Dec

31

Snowbird?

Shot of the Month  Posted by / 0 comments

Shot of the Month – December 2018

American White Pelican, Ding Darling (5446)

In North America, a snowbird is a slang term used to describe someone (often a retiree) who migrates each winter from his northerly, typically very cold home state to spend the winter in a warmer state like Florida or Arizona.  While living in Vermont – a very northerly, and VERY coldly state in the winter, we adopted some sunbird-esque habits and spent Christmas visiting family in Florida two years in a row.  These trips allowed me the opportunity to photograph a range of wildlife in Ding Darling Nature Reserve.  During one outing I captured a photo of a big bird — not THE Big Bird, but his cousin, the American White Pelican (AWP).

How big?  Well, the AWP has a nine-foot wingspan, which you can see in all its glory in the image above.  A male can stand almost 4 feet tall and can weigh thirty pounds!  That massive bill can add almost another 2 feet to the length of this bird.  These Goliaths are among the heaviest flying birds in the world.  Despite their size, those massive wings allow the pelican to excel at soaring and they can be seen traveling long distances in V-formation.

American White Pelican, Ding Darling (6748)

These birds breed and spend the warmer months in the heart of northern North America and spend the colder months in warmer locales as you can see in this range map.

The AWP is very gregarious and they often travel and forage in large flocks. Some pelican species plunge-dive to catch their prey — not these guys.  The AWP feeds from the water’s surface, dipping their beaks into the water to catch fish and other prey.  The birds will often work together to corral fish to one another.  Sometimes a group of birds will dip their bills into the water together and flap their wings to drive fish toward the shore where the water is shallow.  This then allows for a very efficient, collective feast.

American White Pelican, Ding Darling (2028)

The American White Pelican can eat up to four pounds of food a day with fish (carp, Tuie chub, shiners, perch, rainbow trout, jackfish, catfish, etc.) being the preferred meal.  The AWP is not above theft, known as kleptoparasitism in the animal world, to catch a meal and they can often be seen stealing fish from other pelicans, gulls, and cormorants.

American White Pelican, Ding Darling (9339)

Once a fish, or two, has been caught the pelican will raise its bill to drain the water and swallow the prey.

 

Gregarious, larger than life, a healthy appetite, and seasonal migrations — it sounds like this pelican might be a subspecies of snowbird.  If you get my drift…..  😉

 

Until next month…

 

 

 

Nikon D4S, Nikon 600mm, 1.4X TC (effective 850 mm), 1/2500 sec, ISO 400, -1 EV

Nov

30

Stop it!!!!

Shot of the Month  Posted by / 1 comments

Shot of the Month – November 2018

It looks like somebody is having a bit of a tantrum.  Check out those pursed lips and the dust caused by the stamping of the foot.  The thought bubble may say something like “Everybody off!”  I photographed this white rhino, and his bird friends, in Kruger NP, South Africa.

Despite the humorous nature of this photo, the reality is that any image of a rhino is bittersweet.  We are obliterating these beasts and they are hurtling toward extinction.  Any photo taken now could simply be capturing the last of a kind.

There are five remaining species of rhino.  Look closely at this map (click on it to see it larger) and take note of the former range of these animals compared to the reality today.  Can you find the dot that represents the last enclave for the Javan rhino?

 

In the last hundred years we have decimated the rhino population (Source):

Africa is home to 2 species (Black and White) and Asia is home to 3 (Indian (also known as the Greater One-horned Rhino), Javan, and Sumatran).  How are they doing?  Not great (Source):

 

The Sumatran and Javan rhinos are just about gone with less than a 1oo remaining of each in the wild.  And the Black Rhino numbers have plummeted since the 1970s (Source):

South Africa is an important country for rhinos with 80% of the world population living there.  Look at the trend in poaching since 2007!!!!!  (Source)

We are killing the rhino for its horn. The main culprits are Vietnam, China, and Yemen. (Source)

 

This is where we need to direct our anger to stop this insane slaughter. (Source)

I find the data in these graphics to be powerful, but the image below knocks the wind right out of me.  There are two sub-species of Africa’s White rhino — the Northern White Rhino (NWR) and the Southern White Rhino (SWR).  The NWR lived in Uganda, South Sudan, the Central African Republic, and Democratic Republic of Congo.  The SWR can be found in South Africa, Namibia, Zimbabwe, Kenya and Uganda).  In this image, we see the world’s last male Northern White Rhino.  He died on March 19, 2018.  Only two more remain on the planet, and they are both female.

