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

Great Horned Owls - GVP 22, 23

From http://natureandwildlifephotography.blogspot.com/2010/05/great-horned-owls-gvp-22-23.html

I have a new outlook on life and photography. Trying to manage people, contacts, friends and share "secret" info is too hard.


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Secrets are a commodity. Secrets are things no one can really keep. You tell me your golden nuggets and I will tell you mine, right? When I first got in to photography I wondered why it was hard to find detailed and exact information on nesting locations. But there's good reason, thoughtful people want to protect the animals and nests in question.

It is hard enough to be careful all by yourself. Then add the internet and if you broadcast (post publicly) the info there's no way to know who is reading it and what they might do. It is reasonable to assume people won't be outright destructive, but it is not really that reasonable to assume a stranger will know how to best act to do as little as possible to not impact a nest, egg(s), or chicks.

Three or 4 years ago I didn't know what I didn't know. I was just starting out, and I was hungry to find and see things and take photos.

Since then I've learned a lot, seen things, had my own little impacts and wondered how I could have done this or that better. And people have proven to not be able to keep a secret themselves, and I've seen people I would have judged worthy act in ways that don't seem right to me these days. (For example flushing a bird on purpose, to get a 'flight shot', seems rude and uninformed, and is not helpful to wildlife.)

One of the hard parts of this position I now find myself in is that I've learned so much from other photographers, and the internet in general. Open sharing has enabled a lot of this for me, to find things, pursue things, etc.



The way I balance it now is that I share the location info for places that are well known, and publicized by me already, but I might not sharing the info in real time. That's not to say I will risk a spot, a nest, to conform to this. Most widely known spots don't have easily accessible eagle/owl/osprey nests.

For places I've not shared the location info before I maintain that, and I do my best to not draw attention to things like Owl nests. And when someone else shares secret location info on nesting birds with me I don't share it even when someone asks directly.

There's a lot of hard work that goes in to doing the right thing. "Just" wanting to get images of something is not an indication of anything but raw desire. And knowing someone first hand, having met in person (not just on the internet) provides some much needed context and insight in to who someone is...

All that said, I feel lucky to have been trusted with a spot a couple years ago. I added it to my list, and have gone a couple dozen times. I now have a real appreciation for the wildlife I want to photograph, more so that was possible when I started out.

I waited to post this Owlet. It has only recently fledged and made it past the 'perch close to the nest phase'. On a recent visit it saw me coming and took off after a minute or two. That's a success in my eyes - from egg to fledged and ready to move along as needed to keep safe. And now I can post these images confident that I did my part to appreciate and not hinder these owls' chances at success.

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

Nikographer.com / Jon

Golden Eagle Photos and Videos

From: http://natureandwildlifephotography.blogspot.com/

Seeing a Golden Eagle is a pretty rare thing for me. When I first started to see bald eagles I would mistake juvenile balds for goldens, but nowadays I am pretty familiar with the differences in their markings.

The eagle count at Blackwater Refuge this year had 7. I got this golden eagle there a little over a year ago.



Golden eagles are basically huge, and can prey on things that are also surprisingly large. Check out this short clip of a deer falling prey:



And see this image from a nest with a feast of foxes (some with radio collars):



Here's a much longer video, that is almost too crazy to believe, but I think it is real and just shows how powerful the golden eagle is.



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

Nikographer.com / Jon