It’s been a while since I last visited Orlando Wetlands Park, so I decided to get a little exercise and check out what’s happening there now. Here are a few things I saw.
The Cypress trees are starting to show our Florida Fall colors:
Cypress Swamp
The Visitors Center construction’s all done and the’ve done a nice job with the plantings in the garden:
In the garden by the Visitors Center.
Year round birds are plentiful:
Snowy Egret, low over the pond.
Little Blue Heron Portrait
And the alligators are plentiful too:
Sleepy Gator. And the alligators are plentiful too.
This is the time of year that migrant birds start to show up. This page on eBird shows observations from recent years by month: https://ebird.org/barchart?byr=2020&eyr=2024&bmo=1&emo=12&r=L452007. Orlando Wetlands Park is a beautiful place to visit, explore, and make photos. Maybe I’ll see you out there!
Thanks so much for checking out my blog! Stay positive, be kind, and take care of yourselves and each other. And if you have a chance, go for a hike and make some photos!
Note: Our part of Central Florida was spared major impacts from Hurricane Helene. Unfortunately, people in many other areas are suffering horribly with injuries, death, and property loss. Our hearts go out to everyone affected.
I’ve gotten behind keeping the blog up to date so today I’ll try to catch up some. These photos are all recent ones from trips to Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge on July 29th and Sept. 25th.
A fisherman with a view. Rotary Riverfront Park on US 1 south of the refuge entrance. July 29.
One of several Wild Turkeys hanging out near the turn in to Bairs Cove. July 29.
2 or 3 Manatees were making a big commotion in Haulover Canal by the Bairs Cove boat ramp. July 29.
Dawn at the marina – 1. The early morning sky was spectacular looking east from Marina Park. September 25.
Dawn at the marina – 2. The sky was interesting looking west too, but not as colorful – so I converted to B&W. September 25.
A young Black Crowned Night Heron near the rest area on Black Point Wildlife Drive. September 25.
Baby Gators. From the Visitor Center boardwalk. September 25.
The folks at the Visitor Center said there was a Momma Gator and babies in the pond. I walked out and down the boardwalk without spotting them. About to give up, I heard the babies calling. They make a sort of a chirp / gulp sound and I was able to follow their calls and find them. I hoped the babies would be on Mom’s back, but not that day. She was watching over her offspring from a few feet away.
Momma Gator. From the Visitor Center boardwalk. September 25.
Header image: I made that one along the back part of Black Point Wildlife Drive. I’ve always liked those large pine trees and the light that morning and the hazy sky background appealed to me. You can see a larger version on Flickr: https://www.flickr.com/photos/edrosack/53972104178/in/dateposted/
Maybe the Dog Days of Summer aren’t the best time to make photos at MINWR. But photo ops are still there if you go look for them.
Thanks for stopping by and reading my blog. Stay positive, be kind, and take care of yourselves and each other. And if you can, make some photos !
In my last post, I mentioned stopping to see Kevin M. in Chattanooga and that he gave me back the very same Nikon D90 that was my primary camera in 2008 and 2009. Thanks again, Kevin!
The camera is in fine shape and after buying some inexpensive after market batteries I was ready to try it out – again. I took it along on a recent outing to Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge. This small pond is near the west entrance to Gator Creek Road and has an easterly view at dawn over the water.
A pretty place for a camera test…
The only Nikon lens I still have is an even older 50mm f/1.8, so I used it for this image. It’s a stitched panorama from 2 rows of 8 frames resulting in a final image size of 9732×7462 pixels (72.6M Pixels in a 4×5 aspect ratio). I used my latest workflow and software and I think it came out pretty nice for 16+ year old tech!
I did notice that the auto focus capabilities are nowhere near as good as current cameras. And the resolution (12 MegaPixels) is pretty low too. But the dynamic range, color, and noise performance held up very well – especially with RAW files run through modern software.
It was a lot of fun to use the D90 again. I was surprised by how comfortable I was with the controls after so long. It was a very good camera when it was released. And it’s still an impressive camera now. Will I take it out and use it sometimes? Yes, for old times sake. But I’m not going to give up my Sony gear!
If you click on this image, you can see a higher resolution version on Flickr along, with EXIF info and a map showing the location.
Thanks for stopping by my blog. Stay positive, be kind, and take care of yourselves and each other. And if you can, make some photos – even with old gear!
We just returned from a trip to Nashville Tennessee, Archbold Ohio and back. We spent 15 days on the road and saw family, friends, and many sights. I thought I’d offer you some photos along with a few words about our journey.
Header image: another view of Chattanooga from Lookout Mountain.
