photoartflightFemale Red-Winged Blackbird
Posted on June 11, 2020
These are images taken from a previous trip to the Edwin B. Forsythe National Wildlife Refuge, Brigantine Division in Oceanville, NJ. Along the Wildlife Drive you see many birds in the vegetation along the sides of the Wildlife Drive either foraging for a meal or just hanging out on vegetation & bushes. Most of the Drive has water on both sides of the Wildlife Drive which also provides a lot of photo opportunities. Also there are many Gulls overhead that have found clams on the shorelines. They fly above the Wildlife Drive & drop the clams on the road. Once they fall on the road and crack open, they fly off to eat their meal. I guess it easier to open then. We have not had any hit the car, but some came close. So there are many photo opportunities along the Wildlife Drive. On this day there were a lot of Red-winged Blackbirds along the Wildlife Drive. But you have a better chance to get nice images if you do not try to get too close since they will just fly off. I usually use a 400mm Canon DO lens with either a 1.4x or 2x teleconverter so we do not have to get too close.
Vertical View of Red-winged Blackbird, 400mm DO lens with 1.4x teleconverter
Osprey Flyover
Posted on May 20, 2020
It is always fun to photograph Ospreys flying overhead. And the Edwin B. Forsythe National Wildlife Refuge, Brigantine Division in Oceanville, NJ usually has quite a few around the Wildlife Drive. Especially in nesting season. I was using a Canon 400mm DO Lens with a 2x teleconverter to photograph these flying Ospreys.
Cattle Egret @ 800mm
Posted on May 18, 2020
Another series of images @ 800mm. This time a Cattle Egret that was balancing on a sign along the Wildlife Drive at the Brigantine Division of the Edwin B. Forsythe National Wildlife Refuge in Oceanville, New Jersey. It was interesting to see it hanging on to the sign with it’s large feet. I did not want the sign to show so I was composing more for portraits against the nice blue sky. Because it was on top of the sign, I was sort of looking up at it. Most were taken with a 400mm lens with a 2x teleconverter. I shot a few different angles and views before moving on leaving the Egret sunning there. Before finding this Cattle Egret on the drive we also passed a small group foraging on the ground.
2 overlapping vertical images @ 800mm for Panorama
First image in series shot @ 400mm before moving a little closer & adding the 2x teleconverter
Osprey Nest @ 800mm & 1280mm
Posted on May 17, 2020
These images are from a previous trip years ago to the Edwin B. Forsythe National Wildlife Refuge, Oceanville Division, in New Jersey. Along the Wildlife Drive there are quite a few Osprey platforms providing good opportunities to photograph Ospreys on nests. Quite often you can also see them with the Osprey nestlings. If you wait long enough you can see them bringing fish to the nests and feeding the chicks.
Osprey Nest @ 800mm
Osprey Nest @ 1280mm
Osprey Nest @1280mm, plus some image crop
Osprey Nest @1280mm, plus some image crop
Osprey Nest @ 800mm
Osprey Nest @ 800mm, plus some image crop
Osprey saying “Who you looking at!”
Bald Eagle vs Osprey
Posted on April 10, 2020
It is interesting to see Bald Eagles and Ospreys interacting and going after each other. Here the Eagle was trying to get the Ospreys fish, which it dropped, but they were still going at it for a while. This image was taken with a 400mm lens at the Brigantine Division of the Edwin B. Forsythe National Wildlife Refuge in Oceanville NJ.
American Oystercatchers
Posted on April 7, 2020
I photographed these American Oystercatchers from a much earlier trip to the Brigantine Division of the Edwin B. Forsythe National Wildlife Refuge. We saw quite a few Oystercatchers around especially by the waters edge. They seem to be very skiddish birds so I was using a Canon 400mm DO lens with a 1.4x teleconverter on 7D Camera (for a Full Frame Field of View ~ 896mm). I really like their bright colored beak and eyes! They really stand out!
Common Yellowthroat In Field
Posted on March 4, 2020
I liked how this Common Yellowthroat warbler stood out in this field of dried brush. I also liked the angle of the brush in the background and the bird’s perch leaning in the same direction. Usually they are flitting from perch to perch, but this one stayed for a while before flying off giving me a chance to get a few shots. Image taken @ 800mm (Canon 400mm f/4 DO lens with Canon 2X teleconverter)
26 Cormorants Panorama
Posted on February 29, 2020
The Winter months give me an opportunity to go through images I have not worked on before. This is a multi-image panorama from a past trip to the Edwin B. Forsythe National Wildlife Refuge in New Jersey. I thought it was interesting to see so many Cormorants lined up on these small pilings. Many times you see large groups even bigger than this group swimming in the channels here, but never saw this many in a group on pilings. 5 Images shot at 800mm, aligned and blended in Photoshop.
Bald Eagles Enforcing Closed Road
Posted on January 19, 2020
The Eagles seemed to be enforcing the Closed Road, manning the checkpoint! They liked sitting on the barricade. Throughout the day we were there we saw a few different Eagles sitting there.
Black-Crowned Night-Heron Foraging
Posted on January 9, 2020
Here is a series of images from a previous trip to the Edwin B. Forsythe National Wildlife Refuge in Oceanville New Jersey. Now that I am fully retired and closed my studio, I have time to go through images from previous photo outings that I have on my backup drives. This is a series of images of a Black-crowned Night-heron in breeding plumage, foraging for a meal. It was darting back and forth really working this area in one of the channels along the Wildlife Drive. It was fun to watch the Night-Heron and also be close enough to the Wildlife Drive to get closeup images.
2 image panorama (horizontal images)
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