Pelicans

All posts tagged Pelicans

Wednesday ~ April 24, 2019

Posted by Dave Updegraff on April 24, 2019
Posted in: Daily Posts. Tagged: , , , , , , .

Happy Wednesday!

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. 🙂

Enjoy your day and be careful.

Wednesday ~ April 10, 2019

Posted by Dave Updegraff on April 10, 2019
Posted in: Daily Posts. Tagged: , , , , , .

Happy Wednesday!

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!

Enjoy your day and be careful.

Monday ~ April 23, 2018

Posted by Dave Updegraff on April 23, 2018
Posted in: Daily Posts. Tagged: , , , , .

Happy Monday!

Three images for today.  I know, this is a ring-billed gull.  I’ve only posted about a hundred images of them on this blog.  So here is one hundred one.  🙂

Jeanne and I went to the river Saturday waiting for time to go to the reception.  There were some folks throwing bread to the gulls so it made for good practice trying to capture a sharp images of these small birds who are very quick in their change of direction.

I like this image because it reminded me of trying to get a group shot of people.  Someone is always looking the wrong way or has their eyes closed.  The little guy on the right is just not paying attention to his pose and is more interested in the camera.

At the 16th Street Basin we found these pelicans sunning themselves on a concrete wall.  While the the others rest and relax there is this guy keeping his eye out for trouble.  I snuck up on them and only shot a couple of images so I didn’t disturb them.

Enjoy your day and be careful.

Friday ~ April 14, 2017

Posted by Dave Updegraff on April 14, 2017
Posted in: Daily Posts. Tagged: , , , , , .

Happy Friday!

I have three images for you today that I captured last evening on the way home.  On the way to work yesterday, as I came by the “Duck Pond” I saw a large clump of white birds sitting on one of the islands.  At first I thought they were swans but as I got closer I could see that it was a large gathering of Pelicans.  They covered most of the small island.  For once I wasn’t late but if I had stopped and set up for the shot I would have been so I just kept going.

The thing that bothered me was that there had been three separate pairs of geese nesting on the island.  I knew that their nests were probably destroyed and that their young were never hatch.  The six geese were swimming around the island “honking” but there was little they could do against superior numbers and larger birds.

I had been in Des Moines for training on Tuesday and Wednesday so by the time I got caught up on my work it was much later and I couldn’t really tell what damage had been done to the nests.  This lone pelican was all that was left of the group.  There were no geese on the island.

I saw this wonderful sunset on the way home last night.  It would have been nice to have a large body of water in the foreground or something spectacular.  Unfortunately that was not to be so I just photographed the big red ball. 🙂

I couldn’t get the same angle on this goose to line up with the reflection of the setting sun like on the pelican.  I just enjoy photographing geese no matter.

That’s it for today.  Enjoy your day and be careful.

 

Friday ~ February 10, 2017

Posted by Dave Updegraff on February 10, 2017
Posted in: Daily Posts. Tagged: , , , , .

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Happy Friday!

Some of the other birds at Lock & Dam 14 from the other day.  I have 3 images for you today.

I enjoy photographing the gulls that are always present.  I know some of the other photographers at the dam probably wonder about me ripping off 20 shots of a common gull flying by but it is good practice and keeps up your panning technique.  🙂

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I am going to have to defer to my friend Andreas, on the identity of this water fowl.  I think it might be a wood duck but I’m no expert on water fowl.  Two of the other photographers there that day both got up close to the bird and took photos of it.  They both asked me what it was and I was of course clueless.  So I don’t feel so bad knowing other photographers don’t always know their species.

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This pelican swam past me so close I had to back my focal length off to get him all in the frame.  They are methodical fishers until they find some fish then all hell breaks loose as they get into a feeding frenzy.

That’s all I have for today.  Thanks for stopping by the blog.  Enjoy your day and be careful.

Wednesday ~ February 08, 2017

Posted by Dave Updegraff on February 8, 2017
Posted in: Daily Posts. Tagged: , , , .

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Happy Wednesday!

I have three images for you today and while they are not images of eagles they are big birds that fly and are fun to watch.  There always seems to be a lot of pelicans at LD #14.  There was only one when I first arrived and he would start by the lock door and float / swim up past the observation platform and then turn around and go back.

More pelicans came as time wore on and soon there were a half-dozen all fishing in the calm water.

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Every once in a while I would notice one of their heads go underwater and he would come up with a fish in his mouth, which quickly disappeared down his throat.  I was never fast enough to capture that moment even though I followed one with my lens for several minutes.

