Golden Dawn – Webb Lake Florida

Posted on 2014/01/31 by birds n' bugs

Just south of Punta Gorda is the Babcock-Webb Wildlife Management area.  Quite a while ago I went out to shoot the mist off of the marl ponds and Webb Lake.  I had processed a few of those shots as Misty Morning at Marl Pond   Today, I was looking back to clean up some old directories and ran across those shots.  In with them were a few that had looked less interesting at the time.  Today was rainy so I had some time to play with them a bit.  I had seen some traces of color in the images from the lake but they seemed muted since the sun had risen more and the mist was more grey.  I did see a bit of color in them though so I decided to increase the saturation a bit to see what I got.  I kind of like them.DSC_1237orig

The shot above is the original.  You can see the golden glow of the dawn but the sky above and reflected below was becoming blue which suppressed the golden color I saw through the trees with my eyes.

Increasing saturation and a bit of cropping to get rid of the cooler blue parts gave me this image.

DSC_1237acf17

Here is another from the same shoot.

DSC_1241cf17

I posted these for comment on a photography forum and someone suggested trying them in black and white.  So, I used FastStone to make a quick conversion.

DSC_1237acf17BW

I kind of like it.

Posted in Park, Park - Babcock Webb WMA, Photography | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Afraid of heights?

Posted on 2014/01/27 by birds n' bugs

Another trip to see if the last of the pair of Great Blue Herons had left the nest.  ‘Chicken’ was quite active but still couldn’t make the change from nestling to full flight.  I watched it for about 20 minutes with the idea that I might actually catch it’s first flight from the nest.  It didn’t even have to be much of a flight, the trees which routinely hold larger birds were only about 15 feet from the nest.  This view will show you the approximate distance.  But, after looking at that it decided to look straight down.  OOOOOOO, Scarey.

DSC_9026ac     DSC_8938ac

But that wasn’t enough to stop this bold adventurer.  It quickly looked in another direction and found the perfect flight path.

DSC_8948ac

Straight across into the nest.

DSC_8949ac

Upon landing, it struck a triumphant pose although it’s flight wasn’t much more than a hop with it’s feet lifted.  After a while, it went back to the corner by the trees and I thought it might actually go.  It turned out to be a little more posturing but it must have been tiring since it walked back into the nest to sit down.

DSC_8950ac     DSC_9019ac

Oh well, tomorrow is another day.  The parents are no longer providing meals so it had better get busy.  Of course, if it does fall from the nest there is no better place than the Peace River Wildlife Center below it.

Posted in animal behavior, Bird, Park, Park - Ponce de Leon, Photography | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

The last one standing

Posted on 2014/01/24 by birds n' bugs

It looks like one of the Great Blue Heron babies has left the nest.  Yesterday I thought both would be gone but apparently one has decided to stay behind for a while.  Too bad, Mom and Dad are no longer bringing food to the nest for them.  The last one left looked for a while today like it was going to make the big leap to the trees below but decided against it.  The plumage is very well developed.  It looks like it could use a little more development but the bird should be capable of flight for short distances now.

DSC_8812acr107     DSC_8812actight

But, the attempts were for really, really short distances.  The practice consisted of holding the wings up, standing on one foot and hopping to the other side of the nest.  But, it’s a start and should end up with a flying heron very soon.

DSC_8811acr107

But, junior tired at this after a while.  One of the parents showed up to encourage the little thing to come down for the free food at the Peace River Wildlife Center below.  But, it wasn’t to be.  As soon as the young bird saw the parent, it stopped the attempted flight, sat down and started squawking for food.

DSC_8835acr107

The parent wasn’t buying that ploy though and flew over to the pen to feed itself.

Posted in animal behavior, Bird, Park, Park - Ponce de Leon | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

The Bully Bird

Posted on 2014/01/12 by birds n' bugs

This morning, as usual, I walked down to Ponce Park.  I went out on the fishing pier hoping for some feeding activity.  I must have been late for breakfast because most of the birds seemed to be relaxing.  There were a few gulls and terns flying about and perched and floating pelicans.

One of the Terns decided to take up a spot on Marker 8.  Apparently, this was offensive to one of the pelicans who normally like these high perches.  I saw the tern coming in to land but didn’t have time to adjust for a white bird or catch the landing.  This is a poor picture showing it just as it folded it’s wings.  The only reason for putting it here is to mark the time as 09:39:38.09-39-38_8032a

It had barely settled down when a floating pelican seemed to take offense.  It took off in the pelicans ponderous manner and took one turn around before flying right at the piling.

This sequence takes place between 09:39:52 and 09:39:5409-39-52_8034     09-39-53_8035

09-39-53-3_8037

09-39-53-4_8038     09-39-54_8039

Just another interesting little incident.

 

 

Posted in animal behavior, Bird, Park, Park - Ponce de Leon | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Flight Play

Posted on 2014/01/02 by birds n' bugs

Today looked to be a development milestone for the Great Blue Heron babies at Ponce De Leon Park.  It was the first time I saw one of them beginning to stretch it’s wings and flap them like it was flying.  Of course since the flight feathers haven’t fully developed it was more of a resistance exercise to build strength.

DSC_7741acr107

It started with the two of them walking around in the nest.  One of them pushed the other around a bit and it finally sat down.  Obviously somebody wanted some room.  It began moving it’s wings as though attempting to fly.  Too slow and clearly the flight feathers hadn’t developed enough to support it but it was “flying” none the less.

