Thursday ~ March 20, 2014

Posted by Dave Updegraff on March 20, 2014
Posted in: Daily Posts. Tagged: , , , .

Eagle Soaring

Happy Thursday ~ 365

I only have one image for you today but it is one of my best from the last couple of outings at the Basin.  If you have followed this blog for very long you know of my love and interest in eagles.  I could watch and photograph them every day and not get tired of it.

Yesterday I had a great experience.  Over the years I have worked with many company representatives, some of whom did a good job and others, well not so good.  One of my favorite representative, Bryan got promoted up the corporate ladder and I haven’t seen him in over a year.  He is one of those guys that you can tell has a vision of life and a passion for doing things the right way and I always felt he helped inspire me to do better work.

Last week he called and wanted to know if I could have lunch with him.  So yesterday we had lunch and spent about 70 minutes just catching up on what each of us has been doing.  I am so happy for him and his new role in his company.  You can just tell by listening to him and watching the way he works that this is not a job for him it is his way of living.  He is a marathoner,  well-rounded athlete, and a great family man.  It was pure pleasure to visit with him again.

Later in the afternoon I went to DeWitt to visit another friend of mine, Mick.  Mick was in a terrible accident a few months ago, which left him paralyzed from his waist down.  He is back in the hospital since January and has to have more surgery and other procedures done and will spend another month or two in the hospital.  Through it all he has had an optimistic outlook and has retained his sense of humor.  As I talked with him and listened to what he has already endured and what he as yet to endure it reminded me of a saying that goes…  Write down your biggest problem or obstacle and pin it to a wall.  Ask 20 people to do the same and the odds are you’ll take your problems back over the others on the wall.

So a really great day.  I got to share a small part of the lives of two great people and I am much better off today as a result of it.

Thank you for checking out the blog today.  I hope you have a great day.  Be careful

Wednesday ~ March 19, 2014

Posted by Dave Updegraff on March 19, 2014
Posted in: Daily Posts. Tagged: , , , , , .

Big Catch

Happy Hump Day!

None of the images I’m showing you today are technically good images but I like each of them more for what they say then for their technical quality or lack of it.

The image above shows a Ring Billed Gull struggling with a fish that is just a little too large for him to handle comfortably.  He did manage to get it to the ice but then dropped it.  I tried to get an image of the eagle that swooped down and stole it from him but all I ended up with was a brown and white blob.  It illustrates the struggle of nature and how the strongest and fastest win out.

Nice Catch

I like this image only because of the action it shows.  I was too far away from the action and didn’t have enough shutter speed to really freeze the eagle.  But I love the instant the eagle’s talons splash into the water and he uses his huge wings to pull himself back into the air.  I have watched a lot of nature videos in slow motion and I never tire of watching this scene.  My friend Andreas was at the Basin over the weekend as well (although we were not there at the same time) and he got a much better shot of a eagle’s catch then this one.  I’m jealous. 🙂

Ducks in formation

Finally I’ll leave you with this image of 4 ducks leaving the Basin headed for (who knows where) perhaps the river.  This formation reminds me of 4 military jets flying in formation.  I watch the military channel from time to time because I enjoy watching war birds from all generations.  I don’t know, that’s the first thing that came to mind when I saw them take off in the same formation they are here.

That’s it for today.  I’ll have some better images for you tomorrow and I’ve got a fair amount of video I need to get processed.  So much to do, so little time to do it.  🙂

Enjoy your mid-week hump day.  Thanks for supporting the blog and be careful.

Tuesday ~ March 18, 2014

Posted by Dave Updegraff on March 18, 2014
Posted in: Daily Posts. Tagged: , , , , .

Heron Fishing for Supper

Good Day.  Happy Tuesday!

No photography yesterday.  Straight to work and straight home.  There were lots of geese at the Duck Pond but having taken over 2,000 images of birds over the weekend (over half of which I have not yet looked at), I didn’t see any point to adding another bunch.  🙂

I will tell you that today’s post is all about the Blue Heron.  If you have a squeamish stomach or do not like to see wildlife at its true reality then you probably shouldn’t go any further.  Just enjoy the nice image above and then hit the back button.  Okay perhaps I’m being a little melodramatic but some people don’t like to see one species eat another species.

Catching Dinner

At one point Sunday afternoon there were about a dozen Blue Heron standing around the edge of the ice sticking their head in the water and coming out with a fish.  Not much work and no walking around or being stealthy.  Just poked their head in the water and bamn another fish.  I watched this Heron devour three fish in less than ten minutes.  The last fish he caught and ate was three times the size of this one.

It was so much fun.  I’d be concentrating on one event and Jeanne would be telling me about another group of birds doing something.  At one point a couple of these Herons tried walking on the ice and it was hysterical.  They were like drunken sailors.  Their long legs were go out from under them in different directions and they would try to balance themselves with their big wings.  I have some images of that I’ll share at another time.

Catch of the day

Finally the last bite and the next frame the fish was gone.  After awhile I decided to put the Phantom in the air and see if I could get some up close and personal images or video of some the birds.  There are a lot (I mean a lot) of power lines around the Basin.  I first had to find a place where I could take off and gain some altitude to clear the wires.

Good Till The Last Bite

The video below is very short.  It’s a terrible video.  There was too much wind to fly and I could see where I was flying.  At one point I got very close to the ice and thought I was filming an eagle but when I went to edit the video I discovered I had my camera pointed straight down at the ice.  About the only thing this video is good for is to show those folks who have not see the Basin some of the make up of it.

No music with this video.  It basically sucks but again if you don’t know what the Basin is it will at least show you what it looks like. That and it’s only a little over two minutes.

That’s it for today.  Hope you enjoy the wildlife images.  Lots more to share.

Thanks for stopping by.  Enjoy your day and be careful.

Monday ~ March 17, 2014

Posted by Dave Updegraff on March 17, 2014
Posted in: Daily Posts. Tagged: , , , , , , , .

Blue Heron

Happy Monday and Happy St. Patrick’s Day!

What a great weekend!  I shot just under 2,000 images Saturday and Sunday and most of those images were shot at the 16th Street Basin.  As a reader of this blog I do hope you enjoy wildlife images especially eagles, herons, gulls, and ducks, oh my!  Cause that’s what I have to show you over the next week or so.

I cannot begin to tell you how much fun Jeanne and I had both days watching the interaction of all the birds at the Basin.  At one time yesterday evening there were gulls, herons, and a half-dozen or more eagles circling the basin.  I’m surprised there are any fish left in the Basin.  The Herons were having a field day as were the gulls.  The eagles spent most of their time eating the fish the gulls dropped.

Mallard Ducks

I even took the Phantom Vision 2 with me today and even though it was cold and windy I did get it in the air and out over the Basin.  I couldn’t see the iPhone well enough to see exactly which was the camera was pointing (I’m working on a solution for that.) so I got pretty close to an eagle sitting on the ice.  Trouble is the damn camera was pointed straight down at the ice so you don’t see the eagle.  I was testing to see how close I could get to him before he got upset.  He tolerated it very well.  I’ll show you the video later in the week.  There were some good parts to it.

Bald Eagle

Jeanne was funny as both days there were other people at the Basin and they were in “our parking spot”, as she put it and she was miffed that they were there.  These two days are the first time we have seen anyone at the place where we park.  Lots of people and cameras pointed at the pond.

March-16-2014-1C

So if you enjoy birds, fighting, sharing, hunting, and flying then you should enjoy the blog this week.  If you’re not a big fan of that then I’ll try to mix in some other images as the week unfolds.  But with 2,000 shots it’s going to be hard to show you anything but birds.  🙂

That’s it for today.  Remember drink responsibly today! 🙂

Enjoy your day.  Thanks for stopping by the blog and be careful.

Friday ~ March 14, 2014

Posted by Dave Updegraff on March 14, 2014
Posted in: Daily Posts. Tagged: , , , , , .

Eagle looking at you

Happy Friday!

What an amazing experience I had yesterday on my way home from work.  I have the tendency to constantly scan the area for photo opportunities (a practice that will cost me one of these days.)  So as I was driving along I noticed a vehicle on the South bound side of the road with its flashers on and parked on the shoulder.  A quick glance and then back to the road ahead, but out of my peripheral vision I caught a familiar sight.

Just in front of the parked vehicle was an eagle sitting on the shoulder of the road.  My first inclination was “Oh no, it’s been injured.”  I drove on for a few seconds feeling bad and then decided to turn around and see if I could help.  By the time I found a place to turn around and get back the two cars and the eagle were gone.  Whew, apparently everything is okay.  So I drove further South until I could turn around again.  I headed North at a slower speed because I wanted to make sure everything was okay.  As I got back to the spot where I had seen him before, there he was again as he had just landed.  I grabbed my camera and shot a few shots (none  of which were worth showing.)  Then on my way again.

I got to thinking that eagle might take off and fly right into a car or semi and I didn’t want that to happen so I turned around again and went back.

A beautiful eagle

It was a long process of driving very slowly on the shoulder and finally I stopped the car about 15 feet in front of the eagle who was feasting on some road kill.  I know a little disgusting but they will eat about anything.  I like to think of them catching fish over the shimmering water with their large golden talons firmly grasping a silver fish and their bright yellow eyes with their piercing intensity staring ahead.  But the fact is they are scavengers and will eat what ever they can find.  🙂

For the next 20 minutes I stood not more than 8 feet from this eagle who was dinning on a the remains of a raccoon.   Occasionally he would look at me (as in the first image) and apparently didn’t think I was a threat so he kept eating and let me take his picture hundreds of times.  🙂

Most of the time I just looked at him and marveled at this magnificent creature.  I’ll admit it, I have a thing for eagles.  To be this close for this amount of time and to watch him eat with little or no regard for his surrounds was just amazing.  I know of no other word to describe the experience.

Magestic Eagle

All of this time cars and trucks are going by at 70 plus miles per hour and occasionally the wind from those big rigs would buffet us but we didn’t mind.  Then I got a feeling that we weren’t alone.  Another vehicle had pulled up behind us and the gentleman was standing by my front door taking a picture with his cell phone.  Shortly there after the eagle decided it was getting too crowded and flew off about 200 yards to a field.

I told the guy I was going to get something from my car and see if I could get the carcass off the shoulder and down in the gully so he wouldn’t have to be so close to the road.  The gentleman said, “I’ve got an old pair of gloves in the truck, let me get them.”  So he picked up the raccoon, YUK!  He gave it a mighty toss and now the eagle could eat in total peace and safety.

I thanked the gentleman and gave him one of my photography cards and told him he could see the eagle pictures I took if he visited my blog.  I hope he does.

That’s it for today.  Hope you enjoyed the up close and personal images of this eagle.  I doubt that I will ever get that close to an eagle in the wild again.  What a thrill!

Thanks for stopping by.  Enjoy your day and be careful.

Thursday ~ March 13, 2014

Posted by Dave Updegraff on March 13, 2014
Posted in: Daily Posts. Tagged: , , , , .

Swans in Discussion

Happy Thursday!

Great news, the Trumpeter Swans are back at the Hurstville Wetlands (Duck Pond.)  There were close to a hundred Canada Geese also at the pond yesterday.  I had noticed the pond was very busy on my way in yesterday morning.  I knew I didn’t have any lunch plans so I decided this is where I’ll spend my lunch period.

As I crossed the Hurstville Bridge over the Maquoketa River two mature bald eagles were flying very low over the road.  Damn, I’m already 5 minutes late for work.  After turning around twice to get a place to park they were gone. 😦

So on my lunch period I grabbed a quick sandwich and headed for the Duck Pond.  I spent my entire lunch break there and had a great time.  The drama that I often experience in my work is evident at the Pond as well.  Territorial battles, relationship issues, and the constant struggle to distinguish yourself from your peers. 🙂

In hot pursuit

I shot 205 images but mostly I just watched.  One neat thing that I’ll show you soon is that the power company has put “spinners” on all the power-lines that border the Pond.  In years past several of the swans and geese have been electrocuted as they come in for landing or fly out of the pond.  Those power-lines were hard to see.  I noticed them earlier in the week but the crew was there yesterday completing their work.  I suspect my friend Ann had something to do with the spinners.  I’m so glad to see that they have been added for protection of the wildlife.

Triumphant Landing

Returning from his victory this male swan makes a big splash on his landing near his mate.  He did a lot of posturing after landing and I was able to capture some of the that, which I’ll share on another post.  Let’s just say he was making sure his mate knew what a fearsome creature he really was.  🙂

Big day for me today.  I’m nervous and excited at the same time.  More on that later.  For now I hope you enjoyed the swans as much as I did.

