Fun day today. Had lunch with a couple of close friends in Maquoketa and I won the flip so I didn’t have to buy lunch. 🙂
Then as a bonus I headed out of town on the Hurstville road and at the “duck pond” two trumpeter swans were swimming in the waters. I haven’t seen trumpeters at the “duck pond” for at least three years. Remember you can click on any of the images to see a larger more detailed version of the image.
I wanted to capture an image of the two swimming together but they were each doing their own thing and didn’t take my directions.
I am not, by any stretch of the imagination. a “Wildlife Photographer.” I do not study the various species, nor learn their nesting, breeding, eating habits, or their migration time. Much of the time when I photograph a bird (like the one above) I have no idea what they are called. I just love photographing and watching all kinds of wildlife.
So after spending about 15 minutes on the internet I “think” this bird is a Pectoral Sandpiper. But it could just as well be a rooster for all I know. Point is that for me and I’m only speaking for me, I just like to take photographs period.
Remember you can click on the images to make them large and far more detailed.
Now I do know that this is a pair of Canada Geese. So I’m not totally oblivious to the species. I did however use to call more than one goose Canadian Geese, which is wrong and it was pointed out to me in very specific terms. 🙂
For over 20 years I have enjoyed photographing all types of wildlife at the “Duck Pond” including all sorts of geese, pelicans, swans, herons, egrets, eagles, ducks, and assorted smaller birds.
I call it the Duck Pond because several of the locals in Maquoketa refer to it as such. It is really the Hurstville Marsh / Wetlands. It is located by the Hurstville Interpretive Center and is normally filled with lots of water. However at the above image reveals the water levels are very low right now.
Here is a drone video that I shot a few years ago that will give you an idea how big the Marsh is. Oh and by the way if you watch the full video you will also see that I crashed the drone. 😦
I’m not sure what this bird is. He is much smaller than the first bird in this post and much quicker. I probably took a hundred images at burst rate trying to capture this little guy in focus.
Finally this image of what I think are tadpoles. But I’m really not sure. What I do know is that there were thousands of these things swimming by my spot the 30 minutes I was there. So what ever they are there is going to be a whole bunch of soon. 🙂
That’s it for today. Hope to photograph some more stuff in the coming days.
A couple of days ago a good friend of mine asked if I had any long lenses I would like to sell. After asking a couple of questions I found out that they had an eagle spending a lot of time in a tree near their home and she wanted to Photograph it.
I gave her my recommendation and so she purchased the lens and then wanted to meet yesterday at the Hurstville Interpretive Center. Jeanne and I drove down to the Center and met with her and her husband (who is a dear friend of mine.) The lens is complicated and somewhat overwhelming to a new user. So we all drove over to the “Duck Pond” and as luck would have it there were 9 Trumpeter Swans in the water. They were pretty far away as you can see in the above image, however it was good practice for her to get to know and get comfortable with her new lens.
As we visited and took several images of the swans I decided to put my camera and lens back in the truck. I kept noticing that the swans were getting closer the longer we were there. So I went back to the truck and got my camera and once again started taking some images.
Then as if they had decided among themselves it was time to leave they started taking off in unison. I was so glad I had my camera ready for their departure. You can click on any of the images to make a larger version of the image which contains much more detail.
I had my 600 mm lens on the Nikon D4S, which has an incredibly fast frame rate so in a sort span of a few seconds I had close to a hundred images on my card.
And then they were gone. We said our farewells to our friends and decided to see if we could relocate the swans but they were no where to be found. It was a fun afternoon and I hope my friend gets as much enjoyment out of her new long lens as I have with mine.
Today I am headed out to the wild life preserve at Green Island. A photographer I know posted some great images from last weekend so I think I’ll see if I can find something interesting.
I was lucky enough to have a photo shoot with a wonderful group of people yesterday in Maquoketa. We met at 8:00 a.m. and I have to tell you that since being retired that seemed awful early considering it is a 50 minute drive from where I live. There was a photographer from the newspaper who needed to get some shots as well so I let her do her shots and then I worked with the group.
I had scheduled a lunch with a good friend and thought the shoot would take a lot longer then it did. Everyone was very cordial and the shoot went perfect. So at 9:15 a.m. we were all done. Now what to do for the next two hours and 45 minutes?
A side note:
When I retired over a year ago my thoughts were that I would really focus and concentrate on my photography. With a significant amount of time on my hands I figured I could really learn even more about my craft. I discovered, however, there were other things that I enjoying doing including taking naps. 🙂
So I went several weeks even months without touching a camera. I didn’t lose my passion for photography but there was other things that occupied my mind.
I had pretty much given up on golf (except for best shot and group events) and what little skill level I had enjoyed evaporated very quickly. I was a member of the Thunder Hills Country Club and enjoyed it for over 20 years. However when I started working out of town and putting in some long hours it didn’t make sense to keep my membership so I took a demit (resigned) from the club. I really missed the social aspect of it but photography and work filled that void.
After a year of retirement I decided that I really missed the friends that I had made over the years and one of my best friends had, for several years tried to get me to come back to the club. So after much thought and discussion I rejoined THCC last month.
For the most part it has been a wonderful experience. Rekindling many friendships and enjoying meeting the new people who have joined our original group. The golf has been a real challenge. I have really struggled with trying to reclaim some of the skill level I once had. It has been frustrating and at times embarrassing but I have to tell you I am loving it!!
Getting back to the club and being with some many old friends has enriched my life immensely
So with camera in hand I spent the next two hours just wandering around the area looking for images. It was really fun and satisfying to have a camera with me again and looking for subjects to photograph. Like any complex endeavor you have to do it on a continuous basis or lose a lot of what you have leaned. Photography, Photoshop, golf, or any other endeavor that requires some knowledge or skill is a use it or lose it proposition. So I’m back on the (re)learning track.
