Monthly Archives: May 2012
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.
5/30/2012: Tricolored Herons, St. Augustine FL
As befits its name, there is no more colorful bird at the St. Augustine Alligator Farm rookery during breeding season than the Tricolored Heron. Naturally a colorful bird, breeding adds the bright turquoise lores (with color extending well out on the beak), and extra vibrancy to the plumes. The clear red eye, which looks to me to be made of liquid ruby, is even more vividly set off by the turquoise surround.
The Tricolored are also the most oblivious of the birds at the rookery to human presence. They nest closest to the boardwalk, often within arm’s reach, and they will hop up on the pilings with people 3 or 4 feet on either side, and sit there, generally moving off on their own before they are flushed.
Canon SX40HS. Program with iContrast and –1/3EV exposure compensation. 1) 445mm equivalent field of view, f5 @ 1/160th @ ISO 500. 2) 325mm equivalent, f5 @ 1/200th @ ISO 200. 3) and 4) 230mm equivalent, f5 @ 1/200th @ ISO 200.
Processed in Lightroom for intensity, clarity, and sharpness.
5/29/2012: Great Egrets. St. Augustine FL
The Great Egrets are the most likely birds to contest prime nest sites at the St. Augustine Alligator Farm rookery with the Wood Storks. They generally loose out for the tree-top sites, but they make up the whole of the next story down. This bird did, somehow, end up with a penthouse suite and was making the most of it by displaying on the balcony. You can see the green lores, one of the features of full breeding plumage.
When I visit in late April, you already find Great Egret nests at all stages of development, from newly laid eggs, to chicks about ready to fledge.
And, of course, there is nothing quite like a Great Egret in flight…and birds are in flight somewhere almost continuously at the rookery.
Great Egret winds are a wonder, even when all the bird is doing is preening.
Canon SX40HS. Program with iContrast and –1/3EV exposure compensation. 1) 655mm equivalent field of view, f5.8 @ 1/800th @ ISO 100. 2) 560mm equivalent, f5.8 @ 1/640th @ ISO 200. 3) 350mm, f5 @ 1/800th @ ISO 200. 4) 500mm, f6.3 @ 1/1250th @ ISO 200. 5) 350mm, f5 @ 1/800th @ ISO 200. 6) 370mm, f5 @ 1/1000th @ ISO 100. 7) and 8) 340mm, f5 @ 1/1000th @ ISO 160. 9) 340mm, f5 @ 1/640th @ ISO 200.
Processed in Lightroom for intensity, clarity, and sharpness.
5/28/2012: Cattle Egrets. St. Augustine FL
It seems like every year there are more Cattle Egrets nesting at the St. Augustine Alligator Farm rookery, and they were particularly bright, in their breeding colors, this year.
It is tempting to think of them as “non-native birds” since they have only been breeding here in North America since the early 1950s. However, the Cattle Egret got here under its own power, naturally, crossing the Atlantic to South America in the early 1900s and becoming established there by the 1930s. It then moved out, breeding in Canada by the 1960s, and, by now, having spread over much of North and South America.
And it has spread on the other continents as well. Originally it was native (?) to the Iberian Peninsula and North Africa (that is to say, that is were it was found when we first began to pay attention). From there it spread all through Africa, crossed over the the Americas, colonized Asia (reaching Australia by the 1940s and New Zealand by the 60s). It is now working north through Europe, and east, island by island, across the Pacific Ocean.
It goes, and can survive, and thrive, where ever humans raise cattle. Simple as that. Because of its specialization, it does not normally seriously compete with native species. That helps it to become established fairly quickly…as does it ability to blend in in communal heron/egret/stork rookeries like the one at the Alligator Farm in St. Augustine. Interesting bird.
Canon SX40HS. Program with iContrast and –1/3EV exposure compensation. 1) 840mm equivalent field of view, f5.8 @ 1/640th @ ISO 160. 2) 440mm equivalent, f5 @ 1/320th @ ISO 160, 3) 840mm, f5.8 @ 1/400th @ ISO 200. 4) 840mm, f5.8 @ 1/250th @ ISO 100.
Processed in Lightroom for intensity, clarity, and sharpness.
