Aransas National Wildlife Refuge

I'm in Texas visiting my daughter. I took a trip to Aransas NWR, primarily to see if I could find some Whooping Cranes.

This place is on the Gulf of Mexico coast. I drove the long road to the end at the large viewing platform. There must have been a hundred vultures in the trees, and the platform was coated with vulture shit.

Black Vultures

There were lots of pelicans in the water, visible from the platform. No cranes. So then I drove the wildlife loop. There was very little action. I did spot this Kestrel, a new species for me.

American Kestrel

I reached the main road and headed back to the entrance. There were quite a few deer.

White-Tailed Deer

Driving along, I found this bird along the road, another new species for me. Its size and wing feathers remind me of ospreys. My wife says it has bad hair, like Donald Trump.

Northern Crested Caracara

And there was the occasional flock of White Pelicans circling.

White Pelicans

And I left, not knowing whether I'd managed to photograph any whooping cranes. When I checked my images on the computer, it turns out I did capture a pair at extreme distance.

Whooping Cranes

So, mission accomplished, but not exactly satisfying.

Surprising Bald Eagle Behavior

Today is Thanksgiving Day in the US, and the weather here in Northern Virginia is gorgeous: cold, sunny, just as I like it for visits to Occoquan Bay NWR. I arrived just as the gate opened.

Since getting my new 500mm lens, I've tried photographing some birds that I've previously ignored.

This is the time of year when the resident eagle couples reclaim their nests and repair them for the coming nesting season. There are two nests at OBNWR and both of them had eagles nearby when I visited this morning. The nest near the shore had an eagle in the tree, eating something bloody. But the other tree was the location for a much more interesting encounter.

This second nest is away from the shore, right next to a road.

Bald Eagle Nest

Unlike the other nest, it's possible to walk right up to and under this tree and the nest in it. From several hundred yards away, I looked at it through my camera and it appeared that maybe I could just make out a white head in the nest. I walked toward the nest and the eagles did what they always do when I approach: they flew away. I lost sight of them. Oh well, I walked right up to the tree. And I was stunned when one of them came back. I only just managed to get my camera up and in focus to track it as it flew, with a stick, into the nest right in front of me.

Bald Eagle With Stick for Nest

And it promptly flew away again. I spotted its mate in a tree in the distance, and I decided to hang around, hoping for another stick delivery. No joy. I decided to try to approach the one that I had spotted earlier. It flew away. Then I looked back at the nest to discover that the one I gave up on while waiting for stick delivery had sneaked into the nest while I was stalking its mate, and it flew away again. Both of them landed in a tree away from the road (where it's against the rules to get off the road). And another photographer came along, so the game was over. These birds were so close that I heard their wings flapping.

One More Trip to Conowingo

Once again I had Friday off from work and the weather was good and I went to the dam. Parking this time of year is scarce there, so I left home really early and arrived at 6:20 and got one of the few remaining parking spots. More importantly the spot I wanted by the fence to shoot from was already crowded. I had to settle for the concrete balcony.

I wore 3 layers of shirts and my army Goretex field jacket and was still cold. The temperature was only about 35F but the wind and proximity to water made it uncomfortable.

I've never seen so many eagles before. They weren't in the trees by the parking lot or on the electrical towers, but they were everywhere on the far shore. At times there were swarms of eagles flying around. All day long there were eagle fishing events and attempted fish thefts. And they were all way too far away for good shots. But I got some keepers in spite of the distance, and here are a few of them.

Sadly I did a poor job with the fish fights. Most of them happened quite far away with busy backgrounds. Keeping them in focus and well-exposed at that distance was a job that I had trouble with.

Neither Bird Gets the Fish

Seagull Chases Eagle

 The seagull-eagle chase was a first for me. The eagle snatched the fish moments before this shot and as the eagle climbed to go find a place to eat, this gull chased it around in a few circles.

Fish Fight

Fish Fight

There were frequent eagle frenzies on the opposite shore. I think most of them happened when an eagle dropped a fish on the rocks, resulting in dozens of other eagles converging.

And this one wins the prize for the biggest fish that I saw all day.

