Osprey Takes Flight

Florida 2013 continued...


On our way to Rotary Park Tuesday morning I spotted this osprey pair in a tree in someone's backyard, at the end of a street very near my grandma's house. For purely selfish reasons I was excited to see the birds nesting on something other than a man-made platform--to get photos of them in a natural setting. It seems to me that a platform would be more sturdy, but hey, who am I to say? I pulled the van over and took a few photos, making a mental note to come back later and set up the tripod.

Osprey are birds that have become fairly common in Florida, and we have begun seeing them around our home, especially at Appleton Lake, where we go to fish and watch the sandhill cranes. That wasn't always the case, of course. Like most raptors their populations were devastated by the effects of DDT poisoning. The ban of that chemical in the early 70's--along with the work of many dedicated volunteers--allowed the osprey and other top predators make an incredible comeback.

A few months back I started a project to sort and organize my bird images. My primary reason for shooting birds had always been to get subject matter for my art. It has since turned into a quest to photograph every bird I see, a sort of visual life list. I decided to open a Flickr account (see the thingy at the top right of this page) and upload my best image of each bird I've photographed. I also decided to get them printed and put together a photo album because I'm a paranoid freak and will never quite trust digital files.

Anyway, I was surprised to see that in many cases, the more common the bird, the fewer the photos I had of it, like the American robin. I also discovered that in some cases the photos I had just weren't very good. I expect that with a species like the yellow-billed cuckoo, which I've seen only once and then very briefly, which I'm happy to have gotten any images at all. But with birds like the osprey, which I have taken oodles of pictures of, I was disappointed at how poor my images were--blurry, back-lit, you name it. So one of my goals on this trip was to get better images of birds I've already photographed. This was a great opportunity to improve on my osprey photos.

Boy, was I right!

Later in the day I walked down to the corner with my camera and tripod and set up on the edge of someone's yard, under a big pine. I'd only been there a few minutes when an osprey flew up the to tree where I was standing. I thought it was going to land on a branch about 15 feet up on the opposite side of the tree, but instead, as it approached the branch, it jabbed its feet out, breaking it off. The bird whirled around with a small part of the dead branch in its talons as the remainder thudded to the ground 10 feet away!

I managed to get the camera on it as it approached the nest.

Osprey with building material.

 He perched for a few minutes, calling out to his mate--LOUDLY.

"Hon!! Where do you want me to put this? Hon? HON!!"

And then...magic.

I would swear this bird is looking right at me.

 He lifted his wings...

...spread them wide...

..and with one powerful thrust, took the the air...

...flying for a moment right at me.
 

He quickly veered to my right and out of the frame. I was breathless with excitement!

I stayed for a while longer and watched while as many as five osprey were visible in the sky above me. Some few by with fish clutched in their talons.

This bird has a small fish in its left foot.

I was to receive one more gift from these gorgeous birds. After talking to some of the neighborhood kids, who where understandably curious about me and my doings, I had another bird fly right at me and into the tree beneath which I stood, clutching a good sized fish. She landed not more that five away, perhaps 12 to 15 feet up the tree. I got a stiff neck trying to watch her. What a treat!

Mmmm.  Not sure what kind of fish. Perhaps a snapper?

Bon appetit!

Next: Ulumay Wildlife Sanctuary and the wood stork.

Let's Write a Blog!

Florida 2013

It's been so long since I've posted that it feels a bit like I've never done it before! I do apologize for the delay though. I had over 2000 images to sort through, most of which were garbage but with some goodies mixed in.  The bad part is you still have to sort through the crap to get to the gems.

As I mentioned before these trips to Florida are primarily to visit with my grandma, who turned 90 last year. My secondary motive is to get shots of birds to draw. While I have always tried to mix in a healthy dose of outdoor activities I now have another reason to head south in the winter--birding!

The drive down with my mother was uneventful. We passed through the mountains of Tennessee and North Carolina after dark, winding up and then down I-40 in a long trail of semi trucks. Sunday afternoon we drove through the bottom-lands of eastern Georgia, where the Altamaha River fans out before it reaches the sea--a place I hope to visit in the future. We arrived at Andree's with enough time to unload and settle in before dark.

