Posted on September 7, 2014
It was a busy day for Ospreys at The Celery Farm Natural Area. Lately there has not been a lot of activity with the birds here, but the last few days the Ospreys have been very busy. Multiple sightings during the morning and late afternoon. Multiple dives further out in the Lake. Usually only getting small fish. Here are a few of the hundreds of images I captured today.
Category: Birds, Blog, Celery Farm, Wildlife Tagged: Celery Farm, Celery Farm Natural Area, Os, osprey, Osprey Fishing
Posted on September 1, 2014
I went this morning to the Celery Farm Natural Area to see if I could find anything going on. It was a very dull overcast morning with low light. There were a few Great Egrets going back & forth, a Kingfisher off in the distance and a few Great Blue Herons, along with some ducks. We saw this Great Blue Heron off to the left, in the water. He caught a fish, but got it speared on the end of his beak, and started to go off down the channel. This is one of the few times I have seen a Great Blue do this. Usually they catch and swallow their meal fairly quickly, unless it is really large. This Great Blue looked like it was heading to shore to deal with his meal.
Category: Birds, Blog, Celery Farm, Wildlife Tagged: Celery Farm, Celery Farm Natural Area, Great Blue Heron
Posted on August 24, 2014
I was at the Celery Farm Natural Area this morning expecting a usual slow day. But to my surprise there was a lot going on. Some activity close, some far away, but still was fun to see. We have not had many Cormorants in the last couple of years but there were 2 there. It was early morning and the Cormorant was in the dark shadows from the trees. It was fishing close by and then took off making a few laps around the small lake. The usual places they used to roost on the lake have disappeared and it ended up landing in a tree right above the observation platform we were at. After a while it took off to go fishing again. I was watching as he was far out on the lake. After a while I did not see him fishing anymore but went on to photographing Great Egrets. Then we noticed a strange sight of something going through the water and could not tell what it was. As it got closer we saw it was a Snapping Turtle dragging the body of the Cormorant by the throat. Usually we see the Cormorants catching and eating fish. Not being the meal themselves. It was a sad end to a good day of photographing wildlife. But I guess it demonstrates the life cycle in the wild.
Category: Birds, Blog, Celery Farm, Wildlife Tagged: Celery Farm, Celery Farm Natural Area, Cormorant, Snapping turtle
Posted on August 1, 2014
Last Sunday I went to the Celery Farm Natural Area even though it was raining lightly and overcast. Did not expect to see much, but thought I could find something for the blog. There were a few Canada Geese and a few Great Blue Herons. The light was terrible and raining slightly. I did see this Great Blue Heron, in a rather dark area under trees, through the tree branches. I tried shooting through an opening the leaves, framing the Great Blue in an opening in the closer foliage, using the closer out of focus leaves as a soft colorful border for the image.

Canada Geese Leaving. Canon EOS 1D MkIV, Canon 400mm f/4 DO IS lens, Canon Series III 1.4X Teleconverter, f/8, 1/640 sec, -1.33 exposure compensation, ISO 800

Great Blue Heron on Duck Box. Canon EOS 1D MkIV, Canon 400mm f/4 DO IS lens, Canon Series III 1.4X Teleconverter, f/8, 1/320 sec, -1.33 exposure compensation, ISO 800, Increased contrast & saturation in Adobe Camera Raw to get rid of some of the lower contrast of the haze and and rain.

Floating Feather against gray sky reflection. Canon EOS 1D MkIV, Canon 400mm f/4 DO IS lens, Canon Series III 1.4X Teleconverter, f/8, 1/640 sec, -0.33 exposure compensation, ISO 800
Category: Birds, Blog, Celery Farm, Favorite Locations, Wildlife Tagged: Celery Farm Natural Area, Great Blue Heron, The Celery Farm
Posted on July 26, 2014
I finally saw a Kingfisher at one of the local nature areas. Usually they are here before this, but there was limited sightings so far. This one was on a branch across from me. The Kingfisher stayed for about 10 minutes then flew off to the channel, chattering as he went.
Category: Birds, Blog, Celery Farm, Wildlife Tagged: Celery Farm Natural Area, Kingfisher, The Celery Farm
Posted on July 20, 2014
It was a slow day at the Celery Farm Natural Area with little light and little activity going on except for a few Canada Geese. While waiting for something to happen, this group of Wood Ducks swam by in front of us. It was too long a group for one shot, so I quickly shot 2 photos to capture the whole group. This group was larger than the group last week with 22 Wood Ducks. I don’t think this was all from one family. I blended the two shots in Photoshop with an opaque feathered mask and lined up the groups. There was a smaller group also, which seemed to come upon another snapping turtle, scooting off quickly and getting away.

