Category: Observation

Osprey and Offspring Part 1

Welcome to Blog Bonus Time everyone!  Now that my mandatory post quota has been officially met, I can focus on burning down some of my backlog.  This is typically when I release post of birds that have already made their way on the blog – usually not as exciting as when I get to show off a new entry on my Birding List, however, there is always the chance I’ve been able to improve on images previously captured in the tin or even some new element that makes the repeat visit interesting as well.  The latter is exactly the case in this particular post.

Osprey and offspring from Outer Banks, North Carolina July 2014

For the non-birders out there, that is an Osprey.  A female Osprey to be more exact.  These skilled hunters have been featured a few times on the blog already – link here, here and here.  Before I go any further, let me just apologize for some really poor pictures on that last link from Yellowstone.  Those Osprey shots were done from a less than ideal distance and could have used a lot more light.  One advantage of having a photography related blog is you have the opportunity to look back at your body of work and be your own best critic.  I think  you will like these pictures much much better.

Osprey and offspring from Outer Banks, North Carolina July 2014

Hit the jump to read a bit more about this Osprey … and maybe a surprise!

Continue reading Osprey and Offspring Part 1

Never Mind the Bullock’s

I am glad to be back home now.  It was a rather long weekend with the two races at the start of the weekend and then ended with a long day at the Poodle Agility Nationals down at Purina Farm near St. Louis.  By the time we made it home last night Linda and I were totally exhausted and the dogs were like potato sacks passed out on the RV bed.  That is when you know you have officially got everything you possibly could out of an extended weekend – of course, that made the workday a lot longer to ugh.  Luckily, I was able to get at least one post out while traveling leaving me with only one more to hit my monthly quota – might as well get that out of the way while I am thinking about it.

Take a look at this beauty of a bird…Bullock's Oriole Shot at Red Rocks Ampitheatre near Denver Colorado in May 2014

All I can say is gorgeous.  It may be due to the fact I am so fond of Halloween, but this has to be one of my favorite color palettes for a bird.  Please overlook the composition and technical execution of this batch of photos.  This particular specimen was hanging out in clearly the most tangled branch tree it could find to thwart my every effort to get a clean shot.  Not sure what kind of tree this was, but it ended up not only providing excellent protection from The Beast, but it also looks quite menacing seeing as how some of the branches look like grey barbed wire.

Bullock's Oriole Shot at Red Rocks Ampitheatre near Denver Colorado in May 2014

Hit the jump to find out what this bird is!

Continue reading Never Mind the Bullock’s

Don’t Worry, Mommy Has Her Eyes On You

I can safely say my body, at the moment, hasn’t been this sore since exactly one year ago today.  Ironically, it is really due to almost the exact same torture I put it through last year although this year was about 13.1 miles easier.  Yep, this is my anniversary of completing the Illini Marathon over in Champaign.  Like last year, I once again battled the running gods by accepting the I-Challenge, but Linda pretty much insisted I only did the half challenge – 5K Friday and then a half marathon Saturday morning.  I’ll leave the rest of the details for a future post, but there are three more medals to add to my wall… and legs that once again are screaming at me.  Since I’m sitting here waiting for the pain to subside, decided it would be a good time for a post so here goes.

Well, this particular post shouldn’t be too much of a surprise if you happened to read my previous post on the Great Horned Owlets.  You probably already guessed, their mother wasn’t very far away.

Great Horned Owl Shot In Rocky Mountain National Park in May 2014

…. and you would be right!  She was actually just on the other side of the tree trunk hanging out on  a branch keeping a very close eye on any dangers that could threaten her cuties.  She was pretty calm about the whole thing.  Imagine a number of tourists driving up, pulling off to the side of the road, jumping out with all forms of cameras and then milling about under the very same tree her precious offspring are spending their days.

To her credit, she would check off all the dangers to her right…

Great Horned Owl Shot In Rocky Mountain National Park in May 2014

Hit the jump to see a few more pictures of Mommy!

