Ospreys Nesting

Ospreys Nesting

I posted a photo of this family on April 26, if you want to see how much they've grown. I believe the one on the left is one of the chicks and the parents are in the middle and on the right. They only thing that leads me to believe that this is the chick is the one on the left has yellow eyes, while the other two have orange eyes. In the other post, there were 2 chicks and they were both still fuzzy at the time. Now this chick is nearly the same size as his/her parents. I have no idea where the other one is, maybe it's fledged???

Ospreys (Pandion halliaetus) are raptors in the Hawk and Eagle family. They are rather large birds with a wing span of 5ft, 6in and they are 23 inches in length from tail to head. The dark line through their eye is a  good identifying factor. They hover just before they dive for a fish and can be seen flying with the fish head first in their talons, once they catch their fish.

They are resident year long in Florida and can be found near any body of water where they can fish for food. Their diet consists almost exclusively of fish.

Osprey Feeding Chicks

Osprey Feeding Chicks

It's that time of year again; the Osprey are nesting. Almost everywhere you go in Florida you'll see Osprey nests, especially along the I-4 corridor. This particular nest is in Bradenton, FL where my friend lives. This pair of Osprey have been nesting here for the past 4 or 5 years. Two of this year's clutch is shown in the photo. they're finally big enough to see over the nest.

Ospreys (Pandion halliaetus) are raptors in the Hawk and Eagle family. They are rather large birds with a wing span of 5ft, 6in and they are 23 inches in length from tail to head. The dark line through their eye is a  good identifying factor. They hover just before they dive for a fish and can be seen flying with the fish head first in their talons, once they catch their fish.

They are resident year long in Florida and can be found near any body of water where they can fish for food. Their diet consists almost exclusively of fish.

Red-shouldered Hawk

Red-shouldered Hawk

My favorite nature park used to be Boyd Hill Nature Park in St Petersburg, FL. I haven't been there in 14 years. I had moved further away, and I guess I just forgot about it. Now that I've moved closer again to the park, I decided to give it another visit late this afternoon.

This is one of my favorite shots from today's shoot. This guy is a Red-Shouldered Hawk (Buteo lineatus). They are plentiful in this area, but not nearly as plentiful as Ospreys. Ospreys are everywhere. Red-shouldered Hawks are medium sized hawks. They are called Red-shouldered because of that reddish patch on their shoulders.

These hawks eat mice, frogs and snakes, so can be seen in woods with tall timbers and water. They hunt both from the air and from high perches. They can be found in the Southeast year round.

Mother Great-horned Owl

Another trip to Kapok Park with my friend, Margo, was very productive. This time, we saw the mother guarding the nest. Since I've already shared the photos of the baby and the father, I thought it only fitting that I share the photo of the mother.

Owls never go very far from the nest. Usually, one parent hunts for food, while the other one stays behind to care for their Owlets. This tree is only a few feet from the tree the nest is in. As you can see, mother is keeping a watchful eye on her young.

Kapok Park is a small, community park in Clearwater, Florida. It hasn't been open that long but it promises to be a really good park for photo opportunities. There are marshes throughout the park and beautiful, Live Oak trees, like the one the Owlet is in. There are many foot bridges along the trails that allow crossing over the marshes. I have many photos from my two trips to this park to share with my readers. I've seen some amazing things here.

Bald Eagle

While I'm recovering from my broken foot, I had to cut my hours at work, so I have some extra time on my hands. Today I went to check on a local Eagle nest. The Eaglets are getting bigger and the word is that they're ready to fledge. I didn't see the Eaglets today at all. I probably went at the wrong time.

This is either the mother or father; I think they look the same--at least to me, they do. She/he was preparing to take flight, so I waited and waited and got lucky. As luck would have it, I got the second shot just as she/he was lifting off. There's some motion blur due to panning to keep her in my viewfinder. They lift off so fast.

Their nest is huge! It's hard to tell from these shots, but it's enormous. I'll be sad when they leave the nest. It's been a lot of fun watching them.

Red-shouldered Hawk

In keeping with the bird theme from yesterday, I thought I'd post this very elusive (to shoot) Red-shouldered Hawk. I think I forgot to mention that we also saw him at Sawgrass. This guy just sat there with his back turned to us and I can 't tell you how long I waited for him to turn his head enough to get a decent shot of him.

I tried going in front of him, then on the side of him and everywhere I tried, he was blocked by brush. This was the only angle I could catch him, so I was forced to wait until he turned his head. I got only 2 shots off while he was looking in my direction. The rest of the time, he was preening and just ignoring our presence. I'm sure he knew we were there.

Among all the things you learn when you take up photography the two most important are patience and quick reflexes. You need to be ready because you may only have a split second to get the shot. I think I may have mentioned this before, but it bears repeating; the hunt is as much fun if not more fun than the getting the shot itself. That's the reason my passion lies in nature photography--even though it's family photography that pays the bills.

Settings used for this shot were ISO 400, aperture priority, partial metering off the bird, 1/200 at F7.1 to ensure I was using my lens' sweet spot and +2 stops exposure compensation because he was backlit by the sky and in a dark area with a lot of foliage around him. I shot this through the only hole in the foliage I could find.

