We have two adult bald eagles that live in the neighborhood. Despite shooting them extensively in Alaska and on the Hudson River over multiple winters, and with literally thousands of images in the files, its pretty hard to pass them by….
Even a baby gator can make a splash…..
Daybreak at one of the ponds near the house. A very young gator but the Nikon Z 800mm f/6.3 VR S enables one to get up close and personal…
What have we here?
A new sandhill crane nest was recently built on the edge of a pond near the house. Today, it seems to be shocked that there is an egg in the nest. There are actually two eggs and by the next day, they had figured out to sit on them both. So far its been a couple of weeks and both eggs remain intact in the nest…
Strutting your stuff
The bird activity has picked up since Florida’s cold spell. This cattle egret was strutting its stuff..literally a real life copy of the breeding cattle egret drawing on pg 114 in The Sibley Guide to Birds……
Spring is in the Air….displaying, protecting territory ramping up
We watched as this one sandhill crane spent 10 minutes making sure the second sandhill he was chasing stayed out of his territory. As the second one would venture back in, the first one taught him lesson after lesson that he wasn’t welcome. Very slow learner…..
They grow up so fast…..
Back in May, I posted an image of a sandhill crane that was one of two that had been born in the Spring out back. The two newbies are still in the neighborhood never far from the adults, but, as you can see, they have really grown in three months. The red crown doesn’t come in for the first year juveniles. The brownish feathers they were born with are transitioning to fresh grey feathers during the molt
in late summer.
Are you my Mommy?
Like many bird species, sometimes the kids bear no resemblance to the Mom. We started with about a dozen Black-bellied Whistling-duck ducklings out back and nature has reduced that to about 7. Nevertheless, I stumbled upon them last Sunday and spent some quality time with them, my Z9 with the Nikkor 500mm f/5.6E PF ED VR lens attached. A nice combination to capture the kids…..
Whatcha got there?
We’ve been enjoying two of these guys wandering around out back, learning the ropes…
Lunch
The Nikon Z9 is just amazing. The white pelicans have been around for about a month and stopped by a nearby lake to feed. While I remember shooting this pelican in the middle of his lunch, he was so quick I never saw the fish until later in processing where is was one of a 20 image burst I shot. Every image in that burst, like other bursts that day, is tack sharp. And shooting with autofocus in 3D tracking mode, the Z9 was amazing with locking on and staying on birds in flight.
Field Trip 2
Another favorite of the morning. Singing away, this red-winged blackbird was doing its thing…