Kevin also gave me a “new old” camera! It’s a Nikon D90 that I originally owned from 2008 – 2010 before I passed it on to him. It was his main camera for a while, but he no longer needs it and asked if I wanted it back. Yes! It’s still working and I plan to try it out (again) on my next photo outing. Thanks Kevin for the tour and the camera!!
Nashville
We stayed with MK in Nashville over the 4th of July. There was a lot of good food and some sightseeing too. She found a close by park with a view of the downtown skyline:
Nashville Skyline – from Love Circle Park, elevation 744 feet.
And after dinner one evening they dropped me off for a few minutes so I could make a few photos downtown:
Downtown Nashville, Broadway, near the river
We’d heard about the Gallery of Iconic Guitars (GIG: https://www.thegigatbelmont.com) and visiting it was one of the highlights of the trip. We got there early and had the place to ourselves!
Gallery of Iconic Guitars. The GIG at Belmont University in Nashville has dozens of historic instruments on display from a total of about 500 in the collection.
1887 Martin D-28. One of the oldest instruments on display at the GIG.
Ohio
Next, we headed up to Archbold Ohio. Although I didn’t make any photos there, one highlight on the drive was a stop at Sweetwater Music in Fort Wayne, Indiana. It’s quite a place and if you have any interest in music, you should visit if you get a chance.
We drove home from Ohio along I-75. It’s a scenic route, but there aren’t many places to pull over for a photo. This one spot a bit north east of Chattanooga was the only safe overlook that we found.
Overlooking Owl Hollow; Stitched panorama from 4 RAW format iPhone frames.
It was a very nice trip, although we spent way too many hours in the car. Family, friends, sightseeing, food, convention, and more. A great time!
You can click on these photos to see higher resolution versions on Flickr.
Thanks for stopping by the blog. Stay positive, be kind, and take care of yourselves and each other. And if you can, make some photos on your road trip!
A very special place! The last time I was there was way back in 2013, when it was still called Mt. Evans. I only discovered the name change a few weeks ago. While researching that, I also discovered some changes in how the area is managed, so I thought I’d publish an update. Here’s some info for your browsing pleasure on this highest paved road in North America:
I went through my archives and processed / reprocessed several images so I’d have some you haven’t seen for this post. This first photo is near the summit. The color version’s here: https://www.flickr.com/photos/edrosack/34467852916/
Road narrows (Nikon D80, July 2007)
The road’s a bit scary to drive and requires concentration, but I haven’t seen any news of automobiles accidents up there. There are a few guard rails in places, but not on most of the road. Going down was worse for me than going up. White knuckles and relief when we were finally done with the switchbacks.
Marmots are common on the mountain. This one was enjoying some sunshine on the side of the road.
Mount Blue Sky Marmot (Nikon D80, July 2007)
You can catch lovely reflections and flowers at Summit Lake:
Summit Lake reflection (Nikon D80, July 2007)
Mountain Goats are also common up there and they’re used to people, so you can get some pretty good photos of these sure footed wild animals.
Two young mountain goats (Nikon 7000, July 2011)
I you decide to visit, please check the official websites for the latest information before you go. Reservations are required now and there’s construction planned that will block part or all of the road through 2025.
On a side note: Lynn and I are just about done with our move. The new place is getting organized and I hope to get back out photographing some time soon.
Thanks for stopping by the blog. Stay positive, be kind, and take care of yourselves and each other. And if you can, make some photos!
Lynn and I are moving next week, so we’ve been busy and I haven’t been on any recent photo field trips. I did have a little time though to browse through my Lightroom catalog and found two older images that I decided to re-visit.
The first one is a two frame, vertical panorama made with an IR modified Olympus E-PL5 way back in 2015 at Casey Key on the gulf coast of Florida. It’s two Raw frames that I’d ignored at the time. I made it with a 14mm (28mm equivalent) lens at f/5.6, 2.0 sec, ISO 200. Here’s my current work flow:
Initial processing of the Raw file with DxO Photo Lab 6 DeepPrime XD Noise Reduction
Lightroom: color and exposure settings and panorama merge
Photoshop: cropping, final adjustments, sharpening with Topaz Sharpen AI
Lightroom again: B&W conversion and publish
Beach view
I was really happy with the result, especially the detail and how the light looks in the clouds. It was nice to rediscover this one in the archives!
I don’t know how interested you’d be in more detailed processing steps, but I’d be happy to answer any questions you have in the comments. Here’s a before and after comparison of the Beach View photo (Raw on the left and final on the right):
The second one is from even further back: A single frame from the St. Augustine Alligator Farm in 2010, made with a Nikon D90, at 150mm, f/6.3, 1/640 sec, ISO 640. I used a similar work flow (except no panorama merge or B&W conversion).
