Short-tailed Hawk, Yes!

Short-tailed Hawk, dark morph, adult. We saw this one recently in Ft. Myers, FL. Lucky us!

Here's a Short-tailed Hawk, light morph.

Short-tailed Hawk, light morph adult. We have seen two of these together this year over Bailey Tract, Sanibel, FL. double lucky us!

Saw the above Short-tailed Hawk, dark morph adult, soaring over a park in Ft. Myers, FL a few days ago when I was photographing the Least Bittern. 

Short-tailed Hawk, is a sought-after Florida speciality for birders and not easy to see. This bird breeds primarily in southern and central Florida and a little in southern AZ and south TX. 

The Short-tailed Hawk comes in two morphs, a light morph, shown here, and a dark morph. Dark-morphs are dark below with blackish brown body and wing coverts, paler flight feathers and tail, and dark trailing edge to wings. Short-tailed Hawks mostly soar and may hang in one spot for a time. We almost always see them in flight when we encounter them.

The Least Cooperative Bird: Least Bittern

Least Bittern

When you least expect it you might get a chance to see a rather hard to find bird, as we did when Don and I heard of a Least Bittern on our local FL birding listserve. Least Bitterns are widespread breeders throughout the eastern part of the country and into parts of the West, but they are secretive. So I went to photograph this Least Bittern in a park in Ft. Myers, FL. I had seen some beautiful shots of this bird, out in full sun, taken by other photographers. Of course, when I got there, the Least Bittern did not cooperate, photographically speaking. It stayed hidden in its chosen place in the cattails.

I used the Canon SX 50 HS (a superzoom bridge camera) to get these intimate shots of the Least Bittern in its world. You can see its red tongue here.

Here's Don looking down into the cattails to find the elusive Least Bittern.

Can you find it? There it is in the red circle. Great photo op? not. However with a little

zooming in close with the camera and adjusting for the contrasting light, I got some photos. The Least Bittern was hunting for little fish in the true bittern style of wait-quietly-and-strike.

I love the way this Least Bittern so beautifully blends in with its habitat. Its plumage colors and patterns are just like the browns and shadows of the cattails.

Though its body often remained still, you can see the look of anticipation of a tasty fish in its eyes.

Sometimes it would slowly extend its long neck to peer into the water, ready to grab an unsuspecting fish. 

Sometimes photography is not about the perfect, front-lit, no obstructing vegetation, catch light in the eye, perfect reflection in the water photo. It is about using your knowledge of your camera's abilities and your own skill to enter the world of a bird and capture that in photographs. I learned a lot about how a Least Bittern goes about its life of getting food on a cool, March day and how it hunts, reacts and rests, all the time oblivious to the photographers on the boardwalk above, hunting for their own photo ops. Yes, the Least Bittern was the least cooperative bird I photographed that day. But at the very least, I gained a new appreciation for this little bird and how it lives, and what the Canon SX 50 can do in capturing its world.

Swallow-tailed Kites have returned!

The Swallow-tailed Kites have returned from migration here on Sanibel Island and elsewhere in Florida and we have seen them in numerous places.

These beautiful birds winter mainly in South America

and return to the Southeast U.S. to breed. Note the interesting pattern on the topside of the wing.

Swallow-tailed Kites catch insects in the air and may pluck lizards from trees. They nest in woodlands and forested wetlands and build nests in trees. What a show they can put on. Look for them and you may be lucky enough to see these beautiful birds.

Birders: The Central Park Effect, a must see, get the DVD.

 Blackburnian Warbler

and Nashville Warbler, two of the beautiful birds shown in the documentary, Birders: The Central Park Effect.

Just saw a showing of the documentary by Jeffrey Kimball called Birders: The Central Park Effect, last night at J.N. Ding Darling National Wildlife Refuge. It's a film about birding and birders in Central Park, NY through the seasons.  It was great, you gotta see it. Beautifully filmed, great footage of birds, wonderful personalities (including Jonathan Franzen) articulately telling why birding grabs them. Like a love poem to birding, it will remind you why you are a birder.
Birders: The Central Park Effect is now available on DVD, click here.

The gorgeous video of warblers made us eager for the eye candy birds of spring migration. By the way,   we will be keynote speakers on Friday, May 10th this year at The Biggest Week in American Birding festival at Magee Marsh, OH, one of the top warbler spots of the country. Hope to see you there. Bring your cameras. I took the above warbler photos there.

Moonrise Bird Beauty

Went for a wonderful sunset cruise recently out of Tarpon Bay (nestled within Ding Darling NWR) Sanibel, FL, run by Tarpon Bay Explorers. We saw birds going to roost at sunset and this spectacular moonrise (taken with Canon SX 50 HS camera, photo not cropped. All photos were taken with this camera.)

Tarpon Bay (the setting for the Doc Ford novels by Randy Wayne White) stretches out before you. The pontoon boat we took is at the dock.

We passed this nesting pair of Ospreys atop a pole with a nesting platform. 

Then out to the rookery islands out in the bay where there were hundreds of birds, especially pelicans,

both White Pelicans,

and Brown Pelicans.

The birds were settling in for the night.

 The closer it got to sunset, the more birds flew in including may White Ibis, Snowy Egrets, other herons and more. The birds find safety at night on the islands and also a place to nest.

It was magical as the sun got lower.

and we had a spectacular sunset,

then moonrise. It was awesome being out in nature and experiencing the night ritual of the birds. Just us and them. Go if you can.

