Posts in Category: Ohio
First Color! Warblers, etc. at Magee Marsh
After checking in to my hotel, and taking care of some business, I did not get out to Magee Marsh until almost 5PM yesterday. Just time for one loop of the boardwalk. There were still, speaking in comparison to, say, oh any other US birding destination, a lot of birders there, for a Thursday evening. If you are a solitary birder, Magee is not the place for you in May.
As far as birds go, it was slow, again, compared to any other birding destination you might name, We had to be contend, mostly, with single specimens A Kentucky (3rd image) and a Mourning right at the base of the observation tower kept the crowd above pretty much stationary the whole time I was there. The Blackburnian in the lead image was the only one I saw all evening.
I was, of course, quickly reminded that photographing warblers at Magee is not like an other kind of photography…it is not, in fact, much like any other kind of bird photography. The birds are ridiculously close, but if they are not singing, then they are constantly in motion, flicking in and out of brush and branches and leaves so fast that simply keeping them in the finder is a supreme challenge. Getting focus? Yeah, it can be done as these images attest, but you miss way more than you hit. I brought back a more empty frames and fuzzy birds from an hour a Magee than I accumulated in my whole trip to Arcata Marsh last month. I would have preferred, of course, to have the whole Kentucky in the frame in his image…but this is the best I got.
Again, I only found a single specimen of a Palm Warbler, but it put on show for me, stretching a wing just as I was snapping its picture.
And of course, there were a few singers. You can not keep the Yellow Warblers down, and there were Yellow-rumped Warblers aplenty and a-vocal.
Canon SX50HS. Program with iContrast and Auto Shadow Control. -1/3EV exposure compensation. 1200 and 1800mm equivalent fields of view. Processed for intensity, clarity, and sharpness in Lightroom.
Ohio Whitetail
Last Wednesday, after we got the instructions for finding the Long-eared Owl at the Ohio River Islands Refuge, and before we found it, we stumbled on a small herd of White-tailed Deer working their way through a thicket parallel to us. This shot is actually from the car window. Like most White-tails in protected environments (and what is more protected than an island refuge about as far from hunting season as you can get?), they knew we were there but they were not tremendously concerned (especially if we stayed in the car). This was a young deer, probably not yet a year old. It was maybe 15 feet back in the thicket, 20-25 feet from me.
Canon SX50HS, Program with iContrast and Auto Shadow Control. –1/3 EV exposure compensation. 1200mm equivalent field of view. f6.5 @ 1/400th @ ISO 800. Processed in Lightroom for intensity, clarity, and sharpness.
Red Bird! Whipple OH
We have a little more action the past few days at our feeder’s in Maine, but it has been a slow winter for feeder birds in yard. Not so in Ohio. Visiting Bill Thompson of Bird Watcher’s Digest at his home last Thursday, it was clear that feeder birds are healthy in Whipple. Either that or I am doing something very wrong in Maine. 
Bill had to pry me away from the windows. I could have stood all day and taken pictures of the birds. Bill and his wife, the artist and writer Julie Zickefoose, must be used to all the birds outside their windows, but I am not. The close views of active birds were a real treat.
The Northern Cardinal was known as the Red Bird on both sides of the Appalachians (and still is), and Whipple is, at least according to the title of one of Julie’s books, a Appalachian town, so the title is apt in more than one way. This was taken from the Thompson/Zickefoose kitchen, through the living-room and the glass doors out on to a small deck.
Canon SX50HS. Program with iContrast and Auto Shadow Control. –1/3 EV exposure compensation. 1200mm equivalent field of view. f6.5 @ 1/200th @ ISO 800. Processed in Lightroom for intensity, clarity, contrast (because of the window glass), and sharpness.
Long-eared Owl. Surprise!
My friend and coworker Rich Moncrief and I were visiting Bill Thompson and the staff at Bird Watcher’s Digest in Marietta Ohio yesterday. We finished our meetings by early afternoon and asked for directions to some likely spots to find birds. They sent us up the Ohio river to a place called Newell’s Run…a little backwater of the river where Newells Run (brook, river?) flows in. We enjoyed the ducks, grebes, and herons there, but then decided to head further up-river to see what we could find. When we came to the big yellow-brown bridge to St. Marys, of course we had to go across into West Virginia, just for the experience of crossing the bridge and the Ohio. We had a little one page guide to the local birding areas published by Back Road Birding, a small start up tour company that Kyle Carlson of BWD runs on the side, and about half way across the bridge Rich remembered seeing some spot mentioned in St. Mary’s. The Ohio River Islands Refuge. Bridge to an island. Trails and Tour Road. Sounded good.
