2012 Trip planner

Flights seem to have reached a new high and the last couple of weeks we have been trying to decide on where to go this year, We started looking at Australia and worked backwards but the high price of flights will keep us pretty grounded and our trips i think for this year at least will be USA based, So we have booked a week in Florida in mid May, This will have given me time to hopefully get the D800 and have had a play with the settings, I will try to do the whole week on the D800 to give it a good work out for birds on the nest and in flight, We are splitting the week in 2 and will start in St Augustine for nesting birds with chicks and then carry on down the coast to Merritt Island for ospreys etc, I haven't been to Merritt Island before but its one of the birding hotspots in Florida and its nice to go somewhere different, We will end the year with a 3 week tour of Florida taking in all the birding hotspots on both East and West coast and also the Florida keys which i am really looking forward to, In between i am hoping for a week or so in California and a week or so in the Smoky's during the Fall, Things are always subject to change but it will give me something to aim at and hopefully next year the gas prices will have fallen and so will air travel and then we can look further a field
Here are a few images from a Florida trip a couple of years ago





Dave

On my way

As you read this i will be driving down to Florida, Its a fair trek from my house to Crystal River where the manatees are, It will take around 12 hours including a couple of stops, So an early start and then early to bed as we have to be at Birds Underwater for 6.15am to get ready and be the first out on the water, My friends from the UK have never been and i am sure that they will be as aprehensive as i was the first time i got into the water and one of these leviathans of the deep swam out of the mirk straight at me, Once you have done it once its addictive and i would love to be able to spend 3 or 4 weeks totally concentrating on these amazing creatures, The forecast looks pretty good so fingers crossed and i hope to be able to post some decent images next time

Dave

Dave's Wildlife moments of the Year 1

My year started with a bang when i spent a week in New Jersey, I shot over 6000 that week which for me is a tremendous amount, I went specifically to shoot Harlequin ducks, The weather was at its worst temperature wise with  the inlets that were over a mile wide frozen solid, Some days the temperature never rose above -4 and i was very glad that i had clothing to deal with the cold, It was a long week being out before dark and returning well after dark but i was pleased to get what i wanted with added bonus of good long tailed duck and Surf Scoter, I have an opportunity to go back this winter and am trying to sort a trip mid Jan
Harlequin Duck

Long Tailed Duck

Surf Scoter

 Red Breasted Merganser

It was a great trip and far exceeded my expectations and with the added bonus of finding a great place for friendly fox

We travelled quite a bit up and down the East cost taking in New York, New Jersey, North Carolina and Florida
I knew Florida would be a bit special and it was, The weather is great and the birds are very relaxed, My list of birds 'wanted' included Laughing Gull,Skimmer,Rosette Spoonbill and all the Egrets and Storks, We hit it just right and the birds were in the rookeries and again the cameras turned into machine guns and thousands of images later i had just what i wanted, We spent time both in rookeries and on the coast, I cant wait to go back even though the birds there have been done to death, Its a very special place and must go to for the wildlife photographer
Wood Stork

Snowy Egret

Skimmer

Laughing Gull

Rosette Spoonbill

 So thats it for part 1-My best bits are still to come in my next blog

Lets Talk

Now i am back home and things have settled into some normality, The weather over the last couple of days has been crap, Grey and overcast with very heavy downpours, The temperature has stayed in the low 90's so that means very high humidity, I have been shooting the deer on the private land and have some OK shots but the females with the young are playing hard to get, The young fawns still have their spots so i want to continue and as soon as the weather clears i will be back there, I have now put some bird feeders up as there are some very nice birds around there, the hide is positioned in a direction so that as soon as the leaves start to change colour i will have a nice background
I was given a Nikon 100VR macro to play with and so far the first impressions are very good-its one sharp lens, Infact my first few shots with it had me saying wow when i looked at the screen, Just snaps of Alfie my dog but boy are they sharp even when zooming close in on the eye
So with the weather playing up it gives me some time to get some processing done, I am way behind as usual and am still working my way through the Florida images i took months ago, I am quite pleased with them although there are a million like it around, Its always nice to get your own images of stuff you have admired from others
I sold my beloved D3 in the week and its now in a new home, I loved that camera and was very tempted to keep it and sell the D300 but to have a D3s and a D3 would be greedy and i sometimes like the extra reach that a cropped sensor gives me, Talking of cropped sensors Nikon announced the D3100 and the 4 lenses i mentioned a few days ago, The D3100 is Nikons new 'baby' camera but it has some nice features-new 14mp sensor and on the video side Nikons first Dslr to get full 1080 HD video and a first of any Dslr it has autofocus in video mode, so it may be the baby but it something no 'pro' model has yet
I had to give my D3s sensor a wet clean as i stupidly smeared oil on it when using the Arctic butterfly so i bought some Green V pads from visible dust and some of there sensor cleaning fluid, the first pass got the oil off and then another 2 pads to get all the crud off so nows its 99% clean-good enough,
So enough of my ramblings, I will leave you with a few images from this week and from Florida

Eastern Wood Pewee-I would have like a smaller aperture for more DOF but the light didn't allow it

Warbler-TBC

Female White Taled Deer in beautiful evening light

 Florida-Curlew

Cattle Egret-White on Black-Flying past a dark area

Great Egret-White on White-Flying in overcast sky-underside lit using flash

Double Crested Cormorant

Dave

Florida diaries 6

Like all good things holidays come to an end, Whilst you will be reading this i will be making my way back to North Carolina. Its been a great 2 weeks shooting the Manatees being the highlight i guess and i cant wait for the winter to return and shoot these magnificent giants again, I got some great images of birds that i have long wanted to shoot like the Skimmer and Laughing Gull and have thousands of images to down load and sort through, This week in Orlando i have still managed to shoot some wildlife at the Gatorland rookery and even in the theme parks i have been surprised at how close you can get to wildlife, In the Animal Kingdom i came across a pair of nesting Spoonbills with chicks, I had written these off of my list as i had visited 3 other places for these images and non had any chicks,I was lucky that the nest was near the path and could easily shoot them with a 70-200 which was the longest lens i had on me, I went to Busch Gardens and Typhoon Lagoon and had birds come close as i was eating and i am not talking about sparrows, I was amazed to see white Ibis and Cattle Egrets begging for food and walking around your feet looking for some crumbs, Last night i made my way to the Magic Kingdom to photograph the firework display, The weather was perfect and the world and his wife decided to join us, I set up hoping to get the fireworks over the castle and managed to get quite a few half reasonable images using a tripod/release and Bulb, On the way to the Magic Kingdom we spotted two armadillos on the grass, I only had a 24-70 with me and even after some careful stalking where i got a good view of this strange animal i spooked it and it was gone, This is now one of my 'wants' as its a great looking animal and you rarely see any images of them, So thats it, A great holiday/photographic experience and one that i intend to return to time and time again, One thing i will say is that the camera gear has been faultless, Its been out in hot sun all day and has not missed a beat, I mainly used the D3 and hardly used the D300 at all as alot of the shooting was in lowish light i.e ISO 400 and over, I took the D3 and a wide lens into the parks and tried it on some of the captive animals-see the cuttlefish, This was taken at ISO 5000 and yet still gives a usable image, The flecks in the water are not grain just water particles, I must say i was impressed when i downloaded it

Along with the Manatees its been an interesting trip, Both above and underneath the water, Birds in flight and on the nest as well as some scenics

Dave

Florida diaries 5

Since we have moved inland the challenge  has been the weather, The last couple of days have seen a lot of rain along with some lightening especially in the afternoon and evenings, I have been doing the Disney thing and have wanted to get the firework displays at night but so far its been rained off, Today (Tuesday) i got up early and looked out of the window to see fog, Not good or expected, I decided to get my gear together and head to Gatorland where news was that the rookery is the place to be, I only had a max of a couple of hours and having not been there for 20 years it was more of a recce, Well 2 hours and 8 gigs later there were a few nice images in the bag, I decided to concentrate on the Egrets with chicks but i always keep my eyes open for birds in flight of which there were many, Gatorland in Orlando is very different to Gatorland in St Augustine, Here the big lens came into its own whereas in St Augustine i never used it, The good news for me was that i also managed a couple of new species to my portfolio, The Black Vulture and Ahinga, I also improved my Cattle Egret images, I purchased a photographers pass for today which allows me entry early and late so i will do both sessions and hope the weather is kind which looking at the forecast it will be
Since being in  Orlando i dont seem to have a minute to spare so here are a few images that caught my eye
ALL FULL FRAME

Dave

Florida diaries 4

Weather has changed my plans in more ways than one, Firstly our trip here was originally planned to meet up with our buddies from the UK and if you have seen the world news lately you will know that the icelandic volcano spewing ash into the atmoshpere has halted all flights from Europe,Needless to say that our friends holiday has now been cancelled and we are here in Orlando alone, So we have changed our itinery abit to allow some time at Gatorland where the rookery is supposed to be at its best but we also have a day or 2 of rain, So its Mickey Mouse time for a couple of days taking snap/holiday shots before back to business with the wildlife, I have processed a few images for the blog but as its on my laptop i will do them properly when i get home, I supply photo agencies and these days when everybody is having a go at selling or giving away images its very competetive so to get images accepted you have to have your subject doing something interesting as well as having good light,exposure,composition and sharpness, In other words your images have to be perfect and appealing, If it doesnt tick all the right boxes then its rejected, so with this always in mind i rarely shoot a standard/stock type image and will always try to get the subject doing something, Here is a fairly standard type image, Nothing out of the ordinary apart from its beak is open, On the skimmer is does show its rather strange beak so i took the image

Skimmers were one of my main targets, I had never seen one before but had wanted to shoot them for a long time, I really wanted to get them 'skimming' where they fly with the lower beak in the water, I only saw one try to skim once during my stay and he kept bouncing back into the air when his beak went into the water, this was the best i got from just a handful of shots

Most of my time was spent watching the birds behaviour, I noticed that the skimmers and gulls would bathe in the shallow water then dip under the water time and time again faster and faster and then suddenly flap their wings and take off, I spent a whole morning capturing this, As i dont like to crop or crop very little i ended with hundreds of great images with clipped wings but i did get some images that i was very pleased with and exactly what i had in mind-this one in particular which is my favourite Skimmer image and is full frame

The Laughing Gulls were very vocal and in full mating mode, There never seemed to be 10 minutes between gulls mating which gave plenty of shooting possibilities, The problem was getting a clear image, Again i watched them for sometime and noticed that at the end of the mating the female would start to walk about with the male still on top, This would be very quick before he either finished or fell off, I tried to get this on camera and one of the clearest images was this one

As Gulls go the Laughing Gull is very nice-Good looking, Always up to something and has a really nice red mouth, All in all very photogenic
The light was always very consistent allowing me to shoot in Manual mode, Very few of my images had bad exposures and most like the shots above needed no adjustment other than some curves and a small amount of saturation
All images above are Full Frame with the exception of the Skimmer in Flight which has a small crop

Dave

Florida diaries 3

I am in St Petersburg near Tampa, In a hotel that backs onto the beach, The sky is blue and cloudless, Its low 80's and i am surrounded by bikini clad young lovelies and thats the bad part, The good thing is that there are birds-EVERWHERE, Even densely populated beaches have birds, If you see a fisherman he will have an egret or pelican sitting next to him, I have spent the last couple of morning and evening at Fort DeSoto, The mornings being good for shore birds and gulls and the evenings ospreys and diving pelicans, I did have an osprey drop into the ocean one morning right in front of me, Nearly drown itself trying to drag a fish that was too big out of the water, In the end it let go and flew over me-amazing, I have new species on file which is always nice, I said before i came that i wanted laughing gull, Skimmer and Osprey and i have some absolute crackers and thousands of images to select, Today i was talking to some brits whilst shooting some ospreys and they gave me a tip off about an Owls nest so i will be checking that out tonight, I am leaving here tomorrow and making my way to Orlando see see Mickey Mouse but have been told that Gatorland in Orlando is really on fire at the moment with great birds in the rookery so i will be dropping in there for a quick look, So far its been a trip from heaven apart from loosing my $200 Oakley shades yesterday, Here are a few images (not the best either) taken over the last couple of days
All FULL Frame except the last Osprey which is a crop of the one above it