Not much happened Monday. I washed the van, which was slick with road salt from the drive down. At a rest area outside Asheville I had noticed the heat shield for the catalytic converter had come loose and was hanging dangerously close to the pavement. It was dangling from the back and I was worried we would catch it on something and rip the exhaust apart so I had to get that fixed. We made it down to the beach in the afternoon, at very low tide, and I found small whelk or conch, in pretty good condition, buried just past a short drop off at the low tide line. My mom commandeered it as a souvenir.

Tuesday I had hoped to go down the coast to Archie Carr NWR, but my mom wasn't feeling well so we stuck close to home. Rotary Park is about a mile from my grandma's and has a 1/4 mile boardwalk through a nice little slice of Florida forest, so we went there instead. We saw a number of songbirds, like this pretty little yellow-rumped warbler.

Later along the trail we came across a hermit thrush.

It was very accommodating and landed on a dead branch above the boardwalk so I could get some better photos.

We saw more than birds on our short walk. This Southeastern five-lined skink sat warily on the boardwalk.

My mom talked to the woman running the small nature center at the park after we finished our walk and the woman said a lot of people are afraid of these little critters, possibly because they think they're snakes. Really?? The damn thing has legs!! You know what people do to things they're afraid of. Sigh....

Ignorance is bliss--unless you're a five-lined skink....


Next: Some pretty awesome osprey photos.

Florida Preview

Hi all! I am sitting on a hotel bed somewhere in northeast Tennessee, pooped after 13 hours on the road. I'll be happy to get home tomorrow afternoon, and hoping that slippery roads don't hold me up.

I took around 2,000 images while in Florida, which really is an absurd number. I have already gone through some of them, deleted the bad ones (the vast majority) and saved them to a flash drive--I like to have things backed up.

My mother and I spent some time at the beach, the Brevard Zoo and the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge. I also watched an osprey eat a fish almost directly over my head just down the street from my Grandmother's house. I added...at least three new birds to my life list, and got some better shots of others I'd seen before. I'm really excited to share these with you.

As a preview to my trip, here is an image of the first new bird I saw at MINWR--a Reddish egret. I had looked at Sibley's at some point prior to my trip and seen this bird in the book, and thought well, that would be a neat one to see. I need to start hoping for, oh, a million bucks.

Reddish egret chasing its prey.

Anyway, this was one of the goofiest birds I have ever seen. It runs and jumps and twirls as it's fishing, throwing up its wings and changing direction in a blink of the eye, a gangly bird with ADD. I laughed out loud several times watching it.

It will take me a day or two to sort through my files, then will start sharing them with you.

Yellow-Shafter Flicker

The Northern yellow-shafted flicker is not an uncommon bird by any means. We had them in our yard when we lived in Ann Arbor, and we see them frequently around our property now. But it is less common to have them come to the feeders, so when they do I make that made dash for my camera.

The light was really nice, a bright but cloudy day. The suet was pretty much depleted, due in large part to those pesky starlings, who are pretty but quite a nuisance.

I just love this bird, and need to do a new drawing of one. I drew one years ago, 2007 or 2008, one of the first I did in pen and ink and colored pencil. My style has come a long way since then!

Such a tapestry of color and shapes. Each breast feather is dotted with black. The black bar coming off its mandible indicates that this is a male.

A nice look at the bright red "V" on the back of his neck, and how he's using his tongue to pick up bits of suet.

I was watching him through the lens try to swallow a large piece of suet. I was totally unprepared for when his tongue came whipping out of his mouth and snapped around his head like a lasso. I kid you not, it had to be at least 4 inches long. This was all I managed to get. He did it twice, and neither me nor my camera could catch it at its full length.

Flicker tongues really are 5 inches long!!

After going over the images I shot that day, I think I have my pose for a new piece.

I am heading to Florida this morning, a road trip with my mother to visit my father's mother, who turned 90 last November. I know that each trip could be the last time I see her, so I have to resist the urge to spend all my time stalking shore birds and waterfowl in the wildlife refuges and spend time with her. We will spend a day at Merritt Island NWR, and take a trip down the coast to Archie Carr NWR, and might stop at Pinckney Island NWR in South Carolina, where one of my favorite bloggers, Kelly at Red and the Peanut, spends a lot of time. Here's hoping for a life list bird or two!

