Daily Archives: June 29, 2023
Biggest Week in American Birding: Mission Accomplished
Green Heron: Magee Marsh Wildlife Area, Oak Harbor, Ohio, USA, May 2023 — For the second year in a row a pair of Green Herons is nesting at the end of the pond across from the boardwalk at Magee. They were busy building and repairing the nest while we were there for the Biggest Week in American Birding in May and this gentleman had obviously been sent out for a stick…which he chose to forage within a few feet of the boardwalk rail. OM Systems OM-1 with 100-400mm zoom at 372mm equivalent. Program mode with an early version of my custom bird modifications. Processed in Pixelmator Pro. ISO 320-500 @ f6.3 @ 1/640th. -.7EV.
Maine! Discovering its wings
Piping Plover: York County, Maine, USA, June 2023 — This Piping Plover chick is 2 to 3 weeks old. It will not fly for at least another week, maybe more, but it is beginning to stretch its wings. This same day there were maybe 2 day old chicks at other end of the beach (they were well away from the nest and that does not happen generally for the first day or so), and they were only half this size…that is the body was half this size, the legs do not grow much after hatching. Piping Plovers grow into their legs 🙂 Notice the fine fringe of down feathers still on the wing. And let me remind you that this photo was taken from at least 30 feet with a long lens and cropped in for scale. I would never get as close to the chick as it looks here, and neither should you. 🙂 OM Systems OM-1 with 100-400mm zoom at 800mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom bird modifications. Processed in Pixelmator Pro. ISO 200 @ f8 @ 1/1250th.