Muskegon Oct. 12th, 2014 The eagles have landed
This post is about the trip that I made to Muskegon on October 12th, 2014., yes, I’m that far behind in my postings.
I also know that I said that I wasn’t going to be going to Muskegon as often, but I just never know what I’m going to find there, so I can’t stop myself from going back regularly. I suppose the same could be said about where I live, as I shot this rare orange ring-billed gull as I was loading my camera gear into my Subaru.
Ring-billed gull in flight
Ring-billed gulls are common, but I only see the orange ones at sunrise and sunset, I wonder where they spend the daylight hours. 😉
When I arrived at the wastewater treatment facility, I spotted this heron scoping out the grassy cells, looking for a good area to hunt.
Great blue heron
However, I didn’t linger at the grassy cells. I had arrived early, so I drove to the southeast corner of the east lagoon to get the best possible light on anything that I may have wanted to photograph. That way, I’d have the sun at my back as I checked out the waterfowl in the lagoon.
There was an eagle there that may have had the same idea.
Juvenile bald eagle
So, I got out of my vehicle to walk along the lagoon in hopes of sneaking up on some waterfowl, when I heard and saw two eagles fighting. Of course they were to the east of me, so I was shooting towards the sun, the best laid plans seldom work out, and this was another almost winner moment.
Juvenile bald eagles fighting in flight
Juvenile bald eagles fighting in flight
Juvenile bald eagles fighting in flight
Juvenile bald eagles fighting in flight
Juvenile bald eagles fighting in flight
Juvenile bald eagles fighting in flight
If only they had been to the west of me, sigh. For as large as they are, they are certainly agile flyers!
This sparrow had been watching the eagles as well.
Savannah sparrow
With the eagles out of sight, I went back to sneaking up on waterfowl, here’s a female ruddy duck next to a female mallard so you can see how small ruddy ducks are.
Female ruddy and mallard ducks
And here’s a pair of bufflehead, which are only slightly larger than a ruddy duck.
Bufflehead ducks
They didn’t stick around long though.
Bufflehead ducks
Bufflehead duck
I was able to get a fair shot of a northern harrier working the creek that runs next to the lagoon.
Northern harrier in flight
And these guys were everywhere, as you will see. 😉
American pipit
I shot quite a few other waterfowl in the area, but I shot even better ones on my next trip, so I won’t bore you with the fair ones, instead, I’ll bore you with an only fair eagle image.
Juvenile bald eagle
It didn’t stick around long either.
Juvenile bald eagle
Some how, there’s a shadow on its face, I asked it if it could please pose a little better…
Juvenile bald eagle
…thank you! It then flew off in search of the other eagle.
Juvenile bald eagle in flight
My best photo of the day, and it’s of a female mallard, go figure.
Female mallard
And it is even of her butt, why does that always seem to happen? 😉
I found a few Bonaparte’s gulls.
Bonaparte’s gulls
Bonaparte’s gull
And, I couldn’t resist this pipit that had just waved to me, although I was slow on the shutter.
American pipit
The wood duck curse continues to haunt me, as a blade of grass was blown in front of the lens as I shot this.
Wood duck
I had no such problems with this heron though.
Great blue heron
And here’s a female mallard with two blue-winged teal for size comparison.
Blue-winged teal and mallard
The kestrel was hunting the creek that runs between the lagoons and the grassy cells, I was able to get one of my better kestrel photos of it.
American kestrel
They’re so cute, but tiny little falcons, about the same size as a dove, and very hard to get close to, so I’m happy with that one.
Yet another heron, after a summer when I saw very few, there’s at least half a dozen hanging around the wastewater facility this fall.
Great blue heron
I checked the grassy cells, the only shorebird to be found was this killdeer.
Killdeer
So, a couple of the pipits agreed to fill in for the missing shorebirds. 😉
American pipit
American pipit
American pipit
By now, the sun was getting higher in the sky, so I drove along the west lagoon, and spotted one of the eagles duck hunting. I wonder if it had a license. 😉
It’s a hard to see in the small version here, but the eagle was flying low over the lagoon. You can see ruddy ducks with their tails up, and some splashes in the eagle’s path where the ducks were diving out of the eagle’s sight.
Bald eagle duck hunting
I was surprised that these two birds were as calm as they were with the eagle nearby.
American coot
Horned grebe
I drove down to the Swanson/Laketon fields, but nothing that I saw or photographed is worth posting here. So, I returned to the area near the headquarters of the wastewater facility, and found both the eagles in one of the large pines there.
Juvenile bald eagles
I’m almost positive that these were the same two eagles that had been fighting earlier, now, they were perched in the same tree, a little over a mile from where the fight had taken place.
I got a little closer, and shot these images that I have cropped.
Juvenile bald eagle
Juvenile bald eagle
Then, I got even closer for these photos which haven’t been cropped at all.
Juvenile bald eagle
Juvenile bald eagle
Juvenile bald eagle
Juvenile bald eagle
I was about to leave, but I decided to shoot a few more pipits before I left.
American pipit
American pipit
I’m glad that I decided to stay a few more minutes, as the lighter of the two eagles flew off, followed by a large flock of crows which were harassing the eagle. No photos, the eagle stayed below the tree tops. However, the darker of the two eagles remained perched, and the crows were flying right past it on their way to harass the lighter eagle.
American crow flying past a juvenile bald eagle
Crows have excellent eyesight, they had to have seen the second eagle, yet not one of them did anything about that eagle, they were all too busy chasing the other one. It was also funny to watch the eagle watching the crows fly by.
I then ran over to the Muskegon Lake Nature Preserve, but the only bird that I shot was this white-crowned sparrow.
White-crowned sparrow
So, I’ll throw in a monarch butterfly to fill space, as if I needed to fill space. 😉
Monarch butterfly fighting the wind
I also shot a few landscapes.
Muskegon Lake Nature Preserve
These next two were shot looking almost into the sun using the 10-18 mm lens.
Muskegon Lake Nature Preserve
I don’t understand how that lens gets the exposure correct when shooting in the “wrong” direction, when no other lens that I have ever used would.
Muskegon Lake Nature Preserve
I suppose that I don’t have to understand why that lens performs as it does, I’ll just keep in mind that I can shoot in any direction with it.
So, that wraps up another trip to Muskegon. The next time, which I’ll get around to posting one of these days, I got good photos of at least two species of birds that I’ve seen before, but never gotten images good enough to make a positive ID of the species. The two that come to mind are tundra swans and ring-necked ducks, but there may have been a third species. I also got poor photos of a peregrine falcon harassing a much larger northern harrier. So, I guess that I’ll go back again this weekend to see what I can see.
That’s it for this one, thanks for stopping by!
Muskegon trip September 28th, 2014
This post is about the trip that I made to Muskegon on September 28th, 2014. The weather during my previous two trips had not been the best for photography, however, there were plenty of new to me birds to shoot. On this day, I arrived early on a glorious early fall day, great for photography, but I didn’t find a lifer. Oh well, you can’t have everything.
When I arrived at the wastewater treatment facility, I headed straight for the grassy cells, where the shorebirds had been hanging out the last two times I had been there. There was nary a shorebird to be found, unless you consider great blue herons to be shorebirds. 😉
Great blue heron
So, I headed over to the lagoons, and began shooting the northern shovelers there.
Male northern shoveler landing
Female northern shoveler
Male northern shoveler
I managed a couple of so-so images of blue winged teal in flight.
Blue winged teal in flight
Blue winged teal in flight
Reflections can be odd things, I don’t know how the top of the teal’s wing showed up in that second image, but I’m glad it did. I hope that the next time I’ll be able to get a sharper image.
Before I forget, the people who moderate eBird reports for this region have just increased the numbers of many species that can be reported from the Muskegon area, I’m taking the liberty of copying and pasting this little tidbit from the Muskegon County Nature Club’s blog.
