Back to Birding...

I have been itching to get out with the camera lately, and today I finally pushed myself a bit and went out to photograph birds.   I did not have my usual stamina, and found that I had to stop and take a rest every hour or so.  But it was nice to get outdoors and once again occupy myself with something I really enjoy doing.

I was able to get a few decent photos, including one of a roseate spoonbill chick.  Prior to today I did not have any images of chicks of this particular species, and it was difficult to get this one due to twigs and branches obstructing my view to the bird as it hobbled around in the nest.  But waiting and watching for quite some time finally paid off and resulted in the image below.  You can contrast this image with of the adult spoonbill below it.



Roseate Spoonbill - chick



Roseate Spoonbill - adult


The next image is a cattle egret in full breeding plumage.  It's quite amazing how a fairly boring white bird transforms itself into the colorful version you see below in breeding season.


Cattle Egret in breeding plumage




Next is a young tricolor heron.  As the bird gets older, the browns will turn to blues as seen in the top image in this article.



Tricolor Heron - juvenile


Finally a great white egret both perched and in flight.



Great White Egret



Tricolor Heron

The tricolor heron is one of the most colorful birds we see here in Florida in the springtime.  Since I've been a little under the weather lately these images are from an earlier outing.

[click on any image for a larger view]

Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge



96987 - Great Blue Heron



I recently made a quick trip to Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge and have finally gotten around to posting a few photos.  This great blue heron was standing in some grass near a pond and was in pretty good light.   I made quite a few shots but I like the head angle on this one the best.

Below is a full body shot of the same bird.  (Click on any image for a larger view.)

97008 - Great Blue Heron

And finally, one with a fish.




96969 - Great Blue Heron

 

I have never managed to get a really good shot of a belted kingfisher, and as of today I still haven't.  This one below is probably my best effort so far, but it is cropped from a larger image. These birds spook easily and it's very difficult to approach one to get a closer shot.



40-14265 Belted Kingfisher



The last two are a reddish egret and a tricolor heron.  



97137 - Reddish Egret





96848 - Tricolor Heron



Reworking Old Photos




Night Heron in Flight (juvenile) 2005

[Click on any image for a larger view]

 It seems as software gets more and more sophisticated and one's editing skills improve, there is always a desire to go back and re-edit old photos.  On that topic, I often tell my friends that I don't think any of us will live long enought to go back and fix all of the images we'd like to fix.  But accepting that as reality, it's still fun to take some time now and then to dabble a little bit just to see the difference between our editing skills now, versus what they were back whenever.

I have been cleaning up some old computer files this weekend and deleting a lot of old images that I no longer feel are worth holding onto.  But in that process I stumbled across a few photos I couldn't resist taking time to rework.

I've been using Photoshop CS5 since it was released a last year and I believe it is absolutely the best upgrade Adobe has ever released in the CS line of software.  Adobe Camera Raw version 6 (raw image editor) is absolutely amazing compared to even the last version that preceded it.  The improvements in ACR alone make CS5 worth the upgrade price. 

The first image above of a juvenile night heron in flight, is a lucky shot I made back in 2005 with my first ever DSLR, a Canon 10d.  It typically could not focus fast enough to track a moving bird, but I got lucky on this attempt.  This is still one of my favorite shots of all the birds in flight I have photographed since.

Here are a few images I reworked today...




Tricolor Heron in breeding plumage, 2009

 


Red Shoulder Hawk, 2008





Yellow Crowned Night Heron, 2010

  


 


Meadowlark, 2008

 





Wood Stork (nest building), 2009

 





Great Egret with nesting material, 2009

 




Birding in Florida - Part 1

Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge

Last week my friend Ken Conger was planning to visit so we could photograph the launch of Space Shuttle Discovery.  Ken has been wanting to see a launch for some time, so I am bummed (and surely so is he) that the launch has been delayed until at least April 5th.   We decided to spend the time visiting some wildlife sanctuaries instead, so we set out a plan based on some target species we both wished to photograph.   We started out at Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge, where we had hoped to photograph skimmers and reddish egrets.   There was an abundance of roseatte spoonbills there also, which is one of Ken's favorite species.   

I had for a long time wanted to capture a photograph such as the one above, and found it challening to do, since a bit of luck is involved in finding a place to shoot where the birds are likely to fly past in close proximity.   You can see a closer look at the beak action in the water in the image crop immediately above.  [click on any image to enlarge]

While in the wildlife refuge, I was pleased to  have the opportunity to meet up with up with fellow birder Rod Ostoski , whom I had gotten to know through email the last few years, but had never actually met.  Rod showed Ken and me some good places to watch for skimmers, and I'm pretty sure I would not have gotten the skimmer shots posted here without his direction.   Rod is probably best known for has amazing images of the space shuttle.  You can see them, as well as many bird images on his website linked above.  It was Rod who helped me out with some initial camera settings for photographing the space shuttle launches on several attempts I have made in the past.

One of my favorite images from this trip was a great blue heron that we sort of happened upon when we rounded a bend on Biolab Road.  I shot the image at left from the car, fearing that the bird would fly if I tried to get out.   This guy was in perfect light on smooth water, and I was able to fill the frame with the 100-400 lens I had on my 40d backup rig in the front seat.

