Thursday, October 9, 2008
Juvenile
Originally uploaded by eclectic echoes.
This juvenile common tern reminded e of air more that any other picture I have taken recently. I really enjoy photographing birds in flight though it more often than not result in less than optimum photos. A skill I really need to work on more.
Among my favorites to photograph are swallows and terns. These are the acrobats, the sleek highly maneuverable species which remind me of the Thunderbirds flying precision high G passes. This juvenile tern for example is still being fed by the adults, but here it is carving a path through the air, twisting and turning with great control. Later in the same session I watched one of the adults approach and hand off a herring to the juvenile smoothly without landing. It hovered for a minute as it put the fish in the juveniles mouth then took of again like a rocket.
Watching a tern fish, alternately scouting, hovering and diving head first into the water is a great way to pass an hour or even two.
Classification
- Kingdom
- Animalia
- Phylum
- Chordata
- Class
- Aves
- Order
- Charadriiformes
- Family
- Sternidae
- Genus
- Sterna
- Species
- Sterna hirundo
Life Photo Meme,
Saturday, September 27, 2008
A week or so ago, Johann and I headed out to the hardware store to pick up some PVC pipe so we could make a light tent for shooting Tammy’s booties. We both took our cameras to see if there were some photo opportunities along the way. The hardware store was a bust, but the journey there and back was golden!
First we spotted some great white egrets on an area of marsh. It was high tide and the marsh was flooded. The egrets were hunting through the clumps of marsh grasses for mummichog and other tasty treats. We pulled to the side of the road and got quite a few shots. Eventually a blue heron arrived on the scene, though it stayed pretty far out on the marsh edge. A male kingfisher also visited, perching on the abandoned osprey roost. Up the road at another marsh was a snowy egret prancing along the flooded mosquito ditch. So in one afternoon outing he added the White Egret, Snowy Egret, Blue Heron and kingfisher to his newly started Life Photo Bird List.
Johann’s film card was filled by the time we left the marsh, so he was my spotter when we saw the osprey with it’s striped bass. He was so excited to be buzzed so closely by the osprey that he was literally jumping up and down for all he was worth.
Soon we’ll have to get him his own flickr account.
At the same spot I managed to catch the egret in mid mummichog flip…
Gulp!
Originally uploaded by eclectic echoes.
Classification
- Kingdom
- Animalia
- Phylum
- Chordata
- Class
- Aves
- Order
- Ciconiiformes
- Family
- Ardeidae
- Genus
- Ardea
- Species
- Ardea alba
Life Photo Meme
Saturday, September 20, 2008
Johann and I went out to the hardware store and come back with a bunch of photos instead.
This juvenile osprey flew over Johann and I as we were photographing some ducks in Old Mystic, It all happened so fast I couldn’t change much of anything up on the camera. The striped Bass was pretty good sized (~18–20″ long), and definitely looked like he was a tad bit afraid of heights.
We decided to let Johann start using the old Canon Rebel to use with supervision. He went out to Avery Point with it on Friday and got some butters and then this afternoon we passed by some prime marshes where he and I shot some egrets, herons and a kingfisher. As we neared the hardware store there is a small old factory on the river, we got out to shoot ducks there when this osprey screamed low over head. I was already loaded with the 400 and a 1.4x and no time to change. Johann was so jazzed about the whole thing. Now he wants a flickr account and access to the Lightroom software.
Interestingly, I saw something I hadn’t seen with ospreys before as two other ospreys buzzed this one a couple of times as it looked for a suitable perch to eat. They were all juveniles and from that behavior I would assume they were probably nest mates. I have seen nest mates sharing and pushing each other over food brought by a parent. Maybe this is the continuation of that behavior.
Saturday, August 30, 2008
Panning
Originally uploaded by eclectic echoes.
This is one of my older shots, but right now it is most appropriate for Wild, the theme of the current Life Photo cycle.
This great blue was captured launching itself out of the brackish pool on the property of UCONN’s Avery Point, headed for who knows where after getting a few fish and frogs from the pond. They are around the pond this time of the year. With my current situation Johann and Tammy accompany me to the school often and have taken to walking the pond area as well as running around the campus.
Watching Johann chase under the dragonflies and run with the swallows, like this heron he is free and just a little wild and it is beautiful. I am chaffing to be able to run with them and be just a little wild as well. Soon.
Classification
- Kingdom
- Animalia
- Phylum
- Chordata
- SubPhylum
- Vertebrata
- Class
- Aves
- Order
- Ciconiiformes
- Family
- Ardeidae
- Genus
- Ardea
- Species
- Ardea herodias
Life Photo Meme
Saturday, August 23, 2008
On our recent trip to Enders Island, we were treated to a marvelous display of a pair of Common Terns flying in formation as they hunted for schools of fish near the surface. The terns would hunt and swoop over the fish about 60-70 meters out into the sound, then race back to the rocks along the island. They repeated this at least four times before I noticed the juvenile sitting on a rock further down the island calling to the two adults. The lead adult had a small clupeoid fish in its beak and the trailing tern would not let the lead bird get clear. Eventually it did get clear long enough to and next to the juvenile and transfer the fish. The adult was airborne again in probably 5 seconds.
Terns are considered threatened in many states, including Connecticut and Rhode Island where the colony nesting sites are protected.
These two were hitting the water going after herring or some other clupeoid fish that were breaking the surface to escape submerged predators. Fish such as herring and sand lance make up the majority of the terns diet. They terns will also eat crustaceans, polychaetes and insects though that is less common.
- Kingdom
- Animalia
- Phylum
- Chordata
- Subphylum
- Vertebrata
- Class
- Aves
- Order
- Charadriiformes
- Family
- Laridae
- Genus
- Sterna
- Species
- Sterna hirundo
Update:
I should clarify that the common tern is not considered threatened on a national basis. Some states list them as threatened and there have been significant local declines in many areas – possibly tied to waterfront development trends and beach usage patterns. The IUCN considers them as Least Concern with a global population of 1,000,000 to 5,000,000 individuals globally (and they are truly a global species!)
