Backyard Visitor

Some days are better than others. I just returned from a great road trip. We traveled from Charlotte to Cades Cove to Cinncinati to Dayton to Chicago (St Charles) to Paducah, Ky to Land Between the Lakes to Cumberland Falls State Park to Knoxville and finally back to Charlotte. By and large it was a relaxed and enjoyable trip. The kind of lazy trip where noone is in a hurry to get anywhere and is content with just enjoying the sights. The journey was the destination!!
I moved here to this house in October 2004 and frequently have Red-Shouldered Hawks that visit the wooded area of my backyard. I also frequently hear an Owl nearby but in 5 years have never successfully seen the bird. Today I was reading a magazine and looked out the window and saw this BIG bird swooping up into the branches of a tree in my backyard. Thinking it was one of the hawks, I grabbed my camera and slowly opened the door to the patio. When I raised the camera to my eye and looked....lo and behold, it was not a hawk, it was this barred Owl. He had caught his snack so he was content to keep an eye on me while I clicked off frame after frame.
Yes, today was a good day!

A Day on Torrance Creek Greenway

I spent the morning with a photographer friend, Tom Dills, on Torrance Creek Greenway out in Huntersville, NC. I have visited several of the Mecklenburg County greenways and this is certainly a very nice one. While on the greenway, you can actually forget that you are really very close to a thriving community and major streets. Very peaceful and teeming with wildflowers, birds, butterflies, deer (although I didn't see any today). It was interesting that folks walking or running on the greenway would often stop and ask us what we were photographing and often assumed we were photographing deer. I think these greenways are definitely a plus for Mecklenburg county and citizens. While there we saw this "butterfly" which appears to have 4 wings. I tried to find it in my reference books but the closest I can get is that of an "Imperial Moth". Is this correct? Have you seen such a beautiful creature before?

Testing new capability

I have been testing a new LR Plugin which allows me to upload an image directly from LR to my Blog, in essence, creating the initial draft of a blog entry without leaving LR. If it works as advertised, I might be encouraged to post more often.
Ah, exported the file, inserted copyright and transferred me to the posting page for clean-up and publishing. Really neat!!

Oh, and the lounging buffalo, one of my shots from "Land Between the Lakes" in Western Kentucky. There is a prairie there that is home to herds of Elk and Buffalo. I grew up in Paducah which is about 25 miles from this particular spot and until this summer had never visited. I was a youngster when Kentucky Lake and Barkley lake and the atomic energy facilities were being built and those were the days of segregation. The area set aside for Blacks was called Cherokee Park and I remember going there for holidays to swim in the lake. It seemed to that teenage boy that it took practically all day to get there and I am always amazed now to find that such an excursion takes only 15-20 minutes. The area has developed into quite a facility and is maintained as a National Recreation Area and is reported as being one of the best Bass fishing area in the country. But it is a photographers dream with the Elk that were imported a number of years ago from Canada and the buffalo and hundreds of birds of every stripe and color. We wildlife photographers like to wait for interesting behaviour to photograph but I kind of like this photo which shows this buffalo doing what buffalo do in the hot days of August in Kentucky...rest!!!

Hunting Wild Flowers along the Blue Ridge Parkway

Exploring the Blue Ridge Parkway.
When the alarm went off at 3:30am this past Saturday morning I was tempted to roll over and go back to sleep but I had been looking forward to this all weekend and eventually rolled out of bed and set off for the 2+ hour drive to milepost 301 and vicinity searching for a sunrise before joining others at the Linville Falls visitor center. As luck would have it, what seemed like a great sunrise developing in the end fizzled out into very pale and washed out colors. In for a dime, in for a buck so I continued to MP316 to meet up with the others and try to get some good wildflower images. Played around near the Linville Falls picnic grounds for the first hour or so and learned a lot about lichen and wildflowers from Bob Phipps who is a plant expert. Didn't get many keepers there but enjoyed the company. The outing leader then gave us directions to an area that was loaded with "Turks Caps" and other wildflowers and this was a bit more promising. Just in case you (like me) had no idea what a "Turks Cap" was I have posted an image of one for you to enjoy. I then moved on to the Linville Falls visitor center and started out on the trail to the falls where there was a field of "Bee Balm". The Bee Balm was a bit worn and failed to inspire me so turned around and went back to the picnic area to visit with the others. John, our leader, led us on a short hike to a spot to view "Duggers Falls". The light was a bit harsh but it was a delightful little quiet spot. I am sharing an image of "Duggers Falls" with you!!

And then there was One...