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Two of them came in about the same time and did a simultaneous landing.  Like two jets landing on the same runway.  🙂

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

Saturday ~ September 03, 2016

Posted by Dave Updegraff on September 3, 2016
Posted in: Daily Posts. Tagged: , , , , , .

September-02-2016

Happy Saturday!

I have four images for you today and a different kind of a story.  By the way I call this image my three for one.  🙂

I had a unique experience yesterday.  I was actually asked to “get off this property!”

That has never happened to me, ever.  So I was out running errands yesterday afternoon and I happened to be driving by a backwater area of the Mississippi.  Through the trees I caught a glimpse of some white birds and since I had my camera with me I was more than anxious to grab some images.

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It took me about 20 minutes to find a way off the highway and down to the area where the birds were.  As I approached the area I saw there was a business sitting off to my right with a clearly defined roadway and what I perceived to be an equally well-defined property line.  So I stayed well to the left of the business and parked in an area that I thought was okay.

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There were a lot of geese around the area and I walked very slow so as not to excite them or traumatize them.  I mean I have photographed thousands of geese before and not one them has ever complained.  What I was obviously interested in was this Great Egret.  I got as close as I thought I could so as not to spook him.  I got off about 20 shots when I heard someone yelling something.

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Some lady was yelling at me that I was scaring the geese away and once they were gone they wouldn’t come back (which is not true) and that I was on private property and I needed to get out.  I apologized several times to her and left.  😦

It is never my intention to spoil or interrupt anyone’s day for sure.  So I left the area and will not return to that place again.

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

Saturday ~ July 09, 2016

Posted by Dave Updegraff on July 9, 2016
Posted in: Daily Posts. Tagged: , , , , , .

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Happy Saturday!

A potpourri of images for you today.  I had a meeting down town yesterday morning and after that I headed for the river with my long lens.  Found a group of pelicans fishing near the lock so I spent some time photographing them.  I didn’t realize until halfway through my session that there was a lady below me on the walkway who was also photographing the pelicans.

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This is a favorite fishing hole for many local anglers and when a group of pelicans are hanging around it there are very few fish available for the humans.  I was getting ready to leave when fisherman crossed over and took up his position on the outside wall of the lock.  I obviously didn’t know his intent but it looked as though he was trying to scare the pelicans off with his casts.

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At first, I thought this was a stick protruding from the water but it kept moving and when I looked at it through my lens I saw it was a turtle swimming towards the shore line.  The more I watched the more turtles I saw swimming in the same direction.  I was probably there 30 – 45 minutes and didn’t notice them until I saw this one.  Then when I started looking for them, they were plentiful.

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Grilled some burgers last night and as I was enjoying the mild weather on the patio I noticed the sliver of moon.  I grabbed my “small bird” camera that I keep on a tripod and set up with the 400 mm lens (a little small for the moon) and made a couple of shots of the moon.

That’s it for today.  Supposed to be a beautiful day in our part of the world.  Hope it is where you are as well.  Thanks for stopping by.  Enjoy your day and be careful.

Wednesday ~ May 18, 2016

Posted by Dave Updegraff on May 18, 2016
Posted in: Daily Posts. Tagged: , , , , .

May-17-2016-A

Happy Hump Day!

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.

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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.  🙂

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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.

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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.

Monday ~ May 16, 2016

Posted by Dave Updegraff on May 16, 2016
Posted in: Daily Posts. Tagged: , , , , , , .

May-14-2016

Happy Monday!

I went out Saturday afternoon looking for images because the sky was a deep blue and there were a lot of puffy clouds.  One of my favorite conditions to shoot in.  Problem was I couldn’t find anything to photograph (well that interested me.)  So I paid a dollar and toured Eagle Point park.

It was a bit chilly and there were several people having picnics in their winter coats and hooded sweatshirts (not my idea of a picnic.)  Anyway I was hoping for some small migrating birds but I couldn’t find anything other than sparrows and red-winged blackbirds.

There is a look out point at the park and so I shot a few images of the lock and dam system.  For those who are not from this country the Mississippi River uses a series of locks and dams to control river levels and to assist with river traffic.  Lock and Dam #11 is located at Dubuque, Iowa.

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I noticed these pelicans sitting on the edge of the lock and so I shot this image in crop sensor mode (on my camera) which turned my 600 mm lens into essentially a 900 mm lens.  I was pleased with the results considering I was hand holding the Sigma Contemporary lens.

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I noticed this turkey vulture floating over the water so I followed him for a while with my lens.

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This fish must have been dropped by an eagle.  I’m sure it didn’t get there by itself.  🙂

Anyway it made a nice lunch for this guy.

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