Hey Hawk Surprise

Red-shouldered Hawk

It is another winter day here in Southeastern Massachusetts from a very cold morning to first of the snowstorms before the blizzard starts late tonight and into tomorrow.  I have spent the day photographing the birds coming to the feeder.  Watching the interactions between the different species and among the species.  At 4:00 PM, I came back down to capture the end of the day images.  Suddenly, out of the conifer a covey of at least 12 Council at more mourning doves came flying out headed in all directions.  I said to myself.  There has to be a hawk  nearby.  I thought initially that it would been a Cooper's Hawk, but out of the conifer flew a red-shouldered hawk which landed a nearby tree and gave me a chance to photograph it.  After the hawk took off, the juncos, titmouse is and house sparrows came in and started feeding.

Red-shouldered Hawk

Red-shouldered Hawk

Topaz notified me that from February 10th-28th, Topaz is running a promotion on Topaz ReStyle for $20 off its original price of $59.99 (reducing the price to $39.99). The coupon code for this promotion is: febrestyle

ReStyle is a plugin designed to alter the colors in your image with its unique array of toning effects. The technology behind ReStyle uses a cutting-edge process to map the color and tone statistics from a source image.

With this, creative possibilities extend too many inspiring choices. Restyle is a useful tool for the photographer or artist looking to alter the overall feeling and mood of his or her image. The program can even be used to revamp the tone of graphics and textures. You can link directly to the ReStyle product page with this link: http://www.topazlabs.com/aff/idevaffiliate.php…

Little Blue Heron, and More at Daniel Webster

Juvenile Little Blue Heron

This Sunday was a beautiful morning with a great sunrise.  As I traveled to Marshfield to visit Daniel Webster Massachusetts Audubon Sanctuary.  The reason I traveled was because there have been reports of a juvenile Little Blue Heron present at the sanctuary.  Normally I have seen the juvenile Little Blue Heron down in Florida.  As opposed to the adult Little Blue Heron, the juvenile plumage is usually all white as opposed to the dark bluish-gray body that the adult has.

Arriving at the sanctuary, I walked down to the morning blind that overlooks the small pond.  The sanctuary has two blinds, a morning blind and an afternoon blind.  The blinds are positioned so the sun is coming over your shoulder and illuminating the creatures that are in front of you.  In the blind, there are screws that you can mount your tripod head on.  I set my gimbal head and attached my 500 mm F/4 lens starting out with a 1.4 converter and utilizing my Nikon D800.

Red-shoulder Hawk

The morning started out with a Hawk in the distance, and to capture it, I switched my converter to the 2X.  We then got a Green Heron closer was which required switching back to the 1.4 converter.  Later on, a Sandpiper appeared, which required the 2X converter plus changing the crop mode of my camera to 1.5, so that I could get a decent picture.  The question was, was this a Solitary Sandpiper or a Spotted Sandpiper.  After reviewing the pictures on my computer, there was no white notch before the wing, therefore, I called it a solitary Sandpiper.

Green Heron with its crest up

Solitary Sandpiper

This is a morning where I had to change from using converter's of various lengths to no converter's so that I get the photograph that I wanted.

All of a sudden, in front of us appeared the Little Blue Heron, which was so close that I almost had too much glass to take its picture.

Little Blue Heron

After finishing all of photography, I came home and downloaded the pictures and am thinking about returning again to Daniel Webster tomorrow.  The reason is that the plants and spiderwebs were covered with dew, and would make very interesting pictures.  The weather report is for fog in the morning so I hope we will get the great dew on the subjects.  This will require my macro lens, rather than my 500 mm lens.

Using the coupon code mborn you will receive a 15% discount on any or all of the Topaz plug-ins.