Small Group of Wood Ducks. Canon EOS MkIV, Canon 400mm f/4 DO lens, Canon Series III 1.4X Teleconverter, f/8, 1/160 sec., +1 exposure compensation, Fill Flash w/ Canon 600ex-rt with a +2 stop exp. comp because of distance, with Better Beamer Flash Extender, ISO 640.

Small Group of Wood Ducks coming upon snapping turtle. Canon EOS MkIV, Canon 400mm f/4 DO lens, Canon Series III 1.4X Teleconverter, f/8, 1/400 sec., +0.67 exposure compensation, Fill Flash w/ Canon 600ex-rt with a +2 stop exp. comp because of distance, with Better Beamer Flash Extender, ISO 640.

Wood Duck swimming away from a snapping turtle. Canon EOS MkIV, Canon 400mm f/4 DO lens, Canon Series III 1.4X Teleconverter, f/8, 1/400 sec., +0.67 exposure compensation, Fill Flash w/ Canon 600ex-rt with a +2 stop exp. comp because of distance, with Better Beamer Flash Extender, ISO 640.
Category: Birds, Blog, Celery Farm, Wildlife Tagged: Celery Farm Natural Area, The Celery Farm, Wood ducks
Posted on July 15, 2014
I was at the Celery Farm Natural Area on Sunday, but there was not a lot going on. I did see this Dragonfly with its reflection in the distance. It was a gray day, so I just opened up the shadows and added some vibrance to bring the water up from a dull gray. I liked the reflection of the reddish-orange large dragonfly in the water.
Category: Blog, Celery Farm, Dragonflies, Nature Still Lifes Tagged: Celery Farm Natural Area, dragonfly, The Celery Farm
Posted on July 14, 2014
This family of young Wood Ducks was crossing the Lake on the far side, close to shore. Mom was in the background to the right of the Great Blue Heron. There was not enough light for stopping down to get everything in focus, so I merged 2 shots. One I focused on the Wood Ducks strung out in a row, then I refocused on Mom and the Great Blue Heron. I blended the 2 images in Photoshop with a soft edge mask for the final image.
Category: Birds, Blog, Celery Farm, Wildlife Tagged: Celery Farm Natural Area, The Celery Farm, Wood ducks
Posted on July 6, 2014
This family of Mallard ducks were swimming past me this morning, heading towards the glare in the water from the rising sun. As they got off to one side, it seemed like the mother Mallard swam into a Large snapping turtle and quickly jumped upwards, spraying water all around. We saw a large number of quite large snapping turtles all around us in the water. Luckily they escaped and swam on, at least for now.

Mallard family moving on regrouping heading toward the shore. Canon EOS 1D MkIV, Canon 400mm DO IS f/4 lens, Canon Series II 2X Teleconverter, f/8, 1/640 sec, +.067 exp compensation, Flash + 2 stops w/ Better Beamer Flash Extender, ISO 400

Mallard family Moving in front of me as they were heading into the glare of the sun rising. Canon EOS 1D MkIV, Canon 400mm DO IS f/4 lens, Canon Series II 2X Teleconverter, f/8, 1/1000 sec, Flash + 2 stops w/ Better Beamer Flash Extender, ISO 400
Category: Birds, Blog, Celery Farm, Favorite Locations, Wildlife Tagged: Celery Farm Natural Area, Mallard Ducks, The Celery Farm
Posted on July 5, 2014
This is the same Great Egret as the blog before. He was very good at catching fish and just kept working the area in front of me. Some of his meals were small and some seemed very small, then he managed to get a few larger fish. This is one of the larger meals he caught.

Great Egret with Breakfast. Canon EOS 1D MkIV, Canon 400mm DO IS f/4 lens, Canon Series III 1.4X Teleconverter, f/8, 1/800 sec, -0.67 exposure compensation, IDO 400

Great Egret with Breakfast. Canon EOS 1D MkIV, Canon 400mm DO IS f/4 lens, Canon Series III 1.4X Teleconverter, f/8, 1/800 sec, -0.67 exposure compensation, IDO 400
Category: Birds, Blog, Celery Farm, Favorite Locations, Wildlife Tagged: Celery Farm Natural Area, Gr, Great Egret, The Celery Farm
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