Monthly Archives: December 2022

The Best Christmas Gift! Barred Owl

Barred Owl: Kennebunk, Maine, USA, December 2022 — We were on our way back from Christmas dinner with my wife’s local immediate family, with sun already setting here in the short days of December, and we were talking about looking for Snowy Owls and Eagles behind the Catholic Church which sits out half way across the marshes in Wells, when, there on a wire above the road, was what certainly could have been a Snowy Owl. It was silhouetted against the open sky and I was past it before I could stop. We backed the car up and I parked half off the road and fumbled my camera out and got it set for multi-frame noise reduction, which I knew I would need in the low light, and climbed out of the car. In the camera viewfinder, at 600mm equivalent, it was a Barred Owl, not a Snowy, but still. Like most Owls, it knew I was there, but was not terribly concerned, as I worked around and down the opposite edge of the road to get bit closer. Such a gift! Terrible light and all, but I spent 5 minutes photographing it…so intent I forgot to breathe as much as I should have. When I got home it was a processing challenge to make the most of the low light, back-lit exposures, but still…such a gift for Christmas Day 2022. My wife emailed her sister, and it turns out the owl is a well known local character, and often hunts that stretch of road in twilight, waiting for car headlights to highlight an unwary rodent…as owls do. Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications and multi-frame noise reduction. Processed in Pixelmator Photo and Apple Photos. Equivalent ISO 2000 @ f4. 1/500th. Plus 1.7EV.

Home for Christmas Edition: Bluebird!

Eastern Bluebird: Kennebunk, Maine, USA, December 2022 — For Christmas Day, something close to home. We only started getting Bluebirds in our yard about 6 years ago, and I am still surprised and blessed each day they show up in winter. We had 6 on the deck on Christmas Eve day…and I am sure they will be back today. Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Pixelmator Pro on the Mac Air. ISO 1000 @ f4 @ 1/500th. Plus 1EV.

The other heron at the bridge…

Green Heron: Rincon River Bridge, Rincon, Osa Peninsula, Costa Rica — Along with the Bare-throated Tiger Heron I posted yesterday, we had this very cooperative Green Heron…well, maybe just “close” Green Heron. It did not, in fact, ever sit completely in the open and in good light at the same time…but one out of two is not bad either…and with some selective focus, it produced a pretty good shot. Of course, the Costa Rican Green Heron is no different from the Green Herons we can see almost anywhere in the United States (or anywhere in between for that matter) but the Costa Rican birds are resident there. Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Pixelmator Photo. ISO 100 @ f4 @ 1/500th.

Uganda Edition: Grey-headed Nigrita

Grey-headed Nigrita: Bwindi Impenetrable Forest National Park, Uganda — A bird of the high country and the high canopy, that occasionally comes down to feed. In Bwindi we were looking for Albertine Rift endemics, and this is not one of them…being found at higher elevations in both Kenya and Tanzania, as well as Uganda. Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Pixelmator Pro on the Mac Air. ISO 800 @ f4 @ 1/500th.

Bare-throated Tiger Heron

Bare-throated Tiger Heron: Rincon River Bridge, Rincon, Osa Peninsula, Costa Rica — The Rincon River Bridge in Rincon, just a mile or so from the Bay, is famous for one bird: The Yellow-billed Cotinga which can often be seen in flight, and rarely perched, there early in the morning. This is a very hard bird to see elsewhere, and I suspect that most birders who have seen it, have seen it right there on the bridge, just at sunup. We went. We saw it…though we did not get a look at a perched bird…but while we were there we had some fun with Herons and other birds as the sun finally burned off the morning mist. This is a Bare-throated Tiger Heron. I looked it up…or tried to…and there are 6 species of Tiger Herons. The name, apparently, comes from the striping in the plumage and the overall rufous coloration. They used to be Tiger Bitterns. I long ago stopped looking for logic in bird names. 🙂 This one looked particularly ruddy in the morning sun. I am not sure what was going on in the second shot with the ruff of feathers around the throat…this is not behavior I have seen in Herons before. It might have been a trick of the wind…but I had the impression that the ruff was intentional and part of the hunting posture??? If anyone know different, please chime in in the comments. 🙂 Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Pixelmator Photo and Apple Photos. ISO 100 and 160 @ f4 @ 1/500th.