- Snow Geese – up to 200 allowed in fall
- Trumpeter Swan – none allowed now, since it’s locally rare there
- Gadwall – 300 allowed in winter; used to allow just a handful
- American Black Duck – 250 allowed in winter now
- Northern Shoveler – 7,500 allowed at fall peak
- Ruddy Duck – 13,000 allowed at peak (this is one of the peak sites in the US; counts higher than this will require some documentation of count methodology)
- Eared Grebe – 7 in spring, 8 in fall; the only site in Michigan which allows more than 0)
- Shorebirds – substantially relaxed filters compared to inland southern Lower Peninsula counties, especially for species like Red Knot, Sanderling, Ruddy Turnstone, Baird’s Sandpiper, Stilt Sandpiper, etc.)
- Red-necked Phalarope – only site in Michigan where allowed – up to 20 in late Aug/early Sept
- Common Raven – allowed year round, up to 4 when family groups around
- American Pipit – up to 500 in fall, one of best sites in Michigan
- Swallows – all species except Purple Martin allowed at exceptional levels in August and into September
- Grasshopper Sparrow – up to 35 during breeding season; highest filter in Michigan
- Savannah Sparrow – up to 125 during fall when they are abundant on the roadside
- Brewer’s Blackbird – up to 50 during March through October, highest filter in Michigan
- Orchard Oriole – up to 5 during breeding
The huge number of ducks there actually make it difficult to find some of the species that are there in lower numbers, like American wigeons. Trying to scan a flock of several hundred shovelers to find the few odd ducks is not something that I am good at.
Each of the lagoons there is approximately 1 mile square, and seeing most of the surface of both lagoons covered in resting waterfowl is a sight worth seeing, even if I don’t manage to see a lifer. Plus, you can also get an idea about the diversity of bird species to be seen there!
Anyway, back to the photos, in this case, three of the hundreds of coots there.
American coots
Working the vegetation around the lagoon was a flock of palm warblers, here’s one looking for, and finding breakfast.
Palm warbler
Palm warbler
Palm warbler
And, I had never noticed how much palm warblers and American pipits looked alike in their fall plumage until I found this pipit near the warblers.
American pipit
The differences are a lack of facial coloring and heavier chest barring on the pipits.
Next, a teal, but I couldn’t tell if it was a green or blue winged at the angle I shot this at.
Unidentified teal
I believe it’s a blue-winged, but I’m not 100% on that. Next up is my shot of the day, although the species is fairly common.
Savannah Sparrow
That’s straight out of the camera using the 300 mm prime lens, no cropping at all.
With all the other waterfowl around, there are plenty of mallards also.
Female mallard landing
Next up, one of the thousands of ruddy ducks.
Ruddy duck
And, while they are a bit drab in the fall, here’s a few more of the northern shovelers.
Northern shovelers in flight
This male was showing a little of the colors on his wings…
Male Northern shoveler
…but, I thought that an in flight photo would allow you to see the colors better….
Northern shovelers in flight
Northern shovelers in flight
….until this guy posed for me.
Male Northern shoveler
I can’t wait for next spring when the waterfowl are in their full breeding plumage again!
Here’s my gull portrait for this trip.
Herring gull
As you know, I have two Canon 60 D bodies, the Beast (Sigma 150-500 mm lens), and a Canon 300 mm prime lens. So, for my last two trips, I’ve had both bodies set-up for birding, each with one of the long lenses on it. I spotted a northern harrier working the grassy cells and managed to get in location as the harrier approached me. I grabbed the camera with the 300 mm lens on it, thinking it would be the best choice for a bird in flight.
Northern harrier in flight
But, that lens refused to lock onto the harrier and track it…
Northern harrier in flight
…until the harrier was past me for a butt shot.
Northern harrier in flight
I should have used the Beast.
A short time later, this great blue heron landed almost on top of me…
Great blue heron
…then decided that it should hide, so I used both lenses for these, see if you can tell which lens shot which image.
Great blue heron
Great blue heron
Great blue heron
I cropped the center third out of the overall images for all three of those, just because there was no need to include all the boring vegetation in the images.
A short time later, I found an egret perched in a pine, and did the same, used both lenses for these images, none of which have been cropped.
Great egret
Great egret
Great egret
Great egret
There may be some difference if I were to print these images in an extremely large size, but I can’t detect much difference in image quality between the two lenses in these images, or those of the heron.
I hate to keep harping on those two lenses, but it’s a quandary that I face every day as I’m choosing which lens to carry. In good light, the Beast holds its own, but as the light level falls off, then, you can really see how much better that the 300 mm prime lens is, if I can get a photo with it.
I’m going to jump ahead here, to my last two photos of the day, shot at the Muskegon Lake Nature Preserve. The vegetation is extremely thick there, there are places along the trails where you can’t see more than four feet, unless you’re looking down the trail. I was carrying the Beast, and found a warbler in the very dense leaves.
Wilson’s warbler
I know, horrible image, but I didn’t even let the camera and lens steady up before I hit the shutter release as I had been too slow on previous attempts to get the warbler’s picture. A few seconds later, I was able to get this one.
Wilson’s warbler
Still not great, but at least I can ID the warbler from these images, something that I couldn’t do with the naked eye because of how poor the light was. I also know from experience that the 300 mm prime lens would never have been able to focus on the warbler where it was perched among the leaves in that low of light. If I had the time to manually focus, then, the an image from the 300 mm prime lens would have been much better than the one that I did get from the Beast.
So, which lens I should carry depends a great deal on the light on a given day, plus the conditions that I can expect to find the birds in. I’m hoping that someday, when I can afford a Canon 7 D Mk II body, that the 300 mm prime lens will focus much better on that body with its better auto-focusing system. For now, I have to make do as best I can with what I have. Therefore, the question remains, should I take the Beast to get an image even if it is a poor one, or take the 300 mm prime lens which could very well cause me to miss a photo if conditions aren’t right for it.
Anyway, back to the wastewater facility for these last two.
Green heron
Green heron
By the time that I arrived at the Muskegon Lake Nature Preserve, it was mid-afternoon, hardly prime time for birding, so I shot these.
Hawkweed?
Unidentified fungal object
Stacked dragonflies
Berries
Asters and bees
That last one was shot with the Beast set at 150 mm. I saw the green bees on the flowers, and zoomed in for a few shots of the bees, but the images came out horrible. The Beast does not do well up close, but, I still had a hard time figuring out why the images were so bad. Then it dawned on me, I was shooting almost straight down at the flowers and bees. I know that when I’m shooting birds flying almost directly overhead that I have to turn off the Optical Stabilization of the Beast, or I get blurry images. I think that I should have turned off the OS for the photos of the bees as well, since the lens was pointed straight down.
My last two photos from the day, an unidentified flycatcher perched in a sumac tree.
Fall flycatcher
I did zoom in on the flycatcher, but I still can’t ID it.
Fall flycatcher
Not a great day, not a bad day, just an enjoyable day. I still have another post to do on yet another trip to Muskegon, I would have combined the two into one post, but the next one will be heavy on bald eagles. 🙂
However, I’m thinking that unless I see something special show up on eBird as far as new to me species of birds, that I won’t be going to Muskegon as often this winter. The waterfowl are still in their fall plumage, and will be for a few more months. So, while there are thousands and thousands of them to photograph, in some respects, it is rather pointless, since I’d rather have photos of the from in the spring.
That’s it for this one, thanks for stopping by!
Muskegon trip September 21st, 2014
This post is about the trip that I made to Muskegon on September 21st, 2014. Since I had been to Muskegon the week before, I was going to skip a week, but I’m glad that I didn’t, for I was able to get two lifers on this trip.
The reason that I decided to go again this week was the weather, the forecast called for scattered rain showers and a stiff northwest wind, and that’s what we got. I had considered going for a hike, as the weather doesn’t bother me that much, but I don’t want to take any chances with my camera gear. The good thing about the Muskegon County wastewater treatment facility is that you can do your birding by vehicle if you want.
In fact, the first few times that I went there, I thought that drive-by birding was the only way to get close to birds there. The birds are used to vehicles moving slowly along the roads and two-tracks, but they would instantly flush if I stepped out of my car. I have since learned how to stalk the birds using the bits of vegetation, rocks, and other obstructions as cover.
