Posts in Category: OM-1 & 100-400mm
Florida! Purple
Purple Gallinule: Orlando Wetlands Park, Christmas, Florida, USA, January 2024 — Certainly one of the primary target birds at Orlando Wetlands is the Purple Gallinule. I had to walk a long way to find one. 🙂 Worth it though. Check out that foot! It enables the bird to walk on the lily pads without sinking them as it hunts. OM System OM-1 with M.Zuiko 100-400IS zoom at 800mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom bird modifications. Processed in Photomator.
Florida! Limpkin and company
Limpkin and Glossy Ibis: Orlando Wetlands Park, Christmas, Florida, USA, January 2024 — The Limpkin one of the birds folks go to Orlando Wetlands to see. A strange bird with a very specialized diet of snails (primarily the Apple Snail where it has not been forced out by invasive species…but fortunately the Limpkin does not turn its nose up at the invasive snails either). They are solitary birds. Its chance companion here is a Glossy Ibis, busy preening. OM System OM-1 with M.Zuiko 100-400IS zoom at 454mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom bird modifications. Processed in Photomator.
Florida! Spoonbills at Orlando Wetlands
Roseate Spoonbills, Orlando Wetlands Park, Christmas, Florida, January 2024 — Still early and overcast, but the Spoonbills were flying from the night roost to wherever they intended to start the feeding day. OM System OM-1 with M.Zuiko 100-400IS zoom at 800mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds in flight and action modifications. Processed in Photomator.
Florida! Black
Black Vulture: Orlando Wetlands Park, Christmas, Florida, January 2024 — The Black Vultures were a bit overly familiar at Orlando Wetlands. They come and sit on the railings and gates of the new boardwalk and challenge your passage. It the end they always give way, but it is not always apparent that they will. It does make for some interesting portrait opportunities though. 🙂 OM System OM-1 with M.Zuiko 100-400IS at 800mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom bird modifications. Still very early in the morning with the sun not far above the horizon and still hidden by clouds. Processed in Photomator and Apple Photos.
Florida! Caspian Tern
Caspian Tern: Blackpoint Wildlife Drive, Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge, Titusville, Florida, USA, January 2024 — Hunting Caspian Terns are, at least to my way of thinking, fun “birds in flight” targets…with just the right amount of challenge to success ratio. Given enough terns and enough time, you will manage to catch one. 🙂 OM System OM-1 with M.Zuiko 100-400IS zoom at 800mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds in flight and action modifications. Processed in Photomator.
Florida! Mass lift-off
Great and Snowy Egrets: Blackpoint Wildlife Drive, Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge, Titusville, Florida, January 2024 — When you see this number of birds in a group all looking the same direction as in the top shot, you know a mass lift-off might be coming soon. And indeed it happened…but so fast that I did not even get my eye to the viewfinder. I just pointed the camera and held the shutter button down. 🙂 I am happy to have gotten anything at all. OM System OM-1 with M.Zuiko 100-400IS zoom at 372mm and 300mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom bird modifications. Processed in Photomator and assembled in FrameMagic.
Florida! White Ibis
White Ibis: Biolab Road, Merritt Island National Wildlife refuge, Titusville, Florida, USA, January 2024 — This White Ibis was standing on another snag along the edge of Indian River Lagoon, right by the Osprey from yesterday. I did not even move the car. You don’t often see the full length of those reddish legs, and seeing them only emphasizes somehow the length of the bill. Impressive bird! OM System OM-1 with M.Zuiko 100-400IS zoom at 800mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom bird modifications. Processed in Photomator.
Florida! Another Osprey
Osprey: Biolab Road, Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge, Titusville, Florida, USA, January 2024 — I was pretty happy with the Osprey (and the photos) at the beginning of Biolab road, but that does not mean I did not stop for this one, posed nicely on a snag at the edge of the Indian River Lagoon (Mosquito lagoon), not 30 feet from my rental car window. 🙂 OM System OM-1 with M.Zuiko 100-400IS zoom at 800mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom bird modifications. Processed in Photomator and assembled in FrameMagic.
Florida! Osprey
Osprey: Biolab Road, Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge, Titusville, Florida, USA, January 2024 — You can only drive around Blackpoint Wildlife Drive so many times on any extended visit to Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge, so I almost always get out to Biolab Road at least once. I found this Osprey fairly low in the trees just coming into the parking area near the beginning of the road. It sat nicely for me as I popped out of the car with my camera. OM System OM-1 with M.Zuiko 100-400IS zoom at 800mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom bird modifications. Processed in Photomator.
Florida! Sorta Sora
Sora Rail: Blackpoint Wildlife Drive, Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge, Titusville, Florida, USA, January 2014 — I saw 2 lady birders stopped and looking intently through binoculars at the base of the mangroves across a narrow channel by the road, so I did a drive by look, and saw enough to pull over and walk back. Yes, a Sora, and not sorta, but a real Sora, deep in the shadows but within reach of the OM Systems OM-1 and M.Zuiko 100-400IS zoom at 800mm equivalent. Very high ISO, but still. Turns out this was the first reported Sora for the year at Merritt Island. Program mode with my custom bird modifications. Processed in Photomator and assembled in FrameMagic.