It may not have been exactly the day you might have pictured when I describe it as a beautiful day. It’s a little early to be dreading the hot weather already this year, but that was my first thought when we decided to head to the rookery at about 3 PM yesterday. Scorching sun was on my mind, with my recent and seemingly unending visits to the dermatologist lately I slathered on sunscreen and donned a hat and off we went. Much to my surprise the sky was hazy enough that the sun wasn’t an issue. And another surprise came when I looked at my pictures. I wish you could see them as I see them in my computer because I think the foliage looks amazing. The birds are nice too of course, but that foliage looks so good. It wasn’t any talent on my part, or my nice but middle of the road camera and lens, it was the light. And you can’t buy that!
You see the ‘kids’ carrying on in the feature photo. This is the nest that we saw last time. Mom looks exasperated.Then mom decided she’d had enough for a while. Can’t say that I blame her.This Woodstork pranced around and flapped his wings and he finally got his lady love to notice him, and he bowed down before her.And then his moment was spoiled by an interloper grabbing the attention.This is my favorite picture of the day. Yes I love the snowy egret, but the foliage really got me. Have you ever heard the sound snowys make? If you haven’t you ought to google it. They may look elegant, but it took me a long time to decide that it really was the snowy making that silly noise.I thought the tricolor heron had just taken a drink, but it seems he got a nibble too.If a dragonfly chooses to pose then I’ll always choose to take his picture.We only found one other nest with two younger great white egret chicks.This nest was further into the foliage and even the photoshop tricks weren’t going to be able to let me get the branches out of the way without ruining the picture.This little guy is trying to be not so little.On the drive home we were lucky enough to be stopped for a traffic light with a family of sandhill cranes moseying along the side of the road.Even if there was a place to pull over I wouldn’t stop for pictures of them on this road. I’d be afraid I’d disturb them and cause them to head into the street. But I wasn’t going to miss my chance to shoot out the car window.
When we were getting out of the car and I heard the decibel level of the birds out there I was sure we’d finally see the numbers of nests that we’ve seen in the past. And I think they are there this year too, but deeper in the foliage or on the other side of the ‘island’. I’ve heard that the later toward sunset the better the rookery gets, but we were ready to head for home, and dinner.
I took a lesson from having the Bird Buddy in the backyard these last couple of months. It seems like the late afternoon, ‘dinner time’, sees the most action from the birds. So last night the salad was made and the salmon was marinating, so I headed to the little neighborhood pond to see if I could see some dragonflies. And yes they were there, but despite the drenching rains we had recently the water levels are low, revealing various bits of trash along the edges of the pond. I see lots of workers tending to landscaping in the public areas here, but those bits of trash never seem to go anywhere. Maybe I’ll have to buy a net and try to snag some myself.
While I appreciate the knowledge that dragonflies will always return to the same spot, which gives you the opportunity to set up your camera and wait for them to show up, they tend to always land facing the same way so it’s the same shot over and over again.It’s always nice to see their faces also. I took a zillion of this pose also, then had to try to decide which was the sharpest shot.After seeing the red-winged blackbird on the feeder I probably shouldn’t have been surprised to see him at the pond. It is the sort of landscape I’ve seen them in before, wide open spaces with tall reeds, in this case cat-o-nine-tails, to perch on. But I’ve been coming to this park for several years now and have never spotted them before.It may not look small in this photo, but it was small, and it just showed up in my viewfinder all of a sudden. I have no idea where he came from, but he decided to walk around right in front of me and hunt for dinner. Maybe it’s because I was sitting on the bank with. my elbows on my knees so I could steady the camera, but he didn’t seem to mind my presence at all.See, not very big in reality.And here he is with his catch, and a bottle. I could have edited the bottle out but I’m making a point here…I can understand that stabbing into the muck might have muddied up his bill, but why is the fish looking muddy also? He apparently didn’t mind, he downed it a second or two later
Yesterday I had a comment or two about the ability of the new camera, a Canon r7 mirrorless camera, to take a huge number of shots in a burst. I usually have it set to do just that if I’m photographing birds, or wildlife at all really. Just in case something exciting happens. So let me explain that I feel hardly any responsibility for these photos I’m posting today. The feature photo is the first in a sequence of 10 photos that the camera took in less than a second. My contribution was to see the lighting and reflections, and I anticipated the Tri-color Heron would take off. I wanted the tracking in the camera to follow the bird, and it did. these are the 10 consecutive frames that it took. Makes me happy to think that my investment in this camera has turned out to be exactly what I hoped it would be. I used the r 100-400 lens, made for the mirrorless Canon cameras, and not expensive at all. Or as these things go.
The feature photo is the take off, this is frame #2.Stretching his wings in frame #3.Full wing extension in frame #4.The dive for the prize in frame #5.Putting the brakes on with his wings in #6,#7, will he come up with lunch?I thought/hoped he caught his prey, but apparently not. #8Not this time, #9And then he flew away, out of the nice light.
We spent the beginning of the walk looking into the morning sun. I didn’t bring my visor so it was tough. It was lucky that this sequence happened in such nice light. I will give lots of credit to luck, and that’s okay.
Off we went to the rookery again, this time sure that the egret chicks would be bobbing their little heads at us. But not only did we not see egret chicks, the nests that I knew had wood stork chicks were pretty quiet also. So it was this tricolor heron that captured my attention. I spent a lot of time trying to photograph them at my old house as they flitted around the shoreline of the pond out back. I missed way more shots than I managed to take, they were too quick for me. But this guy was walking the shoreline towards me, and though I was only 15 or so feet away he kept on coming, too close for my lens at times. For some reason that little voice in my head was saying, “Along came a spider and sat down beside her.’
I never realized what big feet they have.I don’t think that he really has a glass eye, but I thought it looks like it in this photo.And then he decided to head back to his nest.The nest si too tucked into the shrubbery to see it, which is a shame because I don’t think I’ve ever seen their chicks.
The next day I saw great pictures of the chicks that I’m sure were taken at this same rookery. Midday is not the best time to shoot wildlife in general. And even at the zoo. You would think I would have learned that lesson by now. So thank you to this tricolor heron, my star of the show and savior of that trip to the rookery.
The proposition? Head to the rookery and then stop at Ford’s Garage for pretzels and shrimp. And beer. Now that sounded like a really good idea.
I took a lot of pictures of these two. They were hamming it up a bit.These tricolor herons were two by two also.Hiding in the foliage, but I spotted him.But he didn’t stay long.Waiting to be noticed perhaps.Off he goes.Time out for a drink.
And speaking of having a drink, it was time for us to head to Ford’s and belly up to the bar. That beer was nice and cold, the shrimp was spicy, and the pretzels can’t be beat. The perfect finale to the day…
There’s a new rookery in town. Or, more correctly, a rookery that I’ve been hearing about but it’s taken me too long to try and find it. But the other day we went looking and discovered a lovely spot with easy access, and, best of all, we didn’t have to shoot over a fence to see the birds. The babies are mostly grown now, so I have made a mental note to go back in the spring to see the babies at their cutest.
Judging by the feathers on his head this is a young tricolor heron.Woodstorks were providing the most action.It gives new meaning to the term ‘bad hair day’.Young egret siblings were feeling their oats.This tricolor was sounding off the whole time we were there.Really, he was!I think he was playing king of the hill.This nest had the most action going on, but we couldn’t see what was happening.
It’s always fun to find a new place to go take pictures, and this one is close enough to be able to drop in to see what’s happening when the timing is better. In the meantime there are lots more places for us to go and find new and different things to see.
A Snowbird's Life Through the Lens 