Uganda Edition: Chubb’s Cisticola

Chubb’s Cisticola: Bwindi Impenetrable Forest National Park, Uganda, August 2022 — The Cisticolas are a confusing lot, and we saw many different Cisticola species in Uganda. I believe this is the Chubb’s which is common in the western mountains of Uganda. It was the first bird we saw as we explored the margins of the ranger trail-head parking while two of us waited from the Gorilla trekkers to come back. Certainly, like all Cisticolas, a perky, cheerful little bird. Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Pixelmator Photo and Apple Photos. ISO 2000-3200 @ f4 @ 1/500th.

Wet Rufous-tailed Hummingbird

Rufous-tailed Hummingbird: Las Tardes Community Ecological Project, Corcovado National Park, Osa Peninsula, Costa Rica — We got caught in the rain on our exploration of the road above Las Tardes station, but made it back before we got soaked…not so much true for this Rufous-tailed Hummingbird that was hanging around off the covered deck where we had our lunch. I suspect he was enjoying the shower. The Rufous-tailed Hummingbird seems to be the most prevalent hummer in Central America…and is certainly the most present around feeders. No feeders at Las Tardes, and this one was still trying to dominate the available resources. 🙂 Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Pixelmator Pro on the Mac Air. ISO 400 @ f4 @ 1/500th. Plus .3EV.

Uganda Edition: Black and White Manakin

Black and White Manakin: Rushaga Gorilla Lodge, Bwindi Impenetrable Forest National Park, Uganda, August 2022 — We did not arrive at our lodge in Bwindi until after sun-set so my first photos there at the edge of the National Park were light-challenged to say the least. This is a Black and White Manakin that was feeding below the balcony in front of my room. Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications and multi-frame noise reduction. Processed in Pixelmator Photo and Apple Photos. Equivalent ISO 2500 @ f4 @ 1/500th.

Mixed feeding flock…

Pic for today: Mixed feeding flock: Las Tardes Community Ecology Project, Corcovado National Park, Osa Peninsula, Costa Rica, December 2022 — White-throated Shrike-Tanager, Rufous Mourner, Ruddy-tailed Flycatcher, Black-cheeked Ant-Tanager, White-winged Tanager, Twany-winged Woodcreeper. As I mentioned yesterday, we had already turned back from our exploration of the road into Corcovado National Park above the Las Tardes station when we encountered this mixed feeding flock of hard to see and hard to photograph birds moving through the undergrowth at just about eye-level. (In fact, if I had not stopped to tie my shoe, we would have missed it.) Yesterday’s Black-striped Woodcreeper was with these birds…along with a few others that I did not manage even a bad shot of. That is the way it happens in tropical birding. We had seen very little until this point in our hike, and then, for a few moments there were so many birds we did not know where to look. And of course, they were all buried in undergrowth so the photographers among us were very frustrated. Just how it goes in the tropics. Sony Rx10iv at around 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications and multi-frame noise reduction. Processed in Pixelmator Photo and Apple Photos. (Disclaimer: Facebook may rearrange these photos randomly, so I will add the names to the individual photos as captions.)

Uganda Edition: Grey-throated Barbet

Grey-throated Barbet: Neck (Bwindi Impenetrable Forest National Park), Uganda, August 2022 — There are a lot of cryptic little birds in the forests of western Uganda, some found only there. This is the Grey-headed Barbet, not one of the rarer birds, with ranges in both far West and East Africa, and being common in the mountain forests of Western Uganda. It often likes to perch high in dead trees, which is exactly where we found this one. Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Pixelmator Photo and Apple Photos. ISO 125 @ f4 @ 1/500th.