I made a very similar image of a tricolor heron, although the bird was not as close as the great blue and had to be cropped.  The light and reflection looked amazing, and I patiently waited for the bird to turn into the soft early morning sunlight before taking this shot.   I already have lots of images of tricolor herons, but none that I remember in water like this one.

One species I had hoped to see is a white morph reddish egret.  Unfortunately I did not see one all week, but did have the opportunity to photograph the reddish egret shown below as it fished along the shoreline.

The day would not be complete without some flyers, so I have included a few below.  There were an abundance of white ibises and roseatte spoonbills.

CLICK HERE  to continue to Part - 2.

You can also check out my Birds in Flight  gallery here.

A Break from the Rain

Florida Birding

The heavy rain has finally let up, so now we are just getting our typical Florida summertime afternoon showers. This gave me the opportunity to go out shooting again, and I enjoyed spending the morning at my favorite venue. But it is really getting hot - the temperature topped out just over 90-degrees F yesterday, and it is expected to get worse. You can tell summer is on its way, although it has not officially arrived.
Below are some photos from my latest outing, including a few headshots and a great egret flight sequence.

[click on any image to enlarge]
6791c - Snowy Egret
This snowy egret photo is probably my favorite shot of the day. It was made with my backup camera, a Canon 40d with 300mm f2.8 lens and 2x extender (600mm). I've heard people say for a long time that the 2x extender degrades picture quality too much to be of use. I used to think that was true, but I realized last year that my camera focus was out of calibration, and once that was corrected, I began to get nice images, even with the 2x. I might add that to get good results with an extender, you should attach it to a good quality lens.

The tricolor heron below is a young bird, as you can tell by the coloration and the head feathers.
66424 - Tricolor Heron
There were a good number of roseatte spoonbills (15 to 20), but they were roosting in the trees and seldom flying around. Every so often a few of them would get restless and fly off to a different perch. I was not able to get many good flight photos of them because I either was not close enough or the light was at a bad angle. Here is one shot I managed to get, although pretty heavily cropped.

66577c - Roseatte Spoonbill

66606 - Snowy Egret

Snowy egrets were flying around jousting for space in several trees, and I captured this image when one of them held still for a few seconds. Most of the time, the snowy egrets did not stay put for very long, except for the ones sitting on eggs.

66651c - Tricolor Heron

I do not have many tricolor heron flight shots, so if I get an opportunity I always try to capture a better one. I snapped several photos as this one flew past, and
this was my favorite one.
Below is a flight sequence of a great egret flying to the nest with a stick. I watched as the bird tore the branch from a tree, and then prepared to fly back to the nest. I like the first and last shots the best. It's interesting to watch as the bird springs off the tree and spreads its wings to take off.

#66627 - 66631 Great Egret flight sequence

66628

66629

66630

66631

Bird Headshots and Portraits

Reverting to "Plan B"

It has rained 8 of the last 9 days here in Florida totaling over 24 inches of rain according to my neighbor's rain gauge. Since this has prevented me from getting out, I decided to revisit some photos from past outings and take a closer look at some headshots.

Getting a good headshot is aways a big challenge for me and most of the time the I end up not liking a lot of the shots I make. It's particularly difficult for me to capture enough close detail and create a well composed shot at the same time. This is something I'm still working on - trying to achieve the kind of balance that will jump out at me when I see it. The examples in this post are some of my better attempts.

30247 Tricolor Heron
The tricolor heron image above was captured in St. Augustine, Florida. Getting this kind of shot is easy when you just happen to get an unexpected opportunity at very close range. I was fortunate to have this happen one morning in the Everglades National park, which resulted in the two images below. Neither of these birds spooked as I approached, so it was pretty easy to get these images. I figured the birds in close proximity to the trails at Shark Valley must have become accustomed to human presence because they were very tolerant of people approaching and snapping photos.
42043-Black Vulture



42198-Cormorant
The cormorant was the first decent headshot I've ever gotten of one. I only wish this particular bird had been in breeding colors with the blue ring around the eye. I have seen some amazing photos of them but have not had the opportunity to capture an image like that myself yet.
42431 Green Heron
The green heron image above was captured in the early morning light at Wakodahatchee Wetlands. Sometimes a bird approaches closely but lands on a the railing of the boardwalk or some other man made object. I will usually not photograph a bird and show it standing on something other than a natural perch, but this type of situation does give an opportunity for a head shot, which is what I did in this situation.
23919 Purple Gallinule


















The purple gallinule is one of the most colorful birds I've ever seen. On the few occasions I've had to photograph one, I have not yet had an opportunity for a really good full length shot. This one walked up into the grass beside a trail where I was standing in the Everglades National Park, allowing me the opportunity to make this headshot.
29375 Cattle Egret
This cattle egret shot above was made in St. Augustine. It was perched on a tree near the boardwalk at the Alligator Farm and made an easy target for a headshot.
35551- Wood Stork
In this last shot, I was able to get fairly close to the wood stork. But I was in a hurry to get the shot, thinking the bird was about to leave, and neglected to choose a narrow enough aperture to keep the back of the neck within the depth of field and in focus. I'll try to remember this in the future and hopefully avoid making this same mistake again. Taking headshots is fun, but it is also something I do as a throwback when I am unable to capture a full shot due to either an unsuitable foreground or some other distraction that would disturb the composition. That's why I consider headshots as 'plan B' on most outings.