Spoonbill Touchdown
I’m very happy with this one too. The Nikon D90 was quite capable for its time and the files look pretty good, especially when processed with current software.
I often return from a photo op with too many photos. I’ll delete the obvious bad frames or duplicates. But I try not to delete too many because it’s a little hard to predict what the processed versions will end up looking like. Sometimes I’m very glad I saved images – even 9 and 14 years later!
Thanks for stopping by and reading my blog. Stay positive, be kind, take care of yourselves and each other. And if you have time, make some photos – or at least process an old one!
The last time I was at Orlando Wetlands was February 10th. It was a nice walk but I didn’t get many photos I liked, so I didn’t post about it on the blog. Here’s one from that day that did turn out:
Spoonie!
I decided to go again last week to see what’s changed and I’m glad I did. There were many more photos there this time. Here are some of them.
I said hello as I walked by a couple of photographers and they were nice enough to point out this Barred Owl posing on a dead tree. It looks wet, like it’s drying off after plunging into water after prey.
“Who cooks for you?”
A Great Egret in the distance looked like it would head towards me so I followed it with my lens. It was nice to have several seconds to check my settings and adjust a few (especially exposure compensation). Things happen pretty fast and there’s usually no opportunity to do that. It touched down close by and I was able to capture a lot of detail in its feathers.
Graceful arrival
I spotted a single woodpecker staying very close to this hole in a dead palm tree. It was sticking its head into the hole like it might be feeding hatchlings, but I couldn’t see anything in the dark interior. I watched for several minutes and a second one landed on the same tree. After about a minute the first bird left and the second one took over with the same behaviors. Even though I couldn’t see inside, it seems clear they’re a pair and this is a nest. The male (with his red forehead) is on the left and the female’s on the right.
A Red-bellied Woodpecker couple
I got several images with both birds in the frame, but their poses hid one or the other’s face / eyes. In the image above I combined two frames in photoshop to best show both of them.
There’s a family of Sandhill Cranes there with two colts that are about three weeks old. I found them as I was getting ready to leave. The young ones took time off from following Mom around and learning how to forage to have a little friendly challenge match. It only lasted for a few seconds and all ended well.
Sibling Rivalry
The header photo is another view of one of the colts next to a parent.
I try to watch for possible landscape photos as I walk around. This scene near the entrance caught my eye and I photographed it with my iPhone. I shot in RAW mode and made two exposures (I’m still using this technique that I posted about a long time ago: https://edrosack.com/2011/01/21/two-image-pano-hdr-focus-stacking/). After processing and combining in photoshop, I’m pleased with how it turned out. iPhones are very capable cameras.
Wetland morning
Thank you for stopping by and reading my blog. Stay positive, be kind, take care of yourselves and each other. And if you can, take a walk around a park close to you. And make some photos!
I realize I’ve been posting a lot lately about Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge, but I have a good excuse: there’s a lot of activity there right now. This post is just a bit more encouragement in case I haven’t already convinced you to check it out!
Kevin M. was in town and wanted to go there, so we went on the 16th after lunch. I usually go in the mornings and wasn’t sure how much we’d see in the afternoon, but it turned out we saw plenty. Most of these images are from that trip, but I’ve included a few from my February 2nd trip that haven’t been in the blog.
Hidden wonders in a beatuful place: It doesn’t look like it in this photo, but Black Point Wildlife Drive in MINWR is full of birds and wildlife – especially at this time of year. (2/2/24)
Flamingos are found in Florida, but usually only in the Everglades. In late August / early September of 2023, Hurricane Idalia displaced Flamingos from the Yucatan to all over the eastern US. These four are still hanging out off the west end of Haulover Canal in Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge. They were about 1/2 mile from the kayak launch where we were standing – so it was a pretty tough shot with quite a bit of atmospheric distortion. I’m glad it turned out even this well. I might have gotten a better pic if we still had our kayaks.
If you click on the image, you’ll open a higher res version on Flickr. Then click again once or twice to zoom in to see the flamingos a little bertter.
For the record…
There were mostly Great and Snowy Egrets in this gathering, with some Spoonbills, Woodstorks, and a few Grackles mixed in. They weren’t going after the fish very hard so most of the fish were gone or the birds were full.
A great gathering
I wasn’t looking closely enough and didn’t notice this Great Egret until Kevin pointed out its bright green lores and breeding feathers (aigrettes). Thanks Kevin!