Thanks for stopping by the blog.  Enjoy your day and be careful.

Wednesday ~ March 12, 2014

Posted by Dave Updegraff on March 12, 2014
Posted in: Daily Posts. Tagged: , , , , .

A duck with his catch

Some more images from Saturday’s photo shoot.  Oh, by the way, Happy Hump Day!

Jeanne and I really enjoy going to the Basin especially during migrating season as there are usually a lot of wildlife there.  Saturday was no exception.  Our friends the ducks were there and just like the last time we were there they put on their Keystone Cops routine with the fish.  One duck finds or catches a fish and then desperately tries to eat it before another duck or goose takes it away from him.

We watched this for 20 minutes and enjoyed every moment of it.

Tryingk to eat in peace

I continue to be frustrated with my lack of knowledge about electronics.  I have spent the last few evening searching the web for “how to” information about how to install a pan/tilt/rotate device on the Phantom.  I have “all the parts” (I think) but apparently the hobby shops assume you’re knowledgeable about how to hook everything up and the difference between a capacitor and resister.  I don’t know ohms from amps, from voltage.  I just want to plug wire A into socket B and have the damn thing work.  Is that too much to ask?  😦

Anyway I continue to struggle with putting the thing together and I sit here with all these neat looking parts and nowhere to put them.  Stay tuned.

A Goose Streaches

This guy looks like he is getting ready to conduct an orchestra.  This one is for you Betty.

I didn’t have time to work on the video last night.  Well I did but I was busy trying to find a “how to” instruction on the web.  They speak a language that I am unfamiliar with.

That’s it for today.  Enjoy your midweek hump day.  Thanks for stopping by the blog and be careful.

Tuesday ~ March 11, 2014

Posted by Dave Updegraff on March 11, 2014
Posted in: Daily Posts. Tagged: , , , .

March-09-2014-2C

Happy Tuesday!

I’m not sure what the attraction, at the old FDL Food plant location is, but again on Sunday there were 3 and sometimes 4 young eagles flying around it.  We stopped and pulled off the side of the road as best I could with all the snow.  Still there were some motorist who were upset with me.  I got splashed a few times but as I’ve always said you’re worth the effort.  🙂

March-09-2014-2A

Yesterday after work I and some of my friends from work flew the Phantom again.  We used the Northern parking lot of our bank and flew up over the bank and then towards the middle of town.  I was having a lot of trouble with my FPV monitor so it was hard for me to tell sometimes where I was.  I flew high enough that most of the downtown was visible.

March-09-2014-2B

By the time I got home and helped with dinner it was getting late and I didn’t have the energy to do much, other than transfer the video from the camera and look at it once.  I’ll do some processing (hopefully tonight) and maybe show a short clip of the flight here tomorrow.

All of these images are of the same young eagle.  You can see his head has not completely turned white and his tail feathers have a lot of brown left in them as well.  He was fun to watch.

Lot’s more images and video to show you so please check back.  Thanks for stopping by today.  Enjoy your Tuesday and be careful.

Monday ~ March 10, 2014

Posted by Dave Updegraff on March 10, 2014
Posted in: Daily Posts. Tagged: , , , , , .

Great Blue Heron Ready to Fly

Happy Monday! 

What a fun weekend.  I could get use to this being off!  Yesterday Jeanne and I went for our normal Sunday photo drive and the first place we wanted to go was the 16th Street Basin.

Jeanne saw him first but even from a distance you could tell it was a lone Great Blue Heron.  They are so skittish we knew we had to be stealthy.  So I drove only about 5 mph on the wrong side of the road so that he wouldn’t be bothered by us.  Once I got past him I got the camera set up.  I shot these images with the Nikon D4 | Sigma 50 – 500 mm VR lens | ISO 400 1/1250 sec @ f8.0. 

When we got turned around and drove back, as soon as I stopped the car he gave me this pose and I knew that it meant he was ready to depart the area.  So I just started firing off the camera, figuring that none of the shots would be in focus but hoping I would get one out of the group that was usable.  I was really pleased with this one.

Blue Heron Taking Off

I got very lucky on this series of shots and the camera and lens performed beautifully.  Remember you can click on the image and see a larger version of the image.

