August 7th, 2010 by Max
Just go out where there’s a shallow pond, a riverbank or any place where water stands, and you’re likely to see life. This river overflow floodplane pond down in Deposit, NY has seen its share of Herons and Kingfishers but a surprising lack of ducks.
I stopped by the other day and got hit with a Mallard.
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August 5th, 2010 by Max
Last month I went to Montezuma, I know, rare trip to the wildlife refuge. And Drove about a mile and a half up the +4 mile main pool drive and had to turn around, the main trail was closed. But on my way back I saw out the drivers window a Great Blue Heron that I had missed on the way up. He was down a 5 ft embankment, but real close. So I got out of the car and took a hand ful of pictures before he flew off. [They have this amazing way of knowing when you're changing the camera settings, and so ... no flying pictures.]
So, though people have seen a million GBH pictures on my blog before, here are two of the better ones I’ve ever made.
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July 23rd, 2010 by Max
There’s two Osprey in particular that I find, every time I go to Montezuma. A nested pair that I call Albert and Ethel. Ethel lost a couple feathers.
Here are some more looks at them.
Check out the Great Blue Heron in the first one. Twice in two weeks the Herons and the Ospreys had a war of words. As he flies away – to me – the heron looks like a Pterodactyl.
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July 21st, 2010 by Max
Borrowed from the Astronomy Picture of the Day
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July 18th, 2010 by Max
Today I saw a commercial for BP in which the BP employee states that “Every morning, over 50 spotter planes and helicopters search for
oil off the coast…”
He also claims that “We have recovered more than 27 million gallons of oil-water mixture from the Gulf.”
“How much of that “oil-water” mixture is oil? Also, They make it sound like it is hard to find oil in the Gulf. Is it really that hard to find oil in the Gulf of Mexico these days?
There it is!
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July 3rd, 2010 by Max
More birds. Various situations. I particularly like it when I get a sequence of a big bird landing like this Great Blue Heron. I think its a touch more elegant than the earlier post of the red faced Moorehen. Though I have a fondness for them too. And Cormorants [which aren't here]. I like Cormorants. Oh, and Coots too. My favorite duck like birds are Mallards, Cormorants, Coots and Moorhens.
My favorite wading birds are the Herons of all colors … and I like the Ibis too!!!
But my favorite birds are probably the Osprey, though, yes, I like all the raptors.
When I see a swan like this I think, “Do they really fly?”
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July 2nd, 2010 by Max
Its not uncommon to see deer at Montezuma. I’ve even seen them standing knee deep in swamp water to eat berries. This one was just out in the field, where there really isn’t much and not too far from the NYS Thruway [Don't worry, there's a fence] on the back part headed toward RT 89 and the exit. What I didn’t see till I processed these pictures, was that it looks like there’s a little one in the high grass possibly feeding off Mom. She stayed a bit of a long time and I didn’t see a baby run away, but the big one bounced like a spring.
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July 1st, 2010 by Max
This time of year the colors begin to appear. I didn’t take any of my typical pictures of the purple flowers. I saw a show that said that some of them are interlopers and are crowding out the more desirable species.
Yes it sounds a little presumptuous to say which ones are desireable, but the Montezuma National Wildlife Refuge makes just these decisions. They even drain the land, pull some plants and plant others which are preferred by ducks and other water birds. And, they push the very land around.
I think they know what they’re doing. But I too get frustrated with the meddling. On the other hand, the place is always different. If its not the people, its the time of year. I ALWAYS see something interesting up at Montezuma
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June 30th, 2010 by Max
These two Osprey were not friends. The female was sitting on the nest. These two, I think are males, the one coming from the left just passing through, but he’s flying over the nest. (A nest I later found out had had one egg not open and one small osprey baby disappear – the staff thinks it blew out in a storm).
I think the one on the right just was saying “Keep right on going”. Of course the shots with them actually tangling didn’t come out. The bird on the right followed the other all the way across the highway and out of sight.
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June 29th, 2010 by Max
So much to look at. Here’s a natural. You tell me which is the best …
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June 28th, 2010 by Max
Ok. Oh boy have I got a ton of pictures. Most of these from a trip to Montezuma a couple weeks ago. I just looked at them again and they’re actually kind of interesting.
Then I’ll follow them up with today’s trip to Sharon Springs and more house pictures.
