July Osprey - 2016

July is a great time for photographing Osprey in Maryland.  The chicks are getting big, and still in the nests, not yet fledged.  They are also eating a ton of fish so the adults need to be active to keep up with the demand for food.

In years past I have let other things grab my time and attention and I have missed out on shooting the osprey chicks.

But this year I took a day off of work, and I also took a weekend day and went to 2 specific nests near St. Michaels Maryland to shoot the birds.  There are so many nests in Maryland, but I liked these two because they are near but not too near to land, and they each had 3 chicks this year.

At the first nest I watched as one particular bird worked out, flapping away, gaining wing strength.



What really caught my eye was how the adult was perched slightly higher than the chicks, and was surveying the area but also keeping a close eye on the chicks too.



The other nest I shot at had the 3 chicks, and they spent more time being fed.  The male osprey was nearby and delivered 3 fish within about an hour while I was there for about 3 hours.  It was super hot, above 90/95 degrees.

While shooting from a nearby marina I drank 4 bottles of water to just keep up with the heat and sweat.

The above photos are new posts to flickr.  The below images I have shared already, here's the male at the second nest checking me out while carrying a fish, and then coming in for a landing at the nest.





I really like how crowded the nest seemed and how they were all huddled together so closely.  They were also very eager to eat, and the female (adult) went right for the fish and then repositioned herself to feed the chicks.  The male was more tentative.

It is not that often that I have seen and photographed chicks and both adults in a nest.  Usually the male will stay away or fly away quickly.  This male was similarly edgy but delivered 3 fish, and stayed in the nest longer than I expected.

 

Part of the reason could be the distance of the nest from the shore.  It was not that close - I used a 600mm and crop body (D500) to shoot them, and with a 1.4 teleconverter for some images.  In addition, when the male came by and seemed to do a couple fly-bys checking out the nest and me, but not landing, I backed up slightly, until he landed on the nest.  At one point I also used a cheap wireless camera trigger - where I set up the camera on the nest, turned off auto-focus, and then walked away to see if the birds' behavior would change.

During this time the male caught the fish and then would land on a nearby channel marker and eat some of the fish and wait.  The male, and female actually while the male was hunting, took to the air to ward off other osprey that intruded on their territory.

Each day was about a 4 hour drive round trip, and probably around 4-6 hours shooting. 

 The osprey should be coming back in two and a half to three months.  It will be fun to see them again.

-Jon

Sunrise at Hemingways near the Chesapeake Bay Bridge March 2016

The first time I ever went to Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge, many years ago, I had the pleasure of witnessing the sunrise while crossing the Chesapeake Bay Bridge. I say pleasure because I had not planned it right and didn't know how far I had to drive (no smart phone at the time, no google maps, and no proper prior planning) and while I was less than half way there I got to see the sunrise and realized I had blew it, and would be more than an hour "late" for sunrise...

Pretty much every visit since, over 50 easily in the last 9 or 10 years I've made it to Blackwater before sunrise, sometimes 45 minutes before... It is around a 100 miles to drive for me, and can take nearly 2 hours in the early morning. And it is totally worth it. Here are a couple sunrises from Blackwater that were awesome/epic/wow'd me, etc... Any many more here.




And finally this sunrise, from my second visit when I did actually make it in time for sunrise... ( Taken on December 16, 2006)


In March 2016 I think the weather wasn't supposed to be great and I slept in and then decided anyway to go east, and instead of getting up at 4am I got up at 5:30am or something. As I was driving I saw the amazing sunrise and these strange clouds and it was something to see. So for the first time, I stopped on the East side of the Bay Bridge at sunrise and went to the marina there.
Previously I'd shot the Snowy Owl that was there in the evening, while coming back from the Eastern Shore:


All that lead up to show off these two images I've shared so far from this spot... I shot a bunch, walked on the docks a bit, shot looking east, looking west, and took a few hundred photos. Then I continued east and hit a couple other spots without going to Blackwater.
Empty Docks


Sunrise @ Chesapeake Bay Bridge


Finally, here's a 'contact sheet' from the images I processed and rated from this day in March 2016. I've only posted the 2 above so far. There might be another couple to post from the sunrise timeframe... Later in the day the images were not unique, though it was fun to see the osprey early in the season the ducks as well.



If you're wondering about how I rate images, here it is:
1= come back and find this image and process it later.
2=used for an automated image/hdr creation, not editing by itself for single export
3=any edited image that is not rated higher
4=hdr images (TIF's then processed and exported), or regular images that are a "4". So just because an HDR is a 4 doesn't mean it is an image I really like.
5=highest rating, any image that I REALLY like...

