Pic of the Day

    American Coot – Everglades National Park, Florida: Found from the Yukon to Mexico and from California to Labrador, the American Coot is one of the most wide ranging birds of North America. While on one of my shooting forays into the Everglades long ago, I found this bird at Eco Pond near Flamingo. I had little interest in photographing such a common bird as a coot, but this bird, in its prime breeding plumage with white bill and deep red eye set against the dark water was striking. I took just a few shots then continued around the pond stopping often to photograph Roseate Spoonbills, Great Egrets, and Little Blue Herons.
     At one point I took-off cross country hiking through coastal scrub to follow a pair of Bald Eagles that were on wing performing a nuptial flight. The Eagles flapped high into the sky and then clasp talons and began spinning topsy-turvy as they hurdled in freefall toward the earth. Just before striking the ground the birds released their locked talons to soar in a sweeping arc upward into the blue. It was an exciting day and the first time I had witnessed and photographed such an aerial display.
     After returning home, and in anticipation of seeing the eagle photographs I could barley stand the wait that it took to get the film developed and back in my hands. As soon as the yellow boxes arrived I eagerly laid each image on the light table and scrutinized each one. Upon seeing the images of the eagles in flight my heart sank with disappointment. The eagles, while exciting to watch and photograph did not hold the same excitement and command on film, it was a photographic failure.
     As I continued through the boxes of slides I found other images I shot around Eco Pond that same day, and much to my surprise those few shots I had taken of the American Coot jumped out at me. I found the coot images ethereal as the water y background floats in airy wisps disappearing into the darkness. My day around Eco Pond had not been a total photographic failure after all. Looking at those slides that day I quickly realized that there is no such thing as a common bird, only opportunities.
Nikon F3, Nikkor 400mm 2.8, Kodachrome 64

Pic of the Day

     Great Egret – Venice Heron Rookery; Venice, Florida:  This Great Egret is caught on the wing as it returns to its nest at the Venice heron rookery.  The rookery is one of the best places to photograph nesting wading birds in Florida.  Along with the Great Egrets other birds that nest in the heronry are, Anhinga, Great Blue and Yellow-crown Night Herons. 

     The best time to visit the rookery is January, February and March.  I have found early morning the best time to shoot as visual access is on the east side of the rookery.  On mornings with a clear eastern sky the sulfurous warmth of the rising sun provides rich, saturated colors. 

     Even before the sun breaks the horizon the rookery is a bustling hub of energy.  Activity in the heronry varies depending on the time of the year.  During the early breeding season birds are busy building and adding to nest.  During the incubation and nest building periods there is the constant nuptial ritual between birds when they arrive and exchange duties at the nest.  After eggs hatch there is constant feeding activity as adults tend to nestlings.  One thing is certain, there is never a dull moment at the Venice Rookery and always uncountable opportunities to shoot great photos.  
     If you are interested in visiting the rookery follow this link for more information and direction: http://www.veniceaudubon.org/rookery.html
Nikon F5, Nikkor 500mm f4, Ektachrome 100VS

Also see post for April 4, & May 21, 2010

Note:  Great Egret, Common Egret and American Egret are the same bird.  Current nomenclature is Great Egret.

Recently Published Work

   I have written an article on the Pribilof Islands that has been published in the most recent issue of "Creation Illustrated," (Vol 17, No.3).
     The article is a two-page spread with four photos.  I also have a photo of Sandhill Cranes in the same issue on page 48 (below), which accompanies an article by Gayle Irwin entitled, Running the Race.  
    To learn more about, or subscripbe to "Creation Illustrated," follow this link: http://www.creationillustrated.com

Pic of the Day

    Northern Fulmar, Fulmarus glacialis  – Saint Paul Island; Pribilof Islands, Alaska:  The Zapadni Cliffs rise out of the Bering Sea, jutting upward for two hundred feet or more.  The height and location of the cliffs provides a splendid view of Saint Paul on a clear day. 

     On a blustery June morning I stood atop the Zapadni Cliffs bundled in a down parka and mittens searching for just the right spot to photograph seabirds.  Walking along the cliffs I found numerous outcrops of rocks that allowed views of birds lined along the narrow ledges.  As I was shooting auklets and murres I noticed a few Northern Fulmars soaring just off the cliff face.  The fulmars soared in long, wide, sweeping figure eight pattern. 

