Winters a coming

The first of the winter migrants have started to arrive, The other day i noticed a dark eyed junco under my feeders and today there are about 20, Jays have been very common here for the last couple of weeks yet last year i didn't see one, I guess its time to start making preparations and get some nice perches set up and dust the hide off, I went to one of the local lakes here at the weekend and there were about 30 buffleheads-a sure sign that the nice weather will soon change and the winter thermals will be aired, For me the best time for wildlife photography in NC is the winter and a few trips to the coast will take place just after Xmas is out of the way for the snow geese and tundra swans also the possibility of a bear or 2



Dave

Trip Report-Moody skies

A couple of weeks ago when i was at the coast, Things were tough,The conditions were extremly hard to shoot in, Bitter cold and High winds were some of the toughest i have shot in for a long time, I dont remember having colder winds in either Switzerland or even when i shot polar bears in Canada,
The birds werent playing ball and many had moved further south or inland to get away from the unseasonal weather, So what to do,Well i had plenty of time to have a think,Do i move or do i stay, I decided to give it another go and one morning before the sun came up i headed out ,Driving down the coast i noticed some nice moody cloud formations out at sea-East where the sun will rise, I thought it would be nice to try and incorporate the cloud formations in the images i wanted of the Snow Geese making the clouds just as much of the image as the birds, Luck was with me, I watched the Geese as i arrived and the did something i had not seen there before,They left the partly frozen lake and did a short flight up and over the road and landed in the grass next to the sand dunes,I parked next to the road and grabbed my D3 and 200-400 combo,This would allow me to better compose the images as the birds flew in,Not only from across the road but from further down the road where another group were sleeping on the ice, This would either work or it wouldnt,The images would look good or fit for the bin,I had nothing to loose and spent a cold but enjoyable 2 hrs shooting small groups of Snow geese in flight.All the time the light was changing so i kept in AV mode and compensated as needed to stop the bright areas in the clouds from blowing out, A different style for me i guess but one i like and will try again,more a bird in landscape shot than straight portrait type images-what do you think?

Trip reports-Days 2 and 3

Day 2 was pretty much like day 1 except the lakes were almost completely frozen and the sea was starting to freeze,I spent the morning shooting Snow Geese, There is nothing like tough times to get the grey matter going and as there were really nice clouds over the sea i decided to position myself so i could use it as a background when the geese flew in and out, I used the 200-400 so i could frame the birds better and tried to get them smaller in the frame and have the clouds as the main focus-fingers crossed they come out as i envisaged,Its always good to try something different, Early afternoon was spent on the beach with my wife and puppy, I spent this time testing out my gear on my puppy running at full speed towards me-you never have enough practice on a fast moving target and it gives the dog a good workout, I cannot say how impressed i am with the D300 and its becoming my body of choice unless the light is very low, We decided to drive around and look for a place to shoot the sun setting and stumbled upon a small fishing port,Very rough and ready with a fish processing plant being the main building-luckily we arrived as the workers were throwing the days cast offs in and there were hundreds of birds fighting for the scraps-Gulls,pelicans and black capped herons all flying around,the sun was behins us and ready to set so the light was to die for and i quickly rattled off 4gb of images before the light was gone-freezing cold but great fun

Today could not have been more different,Snow flurries just before sunrise and then light rain,The light was non existant and the water was a horrible muddy colour, I went to a small hide to get out of the rain and there were a couple of dying pike in front being picked off by the gulls,I hoped the Bald Eagle may come over and land-it didnt and after 2 miserable hours i left and headed back, It dried out mid day so a trip to the beach to shoot the puppy again, There were dolphins very close in-we counted more then 20 before we left,shame i didnt have the 600 with me but great to watch,they were only about 100 feet off the shore so very close, The rain came back with a vengance so that put paid for the rest of the day-tomorrow doesnt look promising so it may be an early trip home

If nothing else i met with a couple of photographers who are local to were i live and have swapped details -will be good to meet up locally with them and hope to get some good info on my local patch

Dave

Trip Reports - December in North Carolina

Just before Xmas I spent 2 weeks photographing the migratory birds that are currently near the North Carolina coastline, the weather wasn't at its kindest but I managed some reasonable results and certainly something to work on. As well as a variety of waterfowl there were Snow Geese and Tundra swans in good numbers, I visited a lake I had heard good things about and bumped into British Photographer Phil Mugridge who was over on a visit and we ended up spending a few days together, the lake where we met was huge and although we had good viewings of Bald Eagle, Geese, swans etc. they were a bit too distant to get good results, but we did get a couple of great sunsets which we both took advantage of.

The Swans on this lake were in the thousands and a real site to behold. We had hoped for some mass take off's and had heard of Swans returning in the evening en masse but it never happened while we were there so we decided to concentrate on the coast line and in particular the lakes at Pea Island and the beaches across the road from it, so early mornings before dawn we headed off and got onto position for first light, At Pea Island we managed good American Wigeon, Ruddy Duck and Egret and the beach provided us with Willet, Sanderling and some gulls along with the odd Brown pelican that glided on top of the waves, I only swapped over from Canon to Nikon in September and its only now that things are starting to feel natural, The new gear is working very well and I am very impressed with the performance especially when the light is low, The D3 shone here but I must admit my camera of choice when shooting the birds was the D300,

If the weather closed in which it did a few times or if things were slow we headed inland to search for Black bear, I had visited an area in September and went back with Phil to check it out as on my first visit a bear had run across a track we were on, although only a fleeting glimpse it was magic and I was desperate to get a better view, we drove around for a while before finding some fields where the crops had been cut in stripes of cut and uncut crop, the uncut crops were tall but luckily we found a female with cub in the uncut section and proceeded to make our way off road to her. We were very fortunate that she was calm, although the cub wasn't which was to be expected but mum was a star and we managed some OK images-a great start.

She looks very lean and the cub has certainly taken it out of her, Looking at the 'poo' on the road they are eating some left over corn and berries, I will be returning soon as I have now found 3 areas where the bears hang out regularly, The migratory birds will be here until the end of Feb and after that I will be trying for the Grey fox and possum that i see at night around my garden

Dave