Veterans Day at Hoover Dam, Blendon Woods

-Tom

Northern Cardinals like Maple Sap Too

From Blendon Woods-  This image wraps up my Blendon Woods series.  If the weather holds, Megan, Weston and I are going to go to Highbanks Metropark to see if we can spot the brand new bald eagle nest, and hopefully bring back a few photos.

And if you haven't been there already, check out my Tom Arbour Photography blog. This is where I post my best images at large sizes.

Tom

American Black Duck

Drake American Black Duck, Anas rubripes
I must tell you, that before I moved to Columbus and frequented the Walden waterfowl refuge at Blendon Woods, I had never heard of a "black duck". My introduction to waterfowl was at Blendon Woods, and each year, several hundred individuals winter on the pond that is kept ice free by several aerators that constantly move the water. The black duck looks similar to a mallard, but the males lack the bright green head, and overall, they have a very dark appearance.

The males and females are quite similar, but the best way to tell them apart is to exampine their bills. Males have yellow bills, while the female's bill is brownish.

In a few weeks the black ducks at Blendon Woods will fly north to their breeding grounds. I'm hoping a few more diving ducks join them before the waterfowl migration, now in full swing, is over.


Male and female American Black Ducks

Tom

Turkey Vulture in Flight

After seeing the first Turkey Vulture of the season this past Thursday, I keep seeing more reports on Facebook, Twitter, and the Ohio Birds Listserv of turkey vultures. Here is one of our early arrivals gliding above the water of Thoreau Pond at Blendon Woods.

For those of you that are new to studying large gliding birds, the give-away for turkey vultures is the two-toned aspect of the undersides of their wings. The red bald head, if you can see it, is also distinctive. Look for these things on a turkey vulture coming soon to you.

Tom

Tom Turkey

I'm no Turkey expert, but after help from my twitter friend D.W. Maiden and checking out a few diagrams, this looks to be a male turkey. The long beard and the spurs on the lower foreleg are just two characters that set a male apart from the female. It's just too bad I didn't get a better head angle. I was in a rush to get home to Megan and Weston, and I just didn't have the time I needed to get a better images once they walked back into the scrubby woods. Blendon Woods Metropark has quite a large group of Turkeys. The last three times I have been there, I've seen at least two, but yesterday afternoon was by far the best photographic opportunity I've had.

Tom

White-Tailed Doe

There were no less than five does looking to eat at the feeder at Blendon Woods. Apparently, they just aren't comfortable coming up to the feeder when there are people in the observation building, because this was as close as any one of them came. We did watch them browse the crusty, dried vegetation for a few minutes before they meandered back into the fields and forests. I'm sure bird seed would have been more to their liking.

Northern Cardinal

This morning at Blendon Woods Metro Park, Columbus Ohio.

Pintail!

Yesterday afternoon, a beautifully sunny and cold central Ohio day, I stopped at Blendon Woods Metroparks to see what had flown in to Thoreau Lake. There are two great unheated observation buildings at the edge of the lake, and they make bird photography really easy. The building to the right is great for feeder birds, and the left building provides the best opportunities for waterfowl. After scanning the ice free areas of the pond, I could only come up with black ducks, mallards, Canada geese, and two gadwals. But then something caught my eye- a bright white neck. Without binoculars, and without being able to view it with the gigantic metal spotting scope in the building because the bird had positioned itself where it was blocked by the corner support of the building, this bird remained a mystery.

In the field, the white belly, brown head, and white neck really stood out. Was it a northern pintail? But it didn't have the typical long pointed butt feathers (technical term please?). Sure enough, after looking at several northern pintail pictures online, I think that is what we have here. But why no long tail? That is the question. Is this a juvenile?

Tom

P.S. This is my 699 post here at the Ohio Nature Blog. Also- We now have 99 followers here. Help me push it over 100!

Tom

Metroparks Challenge #4 Blendon Woods in the Rain

Just pictures this evening, I hope you enjoy what Megan, Weston, and I saw on our quick but fruitful walk to Thoreau Lake at Blendon Woods Metropark on the Columbus' northeast side. September 26th, 2009.

Tom

Columbus Welcomes Autumn

Blendon Woods Metropark, Saturday September 26th, 2009

Capturing Motion

The theme of this post is capturing motion. Two things that have really gotten me into this type of photography- #1 My digital SLR and #2 My photography class that I'm taking right now at Columbus State. I had completely ignored moving subjects until I took this class!

Now, I'm not perfect, and my hardware certainly has some limitations, but I certainly enjoyed capturing movement at Hoover Dam and Blendon Woods Metropark this past Sunday.

When I went to Blendon, there were two serious wildlife "shooters" there. Of cameras, not of guns. They each had bigger lenses than I, so I had a we bit of lens envy shall we say? Well that all ended this evening when I picked up my rental lens for Florida. More specifically, the Canon 400 mm 5.6L. I'll be shooting this with my Rebel XTI, and I can't wait to get pictures with this lens. Florida, here I come. That being said, Megan and I are wicked busy getting ready for this trip. And to make things really complicated, Megan is driving to N.E. Ohio for an interview on Friday, and either coming back Friday night or very early Saturday morning. Throw in Jym Ganahl's prediction of a "possible" six inches of snow Friday night/Saturday morning, and our 11:00 a.m. flight, we are just a we bit busy trying to get everything ready! But it will most certainly be worth it! For now, I hope you enjoy these cold images of Ohio. Here we have a ring billed gull, Canada geese, Scaup (I hope you enjoy this montage), a pair of redheads, and finally, a black duck.



















P.S. Today at my monthly Goodwill browsing session during my lunch break, I picked up a $100.00 Canon scanner that does film and slides, in the box, wrapped in plastic, with the AC adapter and USB 2.0 cord for a whopping $9.99 plus tax. I plugged it in and the lamp comes on, now I'm downloading the drivers and we'll give it a whirl!(I should be packing!).

Tom

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Blendon Woods Metropark- A Bird Photo Essay

Whenever I need a quick bird photography fix, Megan and I head to Blendon Woods Metropark on the northeast side of Columbus. We drove there today and spent the last 45 minutes of the day's sunlight watching the birds, ducks and geese.