitude (both probably attributable to breeding season hormones) so that he was certain to catch any photographer’s eye…and hopefully the eye of any prospective mate. 🙂 I certainly hope he meets his equal and they raise a race of really intense Little Blues!
Nikon P900 at 1600mm equivalent field of view. 1/500th @ ISO 220 @ f6.3. Program with -1/3 EV Exposure Compensation. Processed in Lightroom on my Surface Pro 3 tablet.