photoartflightRoseate Spoonbill FlyBy
Posted on March 5, 2020
Here are a series of images of Roseate Spoonbills in flight. These are from a previous trip to Florida, but did not post them before. One of my favorite birds to photograph! Plus they are a Large and Colorful bird. Easier to fill the frame and you definitely see them coming! Also they are interesting to watch how they interact with each other in the tree tops. My next post will show some of those images. Being retired now I have time to go through my large backlog of past trips. These are all taken back then with a Canon 400mm f/4 DO lens on a Canon 7D (Full Frame FOV ~ 640mm)
Wood Stork Flying In Nest Building Materials
Posted on August 13, 2019
When we were photographing birds at a Rookery in Florida, I photographed this Wood Stork flying in nest building materials. Once it got closer to the tree the nest was in, it disappeared in the branches and leaves.
Roseate Spoonbill Antics
Posted on June 8, 2019
While I was photographing birds at the St. Augustine Alligator Farm I noticed these 2 Spoonbills, high up on a branch, interacting together. They kept prodding each other and making quite a bit of noise squawking as they were going at it. But it gave me an opportunity to get some interesting photos of them while they were busy. I was using a zoom lens from 350mm to 600mm. Maybe the one just wanted the spot on the branch the other one was standing. After a few minutes it did get the spot on the branch. While I was working on my files I was amazed at the detail of the images from the Canon R. Especially the fine feather details and the clean look of the files.
Happy Mothers Day
Posted on May 12, 2019
Happy Mothers Day to all the Moms!
A few images of young birds in nests from a recent photo trip.
Young Great Egrets
Posted on May 4, 2019
The featured image shows a little older set of young Great Egrets. They were just hanging out at the nest waiting for food for when their parents return. Below are a few other Great Egret nests with younger birds showing their “fuzzy” look. The images were shot at 550mm and 600mm.
Courting Wood Storks
Posted on May 2, 2019
With all the nests at the rookery, it was probable you would find some birds mating. Did not think it would be Wood Storks though. These Storks were at the top of one of the tallest trees in the Rookery. Not sure if it was their nest or an existing abandoned nest. Images shot @ 600mm. The images below are why there are so many nests at the Rookery. The alligators are basically protecting the nests from predators that would climb up the trees to feed on the young birds. These are just a few of the 30 or more alligators below the walkway.
More Great Egret Nests
Posted on April 30, 2019
Among the wide variety of nesting birds at the St. Augustine Alligator Farm’s Rookery, there are many Great Egret nests in the trees. This blog post shows a few of these. It is amazing to see so many nests in most of the trees. Some trees have a dozen or more nests in a single tree. Also the variety of birds nesting in the same tree.
Tricolored Heron Nest With Eggs
Posted on April 26, 2019
I have not posted recently because we were traveling to a variety of spots for a photography vacation. The featured image is a Tricolored Heron Nest in a rookery at one of our stops. The image is a 2 image panorama @ 600mm and I did not want to zoom out to get it all in so I went with 2 handheld shots to assemble for the final image. I also wanted to show a little more to the right & left around the nest. It was an interesting spot to photograph with a wide variety of nesting birds with probably over 100 nests throughout the rookery. I was trying out a 150-600mm lens and it seemed to work extremely well with a Canon R mirrorless camera body. Especially with the White birds in bright sunlight, all types of Egrets, Herons & Wood Storks, etc. The Canon R did not blow out any of the highlights and had amazing detail in the “whites”. It especially worked well with the fine feathery Breeding Plumage
Tricolored Heron Eggs in Nest
Another single image from a 2 image series showing nest, but cutting off right bill. 2nd image would show more to the right background.
Roseate Spoonbills
Posted on April 30, 2018
These were from a previous trip to Florida. Did not post these then, but was working on older files and found them and decided to work on them. They are a fun bird to photograph and almost comical in some ways. Plus they are a large and colorful bird so easier to fill the image and get interesting poses. It is fun to watch them interacting with each other. You just have to make sure you do not overexpose the whites especially in bright sunlight.
Black-Crowned Night-Herons In The Trees
Posted on April 12, 2018
These are from a previous trip to the Saint Augustine Alligator Farm in Florida. Sometimes it takes me a while to go through images that I have shot in the past. We found quite a few Black-Crowned Night-Herons that had nests in the trees at the St. Augustine Alligator Farm on this trip. We got there late in the afternoon and only had a short amount of time to photograph. They were just hanging out on the branches near their nests. It was interesting to photograph them in the dappled light, giving a slight highlight effect. We were surprised how many had nests in the trees there. If you waited for them to move around you could get shots with the sun highlighting their head. This is a series with mature and immature Black-crowned Night-herons. They are one of my favorite herons to photograph because of how they are often hidden in the vegetation and their animated action when catching a meal. Also they are more seclusive and a challenge to get uncluttered images of them. There were also large amounts of other Herons, Egrets and Spoonbills. I also believe you can get there early and pay extra to get in early to photograph on the boardwalk.
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