The weather meant that most of my early photos aren’t very good, but bad weather often means good birding, especially early in the morning. I arrived just after dawn, and it was raining as I drove to the area known as the grassy cells. On my way, a small falcon flew past me, I was hoping that it was a merlin, but it turned out to be a kestrel.
American kestrel
I never noticed this before, but their markings make it look as if they have eyes in the back of their heads.
American kestrel
Kestrels are about the same size as a dove, so you’ll have to excuse the poor quality of those photos, taken in low light while it was raining.
Just as I arrived at the grassy cell that I had planned at starting at, the rain let up, although the wind was still quite fierce. Just as I had hoped, that cell was full of shorebirds of many species. I’ll start with a juvenile black-bellied plover.
Juvenile black-bellied plover
Juvenile black-bellied plover
I may have identified them as juvenile golden plovers in my last post, I’ll have to go back and check. The differences between the species are slight, as with many shorebirds. But, speaking of golden plovers, one of the adults came running towards me and got so close to me that these images were only cropped for composition.
American golden plover
American golden plover
As I was shooting those, I noticed a pair of Wilson’s snipe coming out of a clump of reeds where they had been taking cover from the weather.
Wilson’s snipe
There’s quite a bit of difference in the coloration of the two snipe, I wasn’t sure if they were the same species or not, so I shot many photos of each of them just in case. 😉
Wilson’s snipe
Wilson’s snipe
Wilson’s snipe
Wilson’s snipe
Wilson’s snipe
I had been looking for them all summer long, but it turns out that I was arriving far too late to catch them out in the open. Snipe feed at dawn and dusk, and sleep most of the day. They were lifer number one.
Since I was there, and this greater yellowlegs was there, I shot a few photos of it.
Greater yellowlegs
Greater yellowlegs
It soon began to rain again, so I drove around, checking on what species of birds were where, so that I could come back later for photos. It was while I was driving that I spotted the second lifer for the day, a green-winged teal in with a small flock of blue-winged teal.
I have to ask you to excuse the quality of these photos again. There are a number of reasons for the poor quality of these. I spotted the teal while I was driving, but knew that they would likely flush as soon as my vehicle stopped moving. My Subaru has power windows, so I hit the down button with my left hand as I was grabbing my camera with the Beast (Sigma 150-500 mm lens) on it with my right hand. Trying to manuever a lens that long inside of a car is not easy! But, I got it shifted to my left hand as the window was coming down, and shut the ignition of my Subaru off with my right hand. As I expected, the teal flushed, meaning that I had to shoot them in flight from within my vehicle. It was still raining also.
Blue-winged teal in front, green-winged teal following
Blue-winged teal sometimes show patches of green on their wings, so I wasn’t 100% sure that the second teal was a green-winged, but the smaller size and lighter belly, tell me that it was.
Green-winged teal in flight
That’s barely good enough for me to use in the My Photo Life List project that I’m working on, but I hope that the photos I got break the ice so to speak. I’ll save the photos of the teal for now, and hope to replace them with better ones, like males of the species in their full breeding plumage.
Next up, another terrible photo.
Bald eagle
I didn’t expect the eagle to be there, it was busy choosing from the brunch menu as I shot that photo through the windshield of my car. As soon as I opened the door to step out for a better photo, the eagle took flight, as did most of the waterfowl and gulls that the eagle had been watching.
Just a few ducks
By the way, the eagle chose ring-billed gull for brunch, but I missed that photo, and one of the eagle carry the gull off to a place where it wouldn’t be bothered by photographers.
I drove back to the grassy cells during a break in the rain and the sky lightened up a little. On my way, I shot a few herons.
Great blue heron in flight
Earlier this year, it was rare for me to see a great blue heron, even in the Muskegon area, there’s no lack of them now.
Great blue heron
You would think that when I saw this….
Great blue heron
…that I’d be ready for this…
Great blue heron leaping into flight
…and possibly, even this.
Great blue heron in flight
I don’t know if the heron didn’t see me or what, but it was angling towards me at first, then made that sudden turn away from me for the typical butt shot.
Great blue heron in flight
This other heron was watching all that unfold.
Great blue heron
You can tell that this is a different heron by the markings on their faces.
I spotted a pair of sandhill cranes, but one of the many mallards that were near the cranes spooked before I could get a good shot of the cranes. They tried their best to blend in with the flock of mallards…
Sandhill crane and mallards
Sandhill crane and mallards
…but that didn’t work out very well.
Sandhill crane and mallards
I found the named bald eagle whose name I can’t remember perched in his favorite tree.
Bald eagle, not cropped
Bald eagle, the cropped version
As I drove around, I spent more time checking the ducks, hoping to find more green-winged teal, but I had no luck with that. I did get a fair shot of a female blue-winged teal by herself….
Female blue-winged teal
…and another hiding out in a flock of mallards.
Female blue-winged teal and two mallards
I know that I post too many of this type of photo…
A few Canada geese
…but the number of birds there is something that I find very impressive. That was less than 1/4 of the geese in that one field, and there were several fields with just as many or more geese.
That was on my way to the area known as the Swanson/Laketon fields. While driving down a two-track between cornfields, I found this heron blocking my way, but it took flight as soon as I opened my window.
Great blue heron in flight
And I spotted this northern harrier nearby.
Northern harrier
Other than a few dozen turkey vultures, and a few thousand more geese, I wasn’t ale to find many other birds, so I returned to the main portion of the wastewater facility where I found a female wood duck.
Female wood duck
Female wood duck
And, yet another heron did a fly by.
Great blue heron in flight
I have to apologize again for the poor quality of the next three images. One of the kestrels was hunting over one of the grassy cells, and fairly close to me. I shot dozens of photos trying to get good ones, but the weather was just too bad. The photos may not be good, but I really enjoyed watching the kestrel in action. They will hover for a while, then dip, dive, and put on a great display of flying ability as they hunt.
American kestrel in flight
American kestrel in flight
American kestrel in flight
I did better with this pair of sandhill cranes.
Sandhill cranes
Of course, standing birds are much easier to photograph than flying ones, like this bird, another northern harrier.
Northern harrier
Northern harrier in flight
So, that wraps up another trip to Muskegon. I’m not sure yet what I’ll be doing this weekend, I should go on a warbler hunt, but yet another trip to the Muskegon area is very tempting because of the variety of species there. With the good weather forecast for this weekend, I may be able to get better photos than the ones in this post. The hawk migration is on, with many broadwing and other hawks being reported from the dunes in Muskegon State Park. I could also hunt warblers at Lane’s Landing and other places within the Muskegon State Game Area.
I know that the first weekend in October, if the weather forecast is suitable, I’ll be heading up north for fall foliage photos.
That’s it for this one, thanks for stopping by!
Muskegon trip September 14th
This post is about the trip that I made to Muskegon on September 14th, 2014. I hit the Muskegon County wastewater treatment facility, Lane’s Landing in the Muskegon State Game Area, and the Muskegon Lake Nature Preserve. In other words, one of my typical Muskegon area trips.
The weather forecast was a cool, sunny day, and I was up early and on my way before the sun had come up. Pre-dawn light may be good for landscapes and some other subjects, but not so good for birds when using the Beast (Sigma 150-500 mm lens). I somehow spotted this red-shouldered hawk looking for breakfast as I was driving to wastewater facility.
Red-shouldered hawk
Low light is even worse when trying to shoot flying birds.
Red-shouldered hawk in flight
So, I arrived at the wastewater facility just as the sun was coming up, but the waterfowl had beaten me there.
A duck hunter’s dream
Most of the ducks were northern shovelers, blue-winged teal, and mallards, but there were a few others that I’ll get to later.
That reminds me, this post is going to be even heavier on photos than is usual for me, which means way too many, sorry. I shot some of my worst recent photos, and some of my best, the worst were of interesting things, of course. The best were of some more common species, but they’re too good to delete.
Anyway, I drove to what are known as the grassy cells while trying to see any birds in the low light. I found this song sparrow, and hopped out of my Forester for this shot….
Song sparrow
…while looking for other birds as I stood by my vehicle, I saw this pair of sandhill cranes…
Female sandhill crane
Male sandhill crane
…I couldn’t believe that I had seen the sparrow before I saw the cranes, the light was that low. So, I stood there a little longer, and noticed birds much smaller than the cranes out feeding on the mudflats, a flock of American golden plovers. Here’s my best shot of an adult.
Adult American golden plover, non-breeding plumage
I was able to get photos of a juvenile last year, and there will be a few more of them later, from when the light improved slightly. But, when I returned for the better photos of the juveniles, the adults stayed out of camera range, darn. Maybe next spring I’ll catch adults in their breeding plumage, which is very colorful for a shorebird.
I watched the mudflats for any movement, and noticed that there were also many killdeer running across the mud.
Killdeer
And, a great blue heron flew almost directly overhead…
Great blue heron in flight
…as what I think was an adult male looked on from the next cell…
Great blue heron
…and a third heron rose up out of another cell.
Great blue heron in flight
Great blue heron in flight
I think that so many large birds flying over it made this horned lark nervous.
Horned lark
If you remember, I said that the forecast was for sunny skies, but, it had cooled off so much overnight that a thick layer of lake effect clouds had formed which hung around until after noon. I shot this shot just to see if I could pull it off in the very low light.
Double crested cormorant
It turned out better than I had hoped. I went back to the large lagoon where I started, and shot a few of the newly arrived waterfowl.
Blue-winged teal
Horned grebe
What could be cuter than a ruddy duck with its tail up?
Ruddy duck
A pair of them.
Ruddy duck pair
There was almost a break in the clouds, and I shot these Savannah sparrows then.
Savannah sparrow
Savannah sparrow
I caught a least sandpiper taking a bath….
Least sandpiper
…to dry off, it jumped straight up out of the water and flapped its wings, hovering in place.
Least sandpiper
A short time later, another was bathing….
Least sandpipers
…and the other two you see came running to see if the one taking a bath was stirring up any goodies to eat…
Least sandpipers
…but the one taking a bath was splashing so much that the other two decided not to get too close.
I didn’t see as many red-tailed hawks as on my last trip, but there were still a few around.
Red-tailed hawk
There were also a few of the semipalmated plovers around yet, also.
Semipalmated plover
It started getting a little brighter, finally, so I went back to the grassy cells looking for the golden plovers. The juveniles were there close to me.
Juvenile American golden plover
Juvenile American golden plover
Talk about tough lighting, as you can see, the sun had come out a little, and blue sky was reflecting off from the water. A few seconds later, the clouds blocked out the sun, and the water reflected black clouds.
Juvenile American golden plover
Juvenile American golden plover
A heron, maybe one of the ones from earlier came swooping in.
Great blue heron
Great blue heron
As much as I wanted to hang around waiting for better light, I headed up to the Lane’s Landing area in the Muskegon State Game Area. That could be considered a mistake, for I saw fewer birds there than any other time that I’ve been there. But, there were other things to shoot.
Unidentified blue flowers
Monarch butterfly
Monarch butterfly
I did see a few cedar waxwings, so I shot one just to say that I was able to get a bird at Lane’s Landing.
Cedar waxwing
Then, it was on to the Muskegon Lake Nature Preserve. The birding started out slow there too, so I shot a few other subjects.
Muskegon Lake Nature Preserve
Even though I have a hard time getting a good shot of a monarch butterfly, I thought that I’d try for a double.
Monarch butterflies
Monarch butterflies
But the way the wind was blowing, I gave up and went for a single.
Monarch butterfly
I started seeing birds.
Caspian tern in flight
Caspian tern in flight
Unidentified sparrow
And, I got what I thought was a relatively good image of a flicker.
Northern flicker
They are wary birds, I seldom get close to them. So, I was shocked when one perched right in front of me, in the open, in good light, and started posing like a model!
Northern flicker
Northern flicker
Northern flicker
Northern flicker
On the other hand, a juvenile catbird saw that I was about to shoot its picture, and took off running through the foliage…
Juvenile grey catbird
…and thought that it had found a place to hide. But, I had the Beast, and there’s no hiding from it!
Juvenile grey catbird
I wonder if this counts as a new species, a banded chickadee?
Black-capped chickadee
I was shocked when the first flicker posed for me, I nearly had a hear attack when a second one did the same!
Northern flicker
Northern flicker
It looked me over, decided that I wasn’t a threat, and then went looking for ants.
Northern flicker
I’m including this next one to show you how well they blend into the grass as they feed on ants, their favorite food.
Northern flicker
This is how close it got to me.
Northern flicker
Northern flicker
Next up, three images of a viceroy butterfly, because I can’t choose the best of the three.
Viceroy butterfly
Viceroy butterfly
Viceroy butterfly
By then, it was late afternoon, and I was tired. But, there were these tiny white flowers growing on bushes near the parking lot. I tried to get a good photo of one using the Tokina macro lens.
Unidentified white flowers
But, I was too tired to fight the wind, so I switched to the 10-18 mm lens to get a “flock shot” and about that time, a monarch butterfly landed in front of me.
Monarch butterfly on white flowers
I was going to switch back to the macro lens, but the monarch flew off, so here’s the flowers.
Unidentified white flowers
There were plenty of bees on the flowers, so I decided to see how close I could get with the 10-18 mm lens.
Honey bee
Again, I’m sorry for including too many photos, but I didn’t feel like breaking them up into two posts. I won’t bore you any longer, so this is the end.
That’s it for this one, thanks for stopping by!
Muskegon trip Aug. 31st
This post is about the trip that I made to Muskegon on August 31st, 2014.
It was another hot, humid, hazy day, with variable cloud cover. The day started quite cloudy, but by mid-afternoon, there was hardly a cloud in the sky.
I started at the wastewater treatment facility, hoping for a lifer or two as far as shorebirds, but while there were many shorebirds to be found, no lifers on this day. I did start the day on a fair note, a northern harrier (hen harrier or marsh hawk) perched on a clump of grass.
Northern harrier
Northern harrier
Northern harrier
That’s one of the few times that I’ve seen a harrier perched, they spend most of their time gliding just off the ground looking for prey.
They had just mowed the grass in what are known as the grassy cells at the wastewater facility, which is probably why this red-tailed hawk was perched so low as well.
Red-tailed hawk
I could have spent the majority of the day shooting red-tailed hawks, I saw at least a dozen of them, and I did manage better photos of some of them than the one above. But, the one above was perched within sight of the harrier, which I thought was rather odd.
It also reminds me to say something about the way that birds have learned to make use of human activity, particularly agricultural activity. Like I said, they had just cut the grass in the grassy cells, that brings in the raptors that find it easier to spot the small mammals that they prey on. If there are gulls, crows, or other birds in an area, they will follow a farmer as he plows the fields, the birds know that they will find easy pickings of earthworms and grubs in the overturned soil as the farmer plows. When a hay-field is cut, crows, cranes, and other birds will flock to that field as it is easier for the birds to feed on grasshoppers in the stubble left when the hay is cut.
The “fashion”these days is to bash agricultural activities as being harmful to wildlife, particularly birds. In the “old” days, it was that birds ate a great deal of a farmer’s crop, therefore the birds needed to kept away from farms one way or another, and that often meant killing the birds.
As in most things, the truth is somewhere in the middle. Yes, birds will make an easy meal of a crop when they can, but they also are a benefit to farmers by eating insect pests that would do far more damage to a crop than the birds do. There are some farm practices that are harmful to birds, but overall, birds benefit from agricultural practices though out the year. So, maybe it’s time that we call it a wash, and call a truce on both sides of the issue.
Anyway, I made my way to one of the aeration cells where Hudsoinian godwits had been seen a few days before. Unfortunately, they had left, but a small flock of other assorted shorebirds were there to be seen.
Assorted shorebirds in flight
Seeing the flock come flying in, I hopped out of my Subaru and began shooting.
Assorted shorebirds
There were Baird’s, Least, and semipalmated sandpipers in the flock, but no godwits, darn!
A little later, I spotted one of what I think is the cutest shorebirds, a semipalmated plover.
Semipalmated plover
They seem to know how cute they are, and most of the time, they will even pose for me, as this one did, turning so that the light was as close to perfect as I could get.
Semipalmated plover
The plovers also seem to be helpful little birds when they can be, one of them chased a Baird’s sandpiper closer to me…
Baird’s sandpiper and Semipalmated plover
…so that I could get a few close-ups….
Baird’s sandpiper
Baird’s sandpiper
Baird’s sandpiper
…but the sandpiper was too busy feeding, and wouldn’t turn just right for the lighting, and like the dummy I am, I had left my new flash unit in my Forester.
Some of the members of the Muskegon County Nature Club have named this eagle, but I can’t remember what they named it. However, it has a favorite perch on the west side of the west lagoon, and spends a great deal of time there. In fact, this is the same eagle in the same tree as I shot on my last trip there.
Bald eagle
Along with the shorebirds, migrating ducks are showing up at the wastewater lagoons in greater numbers all the time. Here’s a few of the hundreds of northern shovelers that I saw.
Northern shovelers
Since it’s closing in on autumn, and the ducks are all in their non-breeding plumage, I didn’t bother to shoot many photos of them. But, when a shoveler close to shore started bathing, I did shoot a few of that.
Northern shoveler
Northern shoveler
Northern shoveler
Along with the shovelers and mallards were large numbers of blue winged teal, no photos, you’ll have to take my word for it.
I have some good close-ups of Bonaparte’s gulls, so I shot this one and didn’t crop it because I like it the way that it is.
Bonaparte’s gull
I was surprised that I saw only a few swallows, they flock up at the wastewater facility in the fall to feed on the crane flies that hatch there. I could have used a few swallows to reduce the number of crane flies, seen here on the window of my Forester.
Crane flies
They were so bad along the north edge of one of the lagoons that I didn’t roll the window down to shoot this hawk.
Red-tailed hawk
Shooting through the window was not a wise idea, as you can see, so I deleted the other four of five hawks that I shot along the powerline there. There was a hawk on just about ever other pole, and I could see others in the distance, but you’ll have to take my word for that. I wasn’t about to open the window to let the crane flies in. 😉
I stopped at one of the other small ponds there, as there were fewer crane flies there, and shot this yellowlegs.
Yellowlegs, probably lesser
I shot that one as a test shot before going after a pair of dowitchers that I had spotted, but the darned yellowlegs spooked shortly after that photo, and spooked the dowitchers too. They landed on the far side of the pond and tried to pretend that they were mallards.
Mallard and dowitchers
I took a break while chatting with some other birders, then went back to the pond, hoping that the dowitchers had returned to the close side of the pond. My plan worked.
Short-billed dowitchers
I tried to get a shot of both birds with their heads up, it didn’t happen.
Short-billed dowitchers
Short-billed dowitchers
Most of the photos I shot were like this.
Short-billed dowitchers
A sunny day, with interesting cloud formations, no wind, and a large body of water reflecting the cloud formations, I had to shoot the scene.
Sunny day?
But wait! It was a sunny day and the rocks in the foreground were nearly white, why does the foreground look so dark? It’s because the sensor in my camera can not record the dynamic range from light to dark present in this scene.
When I exposed for the clouds, the foreground was too dark, when I exposed for the foreground, the clouds were blown out. That’s the reason that I’ve been playing with Photomatix HDR software, to get this image, the way that I saw the scene.
Sunny day!
If I had needed any more convincing about the limitations of a digital camera’s sensor, that scene was enough. I will be going over to the dark side and post-processing some of my photos from now on. There’s no other way to capture what I see realistically when it comes to landscapes.
It dawned on me that I hadn’t been doing any close-up portraits of gulls lately, not that I need any more photos like this one…
Herring gull
…but, they make good practice shots.
I moved back to the grassy cells, and instead of crane flies, I had grasshoppers on my windows, so I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to shoot a few with the Tokina macro lens.
Grasshopper
Grasshopper
I also found a great egret, but not on my windshield. 😉
Great egret
Great egret, cropped
Great egret
Great egret
I was about to switch over to the 300 mm prime lens, since the egret was within range of it, but the egret flew off before I could make the switch.
It was hot out in the open, so I headed over to the Muskegon Lake Nature Preserve where I could stay in the shade at least some of the time, and hopefully catch a few migrating warblers. No luck on the warblers, but I did shoot these there.
Cedar waxwing
Sumac
Unknown yellow flowers
Unknown marsh flowers
Purple and green
All those, and all of the other photos so far except for the grasshoppers, were shot with the Beast (Sigma 150-500 mm lens), and the flowers are a bit fuzzy due to their movement in the wind. I had a hard time keeping the flowers in the frame because the wind had come up so strong. I couldn’t get close enough to the flowers to hold them from moving, as I was on a fenced boardwalk and the flowers were too far away from me.
The next few photos aren’t great, but they are perfect examples of why the Beast is still my go to lens for birding, even though the 300 mm prime may be capable of better image quality. I was on a boardwalk over a marsh, as you can see in the last photo, the vegetation was extremely thick. I saw a small area of open water, about 6 feet long and 3 feet wide (2 meters by 1 meter). I saw one small brown something cross the open water, followed by another small brown thing that I thought may have been a sora. I was looking in the direction of the sun, so it was hard for me to see anything in the vegetation, but I was able to make out that the second bird was indeed a sora.
A sora hiding
A sora hiding
A sora hiding
The Beast’s ability to lock in on a bird in vegetation that thick under extremely poor lighting is incredible! It’s like a hunting dog that sniffs out the birds, as I could barely see the sora with the naked eye. But, it soon got better, the first brown thing I had seen go across the opening was a marsh wren, I heard it first, then spotted it looking at me.
Marsh wren hiding
That image was cropped a lot, if you saw the full size version, the Beast’s ability to pick the bird out of the vegetation would be even more amazing! The wren, knowing that I was getting photos of it even through the weeds, came out into a relatively open spot for a few better photos.
Marsh wren
Marsh wren
And you can see, open is a relative term, for it was still hard to see the wren through the weeds. I do love the Beast!
Marsh wren
The wren went back into the weeds, I hung around for a while hoping that either of the birds would come out into the open, but I had no luck there. To amuse myself while waiting, I shot a few dragonflies.
Dragonfly in flight
Dragonfly in flight
I did have to focus manually for those, but then one landed for a better shot.
Dragonfly
A while later, I got this one with the Tokina macro lens.
Dragonfly
Dragonfly
And, my last two photos from the day, a mourning dove….
Mourning dove
…and a mute swan family.
Mute swan family
It turned out to be another great day, even if I didn’t get another lifer, but they will come. Maybe this weekend, for it’s forecast to turn quite cool for this time of year, and I’ll be going back again.
That’s it for this one, thanks for stopping by!
Muskegon trip Aug. 16th, still more shorebirds
This post is about the trip that I made to Muskegon on August 16th, 2014, not one of my better days. I think that some of the first waves of shorebirds had already departed, as I didn’t see more than a handful of species of them. I am positive that this will be the shortest post that I’ve ever done on a trip to anywhere in the Muskegon area, and I shot less than 200 photos for the day as proof of how little I saw.
I went to the wastewater facility again, and warmed up taking a few photos of a horned lark.
Horned lark
Horned lark
I posted quite a few images of red-tailed hawks in the last two posts I did from Muskegon, but when one poses for me, I just have to shoot it. 😉
Red-tailed hawk, not cropped
Red-tailed hawk, slight crop
Red-tailed hawk, slight crop
One of these days I’m going to have to buy a good lens other than that junk Sigma 150-500 mm, otherwise known as the Beast. 😉
When I got to the first of the man-made lakes, there was a mixed bag of birds to be seen.
Greater yellowlegs rear, Wilson’s phalarope center, Semipalmated sandpiper front
I shot a few more of the greater yellowlegs, since I posted just lesser yellowlegs last week.
Greater yellowlegs
Greater yellowlegs
Greater yellowlegs
While I was shooting those, another birder/photographer showed up, and I showed him my trick of hiding in the weeds to get better photos than from his vehicle. Too bad that somewhere in there I managed to switch the mode of my camera from aperture to manual without knowing it, and I fought that for most of the day. I checked everything else out when I started having trouble, but never thought to check the shooting mode, as I seldom change it.
Anyway, we were kneeling in the weeds, and the Wilson’s phalarope swam right over to us.
Wilson’s phalarope
Wilson’s phalarope
Wilson’s phalarope
Wilson’s phalarope
As you can see, I over-exposed the last two images quite a bit, darn!
I did manage a few halfway good shots of the semipalmated sandpipers.
Semipalmated sandpipers
Semipalmated sandpiper
Semipalmated sandpiper
Later in the day I was able to get even more, but I won’t bore you with them now.
Instead, I’ll bore you with a few eagle images. The first one was shot from inside of my Forester.
Bald eagle, 500 mm
I eased outside for this one.
Bald eagle, 500 mm
Since the eagle seemed in no hurry to leave, I put the Tamron 1.4 X tele-converter behind the Beast for these next to, giving me a focal length of 700 mm.
Bald eagle, 700 mm
Bald eagle, 700 mm
Fair, since I have to manually focus, I never know if I missed the focus or it that combination of the Beast and extender is just soft past about 75 feet.
Another very poor shot, four sandhill cranes and a murder of crows out in the middle of one of the fields eating grasshoppers I assume.
Sandhill cranes and crows
That’s one of those “for the record photos” that I don’t post many of any longer. There were between 30 and 50 crows out in the field along with the cranes.
Next up is the most interesting sequence of photos from the day, a pair of American kestrels engaged in what I assume was pair bonding.
American kestrels
I had watched one of the kestrels chase a hawk out of the area, then it was joined by the second kestrel. They were fooling around in the tree at first, then one took to the air to make passes at the other.
American kestrels
American kestrels
American kestrels
American kestrels
Then, the second one took wing, and the two of them flew in formation together for quite a while as I watched.
American kestrels
American kestrels
American kestrels
I shot plenty of photos, too bad the kestrels had moved to where I couldn’t get a good image of them.
After that, I went back and got a few more shorebirds.
Greater yellowlegs
Baird’s sandpiper
The rest of the images of the Baird’s sandpiper I used to correct one of the mistakes that I made in the My Photo Life List project. One down, one to fix yet, but I didn’t get any shots of a stilt sandpiper, maybe next time.
I’m not sure when that will be. I’m a bit burned out on shorebirds right now, so I think that I’ll skip a week at least before returning to the wastewater facility unless the birding reports tell me that I’d better not. But, I have a week to figure out where to go next weekend. It will depend on the weather, also. It’s hot out there in the mid-day sun, I could use a break from that as well.
Other than that, I don’t have much to say, it was a long day, and not a very productive one at that.
That’s it for this one, thanks for stopping by!
Muskegon trip Aug. 10th, more shorebirds
This post is the second from the trip that I made to Muskegon on August 10th, 2014, you can see the first one here.
I may as well start with a few photos of a pectoral sandpiper which I have also used to update the post on them that I had done earlier in the My Photo Life List project that I’m working on, since some of my earlier photos weren’t as good as these.
Pectoral sandpiper
Pectoral sandpiper
Pectoral sandpiper
Not only weren’t some of the photos very good, I had incorrectly put a few photos of an upland sandpiper in that post.
Identifying shorebirds is still difficult for me, but the more of them I see frequently, the easier it is becoming. The first time that I went to the Muskegon County wastewater facility to photograph shorebirds, they all looked alike to me. I’m getting better, I could tell that the pectoral sandpiper wasn’t a yellowlegs…
Lesser yellowlegs
…nor was it a solitary sandpiper, as this is.
Solitary sandpiper
I’m learning to spot the slight differences in the color patterns on their backs, in their bills, and leg color, all of which are clues to their ID.
Another thing that I’m learning is how to get good photos of them. The first few times that I tried I had a very hard time getting the exposure correct. With the sunlight reflecting off from the water and rocks, it results in “confused” light entering the camera. Confused lighting isn’t easy to work with, but getting closer helps a lot, along with checking the images and adjusting the exposure for each and every situation. You can see some of the reflections from the water in the first photo of the pectoral sandpiper. However, those aren’t the worst offenders as far as reflections, it’s the ones that you can’t see which make photography difficult.
One thing that I meant to try was to use a polarizing filter to cut down on the reflected light coming from the water and rocks, but I haven’t shelled out the big bucks for one of those filters to fit the Beast (Sigma 150-500 mm lens) yet. It takes an 86 mm filter, and they don’t come cheap for a good one of that size. I do have a polarizing filter for the 300 mm prime, but I didn’t want to do any testing and risk missing a photo of something special. It turns out that I didn’t see any birds that fit that category, but you never know around Muskegon.
Another thing that I want to try is using fill in flash to help when the lighting is less than ideal. I’m jumping way ahead, but just before I packed it in for the day, I found a treasure trove of birds to photograph, but on the north shore of the lagoon. That meant that I was shooting towards the sun, and my photos from that spot are not what I wanted, but they’ll have to do.
Bonaparte’s gull in breeding plumage
The only photos that I had up until them of the Bonaparte’s gull were of juveniles, or adults after they had molted. I didn’t know it when I shot that photo that just a bit later I would get a chance to photograph another of the gulls while perched on shore.
Adult Bonaparte’s gull
Still, the light was wrong for that shot, but it was the best that I could do, birds don’t always perch where I would like them to for the best images. 😉
I used to use the flash on my Canon Powershot camera for fill-in flash quite often, but that camera seemed to be programmed to get good results that way. My old Nikon was junk, but I learned some bad habits from it, like not using fill-in flash. I also made a poor decision in purchasing an off brand flash unit that had little control over the unit’s output for the Nikon.
I thought about trying the flash on my Canon to improve the gull photos, but as large and long as the Beast is, I didn’t think that the built-in flash would work well. I could have been wrong. It’s been rainy the past two days, so I’ve been playing, but not with the Beast on the camera. However, the results when using the flash and the 300 mm prime lens have been encouraging so far.
Still, if I’m going to get serious about using a flash more often, as my brother keeps telling me I need to do, I need a better, more controllable flash than the one built-in on my camera.
I’ve been researching Canon’s speedlites, and I’ve settled on the 320 EX. It can be used as a wireless slave in addition to or instead of the camera’s flash. That means that I don’t have to have the flash mounted on the camera in order to fire it. The camera will do that wirelessly, meaning I can hand hold the flash off to one side for macro photography. In addition, I can have the camera on a tripod, point the flash at the camera and press a button on the flash to trigger the camera’s two second shutter delay, and it’s the same as pressing the shutter release on the camera using a two second delay. The two seconds will allow me to position the flash before the shutter fires. I can even trigger the camera remotely with the flash, and have the flash not fire, just like the remote control that I was going to purchase.
So, that flash will kill two birds with one stone, not only will it work as a flash, but it will also work as the remote control that I needed. Speaking of birds, it’s time for a few more.
Killdeer
I included the killdeer because I saw so many of them, dozens at least.
This spotted sandpiper was jumping from rock to rock in search of food…
Spotted sandpiper jumping from rock to rock
…and seemed quite proud of itself after making the leap without getting wet.
Spotted sandpiper
Spotted sandpiper
I tried to catch a jump, but I missed, a little early on the shutter.
Spotted sandpiper jumping from rock to rock
By using the sparse brush along the dike that created the lagoon, I was able to sneak up on the short-billed dowitcher from the last post.
Short-billed dowitcher and least sandpiper
Short-billed dowitcher and least sandpiper
A little closer.
Short-billed dowitcher and least sandpiper
Short-billed dowitcher and least sandpiper
I almost got even closer to the dowitcher, but a bird that I hadn’t seen as it hid in the rocks took off when I spooked it, and spooked the dowitcher as well. Birds weren’t the only critters hiding between the rocks.
Thirteen lined ground squirrel or gopher
Thirteen lined ground squirrel or gopher
Thirteen lined ground squirrel or gopher
I did get two poor shots of the dowitcher in flight.
Short-billed dowitcher in flight
Short-billed dowitcher in flight
I also saw a small flock of semipalmated plovers, they’re such cute little birds!
Semipalmated plover
Semipalmated plovers
Semipalmated plover
The look like killdeer, but they’re less than half the size, only have one black band at the neck, and have slightly webbed feet, which if you look closely at the last photo, you can see.
For the other birds that I saw, there were quite a few hawks….
Red-tailed hawk
Red-tailed hawk
Red-tailed hawk in flight
Red-tailed hawk taking flight
….another juvenile bald eagle…
Juvenile bald eagle
…a great blue heron…
Great blue heron in flight
…a common raven…
Common raven
…and last, but certainly not least, a sandhill crane.
Sandhill crane
Sandhill crane
Sandhill crane
Sandhill crane
I had mentioned earlier in this post that I had found a treasure trove of birds along the north shore of one of the lagoons. That’s where I shot the gulls and plovers. But, by that time I had nearly baked my brain again in the hot sun as I stalked the shorebirds from this post and the last. Since I had been sick that morning from too much sun the day before, and since the light was so poor on the north shore of the lagoon, I decided to call it quits for the day. The rest of the photos were shot as I drove slowly towards the exit of the wastewater facility.
I’ll probably be going back this next weekend, I know of no other place where I can see and photograph the variety of birds that I do there.
I think that I’ll pick-up the flash unit tomorrow if it is in stock locally, that will give me time to read the manuals for it and my camera, and test it out around home here before I try it on some rare bird that I may spot.
That’s it for this one, thanks for stopping by!
Muskegon trip Aug. 10th, sharing a thermal
I had great plans for the day, starting with getting up early so I’d beat the heat of the day. I was up early, but I was also sicker than a dog, so I piddled around home for a while until I felt well enough to go. That meant that I had to change my plans a bit. I was going to start at Lane’s Landing again, but instead, I started and finished at the Muskegon County wastewater treatment facility.
I shot 600 photos, and no, I’m not going to post them all, not even close. The “curse” of the wastewater facility struck again, I have to be very close to a subject to get a sharp photo of anything there. I’ve discussed possible reasons for that in the past, no need for me to rehash them again. It is a shame though, there are more birds to be seen there than anywhere else I’ve ever been. The area is mostly open as well, making it hard to sneak up on the birds. The first few times I went, I shot most of my photos from my vehicle, but I am learning a few tricks that let me get closer to the birds on foot, so that my photos are a bit better at least some of the time.
As soon as I turned off from the main road to enter the facility, I began shooting photos, starting with a red-tailed hawk and a great blue heron, but those images have been deleted, since both species made frequent appearances during the day. On the other side of the road I spotted some spotted bee balm, and so I decided to look them over and if they looked good, I’d set up my tripod and get some good macro photos of them. Silly me, since the flowers were within a few feet of the road, I didn’t grab a camera, and several species of waterfowl went winging past me as I inspected the bee balm. I quickly returned to my Forester and grabbed the Beast (Sigma 150-500 mm lens) but the waterfowl seemed to know that I had a camera then, and stopped flying past me. The spotted bee balm was well past its prime, but I did find this insect feeding on the few remaining flowers.
Wasp-like insect on spotted bee balm
Not bad for a “junk” lens not worth buying. 😉 But, I’ve hammered that review of the Sigma lens enough, time to move on.
And move on I did, checking what are called the grassy cells for any birds that were worth exiting my vehicle and attempting to stalk on foot. I did spy a red-tailed hawk recharging after a rough morning.
Red-tailed hawk
A little farther on, this great blue heron.
Great blue heron
As good as the Beast is, the 300 mm prime is better under the right circumstances, and I’d love to see what the prime lens can do on a heron. So, I drove down the road a short way until I could find a place to park in the shade, swapped lenses, and started back on foot, hoping to sneak up on the heron. It didn’t work.
Great blue heron in flight
I don’t know if the heron heard me, or if it just decided to try other hunting grounds, but you can see that it left well before I got close to it.
However, what happened next was one of those magical moments in nature that I’ll never forget, although it began on the bland side. I was walking back to my Subaru when a small flock of vultures came from over the woods out in the open very close to me.
Turkey vulture in flight
Turkey vulture in flight
As I was standing outside of the car, changing back to the Beast, the vultures continued to circle above me, catching a thermal updraft to help them gain altitude without expending much energy. The vultures were still over me as a pair of sandhill cranes came from across the grassy cells, headed straight at me, giving me plenty of time to get ready for them.
Sandhill cranes in flight
Sandhill cranes in flight
Sandhill crane in flight
Sandhill crane in flight
Sandhill crane in flight
The cranes joined the vultures circling over me as they gained altitude also. Next, a red-tailed hawk came along to do the same.
Red-tailed hawk in flight
Red-tailed hawk in flight
Red-tailed hawk in flight
By then, I had a flock of vultures, the cranes, and a hawk all riding the thermal upwards, which begs the question, how do the birds know where to find updrafts? Because the vultures and the hawk as well as more birds I haven’t mentioned yet came from over the woods, I don’t know how far away from the updraft that they were to start. But, I know the cranes flew a quarter of a mile directly towards the updraft to get to it.
Can the birds tell by the lay of the land, experience, weather conditions, or a combination of various factors to find an updraft?
Anyway, the first hawk had hardly gotten out of photo range when the young eagle joined the parade.
Juvenile bald eagle in flight
Juvenile bald eagle in flight
I was getting arm weary keeping the beast pointed almost straight up, but the birds kept coming.
Red-tailed hawk in flight
I thought about zooming out and trying to get several of the birds in one photo, but the vultures were mere specks in the sky by then, the cranes were slightly closer, but you wouldn’t have been able to tell what they were, and besides, more hawks joined the upward spiral.
Red-tailed hawk in flight
Red-tailed hawk in flight
Red-tailed hawk in flight
Red-tailed hawk in flight
You may think that I’m cheating and using many photos of the same hawk, but I’m not. Look closely at the markings of the hawks and you can see that there were five individual hawks circling over me, along with the eagle, cranes, and vultures.
It was truly an awesome display, seeing all those birds circling over me, I forgot how sick I had been earlier. 😉 I neglected to say that I think that I felt as poorly as I had because of my allergies kicking in combined with too much sun the day before. I had gotten the top of my head sunburned even though I wore the same hat that I always do.
I may not have gotten a great photo of the heron which I had set out for, but I have to thank the heron anyway, for if I hadn’t parked there to try, I would have never seen all those graceful birds flying over me to begin circling above me.
For most of the rest of the day, I spent my time chasing shorebirds, of which there were many. The fall migration has begun in earnest, believe me! Two years ago I had never heard of most of the species of shorebirds that I saw this day, and it was just a year ago that I wondered if I would ever get a good photo of a species like the lesser yellowlegs. Little did I know.
There were so may yellowlegs everywhere that there was no way I could keep count of them all.
Lesser yellowlegs in flight
Lesser yellowlegs
Lesser yellowlegs in flight
Lesser yellowlegs
Lesser yellowlegs in flight
Lesser yellowlegs in flight
Lesser yellowlegs in flight
Lesser yellowlegs
Lesser yellowlegs
Lesser yellowlegs
Lesser yellowlegs
I’m sorry for so many photos of them, but they were everywhere! And as many of them as there were, there were even more least sandpipers! (I won’t bore you with as many photos though)
Least sandpiper
Least sandpipers
Least sandpipers
Least sandpiper
Least sandpipers
When I did see a species of shorebird other than those two, my biggest problem as far as photography was getting the other species alone. Most of the time, there were either least sandpipers or yellowlegs in the frame at the same time. Here’s a wider shot showing a Short-billed Dowitcher in a mixed flock of shorebirds.
Short-billed Dowitcher and mixed shorebirds
Luck was on my side, later I caught the dowitcher even closer, with just one least sandpiper in the frame. However, those photos and the rest that I saved from this trip will be in the next post. 😉 And I promise, no more yellowlegs or least sandpipers unless they just happened to be in the frame as I shot another species of bird. 😉 But, I know of no other way to convey the shear numbers of those two species that I saw on this trip.
That’s it for this one, thanks for stopping by!
