PUFFIN PAD - A Review

The Puffin Pad is an alternative to a heavy beanbag in allowing you to photograph from your car. About a year ago I had seen an advertisement for the Puffin Pad and love the idea of a lightweight alternative from my very heavy beanbag especially when I was traveling. I had ordered one and arrived and it met my expectations.

Before I go on about the Puffin Pad, let me tell you about an event. Arriving on St. Paul island in the Pribillofs for a photo workshop, I met a gentleman who was willing to share a room at the hotel with me so we could save on the single supplement price. As we were settling in and talking, much to my surprise, my room mate was Ken Blye who with his partner Wayne Bennett was the inventor of the Puffin Pad.

The Puffin Pad is made to fit over the window and can rest on the door frame. It will stay in place even if you drive 50 miles an hour. Therefore you can leave it in place so you can be ready to photograph at a moments notice.

Here are pictures of the Puffin Pad and it being used.

you are able to use it on any flat surface

your knee with the puffin pad acts as a tripod

the puffin pad with the tether attached so you can carry it with you in the field

here I am using the puffin pad with my 500 mm lens

I smiled I was on candid camera

I have modified a Puffin Pad to use it as a support for my camera and lens so would be immediately available for me to use, rather than having to stop and pull up camera and lens from my backseat. I attached a mounting bracket to each side of the Puffin Pad and attached it to the armrest in my vehicle with a bungee cord. The lens and camera rest in the cutout of the Puffin Pad and I hold it in place with a second bungee cord.

I added clips on both sides of the puffin pad

here is the puffin pad being held in place by a bungee cord

there is my lens ready for use

When I am traveling, I place the Puffin Pad on the bottom of my duffel bag suitcase and rest my tripod in it. Although the puffin pad doesn't collapse by utilizing it in this way it really doesn't take up much space.

So in conclusion I really recommend the puffin pad as an alternative to a beanbag. It can be purchased directly by going to: or online at Amazon.com, Adorama, Hunts Photo, NatureScapes, Outdoor Photo Gear or by googling Puffin Pad.

Florida - the Last Day

I started the last day photographing in Florida by taking pictures of the sunrise over Tampa Bay. Beside just the sunrise, I obtained a picture of a great blue heron silhouette in the early morning light.

We then went back to north beach at Fort de Soto and obtain more pictures of the reddish egret fishing. Black-bellied plovers were roaming the shoreline and double crested Comerants were fishing. We met another photographer Rosemary Harris who now lives in Florida but is from Canada who recommended that we go back down the beach to obtain photographs of the long-billed Curlew and that we ought to make a trip to the Boyd Hill Nature Preserve since there is a Groove-billed Ani there who loves to be photographed.

black-bellied plover

black-bellied plover in transitional plumage

reddish egret feeding dance

"skipping through the water"

double crested Comerants eating a fish

We did locate the long-billed Curlew and I just sat in the wet sand and let the bird come to me rather than trying to chase the bird down the beach. Most of the time sitting on the beach and remaining relatively still, the shorebirds and other birds will walk right past you allowing you to obtain the photographs that you want. Besides the Curlew pictures, I obtained pictures of laughing gulls courtship and mating rituals.

Long-billed Curlew within itch

Long-billed Curlew eating a crab

laughing gulls courtship

laughing gulls mating

We then traveled to the Boyd Hill Nature Preserve, which is situated within the city of St. Petersburg and is a city park. The preserve is in unsung sanctuary of 245 acres with 3 miles of trails and boardwalks. It contains hardwood hammocks, sand pine scrub, pine flat-woods, willow marsh and a shoreline on Lake Maggiore. There is an entrance fee of $3. At the education center, the people they knew by looking at us and our cameras that we wanted to find the groove-billed ani and very kindly gave us a map with directions on where to find it. Walking down to where the ani was, did come across the raccoon looking for food in the stream and lent itself to a picture.

raccoon in the stream

raccoon

We did meet a birder who traveled with us looking for the ani. By utilizing a call, the ani came right out and looked at us saying okay kick up some food for me. It has learned that people walking on the scrub get insects to move and therefore making it easier to obtain a meal. While we were photographing the ani we were joined by two more birders, who were there also to get a look at the ani. One of the new birders was from Cape Cod and I believe we had previously met onto Brookline bird club pelagic trip. A crow, also learned that food would be kicked up and came down to join the ani in eating.

groove-billed ani

American Crow

the group looking at the ani-picture taken by Ken Blye

water hyacinth there are many other other objects to look at at the Boyd Hill Nature Preserve

old stone bridge

I would recommend the Boyd Hill Nature Preserve as a place to visit when you are in the St. Petersburg area. It is open Tuesday through Friday from 10 AM to 7 PM, Saturday 7 AM to 6 PM and Sunday 10 AM to 6 PM. It is closed on Monday.

