Eventually you’ll see some nice images from the Great Blue Heron rookery I visited this morning. Standing in a swamp for 2 hours helps one gain an immense appreciation for bug repellent! However, this post is about the topic “Never Stop Birding!” On the way home from the rookery, I needed to stop for gasoline. My fuel station of choice was the Kwik Trip on Rice Lake Road in Duluth. While pumping gas along with 20 of my closest friends, I heard a killdeer. Who cares that a highway ditch along a busy highway may not be my chosen birding location. Thankfully, I always have my super zoom camera in the car. I parked my car away from the pumps and proceeded to bird Kwik Trip.
This image resulted. The location looks like a meadow in the middle of nowhere, but looks are deceiving. I already gave you the location. Do you always have an ear tuned to bird song, and your brain always registering birds even when you are not birding? I do!
I was actually crawling around on the gas station’s lawn trying to take this photograph. I’m sure other patrons thought I was crazy, and could not figure what I thought was so interesting. My goal was to capture the lupine and the killdeer in the same photo. Crawling was required such that I would not scare the bird.
I visited two Osprey nests this morning. Both are occupied, but with no evidence yet of young. The chicks should hatch soon. At each nest I was treated to an osprey eating a mid morning fish … and much more. In birding, occasionally all the angles add up. Today was such a morning. Both the sun and wind were behind me. Assuming anything more than a breeze, raptors due to their size will never take off down wind. The first sequence of images are a take-off. While I knew said bird was eating, I had no idea the fish was almost whole, and firmly grasped in the Osprey’s talons.
A pause before the take-off photographs. Folks have heard me espouse about the importance in using burst or continuous mode for bird photography. These five images took place in less than 1/2 second. Using a single shot mode, I would have captured just that … a single photo, but which image would it have been? With the fish? Taking Off? Who knows? In addition, I had RAW turned off. This almost doubles my continuous mode to 14 frames per second. While I know some people like to take RAW images, the result of taking that approach would have meant I would have missed 1/2 the take-off photos (RAW is almost twice as slow). Finally, since this a short photography tutorial, I performed minor editing in Photoshop Elements: Opened JPG image in Camera RAW (this is not a RAW image), slid clarity +40, Black +70 and White +20. At that point I finished opening the image and adjusted Shadows +12 and Highlights +6. A minor crop was used to position the osprey in the image at the point desired. As a fyi, these are considered “minor edits” in the world of photography.
Canosia State Wildlife Refuge Osprey Take-Off (less than 1/2 second for the sequence of photos … for those of you who know Duluth, this is the “steam shovel nest” on Lavaque Road approximately 2 miles north of the Martin Road intersection)
I then moved on to a second nest. I struck pay dirt again! An Osprey busy eating a recent capture. As to not startle the bird, I took 10+ minutes to get in position. Shortly after getting to my desired photography location, I realized the Osprey was upset, but not at me. The bird kept looking up into the sky and issuing a challenge. It took me a while, and quite frankly I expected to spy a bald eagle, but I finally saw two additional ospreys high overhead. Their presence was NOT desired. It took me well over 15 seconds to spot these birds even though the Osprey knew of their presence immediately! In the four photos you can observe that the Osprey’s wings are ready for instant take-off should defense of the nest and his mate become necessary.
I love the northward migration. Each day brings new sights and sounds … and bike rides along the North Shore of Lake Superior. Over the past few days the male Ospreys have returned to the Northland. Often two different males sit in the nests waiting for the females to return. Two afternoon’s ago I found one returnee enjoying a fish supper. Hope folks are not squeamish!
Osprey … Fish for Dinner!
Dinner … The Movie
It’s important not to ignore my own back yard. Sometimes as a photographer I focus too much upon known birding areas, but forget to take photos at home. Here across from Amity Creek in Duluth (where I live)
Red-Breasted Nuthatch
White-Breasted Nuthatch
Yellow-Bellied Sapsucker
Preening … the Movie!
However, I still like to get in the car and drive to my favorite birding locations. Early in the spring that means I head to NW Wisconsin and the Johnson Mitigation Wetlands near Cloverland. This morning’s trip yield many new returns, and some lingering Arctic birds.
Killdeer
Courting Wilson’s Snipe
The Movie … Wilsons’ in Love
I definitely am not forgetting the ponds at my local cemetery. With area lakes ice bound, Forest Hill Cemetery yields some good duck watching.
Ring-Necked Ducks (Two’s Company … Three’s a Crowd)
Finally, here is one leftover movie from the southwest. I never post this flick of a Cooper’s Hawk I watched my final afternoon. Cool bird.