The herons are near full-size and surely will all be fledging over the next couple of weeks. The oldest family home now has only one youngster in the nest. I suppose he is trying to get his nerve up to follow his brothers/sisters. He/she spends most of his time looking over the edge of the nest. I suppose this is the way he summons up the nerve to try a flight. I was up early this morning looking for a sunrise and saw 2 youngsters that spent all of their time together...following each other pretty closely. I bet they are the 2 siblings that left this one alone and afraid to follow. I am sure he will fledge in the next day or so and then this nest, which happens to be the highest nest in the rookery, will be empty of chicks.
The next highest nest still is occupied by these 3 chicks and they too seem to be anxious to fledge. Boy, wouldn't I be lucky to actually see one of them take their maiden flight!!!

Crowding the nest!!

Spent a couple of hours with the herons today. I reported earlier that there were quite a few nests with 4 chicks in them. I know at least one of the families of 4 lost the runt somehow but I don't believe any of the others have had similar tragedies.
I am amazed though at the patience shown by the "teenagers". Here is a shot of 2 nests, each with 4 "teenagers" in them. These guys are getting big and when the adults arrive there is precious little space in the nest to move around and there is a lot of jockeying for food. You would think that one would lose their balance and be forced to try flying earlier than desired. Just imagine having four growing chicks in one nest...they must get very fed up with one another...just standing there every day growing and waiting to leave the nest. Incredible!!

Little Herons becoming adults

I spent the week in the Outer Banks on a workshop with Moose Peterson, Laurie Excel, Joe McNally and others. Even Scott Kelby showed up for the shoot. I was a bit disappointed in the workshop as a Landscape workshop since none of the instruction was landscape oriented. The instruction was entirely focused on post-capture finishing of the image with Photoshop. I did learn a lot about Nikon Flash from the Joe McNally mini-workshops but, again, this was unexpected since I had attended thinking the focus would be on Landscape Photography. But, come to think of it...why would one attend a landscape workshop conducted by a wildlife photographer!!
Anyway, I wasted no time visiting by Heron Rookery as soon as I returned home to check on my pets!! The nests of the oldest fledglings were still the most active and the chicks have not yet fledged. But, the nest is getting to be very crowded with 3 fledglings and the adults coming back and forth to feed. As I reported before, the youngest of the clutch has long ago disappeared, not able to compete successfully for food. Of the 3 left, there is definitely still one that is smaller than the other two and doesn't seem to be very good at getting his share of food from the mother.
There is absolute pandemonium when the adult arrives and the fledglings battle and jockey for position to feed. The adult regurgitates food and so you see the fledglings all grabbing at the adult's beak for food.
Fascinating!!

Green Heron visits GBH Rookery

I spent a couple of hours watching the Herons this morning. Some of the nests have chicks that are almost the size of their mothers. And a number of the nests have 4 chicks in them. The nests should be getting crowded as they continue to grow. At least one of the females frequently leaves the nest without the male being there and leaving the chicks alone. When she does that they begin to explore like crazy. I was sure they were putting themselves in danger of falling out of the nest as they balanced themselves on the side of the nests and took in the scene below. If they were to fall, it would be goodby to them since they cannot fly and certainly cannot swim!! As I packed up to leave I saw this Green Heron swoop in and begin to hunt for his lunch. Very pretty bird!!

Great Blue Herons as Role Models

After about 30 days the chicks are getting fairly large. This particular nest has 4 chicks in it so things are also beginning to get a bit crowded. I drop by for a few minutes almost every day and I am amazed at what great parenting skills and what commitment to family is displayed by these guys. Every once in a while the male realizes that the female needs a few minutes to stretch, so he flies in and they trade places. She flies away, presumedly to stretch and spread her wings a bit and probably to decompress, and he takes her place watching over the chicks. At other times, he is hunting for food and when he catches it he dutifully brings home the "bacon" to Momma who stores it away until needed. Last week I saw one of the females reach down into the bottom of the nest and come up with a fish larger than her whole head. It seems she swallows it whole and you can see it working itself down her neck. Incredible!!!

Great Blue Heron Rookery

Discovered a Heron Rookery about half a mile from my home and have been fascinated by the nesting activity of the birds. I had extensive shoulder surgery late January and have been unable to lift my hand to my camera shutter button comfortably. In spite of that I have been able to get some neat images by pacing myself and resting often. These birds are fascinating to watch. The male goes through an extensive courting ritual including a magnificent display of colorful feathers and beak until he has chosen (or been chosen) by a female. They then go through a nest building phase pausing occasionally to mate!!! The male goes out and finds a stick and brings it back to the female who painstakingly places and anchors it into the fabric of the nest. When the nest is sufficient, the female sits and lays her eggs while the male takes care of finding food for her. The gestation periof for the eggs is 28 days so I am looking forward to seeing the babies in the nest around the middle of April. Will keep you posted!!