DSC_7749acr107     DSC_7755acr107

When I grow up I’m going to be THIIIISSS big 🙂

DSC_7752acr107

Posted in animal behavior, Bird, Park, Park - Ponce de Leon | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

They are growing up fast

Posted on 2013/12/31 by birds n' bugs

After a couple of miserable days it brightened a bit and I managed to get a few more shots of the juvenile Great Blue Herons.  Mom and Dad were away and they were left to fend for themselves in the nest.  The primaries are growing but there wasn’t any indication of flight play yet.  Instead they spent the time trying to get rid of the baby fuzz,

DSC_7497acr107

playing peek-a-boo with each other (ummm, maybe it was a flatulence joke there),

DSC_7490acr107

watching the world below,

DSC_7500acr107

and practicing their stately look.

DSC_7513acr107

 

Posted in animal behavior, Bird, Park, Park - Ponce de Leon | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

2013 in review

Posted on 2013/12/31 by birds n' bugs

The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2013 annual report for this blog.

Here’s an excerpt:

The concert hall at the Sydney Opera House holds 2,700 people. This blog was viewed about 26,000 times in 2013. If it were a concert at Sydney Opera House, it would take about 10 sold-out performances for that many people to see it.

Click here to see the complete report.

Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

We have TWINS!!!

Posted on 2013/12/20 by birds n' bugs

After a couple of very cool days where I saw only portions of a baby Great Blue Heron we finally had a warm sunny day.  That meant no more hunkering down with mommy and there was a fair amount of activity in the nest.  When I first arrived the adult was doing some nest repairs and I could see my usual fuzzy head in the middle of the nest.

DSC_6723acr107

Baby became more active and moved off to the side.  I shifted over and found it stretching.  That gave me a good shot of it’s immature wings with the beginnings of the primary and secondary flight feathers.  Over time, these will extend and fill out.

DSC_6728acr107

While that made for an interesting shot, it wasn’t very good because I had to take whatever showed up between the branches of an intervening tree.  This shot was pure serendipity.  I moved back to a better general shooting position and what to my wondering eyes should appear but a miniature heron and another one too!  (My apologies to Clement Clark Moore for the paraphrase).  We have two baby herons in the nest.

DSC_6738acr107

It looks like twice the fun now.

Posted in animal behavior, Bird, Park, Park - Ponce de Leon | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

A new arrival at Ponce Park

Posted on 2013/12/13 by birds n' bugs

I’ve mentioned the Great Blue Herons nesting on an Osprey platform at the Wildlife Center.  Well,  yesterday, I saw some movement in the nest and got my first peek at the new arrival.  Mom has been standing on the nest for a couple of days so I expect the hatching took place earlier but, junior can now raise its head above the nest.  At least a little bit.

This is the best shot I got, most were just a bit of grey-white fuzz above the sticks,

DSC_6155acr46-1

Moms head was a bit blurred from rapid movements to get some food up for serving.

Here is a tighter crop to show the baby.

DSC_6155acr46-2

Posted in animal behavior, Bird, Park, Park - Ponce de Leon | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

A snake in the grass and trying out glass

Posted on 2013/11/08 by birds n' bugs

The morning walk was down to Ponce again.  The Great Blue Herons appear to have mated and have eggs in the nest.  I can’t see them but the female has gone broody and is down on the nest most of the time.  Things won’t change much for a while now on that front but that doesn’t mean activity is down.  This morning, I found a Black Racer in the grasses along the seawall and a Little Blue Heron feeling safe enough to pose for a portrait.

 

DSC_4882acr107

It’s hard to get a decent shot in this position because the snake tends to bury itself in the grass.  In this case, I found it sunning itself before going hunting.  It was a good two feet long and let me take a couple of shots.  I found this Little Blue Heron posing on one of the pilings of the boat launch.

DSC_4912acr107

Quite the handsome fellow.  As I walked around I struck up a conversation with a fellow waiting for a photo class to start.  I noticed that he had the Nikkor 55-300mm on a Nikon D5200 for the class.  As we chatted, I asked him if I could borrow his lens for a couple of shots to compare it with my 55-200mm on the Nikon V1 body.  Since the broody heron was on the nest, I moved over to a parking signpost to establish a common position and took a couple of shots with each lens.  Here are the results.  They are straight from the camera jpegs with a full height crop at 1024×786 ratio and then resized to 1024×768 for web display.  If you click on them, you will see a larger view.  For these first two, the left image is the 55-200 and the right is the 55-300.  I did find it harder to hold the 55-300mm steady even with the VR on.  Considering it was the equivalent of an 810mm lens on an FX camera that’s not too surprising.

DSC_4876-55-200cr107     DSC_4872-55-300cr107

By way of comparison, I cropped the 55-200 image on the left to approximately the same size as the 55-300mm.  Here is the result.

DSC_4876-55-200cr107croppedto300

Please note, these are not formal optical tests of the lenses.  The show results that I find in the field using normal operating methods.  In this case, I find the 55-200 better than the 55-300 but, had I had the longer lens on a monopod or tripod, the results could be different.  Both seem to work well with the V1.

 

 

Posted in animal behavior, Bird, Camera Gear, Park, Park - Ponce de Leon, reptile | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment