Tag Archives: birds

Central Florida Bird update

Cocoa Beach Pier, INSIDE FLORIDA, Merritt Island NWR, Orlando Wetlands, Viera Wetlands, , , , , , ,

The spring migration has made the last few weeks an intense time for birding in Central Florida.  There was a fall out in Fort Desoto in late April where my friend Kevin M.  sighted 110 different bird species in one day!  As those migrants moved on, other locations have also seen a few visitors, especially smaller birds.

The activity at Black Point Wildlife Drive in Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge, Orlando Wetlands Park, and Viera Wetlands is slowing down now from the peak nesting and breeding season.  Most of the young ones are hatched, grown, and fledged, although you can still find some amazing sights such as a White Eyed Vireo nest next to the boardwalk at the MINWR visitors center.

At BPWD the water is quite low.  We found some concentrations of birds in a few of the areas that did have water including Redish Egrets, Roseate Spoonbills, Great Egrets, Little Blue Herons, etc.  There are also some juvenile Green Herons in the bushes by the rest rooms.  But the ducks seem to be mostly gone – even the moorhens and coots.  And we haven’t seen any Kingfishers lately either. We did see an Eastern Kingbird on BPWD, and a Northern Parula and Grey Catbird at the visitor center.

Wading Roseate Spoonbill
Wading Roseate Spoonbill – feeding at BPWD

Orlando Wetlands is quiet too – both people and birds.  I was the only visitor when I went by last Thursday morning.  I saw a solitary Swallow-tail Kite fly by briefly (too fast to get a photo).  And there were plenty of Black-Bellied Whistling Ducks, some hawks, limpkins, herons and egrets – but again the most of the ducks seem have gone elsewhere.

Mom and kid Limpkin on a sunrise stroll
Mom and kid Limpkin on a sunrise stroll

At Viera Wetlands we saw a few of the usual birds and there are still some GBH juveniles on nests.  Terns and Ospreys were putting on a fishing demonstration.  It’s fun to watch this behavior and it’s a good situation for Birds in Flight practice.

Blue Heron Portrait
Blue Heron Portrait

And even if the birding is slowing down, you can always find some landscape photo ops around the area.

Drippy
Drippy: I was scouting for new sunrise locations and got to the Cocoa Beach pier a bit late. I decided to make a photo anyway… Next time I’ll be there before dawn.

If you click on any of the photos, they’ll open in Flickr, where you can see larger versions.  You can also see some of my previous photos from:

Thanks for stopping by and reading my blog.  Now, go make some photos!

©2012, Ed Rosack. All rights reserved.

Cruise Ship Photography Ops

Cruise Ships, INSIDE FLORIDA, Must do list, OUTSIDE FLORIDA, , , , , , , , ,

Intro / Description

Cruising is a great way to vacation and Florida is a great departure point.  There are several ports where you can board a ship, leave your everyday concerns behind, and set sail for exotic destinations.  Tampa, Miami, Palm Beach, Port Everglades, and Port Canaveral all offer cruises – both seasonal and some that go farther. We recently cruised out of Tampa on the Carnival Paradise sailing to Grand Cayman, Cozumel, and back.

The party starts
The party starts –  The Carnival Paradise departing Tampa.

Cruising provides a large choice of activities:  Spend time with friends and family, relax, sample gourmet level food, party, attend shows and other entertainment, lose money at the casino, etc.  Ports of call along the way let you to see the sights and sample what life is like in other cultures.  You can sign up for excursions to do things you may not get a chance to do everyday.  And even if your trip isn’t photography centric, you can sneak in some non-interference photography ops.

The snorkel yacht - Lynn's getting ready to jump in
A snorkeling excursion off of Grand Cayman – Lynn’s getting ready to jump in.

Your preferences will help you select which cruise to go on. For ours, we were limited to a small selection since we wanted to leave from Tampa on a specific date.

Info for Photographers

There are some cruises that cater to photographers and some destinations that are more photogenic than others.  Why you are going, where you are going, and what you expect to see will decide what equipment you should bring.  Since our cruise was a family get together, I brought a much lighter gear bag than on our Alaskan cruise in 2009.  We went snorkeling in Grand Cayman, so I took my old Canon G9 (which still works remarkably well) and the underwater housing I have for it.  I also wanted to take my IR modified camera to use at the Mayan ruins in Cozumel.  Your trip and interests will be different so you’ll need to plan accordingly.