5/27/2012: Unknown Beauty, Kennebunk Bridle Path. Happy Sunday
Every spring I find a few of these flowers growing near one of the old bridges on the Kennebunk Bridle Path where it crosses land owned by Rachel Carson National Wildlife Refuge along the Mousam River. I can’t identify it. It looks so familiar, so like I ought to know its name. Again today, I have spent way too long looking…in my wildflower guides and on-line, but it eludes me yet…once more. I suspect it is closely related to Canada Mayflower and False Lily of the Valley, though it is not either of those. Canada May Flower grows further down the path in the more shaded areas, and the leaves are the wrong shape for False Lily of the Valley. There are a lot of flowery bushes right along there, including Barbarry, which I know is not native, so I have come to suspect it might be a garden flower left over from when the Path, which was, in fact, a trolley line connecting Kennebunk proper with Kennebunk Port at the turn of the century, was landscaped. But which one?
No matter what it is called, I love the delicate white flowers and the strong bold curves of the veined leaves, especially as they are shown off here in the spring sun. The sunlit brush in the background is, I think, just far enough out of focus to provide framing and balance for the strong leaves in the foreground, and the slightly radial lines of the dry plant stems actually draw the eye downward to the flower at the center. This is a ground level shot. I have a slightly tighter framing that focuses more on the flowers, but I really like what the light is doing in the lines of the leaves.
Canon SX40HS. Program with iContrast and –1/3EV exposure compensation. 24mm macro, plus 1.5x digital tel-extender for the field of view of a 36mm lens, f4 @ 1/1000th @ ISO 125.
Processed in Lightroom for intensity, clarity, and sharpness.
And for the Sunday thought. I am not sure why it bothers me so much to have to post this beauty without a name. The flower is beautiful. The image is strong. It needs, I think, no apology. It is a thing of beauty in itself, whole. A name would not make it any better, or even any more complete. And yet, there is a vague sense that I am failing in my duty when I publish it without a name attached. And that is it exactly. I am not feeling ashamed at my ignorance, or my lack of diligence. We can’t know everything, and I have spent a reasonable (some would say unreasonable) amount of time trying to find out. And yet I do feel that it is part of my job as one who celebrates the creator’s creation to supply the name we humans have given this plant. As though that mattered. Strange.
I was thinking about language this week (probably in the shower where all my deep thinking takes place…I think the quality of thought in the world may have diminished in direct proportion to the conversion from bath-taking to shower-taking 🙂 Words are really just our way of indexing experience and memory. When I say “Canada Mayflower” I instantly tap into a whole complex of connected memory and experience stored somewhere in the biologic cloud that is my brain, and going back in time to my earliest experiences. And now, today, it is so easy to type that name into the browser of my computer, and be instantly connected to the vast web of human memory and experience that resides in the digital cloud that spans the world, and reaches infinitely further back into time than I can go myself. But the words themselves, “Canada Mayflower” are just the index key that pulls all that information together. It is the way our minds work. It is the way we humans work.
Which is way I always smile when I remember that, according to the story that comes along with my faith, our first job was to name the animals (and presumably the plants, and even the rocks, too). It is our most inherent duty. And this is good, because the other aspect of the job is caring. We were to care for creation as well as name it. They are deeply linked in the way we are made. Both logic and faith tell me this is so.
This is a beautiful flower, I think, beautifully framed to share with you. But I still have the vague feeling that if I don’t care enough to know beauty’s name, then I do not care enough.
Happy Sunday.
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.
5/25/2012: The Showy Snowy Show, St. Augustine FL
Snowy Egrets are nesting in large numbers at the St. Augustine Alligator Farm rookery in April and May each spring. At any given moment from dawn to dusk you can catch a male displaying somewhere off the boardwalk. This year, when I visited in late April, many nests already had young as well. The first shot shows a male in all his finery, from the yellow slippers (maintained all year) to the bright red lores (the area between the beak and eye: red only during breeding season). But of course it is the plumage show that captures the imagination: those fine fine back feathers lifted, in challenge to other males, and in invitation to any females. It was these feathers, of course, along with the corresponding breeding finery of Great Egrets and herons, that also attracted the notice of milliners and ladies of fashion at the turn of the century. The annual harvest of Egrets and herons came close to driving the birds to extension, and lead, thankfully, to the first real conservation movement in the US.
Snowy Egrets are attentive nesters, and at the rookery you get to observe nests in many stages of development. In the second shot a female hovers over her chicks, and in the third, the chicks attack her beak hoping for food.
Then we have another displaying male, and a more intimate portrait.
Canon SX40HS. Program with iContrast and –1/3EV exposure compensation. 1) 630mm equivalent field of view, f5.8 @ 1/800th @ ISO 200. 2) 840mm equivalent, f5.8 @ 1/1250th @ ISO 200. 3) 560mm, f5.8 @ 1/320th @ ISO 200. 4) 540mm, f5.8 @ 1/640th @ ISO 125. 5) 840mm, f5.8 @ 1/800th @ ISO 160.