     As I sat and observed, I saw that the fulmars moved in a rhythmic, predictable pattern; a pattern that brought them close to the cliffs edge, which would allow me to get a good shot of these wind masters.  Moving to a position that allowed me to shoot over the cliffs edge I had full command of the scene before me, being able to follow the birds as they road the winds in their long sweeping arcs.    

     The fulmars moved so fast it was hard keeping up with them as I looked through the cameras viewfinder.  If not for the auto focus and tracking feature of the lens and camera a sharp image would have been impossible.  The overcast of the mornings sky required me to shoot using a slow shutter speed and panning technique.  Panning combined with the slow shutter speed causes the background of an image (in this case the moving waves of the Bering Sea) to render as streaks of tone and color.  The technique worked exceedingly well as the slow shutter speed combined with the panning action blurred the background and wing movement to produced an ethereal quality of movement and action that defined the moment and the essence of a fulmar.  

Nikon F5, Nikkor 300mm f4, Ektachorme 100s

Pic of the Day

   Baskins Creek – Roaring Forks Auto Trail, Great Smoky Mountains National Park:  This image was taken on the Roaring Forks Auto Trail near the historic Jim Bales cabin.   After walking around the creek I found an angle that maximized the volume of rushing water flowing over the rocks.  I shot the falls from a low angle, only a few inches above the foreground rocks and water.  Using an exposure of two and a half seconds smoothed the water into a wash of movement animating a still image into motion.  A 24mm lens set to an aperture of f22 was used to provide an extended depth-of-field which provided maximum sharpness from foreground to background.     

Nikon D3, Nikkor 24-85mm @ 24mm focal length, f/22 @ 2.5 seconds, Digital Capture ISO 200

Add Your Input To Important Research

Dr. William Hayes, a biology professor at Loma Linda University is conducting research on attitudes toward the environment and conservation. Taking the survey below will add valuable data needed for the research. Follow the link below to take a short survey. -- Bobby

IMPORTANT SURVEY ON ATTITUDES TOWARD THE ENVIRONMENT AND CONSERVATION
Your help is needed! The Loma Linda University Center for Biodiversity and Conservation Studies is conducting a groundbreaking survey on "attitudes toward the environment and conservation," particularly of those who love plants and animals. The results from this study, to be published in a professional journal, will contribute to our understanding of the role of plants and animals in society. Participants are urgently needed to complete the survey, which should take about 5-10 minutes of your time. Please click on the following link: http://www.facebook.com/l/f806ckPWwgNgSYtv6MlnkgkAeaA;www.surveymonkey.com/s/R9PFYRN

Pic of the Day

   Appalachia Mountains from Clingman’s Dome – Great Smoky Mountains National Park, TN:  
     My first trip to the Smoky Mountains was around June, 1974.  I was 19 years old and had never before seen such an incredibly beautiful wilderness.  On arriving at Clingman’s Dome I met a few backpackers who were hiking the trails, and after talking with just a few of them I decided that I had to become a backpacker and explore the mountains that I saw before me. 

     By the fall of the same year I was on the Appalachia Trail hiking from Fontana Dam on the south end of the park to Newfound Gap.  Over a five-day period two friends and I hiked the 40 plus miles of undulating trails through deciduous and evergreen forest, rocky balds, meadows and mountain ridges.  There were days that I did not think I would make it through the hike, but I did, and truly enjoyed every mile. 

    Over the next five years I backpacked most of the trails in the southern half of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.  After that first trip my dad joined me on most of my other backpacking adventures.  We made many trips to the Smokies over the next few years, three of which were during winter. 

     Both of us enjoyed winter camping, even when the mercury dropped to 20 below zero, as it did on a winter bivouac in January1976.  January of “76” was cold, and the day my dad and I started our hiked to Spence Field the temperature was frigid.  The climb took a day and half and the night we spent on the north side of the mountains was freezing.  As I layed in my sleeping bag I was quite comfortable except for my feet, they were glacially cold and never did warm-up.  The next day my cold feet made walking difficult, and as we neared the spine of the mountain the snow depth reached more than two feet making the last three quarters mile to the shelter even a greater struggle. 

Upon reaching the shelter we were both incredibly cold with feet that felt like ice cubes.  Tired and hungry we quickly built a fire then propped our feet near the flames to warm them up. 

