photoartflightReddish Egret with Radio Tracker @ Ding Darling NWR
Posted on August 7, 2019
When I was working on the files of this Reddish Egret I photographed at Ding Darling NWR, there was one feather that always looked like it was sticking up and seemed strange. So on the images I was working on I just cloned it out because it looked odd. It was not til I was working on the last image I saw it was a radio tracker, not a weird feather sticking up. I was surprised how large it was. I was going to go back and leave it in, but decided to stay with a “cleaner” look for most of them. I have seen tracking bands on their legs, but it was a first time I saw a radio tracker on a bird at Ding Darling NWR. Especially a tracker that large. This Reddish Egret was working this area from early morning with cooler light and gradually I got some warmer shots as the sun got higher in the sky. You can see the progression of cooler early morning images, then to the last warmer with the sun higher in the sky.
Early Morning Light @600mm
Earlier morning light before sun warmed up the area. With Tracker antenna showing.
Same Reddish Egret in Warmer light
Black Skimmers At Brigantine
Posted on July 28, 2019
More Black Skimmers fishing at the Brigantine Division of the Edwin B. Forsythe National Wildlife Refuge in Oceanville New Jersey. These were photographed @ 600mm with the Tamron 150 – 600mm lens on a Canon R. They are cropped in a little to concentrate on the Skimmer.
Wider View of Black Skimmer fishing
Snow Goose In Summer
Posted on July 27, 2019
On our trip to the Brigantine Division of the Edwin B. Forsythe NWR, we saw this lone Snow Goose multiple times around one area of the refuge. Usually they are all gone from the Refuge at this time of the year. But seeing it multiple times around a certain area it seemed like the one wing might be injured. We also saw it just walking along the side of the Wildlife Drive.
More Black Skimmers From Brigantine
Posted on July 3, 2019
It is fun to watch Black Skimmers working in pairs. While we were at the Brigantine Division of the Edwin B. Forsythe National Wildlife Refuge we noticed this pair of Black Skimmers working this area along the Wildlife Drive. They kept flying across the main channel of water along the Drive, then turning into a perpendicular channel flying away from us. Then they would return and repeat their flight path, skimming along the water as they flew by. It is fun to photograph them when you have fairly smooth water to see their paths behind them to visually see the arcing paths they take while fishing in tandem.
Black Skimmers banking to return for another pass
Black Skimmers @ 600mm
Returning Skimmers crossing paths
Black Skimmers changing direction
Black Skimmers At Brigantine
Posted on July 1, 2019
Black Skimmers are some of my favorite birds to photograph as they are fishing and skimming along the water. This group was working an area in the channel along the Wildlife Drive near the entrance to the Wildlife Drive at the Edwin B. Forsythe National Wildlife Refuge, Brigantine Division. I was shooting @ 600mm, but they were covering a large area, going down one of the channels moving away from me, then turning around coming back to me and going to the right. Then they would repeat their pattern. Time after time fishing the channels and then swinging around to skim along the other direction. There were 2 groups of 2 fishing there. In another post I will show images of the 2 skimming together.
I was using a Canon R with a Tamron 150-600mm lens and was surprised the Canon R tracked them so well. I even tried a few with a 2x teleconverter and still auto-focused well.
Black-Crowned & Yellow-Crowned Night-Herons At The Audubon Swamp Garden.
Posted on June 28, 2019
On our way to Florida we stopped at one of our favorite places, the Magnolia Plantation and the Audubon Swamp Garden, which is attached to Magnolia Plantation. Years and years ago we stopped here and that started my interest in photographing birds. Audubon Swamp Garden is a 60-acre cypress and tupelo tree swamp on the grounds of Magnolia Plantation near Charleston, South Carolina. The featured image is a Black-Crowned Night-Heron in a distant tree.
The two images below are a Yellow-Crowned Night-Heron.
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.
Roseate Spoonbill FlyBy
Posted on May 27, 2019
As I was photographing birds on nests at the St. Augustine Alligator Farm, this Roseate Spoonbill flew by overhead. The sun overhead was so bright that it really lit up the wings as it flew by giving a lot of detail in the wings and feathers.
Great Egret, Breeding Plumage On Nest
Posted on May 25, 2019
Another Great Egret with Breeding Plumage & Coloring on a Nest at the St. Augustine Alligator Farm. I was using a Canon R for most of my trip and am quite impressed with the fine details and how it holds detail in the bright white of my photo subjects in bright sunlight. Most of my images on these types of birds was with no minus exposure compensation. On older Canon bodies I would probably be -1 full stop of exposure compensation to not blow out the details in the whites.
Different nearby nest with chicks
Nearby Great Egret, breeding plumage and eye lore coloring
Cattle Egret At St. Augustine Alligator Farm
Posted on May 17, 2019
Here are a few more images from our trip to the Rookery at the St. Augustine Alligator Farm. It is taking a while to go through all the images I shot at multiple places in Florida. It was fun to see a Cattle Egret in with all the other birds at the Rookery. The majority of birds were the larger Herons, Egrets, Spoonbills, Storks, etc., so I was glad to get a few images before a Little Blue Heron chased it off.
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