We found the sign directing us to the bridge…which turned out to be the strangest and scariest bridge I have ever crossed…involving driving up the height of a 4 story building on the first segment of an abandoned bridge, taking a complete right angle turn, and driving down a kind of steep ramp to the island…all rusty iron and crumbling concrete and looking very elderly and frail. Still we made it.
We drove the tour road to its end, and stopped at the maintenance sheds where there is a trail out to a blind and had a good time with a whole bunch of robins and a Hairy Woodpecker, and then Bill Thompson called to see were we were and finalize dinner plans. I told him we had gone on up to St. Marys and the Island Refuge. “Oh great,” he said, “are you looking for the Long-eared Owls?” As it ensued, we had unwittingly stumbled right to one spot in the area where Long-ears were known to be roosting. I mean, what are chances? Kyle gave us detailed directions, and after two attempts we found the owls, right where he said they would be…ten feet into the woods and ten feet up the tree! What a treat.
They were your usual views of Long-eared Owls…tucked well back in a thick tangle of branches and brush, close to the trunk of a pine…photographically very difficult…but very satisfying in binoculars. If you have seen a Long-eared Owl on its day roost, you know that any view at all is a wonderful thing.
Still I had to try with the camera. With a lot of peeking and poking, I found a few lines of sight to the birds’ eyes.
I am always amazed that the auto focus on the Canon SX50HS can focus through such a tangle, and seems to know that I am looking at the bird, not the branches. It generally takes a few tries, half presses of the shutter button before it locks on, but it almost always get the results.
So, like I say, what are chances? And what a treat!
Canon SX50HS in program with iContrast and Auto Shadow Correction. –1/3 EV Exposure compensation. 1200mm, 1800mm, and 750mm equivalents. f6.5 and f5.6 @ ISO 800 @ 1/320-!/500th. Processed in Lightroom for intensity, clarity, and sharpness.
Great Blue Heron on the Wing: Happy Sunday!
I mentioned yesterday that the Grange Insurance Audubon Center in Columbus OH, where I am working the first ever Birding Optics and Gear Expo, turned out to be a much better birding spot than I would have expected. They have a large observation deck built out over a backwater of the Scoito River where, if appearances are anything to go by, there is an active heron rookery in late spring. It is early yet but there were at least 10 Great Blue Herons feeding within sight of the deck and at least one pair were actively working on a nest in a tall tree above the river. Because the deck is at least 30 feet above the surface of the water, it is an excellent place to attempt flight shots of the herons. The only challenge is that the window on the backwater is relatively narrow, and and closed in by tall trees and brush on either side, so you have to be quick to catch the herons in the gap.
As you can see in this image, for this bird, I was actually shooting through the branches of the trees on the left side of the window (note the straight dark bands which are out of focus limbs, and if you look closely you will see some smaller circular patches and arcs left by smaller brush.) But of course, in this case, the imperfections almost don’t matter. They are overwhelmed by the sharply focused spread of those majestic wings and the bright eye of the bird. In fact, to my eye, the out of focus foreground clutter adds an element of inescapable reality that improves the image. I could not have planned and executed this image if I had tried, but I am very happy to have caught it. 
Canon SX50HS in Sports Mode. 1200mm equivalent field of view. f6.5 @ 1/1250th @ ISO 500. Processed in Lightroom for intensity, clarity, and sharpness. Cropped slightly for composition. ,
And for the Sunday Thought. Spiritual vision, I am thinking, should be a lot like this image. It should be so sharply focused on what is wonderful and amazing, majestic and awesome, that the foreground clutter all but disappears. And yet, while we are in this world, it is out of focus inescapable clutter that helps us to properly value the objects of our spiritual sight. This gives even the clutter value. The only tragedy would be to focus on the clutter, so that we miss the awesome vision that feeds our souls.
And I needed that reminder. I have been, this past week, way too focused on the clutter. It is not good for me. I need to get my spiritual eyes back on the awesome, if for no other reason, so that I can properly value the inescapable clutter.
Which is why I am particularly happy to have caught, just in time, so to speak, this Great Blue Heron on the wing!
Downy Woodpecker in Ohio
I am in Columbus Ohio for the first annual Birding Optics and Gear Expo, organized by Bird Watcher Digest and Eagle Optics, at the Grange Insurance Audubon Center. The Audubon Center is beautiful multi-function building on the banks of the Scioto River, surrounded by Scioto Audubon Park, a reclaimed landfill and one of the birdiest acreages you are likely to find in any American city. It has riverfront, chunks of woodland, two large old oxbow ponds, open grasslands, and emergent thickets: ideal habit for a wide variety of birds. Yesterday, as we set up for the Expo, there were lots of birds working the feeders and lots of bird song in the air everywhere you went. Nice! And all within walking distance of the quaint, very gentrified, German Town section, and clear sight of the skyscrapers of downtown Columbus.