Ovenbird Up Close, J. N. Ding Darling NWR, Canon SX 50 HS

Ovenbird on the ground, viewed from above, at the entrance ramp to J. N. Ding Darling National Wildlife Visitor's Center. This is such a cool view of that head pattern of the two dark stripes on either side of the orange crown. (Photographed with Canon SX 50 HS super-zoom point and shoot camera (cost $429), AV, 1/60, ISO 2000, f5.6, + 1/3, 100% digital zoom ratio.) This was a difficult photo situation and bigger, more expensive DSLR cameras like my Canon 1D Mark IV (cost me $5,000) would have produced better photos. Even for DLSR cameras, the low light, moving bird that was mostly obscured by twigs and brush, it would be a photo challenge. I only post these photos to show what is even possible with this little camera in a tough situation. If you want a camera that shoots in low light with better quality photos, get one of the more expensive DLSR cameras from Canon or other manufacturers. It you want a fun camera with an incredible zoom power (up to 1200mm, or 4800mm with digital zoom), weights a little more than a pound and costs a lot less, then you might be interested in the SX 50 HS.

This bird was walking on the ground under bushes and tangle in a shaded area, just the kind of place a wintering Ovenbird would like. Ovenbirds winter in Florida, the southern tip of TX, and farther south.

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Can you find the Ovenbird? It was very camouflaged against the leafy, bushy understory. The lower light level made photography a challenge. 

I was amazed I got any clear photos at all. The bird was constantly moving, there were branches in the way, and the very low light levels meant I had a slow shutter speed. I bumped up the ISO to 2000 to increase shutter speed, but even then I still had shutter speeds of 1/60 or 1/50. I kept shooting, waiting for the few seconds when the bird paused and was somewhat still. This camera has image stabilization, which helped. I am constantly surprised at the photos I get with this camera.

Heres the ramp that leads to the visitor's center building and bookstore. The ovenbird was on the right side, near the top of the ramp, so we were looking down on it from above. 

What a secretive and wonderful bird and so special to know it's making a living wintering in this national wildlife refuge. Many people walked by us, not knowing the ovenbird was below. Some stopped to ask what we were looking at. When we said "Ovenbird" some people knew what we meant and were thrilled to see it. For other people, when we had to explain "It's a warbler that walks on the ground," they responded "Can it fly?" We realize there's still so much education about birds to do, and we're happy to do it.

FYI, the AOU (American Ornithologist's Union) has changed the classification of warblers and this is included in our new field guides, The New Stokes Field Guide to Birds: Eastern Region and The New Stokes Field Guide to Birds: Western Region, which will be for sale on March 26th. For example, Ovenbird is the first bird in the warbler section, followed by Worm-eating Warbler and the two waterthrushes. The genus Dendroica is gone. The Genus Setophaga, which used to include only the American Redstart, now also includes Hooded Warbler, two species from the genus Parula, and everything that used to be in the genus Dendroica. So, if you want to be current, get our new guides which you can pre-order here.

Think Spring!

As our friend said when she saw a photo of our view of palm trees at our Florida home, "you live on a different planet." As northern areas are under a blanket of snow and northern bloggers, like our friends at Juniper Hill Farm, write about keeping warm by the fire and browsing internet garden images, we are in a land that has a different rhythm. The Cardinals in our yard are singing in the Bougainvillea and getting ready to breed.

Gulf Fritillay butterflies are on the wing, nectaring on newly opened wildflowers.

The Red Kapok Tree in a tropical garden here, is in bloom.

But soon the North will change and Yellow-rumped Warblers will return.

Down here they are in small to large flocks and eat insects and berries, getting ready for their journey.

Tree Swallows wintering here by the thousands,

will return to their breeding grounds, bringing spring with them.

So, think spring wherever you are.

Northern Shoveler, Isn't She Lovely?

Northern Shoveler, female, photographed at Bailey Tract, Sanibel, FL.

Isn't she lovely? Somehow that song plays in my mind when I look at her and think, from the perspective of a Northern Shoveler, male, it's true.

Here she is with a Blue-winged Teal, male. Two different types of bill, each adapted for a specific type of feeding. Photos taken with the Canon SX 50 HS point and shoot super-zoom camera. Nature is wonderful.

Sora, Bailey Tract, Sanibel, FL. and Canon SX 50 HS.

Sora, Bailey Tract, Sanibel, Florida. I had fun at this location photographing this rail and other birds yesterday with my Canon SX 50 HS point and shoot super-zoom camera.

Soras are usually secretive birds that stay in the shadows, but this one came out into the sun and the open at the end of the day, hunting for food before the cold (for here) night set in.

Soras are beautifully colored and I love their tail. It reminds me of a White-tailed Deer's tail.

The Sora was on the first water area on the right on the main trail. Here's a long view with an immature White Ibis for scale.

There were many ducks there. I will post more about them tomorrow. Here's a female Mottled Duck, resting in the grasses, but still alert. One of the things I like about the Canon SX 50 HS camera is the fact that it zoom out to 1200mm (and beyond in the digital range, up to 4800mm) which allows you to get close photos of birds without disturbing them. This is a big plus in bird photography.

An immature Osprey sat on a dead tree, surveying the scene, eyes alert. I always am paying attention to the way the light falls on the bird and what subtle and unique photos it makes. One does not always have to have a perfectly front lit bird for an interesting photo.

Here it is showing the whole body.

This immature Tri-colored Heron still has rust colors in its plumage and was dramatically posed in the late sunlight against the dark water.

Photography is so much fun. I enjoy playing with the effects of light and shadow and capturing intimate glimpses of birds.