Posts in Category: Ohio
5/26/2012: Baltimore Oriole, Magee Marsh OH
If you have been following you will realize that I have been working through my images from the St. Augustine Alligator Farm rookery, one species at a time over the past few days. But today is songbirdsaturday over on Google+ and in honor of that we will migrate to Magee Marsh in Northern Ohio for a look at the Baltimore Oriole. If the St. Augustine Alligator Farm rookery is the place to photograph nesting waders in spring, then Magee Marsh is the place to photograph warblers and other migrating passerines in spring. I went almost directly (2 days at home) from Northern Florida to Northern Ohio…from shooting from the boardwalk at STAAF to shooting from the boardwalk at Magee Marsh. There the similarity ends. The birds at the rookery are nesting. The birds at Magee Marsh are feeding on their way north. The birds at the rookery are big and still. The birds at Magee Marsh are small and active. The birds at the rookery are mostly right out in plain site. The birds at Magee Marsh are hidden deeply in foliage (especially this year when the trees leaved out early). While almost anyone would admit that shooting birds at the rookery is easy…shooting birds at Magee Marsh presents a much higher challenge.
Warblers are the star of the show…up to 30 species can be seen on any given day…but larger passerines like the Baltimore Oriole here also pass through in great numbers.
They sing loudly, so they are easy to find…not so easy to get in the frame though.
Canon SX40HS. Program with iContrast and –1/3EV exposure compensation. 1) 840mm equivalent field of view, f5.8 @ 1/320th @ ISO 200. 2) 840mm, f5.8 @ 1/1000th @ ISO 100. 3) 840mm, f5.8 @ 1/1000th @ ISO 320. 4) 840mm, f5.8 @ 1/400th @ ISO 200.
Processed in Lightroom for intensity, clarity, and sharpness.
5/19/2012: Magnolia Warbler, Magee Marsh OH
I think the Magnolia Warbler is one of the most beautiful of spring warblers. There were many of them along the east end of the boardwalk at Magee Marsh when I was there…though they tend to stay well into the bush even when singing…as here.
Even the females are bright and bold, though somewhat subdued compared to the males.
We do get Magnolias here in Maine. I intend to go out looking for them after breakfast today. They pass through Kennebunk rapidly, and you have to be in the right place to see them. This is early, but worth a try.
Canon SX40HS. Program with iContrast and –1/3EV exposure compensation. 1) and 2) 840mm equivalent field of view. f5.8 @ 1/200th @ ISO 125. Cropped to about 6mp. 3) 840mm. f5.8 @ 1/200th @ ISO 100. 4) same as 1) and 2) except no crop.
Processed in Lightroom for intensity, clarity, and sharpness.
5/12/2012: Song. Yellow Warbler, Magee Marsh
Birds in full song always look so totally engaged! They put all they have into belting out the sound. This is a Yellow Warbler from Magee Marsh in Ohio during The Biggest Week in American Birding. Yellows sing from any perch, but in the morning they like to get up high in the early sun.
This is a more typical view from later in the day.
Canon SX40HS. Program with iContrast and –1/3EV exposure compensation. 1) 1240mm equivalent field of view. f5.8 @ 1/1000th @ ISO 160. 2) 1680mm equivalent field of view. f5.8 @ 1/320th @ ISO 100.
Processed in Lightroom for intensity, clarity, and sharpness.
5/10/2012: Prothonotary Warbler Take 2, Magee Marsh
In case you can not tell, I am having a lot of fun shooting warblers and other birds from the boardwalk at Magee Marsh. The Canon SX40HS is easy to carry and has the reach for satisfying images. Focus could be faster, but with the abundance of willing subjects, I am bringing back enough satisfying images to keep we…well…satisfied!
This shot of a Prothonotary Warbler in full, uninhibited song just makes me smile every time I look at it. So much energy. So alive. So yellow!
It is a full frame shot, at 840mm equivalent field of view. The bird was only about 12 feet away, so you can see the amount reach needed for these small birds. I might have gotten another level of detail with full sized DSLR and long lens outfit, but I would have needed one of those massive projection flash units in this light as well. All in all the SX40HS does really well.
f5.8 @ 1/500th @ ISO 250. Processed in Lightroom for intensity, clarity, and sharpness.
And a second shot of the same bird from the same 3fps burst.
5/9/2012: Chestnut-sided Warbler, Magee Marsh
The Chestnut-sided Warblers were in in force yesterday at Magee Marsh Ohio for the Biggest Week in American Birding. There had been a few each day, but yesterday they were abundant, and they were foraging at eyelevel in the trees and bushes along the boardwalk. Such a perky little bird. This specimen was also singing at the top of his lungs. It is not easy to catch an actively feeding warbler in the camera view, but with cooperative birds and lots of patience and practice, it can be done!
Canon SX40HS. Program with iContrast and –1/3EV exposure compensation. 840mm equivalent field of view. f5.8 @ 1/200th @ ISO 200. Processed in Lightroom for intensity, clarity, and sharpness.
5/8/2012: Prothonotary Warbler, Magee Marsh
One of the delights of Magee Marsh in May is the Prothonotary Warbler. The Magee Marsh boardwalk, is of course, the main highlight of The Biggest Week in American Birding…drawing upwards of 10,000 birders to Erie Shore of Ohio every May. There are generally several Prothonotary pairs nesting, or about to nest, within easy view of the boardwalk. And they sing. The song is, of course, beautiful in its own right, but it also makes the Prothonotary easy to locate. Not that you could miss one if it is in view. I think the Prothonotary has the most deeply saturated yellow of any bird…and it looks even more bright in contrast to the blue-grey of the wings…and especially bright and rich on a dull rainy day like yesterday. All in all a striking bird.