Continue reading Don’t Worry, Mommy Has Her Eyes On You

Owl-Let You Take Their Picture

I have one word that defines today’s post topic – that being FINALLY.  This happens to be one of those times when I was keenly aware that I was able to get a prized bird in the tin but it seems like it has been forever trying to get them processed and ready for publication.  So, without any further delays, please say hello to my little friend.

Great Horned Owl Shot In Rocky Mountain National Park in May 2014

How cool is that!  That is the cute and puffy offspring of a Great Horned Owl. This particular nest was shot in the Rocky Mountain National Park back in May of 2014.  Pretty sure I have mentioned this before, but we had traveled out to the Denver, Colorado area for the Teacup Dog Agility Nationals.  As an incentive, Linda added in a side trip to the Rocky Mountain Park to check out the local wildlife.  She knows me to well, I’m in the van and ready to go the minute I hear there’s a chance to spend some time in the mountains with The Beast.

“Who goes there!”

Great Horned Owl Shot In Rocky Mountain National Park in May 2014

Hit the jump to see a few more shots of the fuzzy Great Horned offspring

Continue reading Owl-Let You Take Their Picture

Squirrelly Attitude

Sticking with the featherless theme again for today’s post.  I try my best to be accommodating for my non-birder readers whenever I can. Having recently processed this set, figured there wasn’t a reason to let the chemicals dry before releasing them!

Back in February of 2015, I had the opportunity to visit my parents in Springfield IL.  The camera came with me in hopes of heading out to Washington Park to see what kind of ducks were hanging out in the ponds.  If you recall, the last time I was there a number of Wood Ducks made their happy way into the tin. (link here).  The Woodies were still there this trip, but a small bundle of fur ended up stealing the show.
Squirrel shot in Washington Park, Springfield IL February 2015
Over the years, I’ve had the pleasure of photographing a number of squirrels – like here and here.  A lot of those were taken out west, but a few of those also featured the Eastern Fox Squirrel (at least this is what I think this specimen is).  However, this little gal (again, a logical guess) was quite animated upon discovering the big glass of The Beast pointed directly at it.  It suddenly became very possessive of its recently discovered acorn.

“Ummm, you looking at me over there Mr. Puny-man!?!”
Squirrel shot in Washington Park, Springfield IL February 2015

Hit the jump to see what kind of attitude Mr. Squirrel brings today.

Continue reading Squirrelly Attitude

My What Green Eyes You Have

Welcome to April everyone!  Bonus time is now replaced with monthly quota time so I get to start the trek to 6 posts once again.  Figured I could at least get one out of the way seeing as how I’m just sitting here trying to recover from a difficult training run this morning – first of the young season two loop pass through the hills of Springdale for a healthy 13 miles (also took the second loop in reverse to make sure the legs were totally drained by the end).  I also know my brother Ron is out trying to add to his bird count right now so opted for a devious subject
Praying Mantis shot at house October 2014

I know for a fact that Ron is not fond of the Praying Mantis based on his decision to wait an extra month to turn the page on our EddieSoft Gallery calendar so he could skip looking at the one we selected for our annual product.  You can view the previous featured post on the Mantis back in Sept 2010 (link here).  Note, the Mantis shot from that first set added a blue ribbon to our collection (link here).  Hoping that after viewing this new set he might be in enough trauma that he will prefer to stay inside rather than risk a personal encounter – ha.

Praying Mantis shot at house October 2014

Hit the jump to see a few more creepy pictures!

Continue reading My What Green Eyes You Have

A Mellow Fellow

We are still in bonus time here at blog headquarters.  I was able to get my monthly quota in pretty quick this month thanks to a strong push out of the gate.  That means we get some extra time to focus on subjects that have already been featured in a previous post.  I’ve typed it once, I’ve typed it a hundred times, the greatest thing about being a birder photographer is every outing is like a new beginning.  Even if you have a bird in your gallery, you can always try to improve your image.  Better technical, more interesting posture or even unique behavior.  Note, “birder photographer” was not a typo.  It is amazing how many times the question comes up as to whether you are a birder or a photographer as if they are exclusive titles.  With my brother Ron on this, we are answering this question with a resounding “Yes” from now on hehehe.

