Posts in Category: action
Scarlet!
Scarlet Tanager. Magee Marsh, Ohio
Not great light but a great bird. This Scarlet Tanager was down low right over the boardwalk at Magee Marsh during the Biggest Week in American Birding. I, and about 20 other photographers who happened to be right there at the right moment, had a chance at some good shots, and an experience we will remember.
Nikon P900 at 2000mm equivalent field of view. 1/500th @ ISO 320 @ f6.5. Processed in Lightroom.
He’s not heavy, he’s my brother…
Great Horned Owl Chicks, Magee Marsh, Ohio
These two Great Horned Owl chicks were out on the branch for the first time yesterday. We have been seeing them, along the boardwalk at Magee Marsh among the warblers, deep down in the crevice below this perch. At one time both owls were up on the branch, and then one of them apparently decided to go back into the crevice…but it looks like maybe his brother stood on him before he could get all the way down. Looks like. And it makes a good story. He’s not heavy, he’s my brother.
Nikon P900 at 1500mm equivalent field of view. 1/500th @ ISO 200 @ f6.3. Processed in Lightroom.
Oriole among the apple blossoms
Baltimore Oriole, Magee Marsh, Ohio
I have been watching this Crap Apple tree coming into bloom over the 4 days I have been at Magee Marsh. It is right beside the boardwalk and always beautiful this time of year. Every time I pass it I pause, hoping some bright bird will land it while I am watching for classic picture. Yesterday was that day! Both Yellow Warbler and this really bright Baltimore Oriole landed in the tree, and I managed decent shots of both.
Nikon P900 at 950mm equivalent field of view. 1/800th @ ISO 100 @ f5.6. Processed in Lightroom.
Cape May Warbler. Happy Sunday!
Cape May Warbler, Magee Marsh, Ohio
“If your eye is generous, your whole being is full of light!” Jesus
I am blessed again this year to be at Magee Marsh, on the shores of Lake Erie, for spring migration. Every day at the marsh is a new show, as new waves of Warblers and other song birds reach the shores of the lake, and stop for a day (or two) to stock up before crossing the waters. Two days ago it was all Yellow Warblers (resident nesting birds) and Yellow-rumped Warblers, with a few Palm Warblers left over from the previous wave. Yesterday the Cape May Warblers (like the bird pictured here), the American Redstarts, Warbling Vireos, and smaller numbers of the “next wave” birds came in. Today????
Migration has always fascinated human beings, probably since we stopped migrating with the seasons ourselves. We watch the birds flow north in the spring with an appropriate sense of wonder. There is an aspect of renewal…especially with all the birds in fresh spring plumage…and a measure of hope with it. It is good to be alive in the spring when the song birds are moving! The weekend crowds at Magee Marsh and other migration hot-spots along Lake Eire and the other major flyways, attests to just broad the appeal is. Maybe a third of the crowds are birders and photographers, drawn every year, but two thirds are just regular citizens, out for a day to experience something extraordinary. The cries of delight, from children and adults, compete with the songs of the birds. It is good. The generous eye sees only good in these crowds (though the birdwatcher/photographer in me might prefer a less crowed boardwalk to work from :). You can feel the good energy…very similar to what you feel in a really inspired praise service at an “outgoing” church. God is praised in the migration of song birds, and we are privileged to join in the worship.
Happy Sunday!
Here’s looking at you
Baltimore Oriole, Magee Marsh, Ohio
It is not only warblers at Magee Marsh and the Biggest Week in American Birding of course. This Baltimore Oriole seems to be staring me down. I like the sweep of the branch and how it frames the bird.
Nikon P900 at 1800mm equivalent field of view. 1/500th @ ISO 125 @ f6.3. Processed in Lightroom.
Yellow!
Yellow Warbler, Magee Marsh, Ohio
The Biggest Week in American birding is slightly earlier this year…and the warblers are slightly late…so the warbler show at Magee Marsh is getting off to a slow start. Yellow-rumped Warblers are in, Palms have mostly passed through, there are a few Black-throated Greens, Perulas, and Morning Warblers…and lots of Ruby-crowned Kinglets, a few House Wrens, and Baltimore Orioles. But there are a LOT of Yellow Warblers, especially at the east end of the boardwalk. This bright male is showing fresh spring plumage.
Nikon P900 at 2000mm equivalent field of view. 1/500th @ ISO 180 @ f6.5. Processed in Lightroom.