     As we sit close to the fire all bundled-up in our goose down parkas, hoods and balaclavas bulled over our head, and feet enveloped in two layers of wool socks I began to smell something unusual burning.  Opening my eyes I saw that my dads right foot was on fire.   I excitedly yelled---“Your foot's on fire!”  My dad quickly jumped up, yanked the sock from his foot, and smoothers the flames.  Half of his outer sock had burned off, but his feet were so cold he could not feel the heat; fortunately his foot was unscathed.  On that same trip I returned with a slight case of frostbite, toes turned purple with loss of surface skin that healed, but nerver damage that never did.  Of all our trips, we told stories and laughed about this particular one the most.

     As I stood on Clingman’s Dome a couple of days ago shooting this image, the air was cold and brisk.   The distant ridges in my viewfinder that faded from black to purple lay in the direction of Spence Field, where my dad and I had climbed during a frigid, snowy winter almost thirty-five years ago.  The cold air and view before me reminded me of those long ago days when my dad and I hiked these rugged mountains, having some of our best times together, and making some of the best memories of our lives.

Nikon D3, Nikkor 24-85 zoom @ 85mm focal length, Digital Capture ISO 200

Pic of the Day

   Acorn Woodpecker – Santa Rita Lodge; Madera Canyon, Arizona:  The Acorn Woodpecker is a striking woodpecker with an interesting propensity for storing acorns.  The Acorn woodpecker not only gathers acorns for immediate use, but also gathers acorns to store in a larder for future consumption.  Too store the acorns the woodpeckers drill holes in to a tree and insert the acorn into the hole.  The holes can not be to big or the acorn would fall out or would be easily removed by another bird or small animal.  If the hole is too small the acorn would break apart when the woodpecker hammers the acorn in to the hole.  Acorn Woodpeckers are very precise!  The trees used for the larders are usually called “acorn trees” or granaries.

     This  image was shot at the Santa Rita Lodge near a feeder that the woodpeckers continually returned to feed on suit.  To learn more about Acorn Woodpeckers go to:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acorn_Woodpecker

Nikon D300, 500mm f/4, Digital Capture ISO 200

See previous post on Madera Canyon or Santa Rita Lodge dated: September 15, 2010; September 12, 2010; May 19, 2010; and May 17, 2010.

Pic of the Day

    Fall Color – Ceil Ashburn Drive; Huntsville, Alabama:  North Alabama is a wonderful place in which to live.  Though summer temperatures can reach 100 Degrees (Fahrenheit); everything including: cars, homes, business and restaurants are air conditioned to a comfortable temperature.  Winters can reach temperatures below zero, though most days are mild with the average winter temperature being 32 Degrees.  The only thing missing in our seasons is a consistent display of autumn color.   I say consistent, because on occasion we luck out and catch a fall when every tree displays brilliant colors.

    Last year was terrible for color, the lack of summer rains caused the tree leaves to simply turn brown and fall with no hint of color.  The same thing is happening this fall as well.  The leaves are already turning brown.  There will be no color this year, again.  However, 2008 was a different story, summer rains were plentiful and the fall colors of that year were the best I had seen in more than a decade. 

     As I drove across Ceil Ashburn Drive on my way home in late October of 2008 the color was outstanding.  A scene that I had noticed few days earlier had reached peak color and was beckoning to be photographed.  What made it so interesting to me were two dead trees whose repetitive sway weaved through patches of rich color.  

    As I composed the image I framed the scene so the swaying trees became the focal point.  The trees give the eye a path to travel through the image.  Also, the overall colors of the photograph are warm while the colors of the trees are cool, making them standout against the warmer fall colors.  Photo opportunities like this do not come along often in North Alabama, but hopefully it will not be another decade before I get a break  like this again.

Nikon D3, Nikkor 80-200mm f.2.8, Digital Capture ISO 200

Pic of the Day

    Arctic Fox – Saint Paul Island; Pribilof Islands, Alaska:  The Pribilof Islands are one of my favorite shooting locations.   The four islands that make-up the Pribilof  Archipelago are remote and wild and harbor millions of breeding fur seals and seabirds during the Arctic summer.  I have made five trips to the Pribs, and each one has garnered a lifetime of memories and wonderful shooting opportunities. 

    On one occasion while photographing a least auklet colony near the city of Saint Paul I found myself in the mist of abandoned utility pipes.  The pipes provided excellent cover as I shot the colony.  This particular colony was one of many on Saint Paul and from the numbers I saw must have held many thousands of birds.  The small stretch of rocky seawall where I was shooting was inundated with auklets while flocks of a hundred or more birds were constantly winging in from the sea.

