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.

Advertisements

2018 Unpublished Photos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!