Quite a Big Fish

This Year's Crowd Shot

In summary, I clearly need to work on my technique. I came away with way too many out-of-focus and over-exposed shots. I've been shooting in manual exposure mode since I got the new lens over the summer. I'm convinced it's the right way to go and I'm committed to sticking with it, but I get a little forgetful about checking exposure frequently as the light changes. The lens has trouble tracking focus with a busy background; I have to get better at recognizing when I can get away with acquiring focus and then LET GO of the button because the action is far away and the birds aren't necessarily leaving the plane of focus. I'm also still getting used to shooting from a tripod, and that's a challenge when the action is close and moving fast.

Delmarva Trip

There was a scheduled launch from Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport on Wallops Island to take place on November 11 at about 7:30AM. I had the 10th off from work, thus making this a long weekend. I decided to make it a road trip. My wife booked a room for us and I took a leisurely drive, stopping at Blackwater NWR on the way. Almost everything interesting at Blackwater was too far away to bother photographing. Even the huge swans were just white dots in the distance. I didn't linger because I needed to get to Chincoteague.

Ruddy Duck at Blackwater NWR

Well, the launch was a bust. With only a minute to go, an aircraft strayed into the no fly zone. I read later that the aircraft was at 500 feet and 6 miles off shore. What? Is that a drug smuggler? When I was learning to fly my instructor drilled it into me, altitude gives you options; stay close to shore so you can glide to land if the engine fails. This pilot was clearly on a different script.

I was all set up on the causeway between Chincoteague and Assateague islands, camera on manual exposure mode, exposure set to be somewhat dark to compensate for the expected bright fire of the rocket, and enduring the cold wind. They aborted the launch, and launched the next day after I returned home. Oh well, I took this trip knowing that these things happen.

Before the Launch that Didn't Happen

Later I drove to Assateague island and looked for birds. It was so uncomfortably cold and windy that I just wasn't having any fun and left after photographing a great egret and some gulls.

Gull on Assateague Island

Gulls

Gull

Ah, You're Interrupting my Nap

Great Egret

Conowingo Dam, Round 2

Once again I've been seeing good trip reports from the dam, and I had the day off from work, so I went. This time there was very light traffic and I arrived in morning twilight with a handful of photographers already there and the turbines running and a thick bank of fog blanketing the whole area. The water was high so I couldn't set up on my preferred spot on the rocks; it was under water. The terrace was closed; even the fishermen were blocked out.

I set up along the fence in an area that had no trees to obstruct the view and waited. Sometimes the fog was so thick that it obscured the dam entirely.

Of course I always check other photographers' gear out. I'm shooting with a full frame Nikon, 500mm lens, on a Gitzo tripod, with a Wimberley gimbal head. For the first time in the years I've been going there, I feel like my gear is average. The guy next to me was shooting an 800mm lens. Most everyone else seemed to have something in the range of 500mm lenses, plus or minus 100mm. Most tripods were Gitzo or RRS, and most heads were gimbals, although I saw a weird setup with a gimbal head mounted to a ball head. Some photographers were shooting with ball heads or pan/tilt heads. I keep expecting to see mirrorless cameras among the photographers, but there weren't any this trip.

We waited in the fog. And waited. Finally at about 10AM the sun started breaking through. Quite a few eagles were present on the far shore, dozens by my count. And lots of cormorants and pigeons and gulls. A few herons were also there. Most of the action this day took place either too far away or in mist so thick that the camera had trouble acquiring focus.

I got few keepers this trip because of the distance and mist, and here they are.

Cormorant in the Mist with a Huge Fish

 Eventually the cormorant gave up and let the fish go; it was too big to eat.

Distant Action

 There were lots of distant eagle-in-flight interactions.

Great Blue Heron Skims the Water

Nearly Mature Looking for Fish

Rare Close Flyby

Which One of these Doesn't Belong?

Flyby

Flyby

Who Knew There is at Least One Deer on the Island?

I never saw this deer. I was trying to follow a bird in flight and missed the bird but inadvertently got a shot of this deer on the island. I guess it or its mother swam over?

Flyby

Flyby

Flyby

Flyby

Flyby

So I'll wait for it to get colder to force more eagles to migrate south through the area, and hope for good weather on a day that I can take off from work, and I'll make the trip again if I can.

