September 24, 2015

I made a predawn trip to the marsh at Deer Creek early this morning. As I walked back to the marsh from the road the moon and stars were out and I thought there would be great light; wrong. As the sun came up the clouds rolled in and the sky quickly became completely overcast. I set up on the east side of the marsh with my tripod and folding stool to wait for first light. In the predawn gloom I could see some large white birds out in the marsh which turned out to be egrets. I have not seen many egrets since spring so they were a welcome site. shortly after having enough light an egret flew in and landed in the shallow water just 25 feet in front of me. As I started to move in behind the viewfinder i was caught and the egret was gone! I never had any others come in close. There were some wood ducks pretty close but none of the fully plumed drakes that are so beautiful just immature birds which I passed on shooting.

Also close by were a pair of grebes that I just could not get good shots of in the overcast conditions. Interesting thing, as I sat watching the marsh I heard heavy wing beats directly over my head that were being pended out by a golden eagle! I have now seen two variety's of eagle on this marsh; a few weeks ago I saw a bald eagle. It is always exciting to see these magnificent birds of prey. Not great shots on the eagle; better than nothing so that's life I guess.


This guy was all in after something!

September 11, 2016

I was back in the marsh at Delaware Wildlife Area at 6:30 this morning. I put on waders and set up my camera on the tripod in about a foot of water inside a cluster of head high cattails with the rising sun behind me. As always I immediately began questioning my location and wondering if I had set up in the right place. Shortly my mind was put at ease as a beautiful green heron flew in and roosted in a tree just 30 yards away. It was still quite dark and I thought I would wait a bit for the sun to come and cast a wonderful glow on this greenie. As always the plan changed when a blue heron came in and chased my subject away; not really a fair trade in my mind but the blue roosted on the very branch from which he had chased his smaller cousin.

If I have learned anything over the past few years of pursing wildlife photos it's that one must take what one gets and make the best of it. While I do like the blue heron it is a very common sight, I have photographed many of them, they move slowly, and it sometimes requires long waits to catch them doing something interesting. Over the summer I have figured out the blue heron game; they fly into a tree near a hunting spot, survey the area for as much as an hour moving very little, and finally they fly down to hunt provided they have not seen anything they don't like e.g. photographers!  They are extremely skittish and impossible to approach. The only chance one has of getting close to them is to anticipate where they want to be and be there ahead of them, before daylight is best.

I like the feel of the third and fourth shots; I think they really convey the late summer season with the light, all the green, and low water level.

I was able to get some captures of the green heron later in shoot, not exactly what I had wanted as the background is plain blue sky, but he did perform a bit. I would have preferred to have the bird on a partially submerged log, nice green marsh grass background, about 30 feet in front of me, but once again take the shots you get and be happy.

bout it.

September 9, 2016

A few weeks ago I entered one of my pictures in the Ohio Wildlife Legacy Stamp contest. The Ohio Department of Natural Resources prints a collectible stamp and uses proceeds from the sale of the stamp for wildlife conservation and educational programs; learn more by clicking here.

I am extremely excited and humbled to announce my entry won the contest and will be featured on the 2017 Ohio Legacy Wildlife Stamp.This is a tremendous honor and I could not be happier! The folks who have followed my blog for awhile may remember seeing the winning shot back in May of this year.

I want to express my appreciation to Hollie McFadden who's advice I wisely took at the last minute and cropped the photo a bit more making it more suitable for use on a stamp. Thanks Hollie!!!

September 5, 2016

I was out doing a bit of macro work on some bugs over the holiday weekend. Macro is something I have been interested in for sometime; best part is the ease of finding cool subjects with which to work. Enjoy them!

August 27, 2016

I was out of the house this morning and on my way to Deer Creek Wildlife Area at 4:45 this morning. I drove the hour down there, walked the half mile to the spot I wanted to shoot from, and got set up before 6:30. It was still pretty dark but I could see a couple of large white birds on the other side of the marsh, I thought they were probably mute swans and was not too interested in them. When the light improved I took another look at the white birds and to my extreme surprise I realized the were actually pelicans! I did a little research when I got home and found these pelicans are out of their normal range; way out. White pelicans are normally found east of the Mississippi river only along the gulf coast and Florida.

They were ravenously feeding on what I think were probably bull frogs, the marsh completely dries up some years so I am not sure there are many fish in it, bull frogs are extremely plentiful. I was at the marsh for about 3 hours and they never came very close, the pictures came out pretty good considering they were at about 150-200 yards.

The gold finch was shot at Fallsville Wildlife Area a bit later this morning.

August 22, 2016

I made a late afternoon trip to Deer Creek Wildlife Area last night to get some shots in the nice early evening light. I caught the osprey hanging out on a nest platform 100 yards from the bank along a road. I watched him for quite awhile while he made trips plunging into the water then circling back to the platform; quite exciting to watch! I only got a couple shots to turn out any kind of good; tough shooting a flying bird in somewhat low light at some distance. I was disappointed to see the poor fellow not come up with at least one fish after trying several times.

August 5, 2015

I shot these over at Hoover Reservoir this evening. The first shot is an immature female wood duck that I really like. The second is a hen mallard doing some stretching exercises.