Cape Cod Canal, Sandwich Visitors Center and Scuesset Beach

Another interesting place to visit to observe birds and to photograph them is the Cape Cod Bay end of the Cape Cod Canal.  Both sides of the canal offer opportunities for these endeavors.  On both sides.  There are jetties that you can walk out on, I find the jetty on the Sandwich side much easier to walk on.  Both sides of easy to get to.  Although you do have to drive over the Sagamore Bridge to get from one to the other.

The day of my last visit, there was a snow shower the night before and the ground was covered with snow.  The first picture that I obtained was a close-up of a phragmites seed head with snow on it.  I  utilized my 500 mm f/4 lens to do the macro.

As we slowly walked down toward the jetty, we observed common loons, red breasted mergansers, herring gulls,common eiders and other birds.
Flying there was a herring gull which had food in its mouth being harassed by a first-year juvenile herring gull.  The long and the shot of the story is that the adult bird opened its mouth and drop the food into the canal, so neither bird got to eat it.
Down in the water off the beach, there were a number of Atlantic Brandt swimming and flying around a Great Blue Heron.


I was able to capture some sequences of bird action.  The first was a red-necked merganser taking off from the canal and the second was a common loon diving for food.  I combined the pictures into inaction-sequence panorama, utilizing the technique that George Lepp described in Outdoor Photography and is available online at http://www.outdoorphotographer.com/how-to/shooting/action-sequence-panoramas.html


There were a number of Brants feeding in a area of snow covered grass.




Crossing over to discuss the Scusset Beach State Reservation   Area, we observed mostly the same birds that we had seen on the opposite side of the canal.  There was a lone sanderling feeding on the beach. Normally you find sanderlings in in groups.  The sanderlings was very cooperative and walked back and forth by me as I knelt in the snowy sands to get a low profile of the bird.
The wind had picked up and this song sparrow, I captured with its feathers blowing in the wind. A ringed-build gull decided to make the handicap parking sign its resting place. 
There also was a good number of American Crows around the area.
I do recommend a visit to the Cape Cod Bay end of the Cape Cod Canal for your enjoyment.  Directions and information are available at http://www.nae.usace.army.mil/recreati/ccc/ccchome.htm

Snowy Owls on Duxbury Beach

I finally was able to photograph a snowy owl.  The last couple of years there have been snowy owls present on Plum Island, however, they have been too far to photograph with my camera lenses.  This year there are at least two or maybe three snowy owls present at Duxbury Beach.
Before I present my photographs, some information about snowy owls.  Snowy owls normally summer in the north circumpolar region.  During the winter, they will occur South through Canada and northern Eurasia and in some years, much further southward.  Snowy owls are diurnal in nature and will hunt both in the daytime and in the night.
During the breeding season, they usually will eat lemmings and other small rodents, or juvenile ptarmigan.  In the winter.  They are more opportunistic, feeding on a variety of small mammals, including rabbits, squirrels molts, docs, geese, shorebirds and also fish and carrion.
Duxbury Beach is owned by the Duxbury Beach Reservation, Inc., who leases most of the beach holdings to the town of Duxbury for the use of the residence and the general public.  To reach where the snowy owls are requires a walk of around 2 1/2 miles or if you purchase and over the sand sticker you are able to drive along the road.  Stickers are available at the Duxbury town hall or online with the payment of the fee.
The day that I was there, there were a number of birders and photographers present all interested in observing and photographing this beautiful bird.
The bird I photograph was originally close to the road and then flew off, most of the time below the berm of the beach and landed further up in the marsh.  Most everybody traveled to follow the bird and we were able to be on a sandy area on the marsh.  The day that we were there it  was also the time of the new Moon, and also at the time of high tide, the water started to cover the marsh and drove us back onto the road.  However, a good time was had by everyone, and we all were able to enjoy the splendor of this bird.

Environmental picture on the Marsh

Dragonflies and Damselflies

It is now the hot days of summer and I have returned to my fun photography, that is photographing dragonflies and damselflies. For the past few days I've woken up early in the morning and with my trusty 105 macro lens gone out to observe the Odonata. I traveled down to the edge of the lakes, put on my knee boots and look for the various species. I want to get to them before he gets too warm and they get more active otherwise sometimes they get very nervous and will fly at the slightest motion.
Today I even tried to photograph one of the larger species of dragonflies flying over Rico Lake. In order to accomplish this I utilized my 70-200 mm lens and my bird in flight technique. I watched how the dragonflies were flying and noticed that they were following closely to a similar path most of the time. So I pre-focused and then would panning followed and took the pictures. As you can see from the picture I did capture the dragonfly in flight however, it is not the best or sharpest picture. Oh well it'll take more work to try to accomplish this task.

For those  of you who are interested in dragonfly photography I recommend a free e-book from photo naturalist which was written by Vic Beraedi. In the book he gives good references to the literature that help you identify which species that the damselflies or dragonfly belong to. For those of you who live in Massachusetts, the state fishing game service has a publication A Field Guide to the Dragonflies and Damselflies of Massachusetts 2nd Edition (2007) by Blair Nikula, Jennifer Loose, and Matthew Burne available-for-sale. If you go to <http://www.mass.gov/dfwele/dfw/nhesp/publications/nhesp_pubs.htm> you can download an order sheet to mail away for this publication.
Here are some of my photographs from the last few days.Autumn MeadowhawkBlue DasherBlue dasher
Female Blue DasherBluet MatingViolet DancerCommon or Eastern PondhawkDragonfly flight



Fragile Forktail
Stream BluetViolet Dance femaleon SumacWandering GliderFemale widow Skimmer
Here is a slide video of a Bluet laying an egg