This female Downy Woodpecker was working the suet feeder on the river side of the building. I watched as she made a circuit from the feeder, up into the tree above close in to the trunk, working her way out branch by branch until she was over the feeder again, and then dropping down to feed. She made at least 10 circuits in the time I watched…perching on the same branches, or very close to it, on each go-round. I managed to get a few shots of her in the tree and several close-ups at the suet cage.
Canon SX50HS. Program with iContrast and Auto Shadow Fill. –1/3EV exposure compensation. 1800mm equivalent field of view (1200mm optical zoom plus 1.5x digital tel-converter function). f6.5 @ 1/640th @ ISO 800. Processed in Lightroom for intensity, clarity, and sharpness.
6/12/2012: Eastern Screech Owl, Magee Marsh OH
There are a pair of Eastern Screech Owls who nest along the boardwalk at Magee Marsh, and generally provide a show for the birders at The Biggest Week in American Birding. The male, shown here, is a gray phase, and the female is a red phase. Odd couple.
Canon SX40HS. Program with iContrast and –1/3EV exposure compensation. 1680mm equivalent field of view (840mm optical plus 2x digital tel-converter). f5.8 @ 1/160th @ ISO 800. Processed in Lightroom for intensity, clarity, and sharpness.
6/11/2012: Northern Waterthrush, Magee Marsh OH
There are a couple of spots on the Magee Marsh boardwalk that are ideal for Waterthrush. They have just the right moist, but not flooded, edge of the marsh in deep trees nature to attract the birds. If you stand in one of those spots long enough, in May, it is very likely you will find a Waterthursh. Though there are likely lots of Northern Waterthrushes at Magee Marsh at any given time, the one to see this year was working the edge of the wet were the little spur boardwalk with the benches branches off. I am sure it was seen by thousands and photographed by hundreds.
It was, admittedly, easier to see than to photograph. The thick tangle of brush and branches, and the low light down in the muck there, made it hard to catch a good shot.
Canon SX40HS. Program with iContrast and –1/3EV exposure compensation. All at 840mm equivalent field of view. 1) and 2) f5.8 @ 1/100th @ ISO 800. 3) and 4) f5.8 @ 1/200th @ ISO 640. Processed in Lightroom for intensity, clarity, and sharpness.
6/2/2012: Chestnut-sided Wabler, Magee Marsh OH
We will go back to Magee Marsh for today’s post, in honor of Song Bird Saturday. The Chestnut-sided Warblers at Magee this year were particularly cooperative…feeding close to the boardwalk and at or below eye-level. Given that, it was only a matter of getting one in the frame long enough to press the shutter release. 🙂
While most were very busy feeding, a few were singing as well.
Canon SX40HS. Program with iContrast and –1/3EV exposure compensation. 1) 2) and 3) at 1240mm equivalent field of view (840mm optical plus 1.5x digital tel-extender). f5.8 @ 1/500th @ ISO 200. 4) 840mm equivalent. f5.8 @ 1/200th @ ISO 160. 5) same, except ISO 200.
Processed in Lightroom for intensity, clarity, and sharpness.
5/31/2012: Red Admirals Everywhere
There seem to be Red Admiral Butterflies everywhere this year. Due to the mild winter across much of North America the Red Admirals migrated north faster and further than normal, and in greater numbers. The individuals we are seeing in Maine are pretty worn, and travel weary.
The first two shots are from my yard this week. The next shot is from Cape May New Jersey, also a very worn butterfly.
Then we have a Red Admiral from Magee Marsh in Ohio, also a migrant (Like the Painted Lady, Red Admirals have to recolonize much of North America each year), but looking much fresher! However, according to the wiki on the species, this may be a butterfly that is fresh out of hibernation, as they are known for deeper colors in the spring.
Canon SX40HS. Program with iContrast and –1/3EV exposure compensation. 1) 1240mm equivalent field of view (840mm optical plus 1.5x digital tel-extender function), f5.8 @ 1/500th @ ISO 100. 2) 1240mm equivalent, f5.8 @ 1/800th @ ISO 160. 3) 1680mm (2x digital tel-extender) equivalent, f5.8 @ 1/500th @ ISO 125. 4) 1680mm equivalent, f5.8 @ 1/640th @ ISO 160.
Processed in Lightroom for intensity, clarity, and sharpness.