Red-shouldered Hawk

This Red-shouldered Hawk just finished trying to get a Limpkin for dinner. However, the Limpkin turned on him and the Hawk was relegated to perching on this fence waiting to capture something a little bit easier.

Red-shouldered Hawks or Buteo lineatus are in the Hawk and Eagle family. They are resident in Florida and can be found in wooded wetlands and swamps. They prefer lowlands, especially swampy woods and bogs.

The Red-shouldered Hawk hunts by sitting in a low perch then swooping down to snatch their prey. They eat snakes, frogs, insects and small mammals. What amazes me is that the little Northern Mockingbird can set this much larger hawk on the run. I have often watched as 2 Mockingbirds working in tandem chasing these Hawks away. The do a great job of it, too; I might add.

This photo was made at ISO 200, F7.2 and 1/60th of a second in aperture priority mode. The gold on his right side is from the low, setting sun around 5:00 pm. I used partial metering off the bird to ensure a good exposure with my 55mm-250mm zoomed all the way out. Image was heavily cropped in Lightroom and his eyes were brightened in Photoshop. Other than that, no other post processing.

Eastern Screech Owl

I spottrd this little guy sitting on the high tension wire in my backyard last nught about 11:30. I wish he had turned his head, but after waiting a long time, I let him win and took the picture the way he was looking. I didn't dare move around too much, because I didn't want to scare him away.

I attached my flash and turned down my flash exposure by -2 stops so it wouldn't be so harsh. It was still a bit bright, but i was able to tone it down in Lightroom. I used ISO 400, F6.3 in Aperture Priority Mode. The focal length of my 55-250mm lens was tapped all the way out at 250mm. In Lightroom, I cropped it to get a larger image of the little Owl and toned down the exposure. After removing the noise, I was done.

Red-shouldered Hawk

As promised, here is the photo of the Red-shouldered Hawk. I like the way he seems to be looking down his nose (beak) at me, like he's so superior.

I would've missed him if someone on the trail didn't point him out to me. He was right at eye level sitting on this branch. That's a place we never think to look for birds, since they're usually overhead.

With the way I love to take photos of birds, I have a hard time splitting my view between up in the trees and down on the ground. This guy was easy. I can't believe he just stayed there and let me make all the photos I wanted. He didn't seem afraid or bothered at all.

He sure is a beauty.

Today was my day!

Wow! Today was my day for photos! This afternoon I got an amazing shot of a Red-shouldered Hawk close-up then I got a shot of Rat Snake; both shots were made at Sawgrass lake Park. I usually don't go out in mid-afternoon shooting because the lighting is too harsh and the wild life isn't moving around, but today I just felt the need to go out for awhile, not expecting to see a thing because of the time.

The Red-shouldered Hawk was just sitting in a tree eye-level and sat right there letting me make all the photos I wanted. About 10 minutes later, a Rat Snake crossed the boardwalk directly in front of me. It was the first Rat Snake I've ever seen in the wild.

Tonight, about 10 minutes ago, I was outside and saw something white move on the electrical wire right in my front of me. It was pitch black and I couldn't tell what it was, so I got my camera attaching my long zoom and a flash hoping I'd get a better look.

It was so dark, the lens wouldn't focus on auto-focus, so I focused manually on the wire. I still didn't know what it was. I was hoping it would be in focus enough to tell what is was. To my surprise, the focus was nearly perfect and I caught this Eastern Screech Owl. He only stood still long enough for me to get 4 shots; this was the only one full face. I've only seen an owl in the wild twice before in my life. This one is very special.

I'll post the Red-shouldered Hawk and the Rat Snake at a later date. Watch for it!

Bald Eagle

This Bald Eagle was at Lowry Zoo. He's there because I believe he's blind in his other eye and can't be released out into the wild. I had to wait quite a while before I could get his picture with his good eye showing.

There are 2 Bald Eagles in the exhibit. I don't know what's wrong with the other one, but they're both equally beautiful.

I like the position of his head in this shot. It more closely resembles the portrait of the Bald Eagle as our nation's symbol.

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Osprey in my Tree

This one is the most elusive, hard to photograph bird I've ever photographed. He perches in this tree overlooking the river behind my house whenever he's hungry. For over 2 years I've been trying to photograph him but have rarely got a really good one.

It seems he's learned the chimes on my door from my alarm. As soon as he hears the chimes, he checks to see if I have my camera. Then he does one of two things. If I have my camera, he lets out a couple of screeches to let me know he's seen me and takes off across the lake. If I don't have my camera he buzzes my head and goes back up to the tree.

The only way I can catch him is if I go out my front door and walk all around the house while I keep really low and be careful to hide behind trees, my shed or whatever I can think of. Then once I think I'm close enough, I quickly come out, capture my image and he takes off. I only get 1 shot if I'm lucky and I have to be quick. This is the result of one of the lucky shots.

I think I like the hunt as much as getting the photograph. :)

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