     As I shot frame after frame of the auklets I noticed flashes of movement in my peripheral vision.  Aware that the Arctic Fox on the island love to steal, or worse, urinate on unattended  items  I quickly gathered all my equipment close to my side.  Paying closer attention to the phantom movement I soon saw that the fleeting shadows were indeed a family of Artctic Fox.  The fox were living among the jumble of abandoned utility pipes and I must have been close to the den.

     As I continued to shoot the auklets, the fox kits ran back and forth, over and under, and through the long pipes as they chased and tackled each other.  They were most rambunctious , barley allowing me to get  a shot of their play.  With the kits so close I knew the vixen must me nearby; so I began looking for her.  Sure enough,  I spotted her about thirty feet away peeking out of one of the utility pipes as she kept a watchful eye on me.  With little though I swung the camera around, shot a few frames and then went back to shooting the auklet colony.

    When I arrived home I had a ton of green boxes awaiting my perusal.  Coming home from a long trip and having the film waiting for inspection was like coming home to Christmas, reliving the trip all over again.  I quickly began to sort through the slides, recounting to myself where I had shot each one.  When I opened the box with the fox slides I was happily surprised when I saw the vixen in the utility pipe.  I had remembered shooting the image, but had not thought much about it.  I immediately recognized the image as somewhat special - cute in its on way as the fox was looking directly into the lens.  She was making sure I was no threat to her kits.  

     The next year I entered the image in the Nature’s Best / Cemex International Nature Photography Contest, where it was selected as the winner in the backyard habitat category .  This image was my third win in the Nature’s Best contest, which just goes to prove that good images can just pop-up out of nowhere.  It certainly did for me, while shooting auklets amists a jumble of old abandonded utility pipes.

Nikon F5, Nikkor 500mm  f/4, Fuji Provia
Note:  Also see the “Pic of the Day” post for April 14, 2010

Pic of the Day

   Bridal Veil Falls -- Valdez, Alaska:  I have made the trip from Glennallen to Valdez numerous times since my first trip to Alaska in 1981, and have found it to be one of the most scenic drives in the state.  The distant Wrangell Mountains to the east provide a stunning backdrop as the Richardson Highway traverses glacial rivers and hilly taiga.  One of my favorite stops along the highway is about fifteen miles out of Valdez where the Richardson Highway passes through Keystone Canyon; a deep cut that passes between mountain walls that reach skyward to four hundred feet.  Along this stretch of highway is Bridal Veil Falls, a waterfall fed by the melt waters of the massive Workman’s Glacier.
     This image of the falls was taken a little after the noon hour when light from a cloudless day flooded into the canyon.   The lighting was bright and contrasty, the worst light imaginable for photography. A full-length shot of the falls was out of the question due to the poor light quality.   However, as I looked at the falls I noticed that the base of the falls were in the shadows.  The light was soft and cool, creating a wide range of blue tones as the water cascaded over the boulders at the base of the waterfall.   Using a medium telephoto lens I composed the image and shot a series of exposures from an eighth of a second, too more than a second long. 

     This image is one of my favorites from the shoot.  The dark blules to whitish blues create a monotone that is usually only found in black and white photography, rarely in color; while the dancing water seems to make the rocks glow.  All the elements came together to give the image an ethereal quality.  A quality that is not always easy to achieve. 

Nikon F3, Nikkor 300mm f/2.8 (?), Kodachrome 64

"Ghost Birds", New Book on James Tanner

    Over the last two months I have read four books,  and each one was absoloutly wonderful.  Ghost Birds by Stephen Lyn Bales was my favorite, as it would be to those of us with an interest in birds and specifically Ivorybills.  The book is about James Tanner, the one and only person to do a scientific study on Ivory-billed Woodpeckers; thus my interest and excitment over the book.  Below is a short review I wrote on my Ivorybill blog   .  Hope you enjoy the book as much as I did. 

     A new book about James T. Tanner has been published by the University of Tennessee Press.  It is a fantastic book about the life of Tanner, the man who did the first scientific study of Ivory-billed Woodpecker.

     The author, Stephens Lyn Bales did a superb job of telling the fascinating story of this remarkable man.  If you have an interest in the ivorybill or not, this is a must read book.  Once I started reading I could not put it down.  Bales words have a flow that keeps you mesmerized about the young James Tanner and his exploits throughout the south as he searches for the “Grail Bird”.