So, welcome back to the blog…

Yellow Warbler shot on Colorado Trip - May 2014

… the Yellow Warbler.  You may recall that this brightly feathered bird made its debut back on April 15th, 2015 (link here). Mr. Yellow from the previous post was found at Lake Andes in South Dakota.  This new specimen was spotted on our trip to Colorado back in May of 2014.  True to the statement above, I happen to like these first two shots better than the previous set (especially the first one).

Yellow Warbler shot on Colorado Trip - May 2014

Hit the jump to see a few more shots of the yella fella.

Continue reading A Mellow Fellow

Just Me and My Peeps

Well, at least I was strong out of the gate this month.  Unfortunately, things have slowed down a bit as of late due to massive amounts of spring cleaning taking place around the house.  Cleaning brought a bonus with it this year.  Linda was continually making comments regarding my Halloween Lab still sitting in the middle of our newly remodeled basement.  Personally, I think this is a fabulous place for animatronics construction, but I can see her point – it has been there pretty much since last August.  Decided it was best to heed the warnings and cleaned out the small room previously used for the remodeling staging.  I must say it looks pretty nice and might put a project post on it when I get time – expecting big things now from the evil depths of the new lab!  Knowing my readers have been waiting patiently, decided it would be prudent to dust the cobwebs off the blog.

Say hello to my little feathered friend.
Birding Texas November 2013
Want to spend a day nose deep in reference books, try to ID a non-breeding adult shorebird.  You have to admire the experts in this field since they basically ALL look alike – at least to me. For starters, I usually check the regions to see if there can be any narrowing there.  This particular specimen was taken at Galveston, Texas back in Nov 2013.  Well that did little to narrow the field since the Texas Gulf is a favored stomping ground for all the Peep breeds..
Birding Texas November 2013

Hit the jump to find out what this Peep is!

Continue reading Just Me and My Peeps

The Ugly Duckling

We are hot out of the chemicals today! Over the weekend I was able to power through a few more months of back processing in the digital darkroom.  For those keeping track (and I know you are), I am officially only 23 months behind on my photography queue.  May not seem like much, but that represents a lot of work on this end – combing through thousands of shots each month, picking out good candidates, processing them in Lightroom and Photoshop and then deciding which ones are worthy enough to put on display to the public.  Notice I didn’t say “pretty” enough to put on display!?!  That’s because there are posts like this one …
Muscovy Duck shot in Ft Myers in March 2015
that just might frighten my readers.  Some creatures just ran out of luck when it came to the cuteness DNA gene.  Take for example the Sloth or the Blobfish.  I guess if you are going to put things in perspective, the Blobfish is clearly the winner of the least likely to get invited to a prom award.  Clearly there is at least one creature for everyone or we wouldn’t have the ability to even view such oddities.
Muscovy Duck shot in Ft Myers in March 2015

Hit the jump to see a few more varieties of this intriguing duck

Continue reading The Ugly Duckling

A Sly Red at Red Rocks

Apparently just changing whether it was a +1 or not is not sufficient to officially characterize my last post as bringing you something “different” – as in something other than a bird post.  I base this on the number of emails that showed up from my loyal readers essentially stating changing whether it was a +1 or not “is not something different”.  I can take a subtle hint (okay, maybe it wasn’t that subtle).  As a form of appeasement, I officially bring you something that isn’t related to a bird.  Instead, today’s feature is likely something that would EAT a bird given the opportunity.
Amphitheatre
Decided to do a quick check and sure enough, Foxes do eat birds so we can dispense with the likely.  I must admit, that my bird knowledge far outweighs my Fox expertise.  To the best of my knowledge bolstered by a healthy dose of Google searches, this specimen is a Red Fox.  I was also able to find a few shots on the web that had the dark leg markings.  That feature was confusing me a bit since our local Foxes do not seem to display that amount of darkness.  The other interesting feature can be seen in the hindquarters.
Amphitheatre

Hit the jump to read a bit more about this encounter!

Continue reading A Sly Red at Red Rocks