A few more things from Days 1-4

I left out a few things from days 1-4 that I wanted to share, and then I'll get to Sanibel, which was like a different world, simply because it wasn't cloudy or raining.

Here's one I missed posting yesterday taken at Lovers Key State Park- a Wilson's Plover, which was a first sighting for me.  There intermediate in size between the much smaller piping and snowy plovers (they're coming) and the Black-bellied Plover, which is giant.  I observed three of these birds on the sandflat.  They pretty much either stood or ran.  I didn't observe them eating, unlike the nearby Least Sandpipers, which never stopped foraging. 

Here's proof that not every gray and yellow warbler is a Palm Warbler.  This Yellow-rumped Warbler was quite curious of my presence at the Rookery Swamp boardwalk. 

Photographing Bald Eagles is nice in Ohio, but there's something special when one is perched in a tree full of Tillandsia bromeliads. Can't get that shot in the Buckeye State.

When I visited Florida in late January, 2015, the television weather people were lamenting the lack of rain.  Not this year.  El Nino typically means cold, gray, and wet winter weather for Florida.  While I was there, the local airport beat its previous record for most January rain, topping somewhere over 10".  An inch or so for the month is typical.  Luckily, I rented a compact SUV that had no problems going through the "roads" that had become rivers.

The Everglades are a giant river, flowing roughly, from North to South.  The many roads across the system act as endless low head dams.  Yes, there are culverts under the road, but when there is too much water, the roads flood.  Take a look at the video below- the water couldn't wait to get past this road.

-Tom

Southwest Florida Bird Highlights - The First Four Days

With the crazy El Nino weather, my time in Florida, five days including travel days, all three of my full days had rain, clouds, and seasonably cool temperatures.  But I can't complain.  Yes, I wasn't prepared for ankle to knee high water on several of the trails I visited, but that didn't stop me from exploring.

The focus of this trip was to expand my knowledge of the birds of this part of the country. Last year, I photographed many of the tame, common birds around the lagoons and drainage ditches.  This year, I set out to see and photograph a wider array of species, and here are some of my highlights.  I'm saving the last day of the trip, day five, a very beautiful day on Sanibel Island, for tomorrow.

Roseate Spoonbills - I saw more than ever.  This one was flying across a tidal flat at Lovers Key State Park

The Reddish Egret is the athlete of the wading bird world.  It actively chases its prey, running through the water, with the ability to change direction in the blink of an eye.

The Black Skimmers on the beach at Lovers Key were quite tame. At my favorite place to see them in South Carolina, I can't get within 30 feet of them before they become agitated and I back off.  In Florida, the birds, in general, are amazingly tame.

This American Flamingo has been hanging out on the tidal flats at Bunche Beach, on the mainland near Sanibel, for nearly a month. I'm a skeptic with this bird, since they are so common in captivity.  Who knows- it could have flown here from the Caribbean. The bird does not contain any bands, which would denote it was an escaped captive. 

If you want to photograph Ospreys, Lovers Key State Park is an excellent spot.  This bird was either carrying nesting material, or, it captured this stuff in its talons when diving for a fish and hasn't been able to remove it. 

I captured my best-ever but still not great photos of a Glossy Ibis.  I find this species much more wary than its white-feathered cousin. 

I watched this rather strange encounter with a young Red-shoulder Hawk and a pair of Mottled Ducks.  The hawk had come to bathe, and I'm not sure what the ducks thought of that.  The hawk eventually left, frightening the you know what out of the ducks.

This Red-shouldered Hawk at Bird Rookery Swamp exhibits the very light facial coloration that typifies these birds in Florida. 

I hit the jackpot with my rainy day visit to Bird Rookery Swamp as I watched two Short-tailed Hawks glide above during breaks in the rain.  According to the Sibley Guide, there are less than 300 pairs of this species in the U.S.

On day four of the trip, it stopped raining, but my trek to Shark Valley was met with cold temperatures and gray skies.  This Limpkin didn't seem to mind. 

I believe this is a fairly bad photo of the Orange-crowned Warbler, a species which was new to me.  Warblers are fast moving birds.  It was quite a challenge to make any sharp images of them on this gray day. I'm fairly certain this matches up with orange-crowned.  I'd love to hear your opinion.

This Northern Parula was a treat.  It gleaned for 10 minutes or so along the Shark Valley road.  

There are ALMOST as many Palm Warblers in Southwest Florida as there are people over 70.  Almost.  Seriously, if you see a warbler like bird, anywhere, it's most likely to be a Palm.

As I was leaving Shark Valley, I watched a Double-crested Cormorant nearby.  I've got plenty of close-up images of this species, so I just happily watched it swimming and diving.  And then all of the sudden the bird came up with this.  It's actually an Oscar, a non-native fish introduced to Florida from the aquarium trade.  I had one in high school.  This cormorant had NO PROBLEM downing this massive fish.