Flight! Happy Sunday.
Great Egret, St Augustine Alligator Farm wild bird rookery, St A, Florida
“If your eye is generous, your whole being is full of light!” Jesus
I was back at the St. Augustine Alligator Farm wild bird rookery yesterday morning early to have one last crack at flight shots. The birds are so close, and there is a lot of coming and going so there are not many moments when there isn’t at least one bird in the air. Great place to practice…or just to appreciate the beauty of flight. These are mostly big birds. Great Egrets and Wood Storks predominate…and both are great flyers. Graceful, elegant, with beautiful plumage. When you catch one, as I have here, with the light behind it, it is as beautiful a sight as I hope to see in this world.
The persistence of flight dreams in our kind, and our general fascination with flight, when taken with our images of angels, might lead us to think that there are wings in our future. I actually find no indication of that at all in the Bible, and it is certainly not in the Gospels, but that does not stop us from dreaming. Flight, we seem to think, would be the final freedom. Personally I would like to be able to love as well, and as naturally, and as beautifully as a bird flies. I think that would be the final freedom! When I look with my generous eye, I do not see you or myself with wings, beautiful as that might be…I see you (and myself) as a unconditionally loving person. That is the generous view. Leave the wings for the birds. I will admire flight, and give it its due as beauty, but give me love any day!
Happy Sunday.
Landing. Great Egret
Great Egret, St Augustine Alligator Farm wild bird rookery
Coming in for a landing, calling all the way. Great Egret, St Augustine Alligator Farm wild bird rookery, on St Augustine Florida. A Great Egret is one of the most graceful of the big birds in flight…not so much in landing. 🙂
Nikon P900 in my custom Birds in Flight mode. Shutter preferred. 1/1250th @ ISO 125 @ f5.6. Processed in Lightroom and assembled in Coolage.
Feed me! Great Egret chicks.
Great Egret chicks in the nest. St. Augustine Alligator Farm, St Augustine FL
The Florida Birding and Photo Fest is a week later this year than last, and you can really see it in the age of the Great Egret nestlings. Last year there were many nests of newly hatched Egrets. This year, some of the nestlings are ready to fledge. This is another of the “laugh-right-out-loud” images that yesterday’s Day Poem was based on. When I first pulled it up for processing, I did indeed laugh out loud. 🙂
Nikon P900 at 1100mm equivalent field of view. 1/800th @ ISO 100 @ f5.6. Processed in Lightroom.
This is the Day Poem I mentioned.
an image will pop up on my tablet
that makes me laugh out loud.
or a chipmunk looking clownish…
it may be the way the clouds paint
the landscape with shadow, or
an unguarded expression caught
unaware on a familiar face…some
chance juxtaposition of unlikely
elements within the frame…some
fraction of a second frozen and held
up for our attention, our admiration,
our amusement and delight. That
is the real power of photography… to
wake our wonder, our compassion, our
soul, by a gentle tugging on the eye.
what keep me out and about daily
with a camera in my hand.
Roseate Spoonbill. Angel unaware
Roseate Spoonbill, St Augustine Alligator Farm, St Augustine Florida
In April, May, and into June, the wild bird rookery at the St Augustine Alligator Farm and Zoological Park in St Augustine, Florida ranks among the top attractions nationwide for wildlife photographers. Hundreds of pairs of nesting birds, Wood Storks; Great, Snowy, and Cattle Egrets; Tricolored and Little Blue Herons; and increasing numbers of Roseate Spoonbills, translate to constant action. Birds on the nest, birds building nests, birds feeding young, birds displaying and posing, birds constantly in the air, going off to feed or bringing in nesting materials. And, of course, hundreds of big and small bull Alligators in the waters below the nesting trees. It is, to put it mildly, spectacular. I have the privilege of teaching Point and Shoot Nature Photography workshops at the Florida Birding and Photo Fest each year in April, so I get to visit the Farm at the height of the season. And I often get to introduce new people to the farm. That is really fun!
This is a Roseate Spoonbill on its way in to the nesting area, maybe 40 feet overhead. The lighting was ideal, the camera functioned well, and my timing was close enough to catch this angel unawares.
Nikon P900 at 300mm equivalent field of view. Sports mode. 1/800th @ ISO 100 @ f5. Processed and cropped slightly for scale in Lightroom.