I had forgotten just how tiring these national dog competitions can be. As mentioned in the previous post, we made it down here for the Canine Performance Events (CPE) Nationals being held in my hometown of Springfield, IL. Imagine a state fairgrounds stuffed to the gills .. or should I say muzzles with face lickers and tail waggers. Suspect they will have the greenest grass they’ve ever had once this is over ha! The various competitions have been going on all this week. Speedway competitions (think drag and barrel racing) and scent work led it off, but now the Big Kahunas have taken the stage with 6 concurrent agility rings in full swing. Raven did well today qualifying in 2 of his 3 runs with 6 more runs still to go over the next two days. Definitely a tough day for him as he is currently passed out between me and the keyboard – even mom is feeling pretty wiped. Ruger has been watching with intent as he hopes to be making his debut at nationals within two years (he needs more titles before he becomes eligible). We already had to get on him about trash talking some of the current competitors.
“I unplug my muzzle in your general direction, sons-of-a-puppyfarm! So, you think you could outclever us French Poodles with your silly knees bent crashing into agility bars. I’ll wave my private parts at your owners! You cheesy load of secondhand electric butt sniffers!”
While we sit Ruger down and have a discussion about sportsmanship, going to let Brad take the reins and bring you an adventure with a talented member of the birding family (and assuredly a fish trash talker as well).
Take it away Brad…
This story comes at the very end of our Upper Newport Bay Nature Preserve (UNBNP) visit. The visit to UNBNP started with Jan finding the California Thrasher (link here). I finally found her among the trails so we wandered around the upper part of the preserve for a while. After Jan and I had been walking amongst the chapparal for a couple of hours, we headed back along the crunchy pea gravel path back towards the car.
One our way out, we bumped into a nice couple, roughly the same age as Jan and I. After chatting for a while, they asked if we had seen the Osprey (Pandion haliaetus). We had not. Just then the man pointed off into the distance at a tree leaning out over the preserve lower levels, right where Jan and I were about 15 minutes ago. Roughly two hundred yards away there was a twig of a tree, with a white/black lump on the end of one of its three branches. Lo and behold there was a large bird sitting there. I zoomed in as far as I could and was able to capture this highly cropped image (not quite as good as Sam’s photos with her 500mm, visit Sam.Rappen here) of an Osprey.
Hit the jump to read more about this UNBNP encounter!
I asked how the couple knew it would be there, and they replied it always seems to sit in that tree. I then asked if the couple visited often; both said yes. They modestly added that one of the houses on the bluff near the preserve was theirs. He had worked for Oracle (with an early employee number) for many years, or decades. Since retiring a few years ago, they spent nearly every morning wandering the preserve. What a great setting, if it weren’t for John Wayne Airport only a couple of miles away.
Another plane flew overhead, causing us to pause chatting for a bit. As the plane passed, the woman pointed to the sky. The Osprey decided it had other important business to attend to and took flight.
This was the challenging part for me: panning, hand held, with a 500mm lens and trying to get the camera to focus on a solitary bird probably 75-100 yards away from me. Actually, the camera did a very nice job for what it had to work with. The still air had a slight haze that morning; smog or humidity, I really couldn’t tell.
I cranked out a few dozen photos, not knowing precisely what the camera was actually focusing on at that distance. The Osprey was far enough away that it blended into the background as far as the autofocus was concerned. Typical of wildlife, the Osprey didn’t think to give me any sort of warning so I could change the settings on the camera. I had been expecting to find birds near the ground in the brush and wasn’t counting on photographing long distances hand-held against a bright sky. That’s what Lightroom helps with. (If anyone from Adobe Lightroom wishes to sponsor Wildlife Intrigued, please contact our Legal Department.)
The trail we are standing on is roughly 100 feet above the lowest part of the preserve. The preserve is around ½ mile across at the widest part. It is made up of bluffs surrounding the lower wetlands area leading to Upper Newport Bay. The Osprey chose to fly at roughly the height of the bluffs, and nearly right down the middle of the valley. It was probably looking for a quick snack in the shallow wandering waters in the grassy area below.
Not seeing anything easy to catch and eat, the Osprey wheeled to its right and was gone in a flash, leaving us nearly speechless. Ironic that we had to travel to California to see an Osprey, when their range includes most of North America. Time to find the car and pack up the gear for the next leg of our journey.
Thank you for reading. If you want to see more Osprey photos, please visit here.
Credits:
Thanks again to Jan for proofreading and editing. Thanks to Jan for being the spotter for the long-distance photos.
Life Intrigued 