Processed in Lightroom for intensity, clarity, and sharpness. 3) and 5) cropped for composition.
5/24/2012: Wood Stork Haven, St. Augustine FL
The largest birds and most conspicuous birds at the St. Augustine Alligator Farm rookery are the Wood Storks. 30 to 40 pair nest each year, many of them in the single largest tree. It looks like Wood Stork village. I was there in late afternoon when the Florida temperatures were nearing 90 degrees and the sun was hot. This Stork is making shade for a nest full of young. I saw this pose at several nests, and is evidently one the Stork can hold for an extended time. The shot also shows off the green iridescence in the black feathers of the wings…something that is sometimes hard to see.
The second shot is of a Stork airing its wings in the tree top, coming or going. There is constant movement as the birds come and go from feeding, and the Storks don’t ever seem to finish nest building. Males are still bringing in green branches when there are already young in the nest.
The young are just as ungainly and ugly as the adults…but where the adults are saved by the sheer majesty of those huge wings, the chicks have to rely on the residual cuteness of the young of any species for their appeal.
To be fair, the adults have a kind of majesty even without the spread wings.
Canon SX40HS. Program with iContrast and –1/3EV exposure compensation. 1) 700mm equivalent field of view, f6.3 @ 1/1250th @ ISO 200. 2) 600mm equivalent, f5.8 @ 1/1250th @ ISO 100. 3) 840mm equivalent, f5.8 @ 1/800th @ ISO 100. 4) 670mm, f5.8 @ 1/1000th @ ISO 200. 5) 400mm, f5 @ 1/1250th @ ISO 100. 6) 430mm, f5 @ 1/1000th @ ISO 100.
Processed in Lightroom for intensity, clarity, and sharpness.
5/23/2012: Little Blue Heaven. St. Augustine FL
The St. Augustine Alligator Farm rookery during breeding season is an amazing place to photograph birds. Everywhere you look there is something happening that is worth your attention and a few frames. It is easy to come back with multiple 1000s of exposures from a day there. And you have to keep reminding yourself: despite being inside a zoo, these are not zoo animals. They are wild birds, communal nesters by nature, who have gathered on their own to create this amazing multi-species rookery. The Alligator Farm has just been intelligent enough to provide access for the wondering public and photographers of all levels. In fact, the Alligator Farm rookery is fairly unique in that even folks with Point and Shoot party cameras…even phone cameras…can bring back satisfying shots of the birds. The longer lens of a super-zoom or DSLR outfit makes truly intimate portraits possible.
And among the birds who nest there, the Little Blue Heron stands out for me. It is not the most numerous or even the most showy…that would have to be the Great Egrets…but it is certainly a striking bird, an arresting bird, in is breeding finery. The plumage, with is subtle blue-greys and purples, its wide range of feather structure, from hair like plumes to sturdy wing feathers, is interesting in any light. And the bird, like all herons, poses. Add the deep turquoise around the eye that is only there during breeding and you can understand why I have so many images.
Canon SX40HS. Program with iContrast and –1/3EV exposure compensation. 1) 700mm equivalent field of view. f5.8 @ 1/400th @ ISO 200. 2) 580mm. f5.8 @ 1/320th @ ISO 200. 3) 340mm. f5 @ 1/160th @ ISO 200. 4) 840mm. f5.8 @ 1/200th @ ISO 200. 5) 570mm. f5.8 @ 1/400th @ ISO 160.
Processed in Lightroom for intensity, clarity, and sharpness.
5/22/2012: Once more the Marsh Wren, Arcata CA
I came back from Godwit Days in Arcata California with enough Marsh Wren shots to last me a long time…or at least until I find another group of cooperative wrens. 🙂 So, without too many apologies, yet another (the 4th) helping of Arcata Marsh Wren. I find it impossible not to appreciate the singing wrens. They are so alive, so right up there in your face vivid and intense, both in person and in pictures. What is not to like?
This is another shot from a rainy day…under heavy overcast…but the flat light is just right for the subject, allowing the full range of subtle browns without dampening the yellow around the beak too much…and keeping the eye liquid. The “V” bokeh pattern adds to the effectiveness of the shot. I wish could say I had planned that…but at least I was apt enough to appreciate it when I found it in post-processing.
Canon SX40HS. Program with iContrast and –1/3EV exposure compensation. 1680mm equivalent field of view (840mm optical plus 2x digital tel-extender function). f5.8 @ 1/200th @ ISO 200. Processed in Lightroom for intensity, clarity, and sharpness.