So this sub-species of rhino is now functionally extinct.  There were about 500 NWRs left in the 1980s but poachers killed them until these last three remained.  His name was Sudan, and he lived under armed guard in Kenya.  He died of old age, and one of his guards is seen here saying goodbye just before he passed away.  This image captures the last of his kind.

 

What else can one say?

 

 

Until next month…..m

 

 

 

Nikon D4S, Nikon 600mm, f/4, (@ f/8) 1/500 sec, ISO 640, +0.5 EV

Oct

31

Whooo Should Die?

Shot of the Month  Posted by / 4 comments

Shot of the Month – October 2018

Barred Owl, Washington State (9133)

 

While living in Vermont I saw Barred Owls (BOs) a few times but never managed a good image. Ironically, it wasn’t till we moved to Washington State that I captured my first compelling photo of this owl. What’s ironic about this you wonder? Well, BOs are native to eastern North America. These birds were only first seen in eastern Washington in 1965 and in western Washington in 1973! The BOs range expanded dramatically to the west in the second half of the 20th Century.

Source

What caused this sudden migration west? Until the 20th century BOs lived in old, undisturbed forests in eastern North America. Some think that they were restricted from moving into northwestern boreal forests because of frequent forest fires. But with more active fire suppression and tree planting in the Great Plains by humans the owls were able to spread northward and westward. These are the leading theories but no one knows for sure where the truth lies.

What we do know is that this western movement has been a disaster for the spotted owl – a natural resident of forests in British Columbia, Washington, Oregon, and California. The spotted owl, already in trouble from logging, is a bit smaller and less aggressive than the BO. The spotted owls are losing the fight with their bigger cousins and numbers are dropping.

Forest managers are now facing a brutal ethical dilemma — what to do with this “invasive species” that is helping cause the extinction of another owl? The spotted owl is listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act and the government is responsible for taking action to protect them. Since 2013 the US Fish and Wildlife Service has been testing to see if controlled killing of barred owls in limited areas helps allow the spotted owl population to recover. Here is a good article on the gut-wrenching conundrum.

Do we kill Barred Owls, forever, to give the spotted owl a fighting chance to not go extinct? Do we simply stand by and let the spotted owl die off, even though we may have helped facilitate the invasion by another other owl?

Given our track record of wrecking nature with our “good intentions,” I vote that we stand aside and let the owls work it out and hope that the spotted owl can find a way to coexist with his bigger cousin. I have more faith in Mother Nature’s wisdom…….

All the best….michael

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Nikon D4S, Sigma 1500-600mm C (@450mm), f/6, 1/250 sec, ISO 6400

Sep

30

Dangerous Reflections

Shot of the Month  Posted by / 3 comments

Shot of the Month – September 2018

Reflection Lake, Washington (2114)

Ahhhh, isn’t it beautiful?  What a lovely, albeit frightfully dangerous, scene.

Say what?  Dangerous?  How could this tranquil spot be dangerous?  Where are we?

This image was taken at Reflection Lake in Washington State.  What is said lake in fact reflecting?  Why that would be Mt. Rainier — the state’s tallest mountain with a summit reaching just over 14,000 feet.  This lake is a tourist and photographer favorite as it can offer a wonderful view and reflection of this epic mountain.  An image of Mt. Rainier from this vantage point is pretty much a portfolio requirement for any nature photographer visiting the area. In late summer one can include blooming wildflowers in the shot as I have done with the image above to add a dash of color to the composition.  Sunrise is the best time to shoot from this spot as the water is most calm at this time of the day and offers the best chance for the still water needed to capture the reflection of the mountain.  Soon after the sun is up the the water’s surface begins to ripple with the stirring winds and the iconic shot will often be gone until the next day.

Yeah, yeah, all very interesting, but what about the d-a-n-g-e-r-o-u-s part??

Are bears or cougars lurking nearby?  No, no cougars but there are black bears in the park but they are not much of a risk.  It turns out that Mt. Rainier is considered one of the most dangerous volcanoes in the world.  Who knew?!!  The mountain is so dangerous that it is on the Decade Volcanoes list — this is the list that all bad-ass-wanna-be volcanoes aspire to be on.  Mt. Rainier is on the list because it has a great deal of glacial ice — an eruption could create massive lahars that could threaten large population centers near the city of Seattle.

