Category: fun

a second look, adventure, birds, butterflies, Chinsegut Conservation Center, exploring new places, Florida wildlife, friends, fun, gardens, nature, Nature Coast Botanical Gardens, Nature's beautiful creatures, nesting, perseverance, photography

Beautiful day, part 2…

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Only it was really part 1, because I have a few images from my second trip to Chinsegut Conservation Center in just a week or so. That was our first stop, since it was the farthest north we intended to go. When we got there the feeders were being loaded up, again. The gal said that they’d been filled up the night before and were empty already. It didn’t take long for the birds to get to work on emptying them again. That’s a red bellied woodpecker in the feature photo.

Another Mrs. Cardinal enjoying the suet that was also refilled that morning.
She posed while waiting her turn.
Birds of a feather eat together. Pine Warblers.
They love the suet.
Yes, I think the pine warblers outnumbered everyone else.

Heading south we stopped at the Nature Coast Botanical Garden next, and wandered to the music by a band that was playing in a little gazebo next to the train garden. We saw the train make its last trip around the track before being put away for another week. But I found the waterfalls at the garden to be especially pretty that day.

Plus a butterfly, which made me happy to see.

Stop number 3 was to see what was happening at the eagle nest. The two ‘babies’ were on their own while we were there. But a couple who were just leaving said that one of the adults had just been up in the tree keeping an eye on them.

There seemed to be some tidbits in the nest for them to be snacking on.
This was all the action we saw from them, and we didn’t wait for a parent to return,

Our last stop of the day was at the rookery, and those were the pictures I posted yesterday. This morning we watched a live streamed photography class given for our photography club. And I’ve got a book I need to get back to…

a second look, birds, friends, fun, nature, Nature's beautiful creatures, perseverance, photography, ZooTampa

At the zoo…

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No, we didn’t go back to the zoo, but I did get distracted by so many other photo ops we were lucky enough to have in a short period of time and missed some fun animals. I showed you the orangutans, because they usually make up half the shots I take at the zoo. But there were other notable creatures to see.

Imagine my surprise to see a white spoonbill. A Eurasian spoonbill, who was’t the best at posing for a picture.
He did better here, posing with a scarlet ibis.
We see ibis everywhere here, but not this scarlet variety. Their coloring comes from the crustaceans which they eat in tropical South America and the Caribbean.
And this is a shoebill stork, who stood close enough to the front of the enclosure that it was hard to get a picture of his whole, 5 foot tall self! Somehow he seemed bigger than the other birds we see that are almost as tall as he was. But he has a sturdier build, and he looks so much bigger. They are from the swamps of eastern tropical Africa where they eat big fish, like lungfish, eels, and catfish. As well as Nile monitor lizards, snakes, and baby crocodiles. Another odd trait is that they poop on their own legs. It cools them off. They couldn’t print it if it wasn’t true, right?
The sign said shoe billed heron, but when I googled that it just brought me to the big shoebills.
I was shooting through the same sort of fencing that you see in the background here, but the camera can focus on the owls and ignore the fencing, at least some of the time. Barred owls.
We finally saw the binturong. He came to the zoo and took over the enclosure where the clouded leopard used to drape himself over a big branch and allow for all of us to take great pictures of him. So we looked at this guy as an interloper, except that we hardly looked at him at all because he wasn’t usually visible. Until I lightened my picture quite a bit in Lightroom you couldn’t really see him in this picture either. They live in the trees, climbing well but not fast, and eat everything. That’s what omnivore means, right?
I shot these lorikeets through their enclosure netting also. They made one cute pose after another and I worried that I wouldn’t get decent pictures, but they turned out okay. Choosing which cute shot to use was the problem.
Doesn’t this guy look happy? I don’t know why because he shares an enclosure with what appears to be a couple of needle-nosed alligators, but they seem to have come to a meeting of the minds.
Just a hippo, um, make that an Asian rhino.
This is a Schmidt’s red-tailed monkey. His tail is longer than he is. So cute with a nice yellow heart on it’s face.

There is no story to the duckling in the feature photo, it’s just cute! But it is being raised in the zoo. What a lucky duck!

'scene' along the way, black and white, exploring new places, Florida landmarks, fun, making memories, nature, perseverance, photography, road trip

Let’s go for a ride…

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My immediate comment at the suggestion of ‘going for a ride’ will always be, “Where to?” And these days I will always expect to take some pictures when we get there. But there was no destination in mind when we headed out yesterday, and if we would have known we would have had the scooter and trike with us. We saw a sign for Dade Battlefield Historic State Park and turned in. The site preserves the battlefield where the Seminole Indians fought the soldiers under the command of Major Francis L Dade in the Second Seminole War. What little we saw of it made us want to come back when we are able to ride the trails. And learn a bit of history that we may have missed growing up in Massachusetts.

You drive in and park at the visitor’s center. When we arrived we saw a volunteer taking a group out for a narrated tour of the battlefield. This looks like a nice place to ride and explore.
Having just taken a class on black and white photography I had in mind finding scenes that might translate to black and white well. Or at all.
There were many live oaks creating tunnels to lure you into the woods. We didn’t see the 400 year old oak that the volunteer told us was here. I think we knew immediately that this place would be worth another visit.
I think I like this black and white the best.