The San Gervasio Arch Structure
The San Gervasio Arch Structure on Cozumel. This Mayan ruin dates from 1000 to 1600 AD.

Photo hints:

Spend some time enjoying sunrise and sunset.  Relax, get a cup of coffee or a drink and sit and watch.  It’s hard to tell what will develop, especially when there are clouds around.  Do some research before you go.  Flickr is a great place to search for the places you’re going to see what others have posted.

If you’re on a family trip, you’ll want to document all the fun and together times.  Be careful not to spend too much time away from your family making photographs.

One good idea is to combine everyone’s photos into a common pool and share them so that everyone has images of everything that happens.  You’ll be glad you did.

Another thing to think about is creating a photo book from your images.  Make several copies and share them with your travel companions.  They’ll make good reading several years in the future and will remind you of the good times.

Always keep a camera with you and when you’re wandering around the ship, keep an eye out for interesting art work or interesting people.

A cruise is also a good time to practice some food photography.  Take your camera to dinner and see if you can create some drool worthy images.

Tripod/Monopod:  The ship’s motion will make long exposures from the deck problematic.  A Gorillapod or something similar would be handy for HDR or long exposure photography inside the ship.  You might also want to use it for some time-lapse photography from a railing on deck.  This can be interesting as you cruise along a shoreline or enter / leave a port.

Lenses:  This depends on your destination / interests.  Bring a versatile zoom or a small assortment of lenses.  On a family cruise, you don’t want to be lugging a huge camera bag around all the time.  If you’re going to Alaska or some other once in a lifetime destination, you’ll want to take your full kit.

Best time to visit:  Do some research on your departure port and destinations.  April is a great time for the route we took.  It’s before hurricane season and the weather is warm, but not too warm yet.  If you’re into birding, April is a big time in the Caribbean for migration.  I only did some incidental birding, but I did get three life birds in Cozumel.  The Mayan ruins at San Gervasio are out in the middle of the jungle, so there are birds around.  I saw a Black-and-white Warbler, a Ruby-throated Hummingbird, and several others I couldn’t get a photo of or ID.  I also saw this one circling the ship when we returned:

A Magnificent Frigatebird
A Magnificent Frigatebird

Other:

I’ve posted three sets of photos from this cruise on Flickr.  If you look through them, you can get an idea of the things you’ll see on a similar cruise.

For descriptions of a different type of cruise experience, you can go back and read my three posts about our Alaska cruise here, here, and here.

Summary

You’ll have a great time!

My Gallery / Flickr photo set:  http://www.flickr.com/photos/edrosack/collections/72157629896267577/
Website:  Various – search out the cruise line / travel sites for the departure port you select
Central Florida Photo Ops Rating:  This is a Central Florida Photo Op MUST DO!

 

Thanks for stopping by and reading my blog.  Now, get cruising and make some photos!

©2012, Ed Rosack. All rights reserved.

Avocets and Cedar Wax Wing at Black Point Wildlife Drive

INSIDE FLORIDA, Merritt Island NWR, , ,

Lynn and I went to Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge this morning and drove around Black Point Wildlife Drive.

Water is very low and much of the bird population seems to have gone elsewhere. But we did see the regulars, including Snowy Egrets, Great Egrets, Tricolored Herons, Great Blue Herons, Mourning Doves, Kingfishers, Black Vultures, Blue Wing Teals, and Red Wing Blackbirds.  We saw only a few Coots and Moorhens – nowhere near the hundreds that are typical.

The highlights of the trip for me were:

American Avocets
American Avocets in breeding colors: We saw a few of these and heard many others. They’re much more fancy at this time of year than with their normal black and white coloring.

Solitary Cedar Waxwing
Solitary Cedar Waxwing: I usually see these in flocks. This one just sat there looking around. It’s the clearest photo I’ve made of one.

There was a Northern Bobwhite male near the restroom parking area, but it moved into cover before I could raise my camera.  I also added an Eastern Kingbird to my life list.  And I saw a Swallow Tail Kite on the way home along State Road 50, but again was unable to get a photo.  Something about me driving and photographing at the same time seems to make Lynn nervous.

It was a very pleasant trip — especially with Lynn along!

Thanks for stopping by and reading my blog.  Now, go make some photos!

©2012, Ed Rosack. All rights reserved.

Infrared Photography Follow Up

Infrared processing, INSIDE FLORIDA, Merritt Island NWR, Ohio, OUTSIDE FLORIDA, Technique, Washington D.C., ,

If you’re a regular reader, you saw my post from a couple of weeks ago about infrared photography and how I post process my IR images.  If not, please check it out!

That post concentrated on a single image and tried to show some detail on how I processed it.  Today, I’d like to show you a few more examples of what you can expect when you try this very interesting genre of photography.  I made these photos with my IR modified Olympus E-PL1 camera.

I R n Air
I R n Air: A river runs through the countryside in this B&W digital infra-red photo made out the window at ~30,000 feet. The IR light cuts right through the haze to show a lot of detail.

Palm
Palm Tree: IR sensitivity makes the foliage stand out against the sky in this false color image.

Calm water and birds
Calm water and birds:  Bird photography is not a strength of IR, but the birds in the water and the ones flying through the frame add to this landscape.

Play time at Union Station
Play time at Union Station:  Buildings, architecture, and people can be good subjects.

Jefferson Memorial from across the Tidal Basin
Jefferson Memorial from across the Tidal Basin:  IR adds a different look to this classic view.

I have some other IR photos on Flickr in this set.  And you can see examples from other photographers in The Infrared and The Digital infrared groups on Flickr.  How about it – are you inspired to try IR photography?  Let me know if you do.

Thanks for stopping by and reading my blog.  Now, go make some photos!

[Additional info, added 1/24/2014]:  https://edrosack.com/2014/01/12/infrared-updates/

©2012, Ed Rosack. All rights reserved.

Black Swan

INSIDE FLORIDA, Lake Eola, Orlando, ,

The Black Swan is an interesting bird. Not only from an avian perspective, but also from a philosophy and ideas perspective. Wikipedia introduces the Black Swan (Cygnus atratus) as “a large water bird, a species of swan, which breeds mainly in the southeast and southwest regions of Australia.”

Black Swan
Black Swan at Lake Eola in downtown Orlando

Australia? Then what is a photo of a Black Swan doing on the Central Florida Photo Ops blog?

All known swans were white until Black Swans were discovered in Australia. People would never expect to find a black Swan (even in Orlando). So this bird is often used as a metaphor for an unexpected event.

Nicholas Taleb wrote a book called The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable. His theory is that outlier events (which are essentially unpredictable) have an outsized impact, especially due to the human tendency to settle for simple solutions. This is called the Black Swan Theory.

If no one told, you’d never expect to find a Black Swan in Central Florida. But you can – at Lake Eola in downtown Orlando. So seeing a Black Swan there is a black swan event – highly unexpected. Or it was, until I just told you.

There are other Swan species there too. I saw Whooper Swans, Mute Swans, and Black Necked Swans last weekend.

You can see other photo’s I’ve made at Lake Eola in this set on Flickr.

Thanks for stopping by and reading my blog. Now – go make some unexpected photos!
©2012, Ed Rosack. All rights reserved

Three photos

INSIDE FLORIDA, Orlando Wetlands, , , ,

Five of us from the Photography Interest Group had a pleasant walk at Orlando Wetlands Park this morning.  Here are three photos I made.

Orlando Wetlands black and white
Water, trees and sky – made with my Infra Red modified Olympus E-PL1 and converted to black and white.

Sunrise at Orlando Wetlands
The view looking east at dawn this morning.  The city did a lot of work last winter in this area.  There’s more clear water now than there used to be and I think it’s much more scenic.

Palm Warbler at Orlando Wetlands
Palm Warbler – another life bird for me.  I’ve seen these before, but this is my best photo of one and the first time I’ve actually identified the bird.

You can see other photos I’ve made at OWP in these sets on Flickr:  set 1, set 2, set 3.

Thanks for stopping by and reading my blog. Now – go make some photos!
©2012, Ed Rosack. All rights reserved

The Falcon and the Redheads

INSIDE FLORIDA, Jetty Park, Merritt Island NWR, , , , , , ,

Another trip yesterday to the east central coast of Florida:  Jetty Park in Cocoa and Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge (Black Point Wildlife Drive) in Titusville.  Wow – it was a poor day for sunrise photos, an OK day for bird photography, and a great day for birding!

