Mallards Up Close

Tags

colonial lake, mallard, photography, postaday

The fish are mostly gone from Colonial Lake. They were either eaten by Bald Eagles, Ospreys, and Cormorants, or humans fished them out of existence not too long after the state allowed fishing in mid March after stocking the lake with trout. The large raptors are now rarely seen at the lake. However, Mallards are plentiful and didn’t mind my coming close to them to take the following photos.

Male Mallard.

Female Mallard.

Some were strolling or marching down to the water as if they owned the lake, which they probably do.

Male Mallards.

Female Mallard.

Some male Mallards were completely brown from their neck down, and were perhaps hybrids of Mallard with some other type of duck.

Mallard, a hybrid perhaps.

Mallard, hybrid?

Soaring Birds

Tags

bald eagle, colonial lake, photography, postaday, red-tailed hawk, turkey vulture

One afternoon, a Bald Eagle flew in and circled Colonial Lake several times looking for fish. It even dove toward the water once but still came up with no fish, but it provided good opportunities for photographing in the waning sun.

Bald Eagle at Colonial Lake.

Bald Eagle at Colonial Lake.

Bald Eagle at Colonial Lake.

A few weeks ago, a Turkey Vulture was also soaring above Colonial Lake for several minutes, looking for carrion in the nearby woods, or perhaps for dead fish dropped by the eagles.

Turkey Vulture over Colonial Lake.

It came down low enough for me to take a shot looking at its back. I did not see it catch anything.

Turkey Vulture over Colonial Lake.

Then a Red-tailed Hawk (tentative identification) also made its appearance.

Red-tailed Hawk over Colonial Lake.

Silent Sunday

Tags

american robin, colonial lake, mallard, mourning dove, photography, postaday, red-bellied woodpecker

Storm clouds.

Mourning Dove.

American Robin.

Mallards.

Mallards.

Mallards.

Red-bellied Woodpecker.

Yellow Magnolia, Bluebird, Egg

Tags

bluebird, canada goose, egg, photography, postaday

Our yellow Magnolia tree flowers late, and has managed to attract Bluebirds for the second year in a row.

Bluebird on yellow Magnolia branch.

The Bluebird, or its partner, checked out one of the birdhouses I put up.

Bluebird checking out birdhouse.

However, there is no sign yet that the birdhouse is occupied by any bird.

Meanwhile, during a walk around Colonial Lake, I saw an abandoned Canada Goose egg on the ground, near the water. It was quite big, but there was no Canada Geese around it.

Abandoned Canada Goose egg.

Canada Goose egg.

One can see many Canada Geese at Colonial Lake, either swimming in the water or grazing onshore. I have no idea why this one egg was left out in the open with no mother goose tending it. Another mystery.

Wordless Wednesday

Tags

bald eagle, colonial lake, photography, postaday

Bald Eagle.

Bald Eagle.

Bald Eagle.

Bald Eagle.

Bald Eagle.

Bald Eagle.

Silent Sunday

Tags

colonial lake, mallard, photography, postaday

Mallard landing.

Mallard landing.

Mallard landing.

Mallard landing.

Mallard landing.

Harbingers of Spring

Tags

american robin, canada geese, colonial lake, diamondback terrapin, Edwin B Forsythe National Wildlife Refuge, great egret, photography, postaday, snowy egret

American Robins don’t migrate during the winter, merely keeping out of sight most of the time. They reappear with the coming of spring, when the ground is no longer too hard for them to try to pull out worms.

American Robin, 2019 spring.

Flocks of Canada Geese flying overhead is another sign that the seasons are changing. However, I can’t figure out what they are doing since they seem to be flying in all directions.

Canada Geese flying East.

Just a minute after the above shot, those Canada Geese reversed direction and flew over me again.

Canada Geese flying West.

I thought that was the last of that flock and started walking toward the woods. Then they flew North and passed overhead once more.

Canada Geese flying North.

Another sure sign of spring is the return of Great Egrets and Snowy Egrets. They appeared two weeks ago, then went away when the weather turned cold. Now they are back.

Great Egret and Snowy Egrets at Edwin B Forsythe NWR.

Great Egret.

Finally the turtles are out sunning themselves. I think they are Diamondback Terrapins, but am not positive. They all jumped into the water as I tried to come closer to them to get a better look.

Seven turtles at Colonial Lake.

Silent Sunday

Tags

colonial lake, osprey, photography, postaday

Osprey hunting.

Osprey Diving.

Osprey diving.

Osprey caught fish.

Osprey with caught fish.

Osprey with caught fish.

Osprey with caught fish.

Double-Crested Cormorants

Tags

colonial lake, double-crested cormorant, photography, postaday

There are many Double-crested Cormorants at Colonial Lake. A few days ago, they took turns taking off and flying around the lake, sometimes right over my head. I had plenty of opportunities to practice camera panning to follow their flights.

