Photo of the Day

I photographed this Little Blue Heron early Sunday morning at the Edwardsville IL. Watershed Nature Center. It is great to see the herons and egrets returning to the nature center. It must mean warm weather is here to stay.

The Majestic Bald Eagle.

I love many different types of photography, but I seem to really have an addiction for eagle photography.  Raptors fascinate me, but eagles are what I spend more time chasing and trying to photograph more than any other bird. The Bald Eagle, Haliaeetus leucocephalus, our national bird, is the only eagle unique to North America. I am sure being our national symbol has had a lot of influence in my feelings, but having watched them for so many hours has only deepened my fascination of them. During the winter you can find me prowling the banks of the Mississippi River near my home to find the many eagles that migrate down from the north to find the open waters of the river to feed. Occasionally I get lucky and get a decent photo every once in a while. There does not seem to be nearly as many eagles this year as there have been in he past, but there are still enough around to keep me out there.

Bald Eagle Taking Flight

Bald Eagle riding an ice floe down the Mississippi River

Immature Bald Eagle sitting on the ice

 Alton Grain Elevator reflected in the water as an Bald Eagle rides the ice

Bald Eagle watches the surroundings from a high perch

Portrait of a captive Bald Eagle

Photo Of The Day

In the midwest we have experienced the hardest winter we have seen in many years. With the jet stream passing directly over us, we tend to get more freezing rain and ice than snow. A recent ice storm coated everything with a quarter to half inch of pure ice. I saw this Robin trying to feed on the ice covered berries in a tree. The problem was trying to get a grip on a perch. The poor Robin really struggled to maintain a grip on the icy perch.

A cold slippery grip

Photo of the Day

One of the biggest problems I have is sometimes trying to identify what in the world I just took a photograph of. I have always considered myself to be an avid outdoorsman, and fairly knowledgable about identities of many of the plants and animals I saw. When I really got back into photography and started photographing the birds, mammals, insects, and plants in detail, I wanted to be able to correctly indentify them. It is pretty embarrassing to take a good photograph of something and then not know what it is. I soon learned I was not nearly as smart as I thought I was. Even though I had been to Florida many, many times in my life, the first time I went as a passionate nature photographer I photographed this strange looking bird on the beach at Lovers Key State Park. The problem was I had no clue what it was. So when I got home I started looking through my numerous bird books to try and identify it. I soon got it correct and had my first photograph of an American Oystercatcher.  You see, we do not get those in Illinois, and it does not resemble anything close to what flies of those millions of acres of corn fields.

 Entomology,Orinthology, Botany,or Biology were not my fields of study. What I did do when I should have been studying is probably better left alone right now. Needless to say, I still often struggle to identify the many species of living things I photograph. The good thing is I do like to read, and the internet is a great resource for finding things faster than looking in outdated books. I have a lot of sites bookmarked on my computer to help me now.

Cute Little Bird taken on Ft. Myers Beach

I am pretty happy with this photograph that I posted today. The problem was it took me a while to correctly identify this little bird. I took this on Ft. Myers Beach in Florida. I was out there in the late afternoon to shoot shore birds and pelicans when I saw this little guy flitting around in some driftwood. At the time I was using an 800mm lens that I had on loan from Canon Professional Services. I backed up until I could get him in focus and then tried to track him and get some good photos of him. This was another new species for me that I had never laid eyes on that I could recall. This little bird is fast and does not sit still for more than a split second. It took quite a few shots before I thought I might have one or two decent photos of it. It sat in my archives for a long time because I was never able to identify it correctly. I assumed it was some type of Viero due to it's markings and the circle around it's eye. But after closely looking at all the vieros and studying where their ranges are, I concluded I was incorrect on that identity.

On my most recent trip to Florida this past December for some bird photography, I was in a Barnes and Noble Bookstore looking through Florida field guides and finally got the correct ID of the bird. So what is this cute little bird?

It is a Blue-gray Gnatcatcher - Polioptila caerulea . I would have never gotten that one in a million years of guessing. Here is a link to get a little more information on it.

http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Blue-gray_Gnatcatcher/id

The Wood Stork

The Wood Stork - Mycteria americana is a large American wading bird in the stork family Ciconiidae. It was formerly called the "Wood Ibis", though it is not really an Ibis.

            Wood Stork wading in Ding Darling NWR, Sanibel, FL.