Dawn yesterday was nothing to get up for – cloudy, dim, no color.  But we were up and out, so I made a photograph anyway.

Danger
Danger

That taken care of, I switched cameras and used the Sigma 150-500mm to scout shorebirds.  There were many Gulls (Laughing, Ring-Billed, Herring), Pelicans and Black Vultures, a few Royal Terns, Black Skimmers, Ruddy Turnstones, Sanderlings, Northern Mockingbirds, and Ospreys, and a Reddish Egret, and Snowy Egret.  I also saw a couple of Hawks and was puzzled by the look of this one that flew over the jetty and out into the inlet until I got home and did some research.  I’ve never seen a Peregrine Falcon in the wild before yesterday!

Peregrine Falcon
Peregrine Falcon

Reddish Egret
Reddish Egret in the surf – quite a “do”

By the time we moved up the coast to MINWR, it was a bit brighter and the conditions were better for photography.  We’d heard about a sighting of a Redhead duck and wanted to see if we could find it.  We came across it about half way round the drive on the right hand side swimming with several other ducks.  I think it’s amazing how a few bits of data over the internet can lead to sighting a semi-rare (for Florida) bird.  With so much information available it’s a great time to enjoy this kind of thing.

Redhead duck
Redhead duck

Other birds we saw on BPWD:  American Avocets, Common Snipe, Lesser Yellowlegs, American Robins, Roseate Spoonbills, Gulls, Belted Kingfishers, Northern Harrier, Northern Shovelers, Coots, Greebes, Green Wing Teals, Great Blue Herons,  Little Blue Herons, Tri-colored Herons, Snowy Egrets, Reddish Egrets, Great Egrets, and others.

Once again, a wonderful day outside in our natural Florida paradise.

I’ve posted a few more of my photos on Flickr.  You can see them in this Jetty Park set and this MINWR set.

Thanks for stopping by and reading my blog. Now – go make some photos!
©2012, Ed Rosack. All rights reserved

Jetty Park and Merritt Island – 12 Feb 2012

INSIDE FLORIDA, Jetty Park, Merritt Island NWR, , , , , , ,

We had another very nice photo outing last weekend.  We stopped first at Jetty Park in Cocoa for sunrise and to check out the shore birds.  It was quite cold (for Florida) – about 32 degrees F with a 15 – 20 mph wind – brisk!  We saw Brown Pelicans, Northern Gannets, Ruddy Turnstones, Royal Terns, and several types of gulls.

Dawn at Jetty Park
Dawn at Jetty Park: There wasn’t a lot of color in the sky, but I still like how this turned out

Next we went by the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge (East Gator Road, Black Point Wildlife Drive, Scrub Ridge Trail, and the visitor’s center).  MINWR continues to have large numbers and many types of birds.  We saw several unusual ones (a Sora, Clapper Rail, Eastern Meadowlark) and many of the regular visitors (Redwing Blackbirds, Norther Pintails, Northern Shovelers, Ring Neck Ducks, Blue Wing Teals, Redish Egrets, Great Blue Herons, Tri-color Herons, Little Blue Herons, Little Egrets, Great Egrets, Roseate Spoonbills, Coots, Morehens, etc.).

Male Northern Pintail
Male Northern Pintail

Eastern Meadowlark
Eastern Meadowlark

There were disappointments at a few of the normal spots:  The Great Horned Owl wasn’t on its nest, the Painted Buntings weren’t at the Visitor Center, and there weren’t any Florida Scrub Jays on Scrub Ridge Trail.  But there weren’t any mosquitoes there either!

Jetty Park and MINWR are fantastic places to visit and very active now.  If you haven’t been recently, go!  You can see more photos I’ve made at these places here, here, and here.

Thanks for stopping by and reading my blog. Now – go make some photos!
©2012, Ed Rosack. All rights reserved

Orlando Wetlands Park, 5 February 2012

INSIDE FLORIDA, Orlando, Orlando Wetlands, , , , , ,

Orlando Wetlands Park has re-opened, and three of us from the Photography Interest Group met there before dawn last Sunday.  I was hoping for a sunrise photo, but fog and lack of color in the sky made those efforts a challenge.  Luckily I had my IR converted camera with me and made this 4 image panorama of the marsh.  I think the colors in the scene are interesting so I left it as an IR false color image instead of converting to black and white.  The IR sensor really brought out detail in the clouds that couldn’t be seen in visible light.

