Blog Archives
Hummers on the Wild Blues
Friends, I call these wild Iris, the wild blues although when they have been out in the sun, they soon fade to a light blue or white. This ruby-throated hummingbird was jumping from bloom to bloom. He would periodically disappear into the willows and when he exited he flew above the iris in a u-shaped diving back and forth. I witnessed a male showing off for his girl. Although this shutter speed 1/1000 of a second is fast enough for most flying birds, hummers are too fast to freeze without special means. Their wing speed is 50 flaps/second and they do hum when they fly hence their name, hummingbird. til Tomorrow MJ
Bobolink
Friends, this beautiful bird is a bobolink, a male in breeding plummage, the yellow on the back of his head is a defining mark. After the summer solstice, he will become just another drab brown bird, but now in his heyday, he is busy showing off for the ladies. They nest on the ground, mostly in grassy fields, but the cutting of hay crops have dented their population. Here in Crex, the grass is allowed to grow forever and i find bobolinks occasionally. Emily Dickinson writes of their boisterous nature:
The Bobolink is gone -The Rowdy of the Meadow -And no one swaggers now but me -The Presbyterian Birds-Can now resume the Meeting-He boldly interrupted that overflowing Day-When supplicating mercy-In a portentous way-He swung upon the Decalogue-And shouted let us pray -Emily Dicinson
I love the last line. til Tomorrow MJ
Loon Babies
Friends, this loon parent is feeding his/her chicks, the fish is as big as the chick, no wonder those chicks grow so fast. I watched while mama loon carried the chicks on her back and at 3:30pm she called to the male, soon the male appeared and both parents dove below the surface finding food to feed the chicks. They put on quite a show but i was stretching the limits of my telephoto lens to record these proceedings. I have gone back on two other occasions but they have moved out to the center of the lake. This image is a little lacking in quality but does show the “decisive moment”. til Tomorrow MJ
Weekly Photo Challenge:Today
Friends, Today i was chasing birds at Crex Meadows, a good day to get some great images and to play with Photoshop. This Eastern Kingbird was an attitude shot and the background was just plain water, so i changed it to white to emphasize the bird pose. Using the Digital Basics Tutorial from Arthur Morris, Birdsasart, i am constantly learning new things to enhance my photography. Maybe this image needs a frame??, til Tomorrow MJ
Warning-Snake Inside
Friends, thought i would warn anyone with a weak heart and fear of snakes that this post contains a hog-nosed snake in the spring. This fellow was sitting by the road and our dog took a wide detour around him while the snake hissed at him. We seldom see the big boy dog afraid of anything, so we were startled by his attitude. These snakes can expand their neck region and hump up off the ground to present a scary sight. He does have a pretty hoggy nose, don’t you think? The image below shows this snake in a more aggressive pose, raised and ready to strike. He is not poisonous but has biting teeth. til Tomorrow MJ
Goslings on the water
Friends, i call this image, “close to mom”, whenever anything appears threatening to these goslings (Canadian Geese) , they hudlle up behind their mom and off they go, like little speed boats. I love spring with all the little birds hatching all over the marsh of Crex. til Tomorrow MJ
Weekly Photo Challenge: Blue
Friends, these ring -necked ducks are motoring thru a field of blue. I haven’t figured out why they are called ring-necked ducks when the ring around the bill is by far more prominent than the very slight ring around the neck. But this image was inspired by Arthur Morris’s images of Pied-billed grebes with what he calls a “wake shot”. This is my “wake shot”. til Tomorrow MJ
Mom’s day trout lilies
Friends, this tiny bloom is the trout lily that blooms early and in wet places. I did a macro approach to these blooms with the mottled leaves in the background, but the harsh reflections didn’t fit the image. Lately i have been reading a photo book, “The Softer Side of Macro” by Denise Ippolito. She talks about the Orton Effect , a photoshop technique that she uses on flowers. This trout lily blooms were Ortonized and I really like the softening effect but don’t like the dark background, need a high key image to try, maybe tomorrow. Stay tuned while i learn a new technique. Her Book is available as a pdf ebook on the Birds as Art website. Check it out, I did. Below is the second edition of trout lilies with the Orton effect. Am i improving? and to all Moms out there, Happy Mm’s Day til Tomorrow MJ
Not a duck- grebe
Friends, this small bird is not a duck, but a pied-billed grebe. I love this image not for the bird, but the lovely patterns on the water. Reflections of a partly cloudy sky or partly sunny, how do they differentiate between partly cloudy and partly sunny, guess it depends on whether the weather person is a pessimist or optimist 🙂 I myself prefer partly sunny , til Tomorrow MJ
Common Loon
Friends, this black bird is a Common Loon, but he is far from commonly found. He and she only nest on lakes with no acidity, wilderness birds that rely on clean water and fresh air. They are difficult to photograph unless the light is directly on them, because their dominant color is black and a very dark green on their heads. When they are diving for food, they sit very low in the water. This one fishes in a channel where he passes very close to the road. We thank him for the wonderful image and move on, soon the loon couple will be carrying a chick on their backs as they swim the lake. til Tomorrow MJ
MJ Springett 