Posts in Category: Merritt Island NWR
Florida! Most wanted for today
Snowy Egret: Blackpoint Wildlife Drive, Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge, Titusville, Florida, January 2024 — I am giving my first Easy Birds and Wildlife with the OM-1 workshop early tomorrow morning, so I will post this tonight…for tomorrow’s Pic for today. 🙂 I have only seen the Snowy Egrets tiptoeing across surface of the water a few times in my life…it is a feeding technique that they only do when the brine shrimp hatch in shallow pools in the marsh, and then dozens of Snowy Egrets, Great Egrets, Spoonbills, and gulls gather to feast and the Snowys dance on the water. It is amazing to see. I have a few photos from past years, but nothing I was really happy with, and mostly accidental. Today with the OM-1 it was easy…almost too easy. I have dozens of shots better than anything I have managed before. I have a short video I will post one of these days so you can get a sense of what it looks like “live.” OM Systems OM-1 with ED 100-400mm IS zoom at a 300mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds in flight modifications. -1.0 EV. Processed in Photomator.
Florida! Most wanted
Reddish Egret: Blackpoint Wildlife Drive, Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge, Titusville, Florida, January 2024 — Another of my most wanted shots for my first trip back to Florida since Covid. Hunting Reddish Egrets are fun to watch as they are among the most energetic and erratic hunters among wading birds…often finishing off their act with an “umbrella” pose over the water to block surface reflections so that they can see and catch the fish. I stood and watched this one hunting for 15 minutes or more waiting for the umbrella pose. It happens in a second and then is gone so you have to be quick. OM Systems OM-1 with ED 100-400mm IS zoom at 614mm equivalent. Program mode with my birds in flight modifications (used here to catch the action). Processed in Photomator.
Florida! Painted
Painted Bunting: Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge Visitor Center, Titusville, Florida, January 2024 — Another top of anyone’s list birds from this area of Florida has to be the Painted Bunting…arguably the most colorful of North American birds. Fortunately for us, there are almost always a few coming to the feeders behind the Visitor Center at the Refuge. This year there are at least 3 males and half a dozen females…perhaps more than that, but three males is the most I saw at the same time so we will go with that. If you have been to the Visitor Center to see the Buntings you know where the feeders are is pretty dark and surrounded by dense undergrowth, so I was happy to get what I got! OM Systems OM-1 with ED 100-400mm IS zoom at 800mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Photomator.
Florida! Rosy!
Roseate Spoonbill: Blackpoint Wildlife Drive, Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge, Titisville, Florida, January 2024 — This is my first trip to Florida since covid…I am doing workshops at the resurrected Space Coast Bird and Nature Festival…but before that I had been coming to the Space Coast every year for 15 years…so I came this year with kind of a “most wanted” list in mind…at least in the back of my mind. And I am happy to say that I clicked off almost all of them, or at least a first approximation, on my very first day here. Of course the Roseate Spoonbill in breeding plumage has to be on anyone’s most wanted list. This is a male in his full finery. OM Systems OM-1 with ED 100-400mm IS zoom at 800mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Photomator.
Ruddy Turnstones
We return to Florida and the Space Coast Birding and Wildlife Festival in Titusville. On my last day there, my daughter Sally and I did a loop around Black Point Wildlife Drive and then the short loop of Gator Creek, where we found a small flock of Rudy Turnstones, which we pulled over to watch in two different spots as they moved along the waterfront. Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Polarr and Apple Photos. Assembled in FrameMagic. Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge, Titusville, Florida, USA.
Juvenile Bald Eagle, Florida
A rather scruffy looking Bald Eagle on a power pylon on the way to Black Point Wildlife Drive at Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge in Titusville, Florida, USA. I pulled the car over on the verge and walked past the pole for these shots. This appears to be a 3rd or 4th year juvenile, depending on how you sequence the plumage stages of the Bald Eagle…whether you put full adult plumage at 4 or 5 or even 6 years. However you do it, this bird is still at least a year shy of full adult. The head is getting on towards mostly white, and the bill is all yellow, but it still has the dark terminal tail band. (I had, of course, to look up the sequencing this morning…and the sources I found were not all that consistent. 🙂 Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Polarr and Apple Photos.
Perfect pinkness.
The perfect pinkness of Roseate Spoonbills again. These two were among a flock of 30 birds that flew into the channel beside the road at Black Point Wildlife Drive at Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge near Titusville, Florida, USA. Overcast day so the pinks really burn. The Roseates were particularly intense this year in Florida. Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Polarr and Apple Photos.
Great Blue Heron in the rain.
Great Blue Heron in the rain at Orlando Wetlands Scenic Park, in Christmas, Florida, USA. I had a Point and Shoot Nature Photography Workshop at Orlando Wetlands one morning during the Space Coast Birding and Wildlife Festival. We spent the first hour waiting out the rain under the shelter at the entrance, but when it did let up enough for walking this was the wader we encountered. Still raining a bit, but there is nothing quite like the mixed textures of the plumage of a Great Blue Heron to catch the eye. Worth a look in any light. Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Polarr and Apple Photos.
Great Egret
Great Egret, Black Point Wildlife Drive, Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge, Titusville, Florida, USA. There are always great numbers of Great Egrets on the refuge in January, and this year was no exception. My first loop around the Drive was on an overcast day, which can be excellent light for Egrets. This one was high-stepping across on of the ponds. Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Polarr and Apple Photos.
Pied-billed Grebe
Pied-billed Grebe, Black Point Wildlife Drive, Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge, Titusville, Florida, USA. There were more Pied-billed Grebes in Space Coast Florida this year then I have ever seen before…and they were groups of 15-30. Groups of Grebes is not something I remember. Generally I have seen them like this one, alone, feeding well away from any other Grebe. This one was in the channel along the Drive. Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Polarr and Apple Photos.