This specimen was actually below eye-level, inches above standing water in a tangle of willow and other brush. It was a blessing that he was so busy establishing his ownership of the territory that he stayed in a small area and offered several photo-ops.
Canon SX40HS. Program with iContrast and –1/3EV exposure compensation. 840mm equivalent field of view. f5.8 @ 1/200th @ ISO 800 and ISO 500. The advances in sensor tech and in camera processing in this last generation of super-zooms is nothing short of revolutionary. Who would have though you could get this kind of quality at high ISO?
Processed in Lightroom for intensity, clarity, and sharpness.
5/7/2012: Palm Warbler, Magee Marsh OH
So far at this years Biggest Week in American Birding, the warblers (grosbeaks, orioles, etc.) have stayed high in the trees. None of the eyelevel action of last year. So far. There are still lots of days to go. This Palm Warbler was a pleasant exception. It was foraging, as Palms will do, on the ground relatively close to the boradwalk, back in a deep tangle of vines and brush. Eventually it wandered out to patch of sun where I could get an open site line, and was able to get few shots before it moved on.
In the first shot it certainly seemed quite aware that I was watching it, but most of the time it was just busy grubbing up whatever food it was seeking in the leaf litter. I, of course, was trying to catch it with its head up and its eye visible.
Canon SX40HS. Program with iContrast and –1/3EV exposure compensation. 1240mm equivalent field of view (840mm optical zoom plus 1.5x digital tel-extender). f5.8 @ 1/400th and 1/500th @ ISO 250. Processed in Lightroom for intensity, clarity, and sharpness.
9/28/2011: Great Egrets in Bad Air: Wildlife Wednesday
When you are working with a spotting scope, with a digital camera behind the eyepiece, where you can reach ridiculous equivalent fields of view…1000mm to 5000mm…it is tempting to reach out for those far birds, and occasionally, when the air is just right, you get a reasonable shot. More often, the air between you and the bird, or the heat shimmer and moisture in the air between you and the bird, produce a shot that is not quite satisfying. Astronomers call it “bad air”, and it limits observational astronomy and astro-photography just as it does bird photography. Most of the bird photography you see on the internet and in books and magazines was done at very close range. There is no other way to capture that feather detail. But still…sometimes the light is so fine, and the bird so elegant (or ugly, or cute, or just so full of itself) that you have to try. Sometimes, despite the bad air, it works.
This Great Egret was in an impondment on the Wetlands Trail at East Harbor State Park in Port Clinton OH, just over the first ridge of beach from Lake Erie, in mid-afternoon of a late summer day. The wind was brisk, and through the scope, you could easily see the heat shimmer in the air…so I did not have high hopes. In the first shot it is the lighting, and the posture of the bird that saves the shot. In the second, I really like the delicate reeds in front of the bird.
Then, crossing half the continent to a morning a few days earlier, we have another Great Egret, this time in the marshes of Southern Maine, along the Kennebunk Bridle Path. This image is really about the early morning light on the marsh grasses, already touched with fall, and the way it molds the Egret…folds the Egret…in its golden warmth. The pose helps, beak just parted, and alert, but not yet nervous. Way too much shimmer…bad air…between me and the bird, and little hope of a sharp shot, but still…gotta try, and for me, as an image (in distinction from a bird shot) this works.
All three with the Nikon Coolpix P300 behind the 15-56x Vario eyepiece on the ZEISS DiaScope 65FL spotting scope. 1) about 2000mm equivalent field of view, 1/1000th @ ISO 160, f5.5 effective. 2) about 3500mm, 1/500th @ ISO 160, f9.6 effective. 3) about 1000mm equivalent, 1/320th @ ISO 160, f3.4 effective. All Programmed Auto, and auto focus.
Processed in Lightroom for Clarity and Sharpness.
9/27/2011: Lakeside vignettes…
Before it drifts too far into the past, I want to share a few last shots from Lakeside Ohio. Lakeside is a closed community of summer homes, a Chautauqua…and the Lakeside Owner’s Association holds members to a high standard of appearance. Chautauqua, from the name of the first site in Upstate New York, was a Christian Adult Education movement, emphasizing the crafts, music, and the fine arts…summer assemblies, often in tents…at its height from the 1880s through the 1920s. In a few locations summer communities grew up around the Chautauqua, and these have endured. In fact, there are six well recognized Chautauqua sites, including the original, that carry on the tradition, and Lakeside Ohio is among the most vibrant. An additional seven long running summer education programs trace their roots to the Chautauqua movement.
These shots are from a single street a the end of the green, just beyond the miniature golf course inside its white board fence. All very quaint and elegant. And colorful.
I used the zoom to frame details, textures, color contrast, etc.
Nikon Coolpix P500 at 1) 215mm equivalent field of view, f5.7 @ 1/200th @ ISO 160. 2) 76mm equivalent, f4.8 @ 1/250th @ ISO 160. Program with Active D-Lighting.
Processed in Lightroom for Clarity and Sharpness. Cropped for composition.
9/24/2011: Antidote for the Rain, Monarch on Aster
I woke this morning to rain. Still raining. It rained most of the day yesterday and it’s raining now. Rain is predicted for this morning, and then thundershowers this afternoon. So, as an antidote for the rain, I offer this Monarch Butterfly on wild Aster from last Sunday’s excursion to Meadowbrook Marsh Sanctuary in Port Clinton OH.
The monarch is a big bright butterfly at any time, but put it against the contrasting purples of the Aster and it really pops. I chased this specimen along the edge of one of the grassy walks at Meadowbrook for 10 minutes or more, hoping for this shot.
Nikon Coolpix P500 in Close Up mode with the default zoom setting overridden. 669mm equivalent field of view, f5.7 @ 1/400th @ ISO 160.
Processed in Lightroom for Clarity and Sharpness.