Help Support my blog by purchasing from Amazon. Clicking on this link and utilizing the link does not cost you anything.
BUY FROM AMAZON

Potpourri in Westport Massachusetts

Yesterday was a potpourri of different events, my colleague Doug had a bird watch scheduled for the Echo Focus Group and a training session for the interns at Allens Pond Massachusetts Audubon Sanctuary on how to lead a beach ramble. I was not only attending to help Doug, but also photograph the events. Also since it's been about a week since I took photographs of the red-shouldered Hawks, we decided to make a whole day of it.
We first went and visited the red-shouldered Hawks. The chicks are getting big they are about three quarters the size of the adults. Today,

there was no real action in the nest, although I was able to obtain photographs of the adult returning to the nest.
 
As I said in my first post about the red shouldered hawks I would've loved to have a lift truck and be able to photograph right down onto the nest rather than from the ground. However, we will make do with what we have.
We then went to the Allen Pond Massachusetts Audubon Sanctuary and met with the Echo Focus Group. Here is a description of the group by the founder Naomi.
 
"I started the Ecology group two years ago and the idea was to learn as much about our local ecology as possible by participating in outings. We've gone to the Audubon Sanctuary as you know, to Eva's organic farm to learn about sustainable agriculture. We've had guided hikes by naturalist, Amy Thurber who leads DNRT hikes.
So from this group evolved the Eco Focus group. This group has continued the study of ecology but our trips have focused more on waste management. There has still been a great focus on immersion in the local environment: getting out in nature, hiking, seeing, listening. We toured SEMASS trash burning power plant in Rochester, MA. We went to Blount soup for a tour and learned where they get their ingredients, how they recycle their waste using microorganisms. We went to Lee's market for a tour of their store and learned how they recycle the meat renderings (into soap), veggies (they go to the local pig farmers), etc. We also toured the Dartmouth Recycle and Transfer station to learn where the recyclables go and took a tour of CRAPO landfill in New Bedford (one of my favorite tours).
We've taken many hikes this spring learning about local animal and plant species. Paul Champlin did a guided hike on soil ecology which was fascinating. We went to see the astronomers at UMASS' open observatory night. Everything ties together under the subject of ecology: all species depend and relate one to another."
The group consisted of not only the children, but the parents and grandparents. We went on a hike down around the beach loop, with views of some of the birds of Allens Pond, with everybody getting a good view of the ospreys and some people evening getting to see the Clapper Rail.
However, the rail was squawking and everybody could hear it. Doug, the leader, discussed the red-winged blackbirds and pointed out the various birds such as a green heron, Willits, tree swallows, song sparrow singing and how the Asians used Cormorants to fish.

Song SparrowBlue Crab ClawsTree Swallow
The group was also told about the Duck Derby, which is the annual fundraising event for Allens Pond Massachusetts Audubon Sanctuary; the grand prize is a trip and dinner anywhere in the world. You can adopt a duck for $10 and you can adopt online at http://www.massaudubon.org/Nature_Connection/Sanctuaries/Allens_Pond/news.php?id=1295&event=no.
After lunch there was a teaching session for the interns on how to conduct a beach ramble.Checking the WrackPoppySkate Egg Case Mole CrabBlue CrabskateGhost Crab
While we were on the beach, we came across a killdeer, which probably had a nest nearby and put on a display of a bird with a hurt wing to lure us away from the nest.
If you are interested in going on a beach ramble they are occurring every Saturday morning at 10 AM starting at the field station at Allens Pond Massachusetts Audubon Sanctuary. There Is No Fee Involved.

Red-shouldered Hawk

After the bird walk last Saturday, I went with my friend, Paul Champlin, to his house where in a tree very close to the house there is a Red-shouldered Hawk nest. There are two chicks in the nest. Both the adults and chicks are visible from the yard. However, I would've loved to have had one of the trucks that telephone lineman use in order to get up to the level of the nest so I could photograph it straight on or slightly down into it. But, since this was not the case I had a be satisfied in photographing them from the yard. I am planning on returning almost weekly to photograph the growth of these chicks.


Red-shouldered Hawk and Chick
  Red-shouldered Hawk
  Red-shouldered Hawk
  Red-shouldered Hawk Chick
Red-shouldered Hawk Chick