Original content posted at http://natureandwildlifephotography.blogspot.com/
Nikographer.com / Jon

Keep Exploring & More Vertical

GVP #40 to #48 - From http://natureandwildlifephotography.blogspot.com/2010/05/keep-exploring-more-vertical.html

A couple weeks ago I went to the Air Show at Andrews Air Force Base. This was my 5th year going, and I'm starting to get my fill of it all. The highlights of past years have been the F-15 which is awesome and so fast when they kick on the afterburners. The F-22 Raptor is amazing too. It can basically defy normal laws of physics, and hover, flip, flop, slide, go backwards, sort of crazy.


-click for more-



The part that has gotten pretty old this time is the crowds. My basic routine for the past few years is to be on one of the very first buses from Fedex field so I can get a front row spot near the middle. Doing it this way makes it a very long day but there's not a better place to shoot from really. With no one in front of you, you can have an unblocked view of just about all of the show. They have restrictions on what you can bring to the base/show, but you're allowed to bring a chair, a tripod, and whatever camera gear you might want to carry (but bag sizes are limited to 1 cubic foot). The problem is that even if things go smooth it is a stressful day. Carrying around a couple cameras, a few lenses, a chair, a tripod, and being out in the hot sun on the tarmac takes a toll. Add to this the fact that the crowds are usually around 100,000 people, and being up front makes your space a target. Every one that was home sleeping at 7am now wants to stand in front of you. So it turns in to a defensive struggle to not get ousted from the front row, or just stepped on and bullied.

The other thing that I found some this year is that it is somewhat hard to get unique photos when you and 99,999 other folks are there too. I guess it is not impossible, but it is hard. My vertical project helped a little to keep me trying new stuff, but, more and more I want to keep advancing my photography and being where lots of other people are shooting isn't part of the plan.

Maybe next year I will take a different approach to it to keep it fresh - like sleeping in, or not bringing a big lens and tripod or chair, etc. Doing it completely the opposite way, and shooting the static display stuff more, or maybe the people of the air show.

(I realize that I am posting this to my nature&wildlife photography blog, but to me all photography is part of the same continuum - the learning, exploring, and processes involved.)


The sad news of the zoo's lions loosing their new born cub was a real downer. But the work involved in the zoo's effort to build a lion pride has been going on for around 5 years! The fact that they have a male, 2 females, they've settle in to the zoo well, and now are a pride of 3 - and there's been mating and a single birth (this recent one) is a success. And this setback is temporary, and I am still hopeful and proud of the hard work the zoo has done to come this far.


And now on to some WILDLIFE! Last year I went to Cape May New Jersey for the first few times ever. I stayed over night both times, and had a real blast. During Fall Cape May is a major hot spot for migratory birds. I saw hawks, and a variety of other birds but the Black Skimmers were my absolute favorites.



In October (2009) there had to have been 500 birds (black skimmers) along the beach - in just one or two groups. By November (2009) the group was down to roughly 50, and of those only a handful for adults. For reference as to how much I enjoyed watching and shooting them - I probably spent 50% of my time just with them on the beach, and maybe took 3000 shots. The hawks, raptors, etc which motivated me to go in the first place weren't my favorites or even a big highlight. Just this one image stands out - and the close encounter I had with a Cooper's that flew by me at around a distance of 5 feet and plunged in to a bush to try to catch a meal.

This weekend I went again but didn't find any Skimmers. There were some on the other side of the Delaware Bay in DE. The highlight of this trip was probably the Piping Plovers and Laughing Gulls. Much like the Skimmers, the Laughing Gulls are pretty common but they have some character and aren't too skittish.



I was keeping Cape May a "secret". Lol. The thing is that people do follow where I go, and I wanted to keep the spot to myself. But in actuality the spot is probably the most famous and known birding spots of all the east coast north of Florida. I realized this (obvious fact) and also that I should be able to get my unique images regardless of who knows I shoot there. I am still going to try to keep my smaller spots off of my publicly shared spots (just going to share the images themselves) - but a spot like CM, it's like Blackwater or Bombay Hook - the locations are very well known already.

Later in the weekend I checked in on one of the osprey nests I visit, and the female appeared to be sleeping when I got there. She woke up when some other birds chirped to alert the neighborhood to my approach. But she didn't fly off the nest, and just watched me for a few. There's gotta be chicks already or maybe by this weekend. I didn't see any feeding last weekend, and have high hopes for this nest this year.



I've been shooting video on and off, trying to keep at that. Here's a short clip of the osprey from above, sitting on the nest and yelling to the skies!