Double-crested Cormorant.

Double-crested Cormorant.

Double-crested Cormorant.

Double-crested Cormorant.

Double-crested Cormorant.

Naturally all this flying around requires a lot of energy. I saw at least two Cormorants diving and coming up with fish that they promptly swallowed in a few seconds.

Double-crested Cormorants. The one on the left just came up with a big fish.

Double-crested Cormorant swallowing fish.

Wood Ducks

Tags

colonial lake, photography, postaday, wood duck

Wood Ducks are among the most stunning ducks, rivaling Mandarin Ducks from Asia. I have been looking in New Jersey to photograph them for several years, going in vain to places where people have reported seeing them. Then yesterday, while I was taking pictures at Colonial Lake about 5 miles from home, I saw two ducks jump down from a tree onto the lake. It was a beautiful couple of Wood Ducks, and they were worth waiting for all this time!

As usual for ducks, the male Wood Duck was more striking, but the female was very pretty.

Female Wood Duck.

Male Wood Duck.

Male Wood Duck.

Male Wood Duck.

Female and male Wood Ducks.

Female Wood Duck.

Silent Sunday

Tags

bald eagle, colonial lake, photography, postaday

Bald Eagle.

Bald Eagle.

Mallards Landing

Tags

colonial lake, mallard, photography, postaday

This Mallard couple had a very long landing on Colonial Lake. I took a shot, but could not pick which cropped version is the better one to show. Let me know what you think.

1. Mallards landing.

2. Mallards landing.

Bald Eagle 2019 – II

Tags

bald eagle, colonial lake, photography, postaday, Trout

More photos of the Bald Eagles at Colonial Lake, NJ, taken three days ago.

Bald Eagle at Colonial Lake.

Bald Eagle at Colonial Lake.

Bald Eagle at Colonial Lake.

About a week ago, Colonial Lake was stocked with 170 Trout. That may explain why Bald Eagles have been coming there to fish, although other lakes in New Jersey were also restocked with Trout, mainly for recreation fishing by humans.

Bald Eagle holding a trout at Colonial Lake.

For some reason, the half-eaten fish fell to the ground (I did not know that until much later when I passed by the tree the Bald Eagle was on).

Bald Eagle at Colonial Lake, after half eaten fish fell to the ground.

Bald Eagle starting to fly away.

Bald Eagle 2019

Tags

bald eagle, colonial lake, photography, postaday

As temperatures today climbed above 50 °F (10 °C), I went to Colonial Lake to see if the birds responded to the sudden warmth after a long winter. At first I only saw seagulls and Mallard ducks, then just as I got back into the car to go home, two Bald Eagles appeared! They flew around the lake.

Bald Eagle flying at Colonial Lake.

Then they went to perch on tree branches and looked down on walkers, joggers, and photographers. Apparently, they had caught and eaten some fish and were just happy to sit up high and enjoy the scenery.

Bald Eagle at Colonial Lake.

Bald Eagle at Colonial Lake.

Bald Eagle at Colonial Lake.

Ice Cold

Tags

colonial lake, photography, postaday

Today, following the example of Eliza Waters (https://elizawaters.com/2019/01/21/brrrr/), I went to Colonial Lake close to home to photograph ice formations. The lake is man-made, capturing water coming from Shabakunk Creek, damming it, then releasing it further downstream back into the same creek.

It was around 20 °F (-6 °C), the lake was completely iced over, but the water underneath had to flow along its usual path.

Volcano on ice?

Ice bells.

Ice cold water.

Ice cover around trees.

Water and ice.

More ice than water.

Shriveled remnant of autumn.

There was a Great Blue Heron nearby, wondering what all the fuss was about.

Great Blue Heron resting.

2018 Unpublished Photos

Tags

american robin, blue jay, cosmos, great egret, mallard, montezuma national wildlife refuge, northern cardinal, photography, postaday

In 2018, some of my photos did not appear on this blog, normally because I didn’t want to have too many in any post. Now at year end, looking at them, some actually deserve to be shown, and here they are.

Northern Cardinal in January 2018.

Mallard mother and ducklings, May 2018.

Great Egret at Montezuma NWR, September 2018.

American Robin, November 2018.

Blue Jay, November 2018.

Cosmos brought inside, October 2018.

Taking Photos with an Extender

Tags

colonial lake, Edwin B Forsythe National Wildlife Refuge, extender, great blue heron, mallard, photography, postaday, snow geese

One of the must-have equipment for wildlife photography in general, and bird photography in particular, is to have a telephoto lens powerful enough to capture subjects with sufficient details and sharpness, without having to come too close to them. Since most of us can’t afford super telephoto lenses, also called second-mortgage lenses, some of us resort to using an extender, which is much less expensive, to increase the reach of our lenses. With a 1.4 extender, a 400 mm lens  will be equivalent to a 560 mm lens.