Dave

Florida diaries 2

We have now left the birds at St Augustine behind and am now at the Crystal river for the manatees, Now they did see some yesterday, a female with young and showed me the video, Nice and close but in very green mirky water so i am in no illusions that photography at this time will be crap to non existent but i am look forward to the experience, 20 years ago i went to the Epcot centre in Orlando where there are manatees in a glass tank, I walked past the tank and a manatee followed me as i walked, I stopped and walked back and it followed and somebody mentioned it as the crowd watched, I went to the glass and it came up and we just watched each other, it was an amazing experience and i have always wanted another manatee experience, Its taken 20 years for it to happen and today could be the day,either way i have discussed a return in the winter for a week or so's diving to get 'the' images that i dream about,He did mention that a croc joined them the other day which was a little un-nerving, We have the boat to ourselves tomorrow so we can do and go where we like, Going back to St Augustine i have to say was a great way to start the trip and in another 2-3 weeks it will be on fire as there will be lots of young around, there was just the 1 when i was there but i got some great shots-coming soon on a blog near you,Everybody was amazed at the amount of rosette spoonbills there,normally just 1 or 2 but about 30 or so at the moment and it looks like they may nest there for the first time ever,my first encounter with these beautiful birds, If you are looking to go i recommend the sleep inn as its not expensive and close to gatorland and if you get a photographers pass at gatorland before you get to the inn they will discount your rooms-win win.I or should i say Marian treated me to s decent goggles and snorkel so i have been practising in the pool all afternoon-its a dreadful life-honest
I have only gotten around to downloading and backing up as i have just not have the time to process so for now you will get the odd image and i will do some galleries when i return,Here is one from Gatorland that i really liked, I would like to add that Gatorland is a zoo type place but the rookery is purely wild birds, It seems that birds like to nest where the gators are so that the nest isnt raided by raccoons,snakes etc

Dave

Florida diaries 1

We decided to break the journey up on the way down to Florida and spent a night in Savannah,Georgia, Its a very historic place,Full of old buildings and city squares that are full of beautiful trees and beautiful flowers, There is a good night life there with lots and lots of bars and restuarants, There are trolleys/buses doing city tours and i think this is probably the best way to see the city and then drive to the best places to shoot some of the prettiest places, One thing that struck us both is the odour-Ok the place stinks like a warm day in Delhi but is very nice and a long weekend would be long enough to see the best of it, We left after a lazy breakfast and made our way to St Augustine in Florida, Now this is a very nice place, clean and with lots of great buildings, A good vibe (without the odour) and a great place to be at night, We instantly liked the place, After booking into our accommodation i got the gear ready and went to Gatorland and gave the $70 for the photographers pass which allows entry an hour early and an hour late which can be extended with some extra cash, I stayed for 3 hours and shot 16gb of wood stork,tri coloured heron,egrets of various kinds and rosette spoonbills, I have another 3 sessions there so will guarantee some great images, I have only just downloaded and will post some next blog,This is a truly great place to be and the next few weeks will see lots of chicks of all kinds-i may be back soon as the pass is for 1 year, You dont need big lenses,Infact the tri coloured were with 2-3 feet of the boardwalk and took no notice of people-birds skim your heads as they fly out-amazing, If you are thinking of taking a trip to Florida then this has to be on your list
Here is a taster-Full frame wood stork

Dave

Pollen and Pools

I think we missed out spring and went straight to summer-this week its been high 80's to low/mid 90's not that i am complaining, The problem is that at this time of year the pine trees shed their pollen and this year its gone mad, Everything is green, absolutely smothered in green pollen, If you leave your car out for an hour its green and you see cars that obviously are not garaged where its difficult to tell what colour they are, Yesterday i went to fill my bird feeders and ended up with green feet and driving down the interstate today there were areas that looked like mist but it was the pollen blowing out of the trees, This will go on for 2 or 3 weeks, What it does mean is that i wont be sitting out for hours on end as the pollen will get everywhere and i don't need the shots that badly, Only a few days until i head to Florida so it should be over when i return and hopefully some rain will have washed it away, Yesterday i took a trip to a swimming pool as i had permission to try out the EWA Marine underwater housing there, The good news is that it works or at least i didn't drown the camera, The bad news is that its a pig to use, I always thought that Nikon positioned the on/off switch in a great place next to the shutter button until today when twice i turned the camera off because i couldn't feel anything through the housing, I forgot my goggles so had to borrow some off of a kid there so have a good laugh at the image i took of myself-well if you cant laugh at yourself etc etc, The bag with D3 and 16-35 and 3.5 LB of lead attached still floated!!! so i will need to get some more lead to make it neutral density, I was amazed at just how buoyant the bag is even when the air is forced out of it, but that's the idea of doing some tests before hand, If i hadn't i think it would have been a nightmare on the day-well i was a cub scout as a kid and their motto was 'be prepared'
The light at the pool was naff so this shot was at ISO 2000

Dave