I only had my 28 – 300 mm lens with me so I couldn’t get any closer to the bird even after putting my sensor in crop mode. I still liked the shot.
After my photo shoot and lunch I stopped by the club and practiced for a couple of hours. It was an enjoyable day and very satisfying. I LOVE Retirement!
Talk about déjà vu. It was a week ago that I posted images of the pelicans at the “Duck Pond.” I was in Maquoketa again yesterday for lunch with friends and I fully expected them to be gone.
However on my way out-of-town I discovered they are beginning to look like permanent squatters.
This guy paddled away from me when I first arrived but I just stayed on the observation platform for about 15 minutes and he swam very close to me and didn’t seem to mind the shutter clicking.
Many of the Canada geese are nesting now and they seem to cohabit pretty well with the pelicans.
There were pelicans flying in and leaving the entire 30 minutes I was there. Busy airport. 🙂
Had lunch with a couple of my dear Friends yesterday in Maquoketa and on the way back I had to go by the Duck Pond. Found this guy and lots of his friends there as well.
There were two eagles at the pond as well. A mature and a juvenile. The mature eagle was circling the pond at a pretty high altitude. I couldn’t get a sharp image of him. The juvenile was sitting on top of a dead tree but for some reason the auto focus locked on the tree and not the bird. I have a lot of blurry shots of him.
I did get these two double-crested cormorants however.
I took the foot trail up to the blind to get a better angle on the eagle but he flew so I grabbed some close-ups of the pelicans. There was quite a large gathering of them at the pond!
I was in Maquoketa last Thursday and had lunch with a great friend.
As I used to do when leaving work, I decided to take the Hurstville Road out-of-town as it goes past the “Duck Pond.” I stopped at the observation deck and was going to watch some of the geese being busy building their nests when I noticed a bald eagle sitting on top of a dead tree about 200 yards away.
I thought, what the heck might as well get another image of an eagle sitting in a tree. Besides there were no obstructions between the eagle and me so it would make a decent shot. I got out of the truck and got my long lens and even thought about setting up my tripod.
Of course when I looked back at the eagle he was already in the air flying away (or so I thought.) He actually was flying towards me. I’ll admit I was a little nervous because I imagined how great it would be to capture a head on shot of an eagle. Unfortunately I couldn’t get a focus lock on him until he was almost over me as the first two images show. I’m thankful they were in focus as I figured I was going to have a half-dozen brown blurry balls.
I couldn’t get him in the center of the frame and was lucky to capture about 6 images of various parts of the eagle. 🙂
As many eagles as I have photographed over the years I still get an adrenaline rush when I see them. Such a magnificent creature!
Almost every morning when I come into town headed for work I come by the “Duck Pond” and for the last few days there has been a variety of wildlife there. I assume they spent the night at the pond as a respite before continuing their journey South. So I have three images for you today.
Even though I was running just a little later than normal when I saw these two Trumpeter Swans and their 4 signets I had to pull over and capture an image of them. The light was still fairly soft and the pond was calm so I ripped off 165 images trying to capture one that had all six of them in the same frame. They were not very cooperative.
It’s been a challenging week at work and I have not had the opportunity to do much photography. It may sound silly but when I stopped for that brief moment and photographed the Swans I felt a peace and enjoyment that I had not experienced all week.
As it is in life the Mother stayed pretty close to the four young ones while the Father led the group and many times got ahead of them, but always looking back to make sure there was no danger or anyone getting left behind. 🙂
I was really happy to see this bunch. I don’t think I’ve ever seen this large of a swan family before.
That’s it for today. Thanks for stopping by the blog. Enjoy your day and be careful.
I have four images for you today. On my way home yesterday evening, as I always do, I drove past the Hurstville Wetlands (“duck pond”) and guess what I saw there? You’ll have to read a little further. Anyway I broke a cardinal rule of photography and made this exposure shooting directly into the setting sun. I love all the sparkling diamonds on the water, which in my mind makes this image of the ubiquitous geese something special. 🙂
What really caught my attention was I saw a large clump of pelicans in the middle of the pond. They were in high fishing mode. I was surprised because of the water levels of late I assumed there were no fish in the pond. I was wrong.
I waited for a while and once they determined I wasn’t a threat the continued fishing and moved closer to me. It appears the two pelicans in the rear of the moving “scrum” are on lookout while their peers do the fishing thing. If there were fish in the pond they didn’t have much chance of escaping this giant vacuum cleaner. 🙂
You can see what appears to be a small fish in the bill of this pelican. They move a fair distance with most of the flock having their heads below the water line.
A little later I capture this image which clearly shows a small fish in the mouth of the pelican. Click on the image to see it in a larger more detailed version.
So I spent about a half an hour at the duck pond watching and photographing the pelicans. It’s always fun to see the pelicans.
That’s it for today. Thanks for stopping by the blog. Enjoy your day and be careful.
On my way home last night I always drive by the “Duck Pond.” The two trumpeter swans were there but they also had a visitor in this blue heron. Usually the swans are not very sociable and when anyone gets near their territory they become quite combative. Not so last night as they didn’t seem to mine the heron one bit.
I can never resist photographing a swan swimming in the pond. So as I was getting ready to head out one of the swans decided to swim for a bit.
Finally this image for my friend Becky. I watched these guys last night for several minutes. They were being bombarded constantly by flies. Their symbiotic relationship works pretty well as their tail keeps the flies at bay for the other horse. 🙂
Notice the position of the horse in the foreground is mirrored perfectly by the horse in the background. They have it figured out pretty good.
That’s it for today. Thanks for stopping by the blog. Enjoy your day and weekend. Be careful.
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