Cousins
Originally uploaded by eclectic echoes.

Here you can compare the sizes of a Great Blue Heron (Ardea herodias) in front of a Great Egret (Ardea alba). They only stayed this way fo a few moments before the egret ventured below the cord grass and the heron took off further up the cove.

Best viewed LARGE.

No! You may not have my fish!
Originally uploaded by eclectic echoes.

The Trio are now flying, and catching their own fish. As with all siblings there are occaisional flaps. I watched as the middle one returned to the roost with a fish (that shot didn’t turn out ) and the one on the left soon began trying to get a share of it. This is the culmination of the squabble when both of them screamed at each other and displayed their wings aggressively.

The one on the left eventully backed down, but as soon as the middle osprey was full it quickly snagged the left overs (about half the fish) after another small scuffle.

Best viewed Supersized.

Gotcha!
Originally uploaded by eclectic echoes.

Great egret striking a fish. This one was very successful in it’s hunting. Coming up this time with a pretty big fish (about 1/2 as long as it’s own bill). Overall as I watched it, this egret appeared to come up with a fish 4 out of 5 times it struck.

Best viewed LARGE.

Osprey Feeding Time!
Originally uploaded by eclectic echoes.

While I was watching this adult and juvenile Osprey (Pandion haliaetus), I was hoping that the mate would return with dinner. I was pleasantly surprise when halfway through the two hours of watching the adult went to the far corner of the roost and brought this large piece of meat back to the near edge and began feeding the youngster. I was not really prepared for it and had stepped away from the camera for a moment, watching the pair only with naked eyes. I did manage to get back on the camera in time to get this one shot of the adult bringing the meat.

I’d like to take a series of photo’s next year documenting one roost through the entire season. The Osprey begin arriving here in March and April. They begin building the nests soon after. Osprey mate for life, but the males and females appear to winter in seperate locations through Central and South America.

They lay 2–4 eggs sometime between mid May and late June. Both adults incubate the eggs for 6 weeks. After the eggs hatch the adults share in feeding and watching the young for 7–8 weeks when the young are fully fledged. The roosts are abandoned and the Osprey gone by Late September or early October every year. In the wild only half the fledglings will reach one year old. Those that do survive will begin mating themselves at 3 years.

Fresh Eel Dinner
Originally uploaded by eclectic echoes.

Ok, let’s get back to some wildlife instead of flowers. I have a lot of images from the 22nd and a few of our walks that I haven’t had time to go through yet…time to get to it.

A beautiful great white egret (Ardea alba) with a fresh catch of a young eel common in the Mystic River estuary. This fellow provided my son and I with a good half hour of enjoyable watching as he repeatedly (and patiently) struck for fish, frogs and shrimp. Catching this eel he took off for a "sandbar" in the estuary to eat and then continue fishing. This is CRW_9996, one of him in flight is CRW_0001 (Rolled it over!) after rolling over 10,000 images!).

In the Nature & Wildlife set I have put the photos in the actual order taken instead of order uploaded.

In other news the entire family had a blast at the Seaport’s 75th Anniversary and it’s 2nd Annual Mystic Community Picnic. They opened up the Seaport to the local community (and anyone who happened to just be in town..) for free from 4pm to 9pm. A great boon to us as we have yet to get a Seaport membership. There were activities for the kids on the green, different bands playing period or sea related music, free rides on the Sabino and of course the picnic itself — bring your own or buy from an assortment of clam shack and bbq offerings. Although it finally rained during the event, it didn’t dampen spirits, especially as it was a light rain that spurted on and off for about an hour only. More later… but it was a great time for all.

Rolled it over!
Originally uploaded by eclectic echoes.

This is picture 10,000 on my EOS10D! Actually it’s a 100% crop into that image. Of course it figures it would be an image like this. I was tracking this beautiful Great Egret (Ardea albus) flying along the estuary with an eel in it’s beak. Unfortunately as I snapped this shot I tracked right into a bush in between us. Oh,well… there are other shots of this series to be posted soon. Still a keeper if for nothing else than the fact it’s number 10,000. Come to think of it, we have only put 1,500 miles on the car in the same two years! Maybe I should trade in the car for some new lenses and a GPS…I’d get more use out of them than the car! If puplic transportation here was like it is in most of Europe I’d be able to do it in a heartbeat, but as it is I think my wife would object.

Emerald Eyed Cormorant
Originally uploaded by eclectic echoes.

A double breasted cormorant in the Mystic Estuary, Mystic, CT. Taken while checking the performance of a new 400mm lens. Pretty nice, but it is going to be mostly manual focusing. The autofocus is too slow for wildlife shots (unless it’s a nest site or some such). This shot actually is with the 400 and a 1.4x teleconverter. So a 560mm shot or an 896mm shot on a standard 35mm system with the cameras 1.6 multiplier. (I do like that multiplier for this type of shot!)

Osprey Watching
Originally uploaded by eclectic echoes.

This was shot with a 70-200 and a 2x and 1.4x teleconverter. Not the ideal combination (soft) but it does give me reach I don’t have otherwise.