And finally, the sublimely beautiful Common Ground Dove, a bird that I found quite hard to photograph.  This was at the end of the day of my venture to the Everglades at Fakahatchee Strand State Park.

 And there are fifteen highlights from the first four days of the trip.  Tomorrow?  Sanibel Island and the J.N. "Ding" Darling National Wildlife Refuge.

-Tom

I'm Back from Rainy Florida

Tamiami Trail, near Copeland, Florida

I spent five days last week exploring southwest Florida. Unlike most Florida January weeks, I experienced quite the deluge, with over four inches of rain in a 48 a period.  I managed to make most of my time that it wasn't raining, photographing many species of birds.  Highlights included closeup encounters with a short-tailed hawk, reddish egret, an American flamingo, and several species of shorebirds.  I'll be sharing my images of the trip over the foreseeable future.  I photographed many species of birds, and saw many others.  Southwest Florida gives me a jolt of energy just when I need it through the long, gray, Ohio winters.

-Tom

Afternoon Snack

Willet, Sanibel Island, March 2008.

On black at http://ittybittybugs.blogspot.com

Roseate Walk

Last year at this time, I was counting the days to our trip to Ding Darling National Wildlife Refuge. Although I had influenza, and I shot the whole week with fevers over 100 degrees, I still managed to get some great images. I rented the Canon 400 5.6L from Lensrentals.com, and it served me quite well in the Florida sunshine. This week I'm going to go through my images from that trip and post a picture of each species I encountered during our trip.

View on black at ittybittybugs.blogspot.com

The Final HDR Image- Sanibel Sunrise

And here is my final HDR image, created from the five images that I posted yesterday.

Pretty cool, isn't it? Notice how the people walking on the beach have been mostly removed from the final image. The software isn't perfect, as you can still see a their faint outline, also called ghosting. Still, without a tripod, and only balancing the camera on a railing, the Photomatix software did a fairly good job aligning the images. The Australian pine tree in the upper left was waving in the breeze, and in the final image, it looks as if I took this shot using a long exposure with motion blur.

The Australian pine (Casuarina equisetifolia) is a nasty invasive in Florida. There are so many of these trees there, that most visitors would just pass them off as an interesting part of the native flora. But they are a non-native invasive, and they grow quickly, replacing native dune vegetation. I first had experience with this plant when I was traveling around Australia in 1999 with Hiram College.

So, have you tried to create your first HDR image? It can be addicting--beware. I have a great guide called the HDRI handbook that I'm reading now, and it comes with software and image demonstrations. I found it in the catalog in the Columbus Metropolitan Library, and to show you how popular HDR is becoming, I had to wait three months before it became available. Who knows, future cameras may be engineered to take pictures without any post-processing to create these incredible images. For now, it takes a little bit of work, but I think the final results are worth it. Just another tool in the bag of the nature photographer.

Update: After Gale suggested I clone out the sunspot, I gave it my best shot using Paint.net. I am by no means an expert, but my cloning doesn't look all that bad! Now if I had photoshop...just think of the possibilities!




Tom

Update from Florida

Have you ever been on a vacation where you were ridiculously sick the whole time? Welcome to my trip to Florida so far! The flu continues. Today, I feel like I'm finally over the hump.

A few observations:

1. Sanibel Island is an amazing place. There are plenty of people here, but everything is low key. There aren't even traffic lights on the island.

2. Even though I've been sick, I have had a few opportunities to get out. Monday morning, I went on a scouting field trip around the island. I made it to Ding Darling, and by sheer luck, I ran into about 20 photographers and 30 roseate spoonbills. After shooting there for about an hour, I absolutely felt like crap and slept the rest of the day, but, I got some spoonbill shots.

3. We aren't staying on the ocean, but we are only about a 3 minute walk from the beach. The shorebirds and shells here are amazing. There was a storm just before we came, which washed up many live creatures. The shorebirds have been feasting.

4. We are staying on a canal built for boats, but it is also full of interesting wildlife as well. Most interesting are the manatees. When I haven't been sleeping, I've been sitting in a lawn chair along the side of the canal, camera in hand, taking pictures of the manatees. There is also an extremely tame little blue heron that tried to take food out of my hand practically. There are also several white ibis, snowy egrets, and brown pelicans around.

5. The internet service here is quite lacking. For some reason, my laptop is not able to connect to the Beach Road Villas wireless network. Megan's uncle, Harry, also brought his laptop, so I'm typing on his machine right now. If i feel better, I'll scope out a coffe shop and upload some images.

Thats it for now. I'm feeling a bit better this evening, but that is after taking five hours of naps today! Megan and I are going to make a quick trip to Ding Darling tomorrow morning. Hope everyone is doing well back in Ohio and the Midwest and that everyone's snow has melted!

Tom