We then went down to the river and visited our favorite little park.  There wasn’t much going on there so we decided to take a look at the lock and dam.  Much to our surprise there were 4 – 6 eagles flying.  I never got a killer shot of one as they were more on the Wisconsin side of the dam but I did get some decent shots of eagles as a couple of them got close to my lens.

Blue Heron On His Way

So between Saturday and Sunday I got a lot of wildlife shots.  Eagles, Herons, Ducks, and yes Betty, some Geese.  🙂

If you like wildlife shots you should enjoy the posts this week.  If not, well I’m sorry because for the most part that’s all I have so far.  Of course, now with Daylight Savings Time in effect I have shooting opportunities every evening after work.  This evening some of my friends from work asked me to fly the Phantom again so I am going to take it with me and if the weather conditions permit I’ll have some video later in the week.

I did take the Phantom with me yesterday in hopes of flying it over the Basin, but the wind was just too high and with my limited flight experience I was unwilling to risk it.  Probably a smart thing.  Well actually Jeanne said no.  🙂

That’s it for today.  I hope you enjoy your day.  Thanks for stopping by and be careful.

Sunday ~ March 09, 2014

Posted by Dave Updegraff on March 9, 2014
Posted in: Daily Posts. Tagged: , , , , .

March-08-2014-1A

Happy Sunday!
I had one of the best Saturday’s in recent memory yesterday and had a lot of fun.  I had a 10:00 a.m. appointment with John the barber as I was getting pretty shaggy.  Jeanne decided to go with me as there was a little shop downtown that she wanted to visit.  Turns out it was closed so she just waited in the car and cleaned out her email files on her phone for the 20 minutes it took for my haircut.

Even though the sky was gray and therefore not the best shooting conditions we decided to go to the river and see if there were any wildlife hanging around.  I had mentioned to Jeanne that I was going to look for a Spring/Fall jacket and she said as long as we’re this close to Graham’s Clothing why not stop in.  I got a nice sport jacket for 1/4 its original price and a great casual jacket and when I started to pay Jeanne said, you buy lunch and I’ll get this. 🙂

Okay, now for the image above.  We were on our way to the river when I saw three eagles sitting on the old FDL Packing ground.  After much maneuvering we were able to get close enough to get this shot of one of the three juvenile eagles.  They were fishing out of the small creek that runs by that area.  I had the ISO set to 400 and shot most of these images at either 1/640 sec / 1/1250 sec depending on the light @ f8.0.  I used the Nikon D600 with the Nikon 80 – 400 mm V2 lens.  You can see it turns the sky almost pure white but that lets you see the detail of the bird’s feathers so it’s a trade-off.  You can click on the images for a larger version.

March-08-2014

We then went to the lock and dam to see what was going on there.  As we suspected there was almost no open water except close to the dam and that area was bordered by ice fishermen.  There was a lone eagle sitting in a tree, so we were ready to leave when the eagle took flight.  I got out and walked across to the fence.  Spread the strands of wires and stuck my lens through (I got a few scratches on my lens barrel)  to get this shot.  You’re worth the effort. 🙂

After this we went to the 16th Street basin where there were a variety of wildlife and I got some great shots (that I’ll share during the coming week.) I actually got one of my best eagle shots ever at the basin yesterday.

We had a light lunch at home because the kids called and wanted to stop over for some DQ.  Ben had not been able to see the Phantom fly so we flew both of them (not at the same time.)  I won’t bore you with the video.  It’s our same neighborhood and I just basically went up flew around a little and then landed it.  No crashes on either Phantom.   🙂

After that a nice nap and then we did a little more shopping.  Had dinner at McDonald’s,   😦

I know, McDonald’s,  but everywhere we wanted to eat there was a 25 / 60 minute wait.  We don’t like to wait.  So there was more to the day then my brief synopsis but it was a very fun day spent with my best friend and we got to see the kids and grand kids so it doesn’t get much better than that.

Oh then we watched Gravity on Mediacom’s on-demand feature.  Spent $4.99 for a movie that I would have really hated to spend $25.00 for at the theater.

That’s it for today.  If you have time check out the blog this week.  I will have some (I think) nice images for your viewing pleasure.  Thanks for stopping by, enjoy your day and be careful.