Red-breasted Nuthatch ID

The Red-breasted nuthatch is one of my favorite birds. I know, I know, I have a lot of favorites. How can I not? Such wonderful creatures, birds are. But the RBN is such a cheerful fellow, and a bird we only see in the winter, so we have to fill up on them while they're here. To find them in the summer I have to go to the Upper Peninsula. But this time of year they spend their days plucking peanuts from the feeder in the back yard, and I have a front row seat in my studio from which to watch and photograph them.

Male Red-breasted nuthatch.

One can tell most bird species' sex by its plumage--females tend to have vastly different plumage, usually drab to help them blend in while on the nest. There are exceptions, of course, like Blue jays, where both the male and female share color and markings. In other species the difference are subtle, and easily missed if you're not really paying attention, or don't know what to look for.

Nuthatches fall into the latter group. It was only recently that I learned how to tell male and female White-breasted nuthatches apart--the male had a black cap, while the female's is gray. While I watched an RBN the other day I wondered if the same applied to the male and female of that species, and indeed it does.

Overall the male red-breasted is more brightly marked--black on top of the head, brighter sides/belly, and more blue on its back.

Silly face--birds look so odd when seen straight on.

 

 
 Classic nuthatch pose.

The female shares the male's coloration and markings, but is overall duller in color, with a gray cap, pale sides/belly and more brown on her back and wings. Both have that distinctive black eye line.

Compare her to the male, shown again below.

 

Here's a better look at her back and cap.

So there you have it, Red-breasted nuthatch ID!

Thhhbbbbbbbbtttt!!

Carolina (Wren) On My Mind

We have lots and lots of birds visit our feeders every day. At any given time you can look out the window and see cardinals, goldfinch, chickadees and titmice, nuthatches (red and white-breasted), doves, jays and juncos. For the most part the birds are the same as the ones who were here yesterday, and will be the same as those who will come tomorrow.

But every now and then we get a bird who is not so common, like the Golden-crowned kinglet we had last week, or the beautiful male flicker who paid us a visit yesterday.

A few days ago, late in the afternoon, I spotted a Carolina wren checking out the suet.

Carolina wren.

Not a wholly uncommon bird here, it is a winter visitor, and I've never seen more than two at once. Some winters we don't see one at all.

He needled away at the edge of the suet.

Big feet for such a small bird!

Fast and twitchy, they are still easier to photograph than titmice and chickadees, who like to swoop in, grab a seed, and swoop out. This rusty fellow showed himself from all angles.

I noticed the leading edge of his flight feathers are ragged, like an owl's.  I wonder if he has need of silent flight?

After a few minutes a downy flew in, and the wren departed...

...taking refuge in our Christmas tree, which will live out the rest of the winter on the balcony to provide the birds with a little extra shelter.

The wren's patience finally ran out, and he executed a sneak attack, flying under the radar and sidling past the downy, who was now fully engaged with the suet.

Such a sweet face--I hope to see him again soon.

Artwork--"The Fisher King"

Whew! Just in the nick of time. I have a show application due tomorrow that I really wanted this piece done for, so I've been cramming this week to get him done.

"The Fisher King"  20x15, colored pencil and ink on Bristol board.

When thinking about a title for this piece I was first throwing around "marsh queen" or some such thing. Then "fisher king" popped into my head. Herons obviously eat fish, which is where I was going with it at first. But having read and written a paper on T.S. Elliot's The Wasteland in college, and having been a fan of Arthurian legend for many years, the name really struck me.


Accounts of who exactly the Fisher King was vary, but generally he is the guardian of the Grail, a wounded king whose health is linked to the health of the land. As the king is wounded, so too the land. He is also a very mysterious and enigmatic figure, and the great blue heron was always that for me. As a child growing up on a lake, I would often see a heron standing on the end of the dock. But if I even thought about going outside it somehow knew, and it would spread those huge wings and lift itself into the air, vanishing around the point.

This is a bird I photographed two years ago in the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge in Florida. You can see some more images of the bird I drew this piece from in my post "Heron Yoga"