I have had such an extender for two years, but almost never used it because the results had been disappointing especially in terms of sharpness. Finally, looking at photos posted by Jerry from Quiet Solo Pursuits here on WordPress, I decided to give it a try with the Canon 5D Mark IV that I have been using since last year.

Following are some of the shots I took yesterday at the refuge and at Colonial Lake under a bright sun with the 100-400 mm lens and a 1.4 extender.

Great Blue Heron shaking a fish.

Great Blue Heron in “flasher” pose facing the sun to warm itself up.

Mallard in flight.

Mallard in flight.

Female Mallard.

Snow Goose.

Snow Geese.

Snow Geese.

Buffleheads 2018

Tags

bufflehead, colonial lake, Edwin B Forsythe National Wildlife Refuge, photography, postaday

Buffleheads are the smallest diving ducks, no larger than 16 in (40 cm) in length. They are a joy to see as they appear to be constantly smiling and moving about, bobbing, and diving to find food. They swallow their catch of crustaceans (shrimps) and mollusks under water, and I have yet to see a photo of one Bufflehead holding food in its short, smily bill.

In past years I usually had a hard time taking good pictures of them, especially the male ones, because their eyes are often lost in the dark patches around their heads. This year sunlight was with me, most of the time, as you can see in the following photos.

Female Buffleheads at Colonial Lake.

Female Bufflehead at Edwin B. Forsythe NWR.

Female Bufflehead at Edwin B. Forsythe NWR.

Female Bufflehead at Edwin B. Forsythe NWR.

Male Bufflehead at Edwin B. Forsythe NWR.

Male Bufflehead beginning to dive.

Male Bufflehead approaching female who just dove.

Male Bufflehead and his harem.

Female Bufflehead angling for photo.

Female Bufflehead and Canada Geese.

Silent Sunday

Tags

colonial lake, photography, postaday, robin, sparrow, squirrel

Squirrel at Colonial Lake.

Robin at Colonial Lake.

Sparrow at Colonial Lake.

Great Blue Heron at Colonial Lake.

Colonial Lake Wildlife

Tags

canada goose, colonial lake, crawfish, eastern phoebe, great blue heron, photography, postaday, squirrel

Colonial Lake close to home is quite small, but it has a good variety of wildlife. An old Canada Goose, named Hank by the locals, does not seem to fly any more and enjoys eating the bread crumbs and cookies that people throw to him.

Hank, the old Canada Goose.

Squirrels are abundant, and at this time of the year they are stocking up on acorns and other wild nuts to prepare for winter.

Squirrel at Colonial Lake.

An Eastern Phoebe had something in its bill, but I couldn’t tell what it was. They usually eat small insects, and sometimes small fruit or seeds.

Eastern Phoebe.

A Ring-billed Seagull landed with a splash and caught something in its beak.

Ring-billed Seagull.

The champ was a Great Blue Heron who caught three fishes in less than 10 minutes as I photographed him.

Great Blue Heron.

Great Blue Heron with first fish.

Great Blue Heron with second fish.

Great Blue Heron with a crawfish.

Dragonflies

Tags

Blue Dasher Dragonfly. Colonial Lake, photography, postaday

It must be the end of the season for the dragonflies seemed to be larger than four months ago. They were also not so active at Colonial Lake, perfect for taking some close shots of them.

Blue Dasher Dragonfly.

Blue Dasher Dragonfly.

Blue Dasher Dragonfly.

Some Late Summer Flowers

Tags

arrowhead, Bidens Trichosperma, colonial lake, hibiscus, photography, postaday, tickseed sunflower

I walked around Colonial Lake near home yesterday and took pictures of the following flowers. I am guessing the names of the first two, so please feel free to correct me if you happen to recognize them with their proper names.

Arrowhead flowers.

Bidens Trichosperma or Tickseed Sunflower.

Hibiscus dried seed pods.

New and Old Birds

Tags

common grackel, common yellowthroat, house sparrow, mallard, photography, postaday, snowy egret

Recently I encountered a new bird, for me anyway, the Common Yellowthroat, a small warbler with a Lone Ranger black mask, a white head top, and a very yellow throat.

Male Common Yellowthroat.

Male Common Yellowthroat singing.

This House Sparrow was preening itself one morning, and looked down curiously at a photographer.

House Sparrow.

Meanwhile, a female Mallard took off from Colonial Lake.

Female Mallard.

Snowy Egret stabbing water after a fish.

A Common Grackle laughed at the scene.

Common Grackle: “You missed!”

Have a great weekend!