Lahar?  Yeah, me neither.  Lahars are a violent type of mudflow made up of a slurry of pyroclastic material, rocky debris, and water.  They can have the consistency of wet cement when moving.  These flows can be super fast, potentially reaching speeds of 60 mph, and may be hundreds of yards wide and up to almost 500 feet high.  These massive, fast flows can wipe out any structure in their path and provide very little time to react offering little chance to get out of the way of this wet cement freight train.  You can’t outrun a fast-moving lahar…

Wow, so it seems that I just barely escaped the jaws of death.  Who knew that landscape photography could be so risky?  I may go back to photographing lions and jaguars where it is safe…

Until next month…michael

 

 

 

 

Nikon D4S, Nikon 17-35mm (@17mm), f/16, 1/15 sec, ISO 400

Aug

31

They Grow Up So Fast

Shot of the Month  Posted by / 8 comments

Shot of the Month – August 2018

Anna's Hummingbird, Washington (0127)

Earlier this summer I had the good fortune to find an Anna’s Hummingbird nest in a park near my house.   Let me share my three-week journey with this lovely family.

The Nest

First, let’s stop to admire the nest — it is stunning.  The female builds the nest by sitting in the middle and building the cup rim around her.  The nest can be made out of plant fibers, cattail, willow, leaves, thistle, or small feathers and it is bound together with spider webs or insect cocoons.  The nest can be decorated with lichen and moss to blend in with the surroundings.  The nest is about 1 inch tall and 1.5 inches in diameter.  And the one I saw, was perfect.    I was blown away by how perfect it was.  Perfectly round.  Perfectly decorated.  Perfectly camouflaged.

It belongs in a museum.

Anna's Hummingbird, Washington (7436)

Did I mention that it was perfect?

They Grow Up So Fast

I spent about three weeks visiting this glorious little nest because that is about how long it takes for an Anna’s Hummingbird chick to grow up and develop its wing feathers to fly away.  When I first found the nest the chicks were barely visible as they were so tiny.  Here is a breakdown of my visits to the nest.

I discovered the nest on May 19th – given the size of the chicks and from information from other photographers, I estimated that the chicks were 3 days old at this point, as indicated on my calendar to the left.  In total I made 11 visits to the nest, when the chicks were about 3,4,10,11,12,14,16,17,18,19, and 20 days old.  On the 20th day, I had the opportunity of a lifetime — I was there when the fledglings took their FIRST flight.  Even more amazingly I was video-taping (boy that term is outdated) and got the first flight on “film.”  But I am getting ahead of myself.  Let’s look at our little “photo album” from the kids’ childhood…

 

 

 

Day 3

Below, if you look closely you can the little yellow beaks of the two chicks in the nest. They are so tiny that they barely reach the top of the rim of the nest.

Anna's Hummingbird, Washington (7770)

And here is the only clear view of a chick I got at this age. Eeeek! Uh, I mean, “Aww, he is so beautiful” “He looks just like you!” At this age, the eyes are not open yet and there is not a feather to be found on this naked little beast. He must be standing on his tippy toes to reach out this high to reach Mom’s food. Remember that the diameter of the nest is only about 1.5 inches, so the chick’s head is about the size of your fingernail!

Anna's Hummingbird, Washington (8936)

Day 4

The chicks are so small that mom can still sit on the nest.

Anna's Hummingbird, Washington (9926)

     Day 10
Let’s jump ahead to May 26 – day ten of their little lives. Look at how much they have grown – their heads clearly stick out above the rim of the nest. Their eyes are open. And we can see the stems of their feathers coming through.

Anna's Hummingbird, Washington (1779)

     Day 12
Getting bigger and their feathers are filling out.

Anna's Hummingbird, Washington (2428)

At this stage, it is starting to get crowded in the nest.

Anna's Hummingbird, Washington (3117)

Getting bigger but the wing feathers are still filling in…

Anna's Hummingbird, Washington (3584)


Day 17

Just over 2 weeks old and look how refined their feathers are now.

Anna's Hummingbird, Washington (8311)

Day 18

Beautiful, though, we are going to need a bigger boat.

Anna's Hummingbird, Washington (0576)

Demanding kids…

Anna's Hummingbird, Washington (0837)

Day 20

And before you know it, they are proper little birds. Here is Junior’s first flight. Sniff, I am so proud…(you can also see the video here)


The chicks only flew a few feet away to a nearby branch in the same tree.

Anna's Hummingbird, Washington (1866)

Mom’s duties continued, however, most likely for a few more days:

Anna's Hummingbird, Washington (2508)

And so ends our time together. Well done, mum. You have raised a lovely pair of hummingbirds…

Anna's Hummingbird, Washington (2636)

Until next month…..m

 

Nikon D4s, Nikon 600mm @ f/11, 1/125 ses, ISO 6400