Misty swamp at dawn

Misty marsh at dawn – Orlando Wetlands Park, just before dawn. False color IR image.

If you haven’t been to OWP lately, you’ll be surprised at the changes.  There’s been extensive reclamation in cells 16A and 17, resulting in much more scenic views.  Check it out!

While we were there, we ran into a tour led by the Friends of Orlando Wetlands group.  Vermilion Flycatchers are rarely found in Florida, but two or more are being sighted regularly at OWP.  The group let us know about these birds and even led us right to them.

Vermilion Flycatcher
Vermilion Flycatcher – not a great photo, but another life bird for me.

We also ran across a very pretty Purple Gallinule – my second life bird of the day.

Purple Gallinule
Purple Gallinule

It was a good outing.  Birds we sighted included various Herons, Egrets, Sand Hill Cranes, Limpkins, Coots, Moorhens, huge numbers of Black Vultures, and others.

You can see other photos I’ve made at Orlando Wetlands Park here on Flickr, and you can use the blog category pull down to locate other articles I’ve written that mention OWP.

Thanks for stopping by and reading my blog. Now – go make some photos!
©2012, Ed Rosack. All rights reserved

Merritt Island – January 2012

INSIDE FLORIDA, Merritt Island NWR, , , , , , , , ,

Four of us from the Photography Interest Group visited the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge yesterday for the first time this year.  It was a beautiful Florida morning and this place is rockin’!!

As usual, we looked for a sunrise photo first.  We found this old house behind the Brevard Community College and the sky cooperated.

Old house and sunrise
Old house and sunrise

It was really hard to decide on the highlight of this trip.  Before I left yesterday morning, I Googled MINWR, and saw a report of “a Great Horned Owl on a nest on the left near 402 and SR 3”.  Sure enough, we drove right up to it and it was there waiting there for us!  The internet is really handy, isn’t it?

Great Horned Owl on nest
Great Horned Owl on nest

The second contender for highlight of the day was a Clapper Rail.  I’d seen reports of these too, but I’d never seen one before and didn’t know what to look for.  We parked at the first parking area on Black Point Wildlife Drive and were exploring when we met a tourist from Brazil.  He pointed out the bird for us, but it was back in the shadows and with the glare from the sun it took me a while to see it even with him pointing right at it!  Fortunately, it moved a bit and I was able to get a photo.  We eventually saw three in this area and one more at the second parking area.

These Clapper Rails are hard to see...
These Clapper Rails are hard to see…

There were more people / cars on BPWLD yesterday than I’ve ever seen before.  A couple of times there were real traffic jams!  There were also more birds than I’ve seen there in a long time – maybe ever.  We saw Ospreys, Clapper Rails, Pintail Ducks, Coots, Moorhens, White Pelicans, Mottled Ducks, Green Wing Teals, Belted Kingfishers, Anhingas, Cormorants, Green Herons, Great Egrets, Great Blue Herons, Reddish Egrets, Little Blue Egrets, Cattle Egrets, Savannah Sparrows, Tree Sparrows, Tricolored Herons, Woodstorks, Roseate Spoonbills, a Great Horned Owl, Painted Buntings, various gulls, Red-winged Blackbirds, and others.

After BPWLD, we drove by the owl again and it was still there.  Then we went by the visitor center to check on the Painted Buntings.  There were at least two of them at the feeder.  After that we had to return home – a couple of us had things to do in the normal world. 🙁

If you’ve meant to visit MINWR and haven’t made it yet – get out there now.  I’ve never seen it better!  You can click on the photos above to go to Flickr, where you can see a larger version as well as any comments and discussion about them.  Click here to visit my Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge set, and click here to visit my Black Point Wildlife Drive set on Flickr.

By the way, I started an “Ed’s Life List” page to record the bird species I’ve seen in the wild.  I’ll keep my list there and try to keep up to date as I go.  Please visit if you get a chance.

Thanks for stopping by and reading my blog. Now – go make some photos!

©2012, Ed Rosack. All rights reserved.