We also ‘found’ the Florida National Cemetery and drove in to see it. I was there with a friend a few years ago for the Memorial Day festivities and it was a very moving place to be. The feature photo doesn’t do it justice, because there are fields and fields of gravestones, all perfectly tended and around every corner. We now have a plan to go back this Memorial Day. All and all it was a beautiful day for a drive…

I’m looking forward to the class on editing your black and white photos.
'scene' along the way, a second look, attitude adjustments, Florida landmarks, friends, fun, old dogs new tricks, perseverance, photography, Rise and shine, technology

Off to the races…

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We were up early on Saturday to get to a black and white photography class, but we also had to race from there to the Tampa Bay Downs to host a photo op for the club. Both things on the same day was a lot, and we were late getting to the track, but so was the only other person to show up. We had extra time before the first race however, so we got some lunch, and after that I was more ready for a nap than anything. But I was armed with the new 1.4 extender for my r7 camera and the 100-400 lens, so when the first race began I raced up to the balcony to get my one and only shot with that lens.

From the balcony and with the extra reach from the extender this is my shot of the far turn. From there it’s right down the final stretch to the finish line.
Back downstairs again I decided to switch to the 18-150 lens because the camera is so light with that lens on, and I was tired and hot. 90 degrees in February? I amused myself between races by taking pictures of the pretty flowers around the winners circle.
Without as much reach with my smaller lens I found like liked the view that included some of the scene as well as the start of the next race. I like to try to get an out of the gates shot, And I’m glad I did this time. Look at where horse #8 is.
From the balcony you have time to go inside the grandstand and shoot a picture of the finish line from that upstairs angle. And look, the winner was #8!
This is another winner, and it was the #8 horse in this race too!
Here’s the big picture. You can people watch from the balcony vantage point. And you can see the paddock area where the horses are brought out and the jockeys mount them before they are led onto the track for their race.

The feature photo shows you how futile it would be for me to shoot from the rail. I’m too short and there are several layer of fencing that would wind up in my shot. But in this case I saw that I could see the finish line sign between the people so I took the shot. Possibly my favorite shot of the day.

a second look, adventure, birds, egrets, Florida wildlife, friends, fun, live and learn, nature, Nature's beautiful creatures, nesting, perseverance, photography, road trip

The Vienna Rookery…

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Photographers are told that you ought to visualize the photo you want to take ahead of time. I’m not sure that they mean on the drive to your destination however. I had no problem visualizing the rookery full of great blue heron nests, with babies calling out to be fed and their parents flying in and out. But when we got there I could only see a couple of nests with great blue herons standing at attention minding the nests.

This is the first shot I took. Ah, thought I, Dad on guard, and that pile of feathers to the left must be Mom, laying on eggs.
But the pile of feathers turned out to be these two ‘chicks’. Not little balls of fluff. And I now thought that maybe that was Mom, keeping an eye on things out out of reach of the little darlings.
They were flapping those wings too, thinking of the places they’ll go.
They were yapping at her, but she didn’t seem to be impressed.
There are other ways to get your other’s attention however.
The great blue herons were outnumbered by the great white egrets. And the egrets were still in the nest building and posing stage of things. Just like in the rookeries much closer to home.

I was told that we were a month late to see the great blue herons at the just hatched stage. And we think that our kids grow up too fast. But then there will be a new family to raise next year, and we’ll come back in January.

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Myakka River State Park…

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When we left home our destination wasn’t the Myakka River State Park, but it was only a half hour away from our destination, and after driving an hour and a half to get there it was a shame not to stop by. There are spoonies there after all, and I see the most beautiful photos of them online. In those photos they are landing, or taking off, or just flying overhead. But none of that was going on when we got there. You can see them from the parking lot, and the path to walk to get a closer vantage point is not too long. But what was going on, or not going on, is evident in the feature photo. Maybe it was the fact that we were there in the afternoon, possibly siesta time.

The spoonies hang out where the river meets the lake, which just so happens to be where the gators hang out also. Lots of them, just to the left of the scene in the feature photo. And also in the water, swimming over to get a closer look at us as were take our pictures from the opposite shore.
Was the great blue paying attention to the gators in this picture? The little blue certainly wasn’t. And the spoonies aren’t paying attention at all.
They weren’t all totally inactive though, I just had to look a little more closely.
And when I saw one shaking it’s booty I made sure to get a picture.
Of course spoonies weren’t the only birds there. I shot bursts of photos trying for pictures of this osprey flying right overhead. When you shoot bursts the camera needs a break to catch up with itself now and then. And during one of those buffering moments this osprey dove into the water and came up with a fish! Right in front of us! But I can’t prove it because I missed the shot, darn it.
We both took lots of pictures of this black-necked stilt because we hadn’t seen one before. He was wading and hunting for his lunch with lots of other wading birds.
Among the waders were a few limpkins. They were hunting for their favorite treat, apple snails. But any snail will do. Their beak has a bit of a twist to the end, specialized for getting the snails out of their shells. They must be successful because the riverbank was covered in empty shells.
Finding a little blue heron there shouldn’t be a surprise, they seem to be everywhere.

As always it was a fun way to spend the day. And we have to take advantage of the weather while it’s still a relatively cool 80 degrees or so. Hot in the sun if you just stand there, but in the shade it just can’t be beat!