The adult is a large bird 33-45 in tall and has a 58-71 inch wingspan. Males typically weigh 5.5-7.3 lbs. Females weigh 4.4-6.2 lbs. Although large birds are up to 10 lbs.

 Striking a pose, Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary, Naples FL.

 It appears all white on the ground, with blackish-gray legs and pink feet. In flight, the trailing edge of the wings is black. The head is dark brown with a bald, black face, and the thick downcurved bill is dusky yellow. Juvenile birds are a duller version of the adult, generally browner on the neck, and with a paler bill.

                Notice the bubble gum pink feet of the  Wood Stork 

These waders feed on minnows in shallow water by using their bills to perform a rare and effective fishing technique. The stork opens its bill and sticks it into the water, then waits for the touch of an unfortunate fish that wanders too close. When it feels a fish, the stork can snap its bill shut in as little as 25 milliseconds—an incredibly quick reaction time matched by few other vertebrates.The storks prefer to employ this technique in isolated pools created by tides or falling freshwater levels, where fish congregate en masse. In some areas, such as Florida, breeding begins with the dry season that produces these optimal fishing conditions.

                                                   

Closeup portrait on a foggy morning, Ding Darling NWR. Sanibel FL.

Though wood storks eat small fish, they eat a lot of them. An average nesting pair, with two fledglings, may eat over 400 pounds of fish during a single breeding season.Wood storks are social animals. They feed in flocks and nest in large rookeries—sometimes several pairs to a single tree. Females lay two to five eggs, which both sexes incubate for about one month. Young fledge about two months after hatching.

Wood Stork in flight over Ding Darling NWR, Sanibel FL.

                                                                           

Wood storks breed in the southeastern United States and are the only stork to breed in the U.S. They also breed in Central and South America from Mexico to Argentina. Though U.S. populations are endangered—probably because of the loss of optimal feeding habitat—the South American stork populations are in better shape. This species seems to have evolved in tropical regions; its North American presence probably postdates the last ice age. 

Yellow-crowned Night-Heron

The Yellow-crowned Night Heron - Nyctanassa violacea, also called the American Night Heron or squawk, similar in appearance to the Black-crowned Night Heron. It is found throughout a large part of the Americas, especially (but not exclusively) in warmer coastal regions.

Stalking prey along the edge of a Red Mangrove area at Ding Darling NWR. 

The Yellow-crowned Night Heron is a short, stocky wading bird about 24 inches in length with a wingspan of a little under four feet. It has long yellow to orange legs, red eyes, a black bill, and a short neck. It has a slate gray body, a black head with a white streak on the side of its face and a yellowish-white crown. In breeding season it has a yellow plume of feathers on its head. Males and females look alike. Immature yellow-crowned night herons are a mottled grayish-brown.

Portrait shot of an immature bird that has not yet molted to adult plummage.

The yellow-crowned Night Heron forages for food both in the day and at night. Most of the ellow-crowned Night Heron's diet is made up of crustaceans like crabs and crayfish. It sometimes eats fish, eels, mussels, frogs, tadpoles, aquatic insects, snails, and small snakes. It either stands and waits for its prey to swim by or wades in the shallow water and slowly stalks its prey.

Stalking prey in the shallow waters of Ding Darling NWR, Sanibel FL.

The Yellow-crowned Night Heron lives in wooded swamps, fresh and saltwater marshes and thickets. The Yellow-crowned Night Heron breeds from southern New England south to Florida and west to Texas. It also breeds along the Mississippi River. It winters on the Gulf and Atlantic Coasts.

                                  

Soaking up some sun, Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary, Naples FL.

The female lays three to five eggs on a nest of sticks placed in a tree or sometimes on the ground. Both the male and female build the nest and incubate the eggs. The eggs hatch in about three weeks. Both parents care for the chicks and feed them regurgitated food. The chicks fledge when they are about 25 days  old.                                                       

Portrait shot hand held with a 500mm Canon lens.

The yellow-crowned night heron is more solitary than other herons. It prefers to nest separately from other birds.

Having some crab for dinner. Ding Darling NWR, Sanibel FL.

Although I have photographed all the birds shown here in Florida, I do see them at our local nature preserve, and along the Mississippi River. Like many birds in this area, they are more skittish of humans and will fly if you try to get close. In the South Florida areas I visit there numbers are much higher, and they are much more tolerant of humans. I have made many good shots with a 70-200mm lens and 1.4 extender attached. 

Photos of the Day

Had a late night with a photography club meeting over in St. Louis, so this one will be a short version due to lack of sleep. I love exotic and colorful birds.  The colors, patterns, and intricate detail in the plumage is just amazing. I love in to get in close to capture and show the detail. The bird on the right here is a Rainbow Lorikeet. Trichoglossus haematodus is a species of Australasian parrot found in Australia, eastern Indonesia (Maluku and Western New Guinea), Papua New Guinea, New Caledonia, Solomon Islands and Vanuatu. They are not large birds, with a Rainbow Lorikeet's length being about 11-12 inches in size, and have a wingspan of about 6-7 inches.  This was taken at the St. Louis Zoo where they have an open flight cage full of them in the children's zoo. The bird below on the left is a Thick-billed Parrot. One of only two species of parrot that once inhabited the United States (the other is the Carolina parakeet, which is unfortunately extinct). They are bright green in color with a large black bill and red crown, shoulders and thighs. It can grow to about 15 inches in length. It is on the endangered species list at this time. This bird was photographed at the World Bird Sanctuary, Valley Park, Missouri.

One of my favorite exotic bird photos is this shot of two Caribbean Flamingos in a rain shower. I shot this at a tourist attraction down in South Florida while I was trying to find something to do to get out of the rain.
Caribbean Flamingos, Phoenicopterus ruber, are the only flamingo to naturally inhabit North America. They stand about 3.9 - 4.6 ft in height, they have a wingspan of approximately 5.0 ft. and they weigh between 5 - 6.5 lbs. They are deep pink/red/orange in colour and they have the brightest plumage of all six flamingo species.

Now how do you find a Tufted Puffin, Fratercula cirrhata, in the mid-west? Why you go to the Penguin and Puffin House at the St. Louis Zoo. A great attraction to see several species of  both Penguins and Puffins. It is pretty dark in the attraction but I caught this guy under a light and was using my 70-200mm lens with the built in image stabilization. Shot hand held and it is slightly soft, but I love the pose and light on him.

Photos of the Day

Another favorite subject of mine to photograph are owls. Todays photos are Burrowing Owls -  Athene cunicularia. These owls are a small ground-dwelling Owls with a round head and no ear tufts. They have white eyebrows, yellow eyes, and long legs. The Owl is sandy coloured on the head, back, and upperparts of the wings and white-to-cream with barring on the breast and belly and a prominent white chin stripe. The young are brown on the head, back, and wings with a white belly and chest. They moult into an adult-like plumage during their first summer. Burrowing Owls are comparatively easy to see because they are often active in daylight.They are surprisingly bold and approachable.  They average 8.5 to 11 inches in height, and can have a wing span from 50-60 inches. Most weigh in at 6-8 ounces. Burrowing Owls are present in North America, and breed across the grassland regions of southern Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba. They occur in all states west of the Mississippi Valley, breed south through the western and mid-western States. A separate subspecies is found in Florida and the Carribean Islands. They extend south into Mexico, Central America and South America but populations have declined in many areas due to human-caused habitat loss or alteration. 

I took these photos while I was down in southwest Florida  on a photography trip. There is a sizeable nesting colony around the Cape Coral City Library. They have roped off many of the open grass lots around the area where they have burrows. They city has provided man made perches for them and installed them near their burrows for them to perch on. At the time I was there photographing in March of 2009, Florida was under drought conditions and the vegetation was dried out and dead all around the area. This can be observed in the first photo with the two perched together. So to try and create some better backgrounds I had to get creative. The one on the left I actually layed down flat on my back and shot at an upward angle using a 500mm lens to use the blue sky for the background. The one on the right was created by finding a large green bush in a residental yard about a block away. I just lined it up and used it as the background to get the nice soft greens I was looking for. That one was shot kneeling down using a 400mm lens.    

This last shot below was my favorite from that session. This owl was really watching my every move as I tried to get something unique from just the sitting poses. He had been standing one one leg which is normal for them. He slowly lowered his left leg to stretch it out. I caught this pose and it has become one of my favorite photographs. If you want to learn more about owls, the single best resource I have found on the internet is the Owl Pages. I will provide a direct link to that site. Have a great weekend and I will be back next week with something new.                            http://www.owlpages.com/