From two days in the Muskegon area, Part II
While I was on vacation, I went to the Muskegon area for two days of birding. On the first day, my first stop was Lane’s Landing, then the State Game Area headquarters, next was the wastewater facility, then the Muskegon Lake Nature preserve.
Even though my thoughts about the new 300 mm prime lens are now moot, I’m going to include them in this post, as they were definitely on my mind at the time.
This picks up where my last post ended, towards the end of the first day in Muskegon, my last stop of the day was the Muskegon Lake Nature Preserve.
I had been growing more frustrated with the new 300 mm L series lens all day. It was too slow to auto-focus, it wouldn’t auto-focus at all far too often, so when I got to the nature preserve, I removed the Tamron extender and shot these photos.
White-throated sparrow
Female palm warbler
Female palm warbler looking rather demure
Blue-headed vireo
Female Baltimore oriole
Female Baltimore oriole
White-crowned sparrow
Common yellowthroat
Common yellowthroat
Lincoln’s sparrow
Common grackle
The bad thing about a day of birding like that day is that I didn’t know how “soft” many of the photos from earlier were. When I went through the nearly 400 photos that I shot on this day in total, I was even more frustrated with the new lens.
So, a few days later, when I returned to the Muskegon area, I took old reliable, otherwise known as the Beast (Sigma 150-500 mm lens) and started the day using it.
In good light, the Beast is no slouch when it comes to getting excellent images! There’s very little difference between what it can produce, and what the 300 mm prime lens can produce, as you can see here.
Female tree swallow
It’s under less than ideal conditions that the better quality of the 300 mm L series lens begins to assert itself. But, on this day, poor lighting wasn’t an issue, so here are the rest of the photos that I shot with the Beast.
Great blue heron
Great crested flycatcher
Female rose-breasted grosbeak
Great crested flycatcher
There weren’t very many species of birds around to photograph, my timing was off that day, as I arrived at mid-morning when the birds were taking their siesta.
In a pinch, the Beast also works for landscapes.
Early summer
And finally from the Beast, a woodchuck trying to help me out by pretending to be a bird, since I hadn’t seen many.
Woodchuck
This was the day when as I was walking back to my vehicle at Lane’s Landing, that I decided to bite the bullet, and switch the settings of the camera body that I had only used for landscapes and macros up until then, and to use that body with the 300 mm lens and Tamron extender for birds at the Muskegon Lake Nature Preserve. The difference was amazing, right off the bat.
Not only was the auto-focus faster and more accurate, the second body came up with slightly different exposure settings for the lens/extender combo than the first body did.
If you remember, for a few days, I thought that the problem with the 300 mm lens was an exposure problem, as the first body came up with different exposures for that lens than it does when I use the Beast. It wasn’t, well, I suppose that’s a symptom of the overall problem, which is that the first 60 D body that I bought simply does not work well with either of the L series lenses that I own.
Anyway, here are the photos, although I didn’t find as many birds as I had hoped for.
Turtle
Common yellowthroat singing
Common yellowthroat really singing
Male rose-breasted grosbeak
Mute swan
Whitetail buck
Whitetail buck
Yellow warbler, not cropped
Willow fuzz
So, it may not be “right” that one body works well with the L series lenses, and the other body doesn’t, but I can live with that. I have since done more testing, and the 300 mm lens definitely works better on the second body.
I have also tried the Beast on the second body. I used that combo for one day, and for very few birds. I can see that when I was shooting flowers and insects that the auto-focus of the Beast missed by between two to three inches, focusing that much behind where I wanted it to focus. But, the Beast has never done well with close focusing, the margin of error that I saw was very close to what I had come to expect from it on the first body. But, I’ll have to shoot more birds before I can say for sure whether it will work well on the second body.
It really doesn’t matter that much any longer. It was only my stubborn streak that made me stick to having the bodies dedicated to just certain types of photos anyway. As I’ve had the Canon bodies for a little over a year now, I’ve gotten used to changing the settings all the time as my skills have improved, as well as my photos. I still have my basic walking around, shoot quickly settings, but I use those settings less all the time, I’m changing at least the exposure compensations for almost every photo. I automatically go to aperture mode for flowers and insects, to get more depth of field, for example.
So, if I have to use the Beast on the first body for birding, and the 300 mm lens on the second body, it’s no longer a big deal to me. As long as I have a second body along that I can set-up for landscapes or macros, it doesn’t matter which is which.
I think that you’ll see what I mean when I get to the photos that I’ve been shooting since this I shot the ones in this post. Here’s a teaser of what’s to come.
Turkey
That just happened to be shot with the 300 mm lens, Tamron extender, on the second body. But, I’ve been getting many other really good photos the last two weeks as well, using almost of my gear, other than the 70-200 mm lens. I may even get that lens out one day this coming week. When I was planning my lens purchases, I thought that the 70-200 mm lens would be my least used lens, and that has held true.
Before I begin babbling like a brook, I’d better end this post. 😉
That’s it for this one, thanks for stopping by!
From two days in the Muskegon area, Part I
While I was on vacation, I went to the Muskegon area for two days of birding. On the first day, my first stop was Lane’s Landing, then the State Game Area headquarters, next was the wastewater facility, then the Muskegon Lake Nature preserve.
Even though my thoughts about the new 300 mm prime lens are now moot, I’m going to include them in this post, as they were definitely on my mind at the time.
As I was driving back to the parking lot at Lane’s Landing, I noticed these Dame’s Rockets next to the road, so I set up my tripod and shot these with my Tokina 100 mm macro lens.
Dame’s rockets
Dame’s rockets
It would have been easier to have used the 300 mm prime lens for those images, and if I had, you wouldn’t have been able to tell the difference here in my blog. However, I would have had to crop any photos from that lens to get as close as I did with the Tokina, as these are full size, not cropped at all. If I were to print the photos, there would be a difference.
Anyway, I got back to the parking lot and started hiking along the dike at Lane’s Landing that splits a large marsh into two smaller marshes, and controls the water lever in the “upper” marsh. I was using the 300 mm prime lens and Tamron 1.4 X extender for these, more on that later. But for now, birds and a bee.
Song sparrow singing
This female yellow warbler was bashful, and didn’t want her picture taken.
Female yellow warbler
The 300 mm prime lens is great for birds in flight!
Juvenile bald eagle
And when it auto-focuses correctly, it does very well with perched birds.
Eastern wood pewee
These next three are of a male yellow warbler letting the rest of the bird world that he’s the baddest warbler of all.
Male yellow warbler
Male yellow warbler
Male yellow warbler
In my opinion, the photos are great because of the warbler’s actions, but the photos themselves are a bit soft, the 300 mm lens didn’t quite hit the mark when it focused.
But, that lens is great up close.
Bumblebee on a dandelion
Bumblebee on a dandelion
I think that this next one should have been sharper though.
Male American redstart
This one is OK, it’s of a very pale male goldfinch, I’ve never seen one this pale before, they are usually bright yellow.
Male American goldfinch
Eastern kingbird
Male rose-breasted grosbeak
The 300 mm lens nailed the grosbeak!
My second stop was the State Game area headquarters, where there are several trails back through woods and fields along what used to be the Maple River. Back in the logging days, the Maple River was diverted to feed into the Muskegon River to provide more water to float logs down the river to the sawmills in Muskegon. What used to be the Maple River is now just a slough, or very long, narrow lake, depending on your point of view. There are plans to let the Maple flow freely again, but I don’t know when the work will begin on that project.
My frustrations with the 300 mm prime lens as far as its focusing continued to build on this stop. Here are the few images that I saved, as a good many that I shot were too out of focus to use.
Painted turtles basking in the sun
Cinquefoil?
White-breasted nuthatch
I know that I already inserted photos of a male yellow warbler, but here’s a few more. This one was looking at the other males singing in the bushes next to where he was perched, first to his right….
Male yellow warbler
…then to his left….
Male yellow warbler
…and decided that he had better join in the chorus.
Male yellow warbler
Here’s one of his competitors.
Male yellow warbler
Male American redstart taking flight
Male indigo bunting
First year male indigo bunting