Went for Feathers, Saw Metal

My last couple of trips to OBNWR have been pretty disappointing; few birds to be seen. The weather was gorgeous this morning, so I went, hoping for better luck with birds. While my luck with birds didn't change, I did catch this C-17 flying low over the Occoquan, then making the turn toward Quantico. Shortly after rolling wings level, it extended the landing gear, presumably to land at the Marine Corps base. I've seen these aircraft on the ground a few times. I've seen them in the air at a distance. This was by far the best opportunity I've had for a flight shot.

C-17 Globemaster

Conowingo Dam

Today I made my first trip of the Fall to Conowingo Dam. I've seen recent trip reports on Facebook and it seemed that there was reason to hope for some action on this beautiful, cool, clear day. No such luck.

It was bad from the beginning. I drove through two traffic jams before even leaving Virginia. Then it was slow going all the way to Baltimore. I arrived around 7:30, chose a spot right down on the water among the rocks, set the tripod up, and waited for some action.

I got a heron at the beginning.

Great Blue Heron

Then there was a series of cormorant swim-bys and fights. A few eagles were perched on the electrical towers and rocks on the far shore. And there was a grand total of one eagle fishing event, well away from me. Previous visits had few cormorants, so I was at least able to shoot some of them. But overall, it was a disappointing visit.

Cormorant with an Eel

Close Pass

With a Fish

Cormorant with an Enormous Fish

So, quite a disappointing day... But at least I was able to watch several cormorant fights. I've seen plenty of cormorants over the years, they're usually alone, and usually I ignore them because I find them uninteresting. With nothing else to see this time, I watched several events where a cormorant came to the surface with a fish, only to have several other cormorants converge and try to steal the fish. The bird with the fish would dive underwater to get away, then resurface, only for the fight to resume. I've seen this kind of fish stealing behavior in eagles quite often, but this was a first with cormorants.

Eventually I gave up and headed home. To make matters even more annoying, traffic was heavy all the way home.

This was my first outing with my new tripod. I got a Gitzo 3 series. I selected one that extends to a ridiculously high height, above my head actually. I wanted one that could put the camera well above my head so I could shoot high objects while I stand upright. My experience with the eclipse and an old Manfrotto tripod was aggravating because I couldn't get the camera up to a comfortable height. My choice was to crouch or kneel. And because the sun was so high in the sky as to seem nearly vertical, I couldn't tilt the camera enough, so I wound up extending one leg more than the others. This changed the center of gravity and made it uncomfortably unbalanced, so I set it up low to minimize the distance my camera would fall in the event it tipped over. Fortunately it never fell over, but that taught me that I needed a versatile, sturdy tripod that could extend to at least my height. The Gitzo tripod that I selected was on sale when I bought it for even less than a more standard height model. I also got it without a center column because I think center columns are useless.

To the tripod, I added a Wimberley gimbal head. I researched several other heads, and kept returning to Wimberley as the safe choice.

So anyway, about using the tripod. I set up on the shore right next to the water because I like the lower angle that it gives. Conowingo Dam's shore is a steep, rocky incline except for the concrete terrace. The water was very low; setting up on the terrace would place me much higher than I like. So I fooled with the tripod height for a while until settling on a comfortable height. Bottom line: it's sweet. I couldn't be happier with the tripod and head. Following action was effortless.

Carrying the Monster

This past Summer, I bought a new lens for wildlife photography. I immediately faced the problem of how to carry it around. I'm used to walking around with my 300mm lens, which is much smaller and lighter. I use a BlackRapid strap for that lens, and I've been pleased with that arrangement.

So after I got the new bulky, heavy lens, I started by holding the tripod foot as I walked around. That quickly gets old because of the weight; I had to frequently switch it from one hand to the other. And the stock foot that came with the lens is a bit short so there is less metal to grip than I would like. Then I tried using my BlackRapid strap, attached to the lens foot. That works OK, but I worry that the attachment point will break while supporting the weight. So I went back to just carrying the lens and attached camera by the foot.