Fancy Feathers
Terns were busy fishing along the west side of Black Point. We watched them swooping, hovering, and diving for several minutes.
Forster’s Tern after fish
Kevin also found this Merlin near the Black Point exit. Zoom into the Flickr version and you’ll be able to see the dragonfly in the Merlin’s left talon.
Merlin with prey
A lady Painted Buntings was enjoying the seeds at the visitor center feeder. There was a male there too, but I wasn’t able to get a photo.
Lady Bunting
We spotted other birds: Kestrels, Hawks, Ospreys, Skimmers, Hooded Mergansers, and several species of duck. Keven also saw Florida Scrub Jays. A very good trip!
Here’s two final photos to close out.
Lesser Yellowlegs
Wading near the shore (2/2/24)
The header image is an early morning (2/2/24) iPhone photo near the entrance to Black Point Wildlife Drive. That was a good trip too!
Thanks so much for stopping by and reading my blog . Stay positive, be kind, take care of yourselves and each other. And if you can, check out a NWR close to you. And make some photos!
This is the best time of year to visit Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge. I made another rewarding trip a week ago and came home with many images I like. Here are some of them.
Clouds added a dose of drama to early scenes along Gator Creek. And with the calm winds and long exposure, the water surface doubled the golden light.
Dawn across the creek.
Once it was brighter, I headed over to Black Point Wildlife Drive and one of the first things I came across was a group of Black Skimmers doing their thing. The iBird app says these are along our coast year round, but I hardly ever see them except in the winter. This one showed off some fine form as it flew right in front of me. I was able to capture a number of frames – this was my best and it’s only slightly cropped.
In Central Florida we only see American White Pelicans in the winter months. They’re very large and it’s always fun to spot them. They can be difficult to photograph. Be careful with your exposure if you want to preserve detail in their white feathers (and black primary feathers too). These four were preparing to land along the trail at the SW corner of BPWD.
Final approach
This group / pod was preening in the shallow water along the same trail near the first bird blind. I liked this framing with the mangrove in the foreground, so I made two exposures (one focused on the mangrove and one on the pelicans). Then I was able to blend them in photoshop so both are sharp.
Preening Pod and mangrove
And two last birds, both also winter only around here. They aren’t easy to find as they usually skulk around in the mangrove roots and / or reeds along the canals or shorelines. They’re also a bit of a challenge to photograph since it’s dark back in there where they hang out! I was lucky to see them both!
Clapper Rail
Wilson’s Snipe
To close out this post, here’s a bonus landscape photo. This one is after sun up near the entrance to Black Point Wildlife Drive. I like the way the mist looks in the distance.
P.S. I walked around Orlando Wetlands Park for a little bit yesterday. Bird activity is starting to pick up there too! I’m planning to revisit over the next month or so and hope to catch some of the bird courting / nesting activities. They started to pick up around this time last year.
Thanks so much for visiting my blog – I really appreciate it. Stay positive, be kind, take care of yourselves and each other. And if you can, check out a NWR close to you. And make some photos!
I hope everyone had a wonderful time during the Hollidays and that you’re all having a great start to the New Year! We had a lovely (and busy) time with lots of family here at our home.
But … December is a very good time to visit MINWR. I wanted to stop by before most of the folks arrived. MK was already here and wanted to go too, so we took off early one morning to see what was going on.
It was chilly (to a Florida person anyway) and very clear. Sunrise wasn’t nearly as good as the last time I was there (https://edrosack.com/2023/08/13/5-photos-in-45-minutes/). I struggled a bit trying to make a landscape image with such a clear sky and this is the best I could do:
The day began beyond small distant clouds with a chill in the air, ripples in the river, and the click of a shutter:
There was a lot to see in the refuge though. Many birds were around, but for some reason they all seemed to be a long way off – proving a common belief that you can never have too long a lens when photographing birds.
Chilly Heron
I did get a lot of practice with a variety of birds in flight.
White Pelican
Spoonbill
Mottled Duck
Kestrel
And I managed to photograph one species for the first time (at least I’m pretty sure these are Greater Scaups).
Greater Scaups(?) Trio
We also saw Ospreys, Herons, Egrets, Vultures, a Northern Harrier, Hooded Mergansers, and a variety of other ducks. But no gators on this trip – they were huddled somewhere waiting for it to warm up. We did see manatees and dolphins (at Bairs Cove). This dolphin was making quite a splash chasing fish in Haulover Canal.
Cypress Swamp
In the garden by the Visitors Center.
Snowy Egret, low over the pond.
Little Blue Heron Portrait
Sleepy Gator. And the alligators are plentiful too.
