Gatorland!

Land of the Egrets.  Large and small.  Never had so much fun.  In a three hour stretch took 2700 pic’s.  Birds everywhere.  A rookery.

Died and gone to…..bird heaven?

My wife gave me the goal to get a backlit shot of a Great Egret wing spanned out.  Got real close a couple of times.  Of all the shots this was one of my personal favorites…….

Got lots more including an incredible shot my wife captured!   MTC   jc

Had this handsome bird in the viewfinder for a bit.  Looked everywhere to know what bird family he is from.  Never found it.     I will look tomorrow.

A pretty little guy.  And gorgeous.  Friendly to the camera.  This ones a keeper!

I am in Florida for Photoshop World!

I did bring a couple of hundred pounds of photo gear.  Do you really think I would fly all the way to Florida and not take photograph’s?  Darn rights!!!  I snuck out this morning before the 4 hour “HDR – Class”.

Lot’s of nest building…….

And even more little brats…..

What made my whole day was when I looked back and my wife had picked up one of my cameras and was shooting!!!!  Maybe miracles do happen.  These are just teasers.  What an incredible day.  My wife even had a couple of great shots…..more TK….JC

It’s has been an incredible month or so!  Work is picking up.  Filtering through piles of applications for two new hires.  And gone every night to see an individual close to me that had medical problems.  Literally every night at the hospital.  Day-night-day-night for a month….

The last chance to capture was about a week ago.  I had about two hours in the afternoon.  Drove to Antelope Island.  The long causeway creates an incredible opportunity to photograph Northern Harrier Hawks. Flying 10 to 20 above the edge of the causeway they are hunting.  Out came the 600mm.  Pulled over on the wrong side.  Set the aperture and waited.  Then HE came along head down.  Looking for mice.  Then he would pass.  As he passed, I would fire off 50 or 60 shots.  Then I would back up a thousand feet or so and wait again.  Every time he passed he would look over at me for a split second.  Literally.  One frame of 9 frames per second……Good looking guy!  Man what eyes!!!!

Farmington Management area closes this week.  I think tomorrow.  Up very early this morning for my last chance at some Bald Eagle shots.  Actually I was up every two hours basting 8 lbs. of  beef brisket in my new smoker…..was a dismal failure.  It will take time to get this food smoking thing down.  Back to the eagles….it was a cloudy day.  Photo abilities were being tested.  Bald’s are not the easiest to shoot.  White heads and dark bodies.  Cloudy helps but lends to flat photo’s.  Man, it was fun even if my butt was as cold as a Norbest turkey.  Today my camera and I were at ground level…yes in the ice and mud.  Made for better pic’s!  It was well worth it!!!!!  Going to Wyoming for the week.  Going to miss the Bald’s!!!!!

Juvenile.  Probably one year old.  Not as shy as the adults to a camera.  This beauty landed on a post at FBBR and allowed me to get a few head shots.  Pretty cute guy!!!

Had to get a few shots in tonight…..

I rushed to FBBR tonight minutes before the sun was setting and caught this Harrier Hawk.  She was feasting off some fish remains that the Eagles had left.   Shot with D3S, 600mm f/4, 2x teleconverter, ISO 200 at 1/60, -1/3 EV.  Lucked out with the low light, long lens and little vibration!

Today was absolutely beautiful!

After church four hours was used up with my FBBR friends.  Yesterday was the advertised “Eagle Day”.  Talk about crowds!  Bumper to bumper front to back on the dikes at the refuge.  The birds stayed WAAAAY back.  In the four hours there was only one opportunity to capture a Bald Eagle shot.  From about three quarters of a mile a bald eagle saw a seagull drop a 6″ fish.  We had the bird in our sights most the day.  As soon as the fish was dropped the Eagle flew right at us, picked up the fish and went back to his perch way out there.

The shot above is a composite of two shots of the same bird.  One just as the eagle was grasping for the fish.   The other just as the fish was picked up.   The eagles are thinning out.  Especially since the big crowds are showing up at the refuge.    Looks like another great year of clicks there…..

Tuesday night was spectacular  at Farmington Bay.  Bright sunlight at just the right angles.  A little break to Capture on the sensor some eagles.   After 9 days in beautiful Guatemala (7 of 9 days sick in hotel room. More on that later.) I needed to see what was going on at the Bay.  Luck was definitely on my side with the light and a very friendly (hungry) Bald Eagle.   Cranked up the ISO to 1200 and shot wide open.  Then let the birds put on their show….

Back from Guatemala.

Last night I ran over to FBBR to see what I have missed for the last two weeks.  Just before sunset this eagle snatched a fish….I snatched this shot!  I kinda like it.