I got a new tripod and gimbal head, so that created a need for an Arca-Swiss mounting bracket. The bracket screws into the foot, and it's not a quick job to install/remove the bracket. And it's not comfortable to carry the lens around with the bracket installed. So that led to the hunt for a replacement foot. I settled on a Jobu foot, which has the advantage of being longer (more to grip while walking), but the disadvantage of being a bit more square (less comfortable in my hand). OK, I can't win. But the new foot works great on the tripod head, so I'm sticking with it.

But what to do for a really long walk? And what if the terrain is uneven? I don't look forward to scrambling over rocks with my camera in my hands. I really don't look forward to scrambling with the camera and a tripod.

I think I have the answer. My son rows, and his team had a race this past weekend. I looked at the course map and decided that the best place to photograph the action was on the shore of a park along the river, and this park is a forest with unimproved paths. The nearest parking lot is 2 miles away from the spot I selected. Let me introduce my newest camera accessory.

Osprey Stratos 26

I got this backpack for hiking. My son and I hiked through the Haleakala caldera earlier this year and we each needed to pack our own water and snacks. I didn't want to make him use an old school book knapsack and sour him on hiking, so I spent the money on a good pack, complete with a rigid frame and a mesh screen that keeps the pack from resting against the wearer's back. This means the sweat can evaporate instead of being trapped in the shirt between the body and the pack. It separates the main compartment from the body, leaving an air gap.

My camera and lens fit perfectly in this backpack. The frame and screen keep the bulky uncomfortable edges from digging in to my back. And there are loops made for attaching hiking poles, which worked beautifully for my monopod. I hiked 2 miles in, photographed my son, and hiked 2 miles out, up and down steep hills.

Bottom line: this worked great, although I still need to figure out how to lug my tripod. I'll probably just carry that in my hands or over my shoulder, which is still not ideal, but at least the expensive camera and lens are well-protected and secure in the pack. I don't think I can attach the tripod to the pack; it's too big and heavy.

Two New Species

We're having an unusually warm late September. I've had bad luck at the wildlife refuge lately, but decided to go and at least get some exercise.

As I feared, not much was going on. It was looking like I'd come home with nothing, when I spotted two eagles on an osprey platform. They were too far away, but I hung around for a few minutes, hoping for some flight shots. Then I spotted a mockingbird, a species I haven't ever photographed.

Northern Mockingbird

 And then I spotted this butterfly, so I figured I'd experiment with the new lens on something unusual.

Butterfly

 Then I looked up and both eagles were flying more or less toward me.

Bald Eagle

 After they flew away, I wandered along for a while, finding nothing to photograph. It was getting dark, so I headed to the car. My routine is to exit via the Wildlife Loop; occasionally I see something worth shooting. I stopped at a culvert to observe a Great Blue Heron, but he was uncooperative. Just as I was ready to drive away, I noticed movement on the opposite side of the road, and realized that while I was looking at the heron, I was completely oblivious to this owl. I was able to get a few shots, and as I was fooling with the ISO to try to get something better-exposed, it flew away. So here's my best shot, and it's a whopping FOUR stops underexposed. But raw files are wonderful, and I was able to rescue this exposure with a lot of exposure adjustment and noise reduction. This is a new species for me. I've only once before seen one, while I was out for a walk, sans camera, in my neighborhood.

Barred Owl

Joint Base Andrews Air Show

Today the aerial performers at the Andrews Air Show had their practice session. I made the opportunity to go, primarily to see the Thunderbirds performance. As I arrived, the KC-135 made a low pass.

KC-135 Aerial Tanker

I'll just show some of my favorites without commentary...

Head On

Passing Right Overhead

Passing Under Their Own Smoke Trail

Wingtip Vortices and Smoke Trails

Opposing Solos

Two Slow  Planes With Gear Down, One Fast One with Gear Up Passing Between

They Went High, Coming Back Down FAST

Vapor Trails

In Tight Formation and Banking Hard

Up We Go

Right Angle Intersecting Pass

Inverted At the Top of a Loop, Passing the Moon

I went back for the actual show. There was a wall of clouds to the west, partly cloudy to the east, which made for difficult shooting as the background changed.

Low Pass with a Cloudy Background

Vapor Trails During a Tight Turn at Low Altitude

Coming Back Down In a Loop