Most of these will have been at ISO 400, overstopped about 2/3 of a stop on shutter priority in order to catch the motion. Sometimes it worked.
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June 24th, 2010 by Max
In a culvert, after a rain.
I wonder if he hid from the rain in there...
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June 22nd, 2010 by Max
I don’t know anything about snails. But this guy was up on a wooden deck in the rail, seemingly loving it. I tried to move him to a better background spot – there was some bird poop nearby [which I later scraped away] but he was well stuck to the board.
So here he is. Stuck Chuck, the snail.
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June 20th, 2010 by Max
Last week I went to the Montezuma National Wildlife Refuge really early in the morning to get the good morning light. And not only was it overcast it was actually foggy. So yesterday … hot and sunny, I go back and 30 miles out it starts to get dark, and really humid. Just as I get out of the village of Union Springs … sprinkles. Outside of Cayuga … heavy rain.
It rained so hard they turned off the camera on the North Spring Pool Osprey nest. Eventually it cleared up a bit, but most of the animals were tucked away somewhere.
At Mays Point Pool I found this grey thing that I couldn’t tell what it was … so I took its picture. Something was making an awful desperate caw. I couldn’t see where it was but the sound was like something was being tortured. Then further out, I saw this beastie land in an awkward way.
I’ve looked it up and found they’re both “Common Moorhens”. If I had a life list, I’d have added to it today.
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June 16th, 2010 by Max
On Saturday I got up at 5 a.m. Drove the 2.5 hours it takes to get to the Montezuma National Wildlife Refuge just so that I could catch the wildlife in the good light of morning. I had been thinking about taking a room nearby and just staying over. Well it turns out that the sun never came out. A heavy overcast merged with fog to keep the light grey all morning.
Still the trip was well worth while. Soon I think I’m going to try adding video to these posts as my Canon Digital Rebel XT could not capture the damp air ambiance or the sounds or the vastness of wild stretches of reeds and mud and water where the birds and birders happily went about doing what it is they do. And while I probably will never be able to post the feel of the air, a sweeping video would add to the sense that you are in a wild and quiet stretch, where life seems to return to a more naturalistic feel. Now all we have to do it have NY State move the NY State Thruway 20 miles north. Probably never happen I know.
Still in the time when birds die in a modern tar pit that we used to call the Gulf of Mexico, there is a sense of the world as it should be at the Montezuma National Wildlife Refuge. My birds need a refuge.
Unfortunately, and while I still learn, I think I overcompensated with my Canon Digital Rebel XT and Canon 55 – 250 EF-s IS autofocus lens. I set the ISO at 800 because I wanted to shoot fast. As a result all of the shots are a bit grainy. Though the stop action blur that had so frustrated me in years past, was not nearly the problem.
Here’s maybe the best shot.
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June 15th, 2010 by Max
I’m totally exhausted. Who’d have thought fishing could be so tiring. Maybe it had something to do with the sun on June 15!
What’s that you say? You haven’t seen the sun in days? Yeah, me neither, till today.
Now its time for the classic summer choice … beer … or ice cream?
I had the camera set on overstop for flying bird shots. Put the settings on Portrait, apperture and finally shutter priority. I think it was the apperture priority shots that came out the best and are the ones here. I need to find a way for my iPhoto to tell me what the settings were for each shot. Anyone know?
Oh yeah I’m pretty sure that is a ruffed grouse in the other pictures. She was just sitting by the road, checkin’ me out.
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June 15th, 2010 by Max
Silently, as ever, this Great Blue Heron swept across my view. My Canon Digital Rebel XT was set at ISO 400 and overstopped at f5.6 and 250ss about 2/3 of a full stop.
The Red Wing Blackbird was just not happy to see me.
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June 11th, 2010 by Max
Really surprised me on a wire.
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June 10th, 2010 by Max
Could this be a little blue heron? Tomorrow we’ll have a green heron again.
I had this one overstopped about a full stop for the sky shots I usually take. My Canon Digital Rebel XT working at about f5.6 and ss 250 with an ISO about 400. Apple’s iPhoto isn’t reporting the exact settings to me.
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June 1st, 2010 by Max
This little guy was just ponding around down at the overflow pool in Deposit. A voracious eater, he had three whole sunfish while I watched.
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Countless Screaming Argonauts