Florida Part Four - Saturday Afternoon

Saturday afternoon we drove down to Venice Florida to visit the Venice Rookery. The rookery is a top destination for both birders and wildlife photographers because of the nesting birds that are present from January through April. The rookery is located on an island in a small lake and is in a few shorts blocks of busy stores and is also located amidst a densely populated area. The rookery is managed by Venice Area Audubon Society. The best time to photograph the birds is early in the morning or late in the afternoon. There used to be a large stand of trees behind the island on the far shore which gave a great background for morning photography, but, that stand of trees has been cut down. However, while I was there I noticed that they were starting to replant trees on the backside where the other trees were removed. My feeling is that the trees that were removed were invasive species and they are going to replant the area with native species. Since we were there in the afternoon the area where the trees were cut down gave us better and cleaner views of the island. Although we were at the latter part of the breeding season there was still a number of birds present. We were able to photograph Great Blue Heron, Great and Snowy Egrets, Double-crested Comerants, Anhingas, Black-crested Night-heron and other species.

Great Blue Heron

 Anhinga chick

anhinga drying its wings

great blue heron chicks

great blue heron and chick

great egret

Osprey being harassed by a red-winged blackbird

"feed me"  anhinga family

anhinga with fish

cattle egret

great blue heron

Black-crowned Night-heron

snowy egret

grade egret

anhinga

great blue herons

If you enjoyed the photographs and are visiting the West Coast of Florida from Tampa downward I would recommend a visit to the Venice Rookery.
Directions to the VAAS Rookery
From the North, take US 41 (Tamiami Trail) south 1/2 mile past Rt. 776. Turn right onto Annex Road at the Anderson Sarasota County Administration/Court House building. Follow Annex Road to rookery on right.
From the South, take US 41 (Tamiami Trail) north past Jacaranda Blvd. (Wal-Mart on south corner) Make left turn onto Annex Road just past FL State Police Barracks. Follow Annex Road to rookery on right.

Florida Part Four - Saturday Morning

We had driven over on Friday to St. Petersburg where we were spending the weekend and staying at a Holiday Inn Express. our plans were early Saturday morning to drive to Fort de Soto, however, approaching the bridge leading into the park we were stopped by the sheriffs department because there was a triathlon going on and we could not get into Fort de Soto until after 9:30 AM. So we changed our plans and drove over to Indian Shores will we stopped at Seacoast Seabird Sanctuary and walked out onto the beach. Despite all the people on the beach, there were at least 50 to 75 black skimmers present along with laughing gulls, willets, pelicans and terns.

When I first tried to photograph the birds, I found a big problem; the lens was fogged due to it being all night in our cold air-conditioned room and now it was out in the warm humid air. Here is what the first picture looked like.

 fogged lens, it could have been taken in the fog

In order to get the better pictures, we got down onto the sand and photographed the birds at an eye level. They were mating rituals going on especially the laughing gulls and the Royal terns.

Sandwich Tern

Black skimmer in-flight

Royal terns in-flight

Snowy egret

Black skimmer

flight of black skimmers

willit

Royal terns courtship ritual

Royal terns copulating

One pair of laughing gulls copulated for at least 5 minutes with both of them making a lot noise.

laughing gulls copulating

In the water near the shoreline there was a number of fish jumping and moving around so the brown pelicans were feasting.

Brown pelican fishing

Brown pelican fishing

We then drove back to Fort de Soto and was able to get out on the North Beach where we finished the morning photographing the shore and Wading birds that were present. We photographed most of the birds from the water side, wading up to just below our mid-calf area.

yellow crowned night Heron, it close for us right on the sand

 Willit

marbled Godwit

American oystercatcher

short-billed dowitcher

lesser yellowlegs

white Ibis

Ruddy turnstone

reddish egret

We finished the morning at at the East beach area watching people Para-sailing.

para-sailing