Immature Yellow-crowned Night Heron

This immature Yellow-crowned Night Heron was taking advantage of the low tide to hunt for his evening meal in Tampa Bay in Safety Harbor, Florida.

As their name implies, they normally hunt at night, but this guy must've been really hungry or wanted to nest early.

Unlike the Black-crowned Night Heron, the Yellow-crowned Night Heron feeds mainly on crabs and crayfish. They can be seen foraging around near dusk when other Herons are well on their way to roost.

Night Herons differ from other Herons because they do not roost in colonies. They prefer to find their own private corner.

Because they're nocturnal, these birds are more skittish than most; but I find that when they're looking around for food they don't really care about anyone. They only concentrate on one thing, and that's finding their next meal. It is during that time that I find I can get pretty close to them, if I stay low and move slowly.

Immature Yellow-crowned Night Heron

After some searching on the internet to find out the difference between an immature Yellow-crowned Night Heron and an immature Black-crowned Night Heron, I've decided that this must be an immature Yellow-crowned Night Heron.

It seems they look very similar in the wild, and if the two species are not together, then it's very hard to tell them apart. They both have white speckled bodies and faces, their eye color is the same, and their bill and leg colors are the same. So, how did I tell the difference when only one species is present? I guess knowing little details would make it an educated guess. According to all the sources I'd seen on the net and in my books, the only way to tell the difference is by looking at the color of their plumage and the length of their legs and stoutness of their bills.

My most trusted source is the Field Guide to Birds (Eastern Region) by the National Audubon Society. According to their book, young Yellow-crowned Night Herons are grayer, with stouter bills and longer legs than the young Black-crowned Night Herons. Since colors can be deceiving depending on the light cast, and I couldn't compare the legs, all I had to go on was the stoutness of the beak. Lucky for me, the Field Guide to Birds also has photos of both species. I matched up the beak, and made a definitive identification. This is a Yellow-crowned Night Heron!

Black-crowned Night Heron

After getting home from vacation, and taking a break outside yesterday morning, I spotted this Black-crowned Night Heron hunting on the banks of Joe's Creek, in my backyard.

This is the first time I find one of these guys in this area. I know they're around; but the Black-crowned Night Heron is very secretive, unlike his counterpart, the Yellow-crowned Night Heron. I see them at all times of day and night anywhere I go in Florida. This Black-crowned Night Heron is a rarity and quite a treat for me.

It was about 7:30 in the morning and the water was very still, which made a beautiful reflection for me to capture. What about a nice bonus. Be sure to click on the photo for a larger version so you can see the detail. It may not be my best avian shot, but I like this one because it's a rare opportunity to see one of these birds.

Shooting Osprey

Today my friend, Margo, and I went shooting at Sawgrass Lake Park. It's one of my favorite parks to shoot. It's almost a guarantee that one will find wildlife around 8:00 am. Today was no different.

Before we even got into to the park we spotted a Little Blue Heron, a Snowy Egret and a Tricolor Heron on the edge of the canal. We made a few shots of the Tricolor Heron and went off into the park.

A few minutes later, we spotted a young Raccoon, less than 5 ft away, and he didn't mind it one bit that we were taking pictures of him. In fact, he didn't pay any attention to us at all. Right after that, we saw an American Alligator, but there was too much brush between him and us. We couldn't get off a decent shot of him. Then the fun began. We spotted this Osprey hunting above the water.

I told Margo to shoot anything successfully, you need to know a lot about it. Just like in sports, to get the best shot, you need to know the sport enough to know where the action is and to be ready for it when it happens.

While watching this Osprey circling, I told her that in a few minutes she'd see him spread out his talons, like in the second photo in this series. After that, we'd see him hovering, then he'd dive and they always get their fish.

These shots show all of these actions just as they were unfolding. The first shot is of him circling, the second spreading his talons, then the hovering followed by the dive.

It's amazing to see how fast they can dive and how hard they hit the water; and just as fast, with wet wings, come up with their fish. They always carry the fish head first because there is less drag and it's pretty difficult for a bird that size to fly with wet wings.

What an amazing experience it is to capture all these steps in a sequence. They are awesome birds to watch.

Later, on the way out of the park we saw another American Alligator and we were able to get some decent shots of it before we left.

On the way out, Margo spotted a Gopher Tortoise and we stopped to grab a few photos of him as well.

I can't get over how much wildlife we spotted today. It was such a productive day.

I hope you enjoyed this series as much as I enjoyed making these shots. Don't forget to check out Margo's post. She'll probably be posting something from today's shoot. You can find her blog here: http://mangosphotos.blogspot.com/. Check it out; she's an amazing photographer with an awesome eye.

Snowy Egret

During my last Meetup at Lake Seminole Park, I spotted this Snowy Egret under a foot bridge hunting for his next meal. I was immediately attracted to the reflection of him in the water, which was so clear it showed his underparts.

This particular area under this footbridge is a favorite hunting/fishing place for all the shore birds in this park. There are plenty of Blue Crab to feed all of them. I've never failed to be able to find the birds here any time I've been to this area.

Settings used in making this image were with my camera set to Aperture Priority with partial metering on the bird, at 400 ISO because the light was pretty dim under the bridge, I exposed it at 1/30 at F5.6 with -2/3 exposure compensation to keep the white feathers of the bird from blowing out. I used my 55-250mm at 250mm to capture him.

Reddish Egret

This is another shot from my Safety Harbor Meetup last night.

This Reddish Egret was looking for food during low tide at the Marina. These Egrets are the funniest thing to watch when they're hunting. First you'll see them standing very still just gazing into the water like you see him in this photo. All of a sudden, you'll see him run around like crazy, then fly/jump up about 3 feet off the water, then start running around again this time with his wings half spread. I know I'm repeating myself, but it is so funny to see them do this dance.

They spread their wings for two reasons, they're trying to disguise their appearance from the fish, and their wings provide shade to reduce the glare on the water so they can see the fish better. I guess that's pretty smart even if they do look silly.

This one finally got his fish, so he won't be starving.

Here's a little tip when photographing Reddish Egrets. To bring out the red in his plumage, set your White Balance to Cloudy or Shade. That'll give you about 6,000 Deg. Kelvin and it'll warm up the entire photo a little bit.