Follow this link to Amazon: www.amazon.com/Ghost-Birds-Ivory-billed-Woodpecker-1935-1941/dp/1572337176/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1285442987&sr=1-1

Book Description on Amazon.com
“Everyone who is interested in the ivory-billed woodpecker will want to read this book—from scientists who wish to examine the data from all the places Tanner explored to the average person who just wants to read a compelling story.”
—Tim Gallagher, author of The Grail Bird: The Rediscovery of the Ivory-billed Woodpecker

In 1935 naturalist James T. Tanner was a twenty-one-year-old graduate student when he saw his first ivory-billed woodpecker, one of America’s rarest birds, in a remote swamp in northern Louisiana. At the time, he was part of an ambitious expedition traveling across the country to record and photograph as many avian species as possible, a trip organized by Dr. Arthur Allen, founder of the famed Cornell Lab of Ornithology. Two years later, Tanner hit the road again, this time by himself and in search of only one species—that ever-elusive ivory-bill. Sponsored by Cornell and the Audubon Society, Jim Tanner’s work would result in some of the most extensive field research ever conducted on the magnificent woodpecker.

Drawing on Tanner’s personal journals and written with the cooperation of his widow, Nancy, Ghost Birds recounts, in fascinating detail, the scientist’s
dogged quest for the ivory-bill as he chased down leads in eight southern states. With Stephen Lyn Bales as our guide, we experience the same awe and excitement that Tanner felt when he returned to the Louisiana wetland he had visited earlier and was able to observe and document several of the “ghost birds”—including a nestling that he handled, banded, and photographed at close range. Investigating the ivory-bill was particularly urgent because it was a fast-vanishing species, the victim of indiscriminant specimen hunting and widespread logging that was destroying its habitat. As sightings became rarer and rarer in the decades following Tanner’s remarkable research, the bird was feared to have become extinct. Since 2005, reports of sightings in Arkansas and Florida made headlines and have given new hope to ornithologists and bird lovers, although extensive subsequent investigations have yet to produce definitive confirmation.

Before he died in 1991, Jim Tanner himself had come to believe that the majestic woodpeckers were probably gone forever, but he remained hopeful
that someone would prove him wrong. This book fully captures Tanner’s determined spirit as he tracked down what was then, as now, one of ornithology’s true Holy Grails.

STEPHEN LYN BALES is a naturalist at the Ijams Nature Center in Knoxville,
Tennessee. He is the author of Natural Histories, published by UT Press in 2007.

Pic of the Day

     American Egret – Fort Myers Beach, Florida:  It was a rainy March morning in southern Florida as the alarm blared its clanging wakeup call.  Four o’clock A. M., shown in bright red number and it seemed as if I had just gone to sleep.  It was raining outside and I did not want to get out of bed; just a few more winks I told myself.  But I was in Florida to shoot, rain or shine I should be in the field.

I dragged myself out of bed and was soon on the road to Fort Myers Beach.  A beautiful stretch of sand on the mainland that looked west toward Sanibel Island.  By the time I arrived the rain had stopped, but a dense impenetrable fog thickened the landscape.  Why did I get up, I kept asking myself, knowing full well that there were no images to be taken this morning.

     Still, I got my gear together and headed toward the beach.  I could barley tell which direction to walk as the fog obstructed all landmarks.   As I listened in the quietness of the early morning I could hear the waves lapping against the shoreline giving me directions to follow.  After a short walk I was standing at the waters edge.  

     The sun had not broken the horizon nor had the beachcomber yet raised to scourer the beach for shells; for now it was just me and the birds. As I stood on the beach the only sounds audible were the lapping waves ,  and peeps of sanderlings and Ruddy Turnstones as they scurried to and fro along the edge of the incoming tide.  As the eastern sky began to glow I could tell that the clouds that had brought the nights rain were breaking, and perhaps my earlier haste to remain in bed was truly unfounded.

     As the day grew brighter and the fog began to thin a group of American Egrets foraging in the shallows began to materialize out of the vapors.  Occasionally one of the birds would stretch out its huge wings and with a few effortless flaps leap ten or twenty feet to a new fishing spot. The white birds set within the foggy veil were faint ghost, barely visible to the eye. The scene became a perfect blend of pastel blue and white plums; an ethereal quality that only nature can produce.
     I was drawn to the simplicity of the scene; its forms, pastels and motion.  The view before my eyes made me very happy that I had not lingered in my earlier slumber.  For what I thought was to be a dull ordinary morning was quite different than what I had expected.  In fact, as nature often provides, the ordinary had become the extraordinary. 

Nikon F4, Nikkor 500mm f4, Kodachorme 64