World Bird Wednesday LXXXIV

In Pursuit of the Yellow Headed Black Bird

    Two years ago I was chatting with a lady who owned a sport fishing business along the marshy shoreline of Saginaw Bay. Day after day she experienced the comings and goings of this great bird flyway in a passive sense, not studying it exactly, but being surrounded by such rich avian life she was privy to tons of anecdotal information. She told me about the strange Yellow-headed black birds she would occasionally see. I was intrigued. As much as I bum around the back roads and marshes of the Saginaw Valley you'd think I'd have heard of such an interesting photographic prospect. I immediately put her marshy address on my list of birding hot spots and returned often in hopes of catching a glimpse of this bird. I never got lucky.
    The years passed, and the cycles of migration came and went without me getting a look at a creature my research showed should be at hand. It remained an itch that would not be scratched until last week when I came by some information purporting to give the location of the largest colony of Yellow-headed black birds in the Saginaw Bay watershed. In my minds eye I began to conjure a magnificent WBW entry replete with gorgeously detailed portraits of it's brightly contrasted plumage.
    I readied a thermos of coffee and a half dozen cinnamon apple cookies and thusly prepared, drove off in pursuit of the Yellow-headed black bird.
    As so often happens, fate had finer plans.

     I was seeing a scattering of high clouds and hoped I would be blessed with those thinly overcast skies that would give me a choice variety of lighting conditions. No luck there, the cloud cover dissipated into nothingness along the bay. There would be the stark shadows of a bright June sun to deal with.

    Very little bird life showed itself until, walking a dirt path along a dyke system about a mile and a half deep into the marsh, I saw a dead bush with a brood of Tree swallows perched on it's dry limbs. My presence did not stir them. Unfortunately the high ground of the dyke was not at a good angle to the sun so I began to swing wide out into the marsh and come up from the South-East to approach the swallows in harmony with the light. A little blood was being shed as pickers scraped my arms and legs. That was easy to ignore when adult swallows began flying in to feed the youngsters.

   My shutter speed was at a smoking 1/1600, ISO 400, @ f7.1 and as I was shaking and fumbling with focus issues I needed all that. I kept shooting and I kept moving in. The action was fast, the view exquisite. I had the elation of witnessing an extraordinary sight and at the same time a sick feeling in my stomach, brought there by the doubt that any of it was convincingly locked in my camera. 

   Sunburned and bleeding I walked back to my car thoroughly broiled by my experience, Yellow-headed black birds having been eclipsed by the common Tree swallow. I rewarded myself with coffee and cookies. Then what do you know...darting through the sky over the cattails at a mad pace I saw it's yellow head and black torso. I had time to swing the camera out for a couple of good clicks.

    I waited and prayed through the hot mid-day for a closer encounter but I would come no further this day and sailed my little car home content.

  

    "If one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with success unexpected in common hours."

                                                                                                    Henry David Thoreau

This is the home of World Bird Wednesday. A place for bird photographers from around the world to gather and share their photographs and experiences as they pursue Natures most beautiful treasurers, the birds.

You don't have to be a Bird Watcher or expert photographer to join in, just enjoy sharing what you bring back from your explorations and adventures into nature!

#1Simply copy the above picture onto your W.B.W. blog entry, it contains a link for your readers to share in the fun. Or, you can copy this link on to your blog page to share WBW. http://pineriverreview.blogspot.com/

#2Come to The Pine River Review on Tuesday Noon EST North America through Wednesday midnight and submit your blog entry with InLinkz.

#3Check back in during the course of the next day and explore these excellent photoblogs!

The idea of a meme is that you will visit each others blogs and perhaps leave a comment to encourage your compatriots!

Come on it's your turn!

World Bird Wednesday LXXXIII

It's All a Blur

When folks talk lovingly about the aesthetics of photography one of the qualities they will gush about is bokeh. The word bokeh is derived from a Japanese expression meaning blurry, foggy, or even moronic.
    In photographic terms it describes the creamy, out of focus background setting off a detailed foreground subject.
    There are a few ways to achieve this uncluttered look. One is to have a naturally distant background. These oriole captures were taken on a river bank, the far side woods 150 feet away. Even at f8 the birds are set off much the same way a diamond ring is displayed on black velvet. Nothing competes with the bird for our eyes attention in these compositions. While this makes for a great guide book photo the look is rather two dimensional and lacks tension.
    In my mind the trick is to leave enough detail in the blur to suggest an emotion other than blah!   

Another super creamy bokeh... and I like the out of focus leaves counter balancing the oriole.

Derive happiness in oneself from a good days work, from illuminating the fog that surrounds us.

Henri Matisse

    Another way to create good bokeh is by using a narrow depth of focus, dropping your f stop to it's lowest number especially on a longer lens, something 50mm or more. The narrow layer of focus in this composition is rock solid on the eye of the grackle, everything else is a blur. My 400mm lens is set at 5.6 and the trees of the river bank start about 15 feet beyond the bird. The bokeh crackles like lightening and has something of that elusive third dimension.
Bokehlicious!

This is the home of World Bird Wednesday. A place for bird photographers from around the world to gather and share their photographs and experiences as they pursue Natures most beautiful treasurers, the birds.

You don't have to be a Bird Watcher or expert photographer to join in, just enjoy sharing what you bring back from your explorations and adventures into nature!

#1Simply copy the above picture onto your W.B.W. blog entry, it contains a link for your readers to share in the fun. Or, you can copy this link on to your blog page to share WBW. http://pineriverreview.blogspot.com/

#2Come to The Pine River Review on Tuesday Noon EST North America through Wednesday midnight and submit your blog entry with InLinkz.

#3Check back in during the course of the next day and explore these excellent photoblogs!

The idea of a meme is that you will visit each others blogs and perhaps leave a comment to encourage your compatriots!

Come on it's your turn!

World Bird Wednesday LXXXII

Catch of the Day

Michigan's wetlands are full of life. Insect, plant, and fish production is in full swing and the herons have arrived to take advantage of it. The trick, of course, is finding them.  The American bittern, to your right, is a real find. They stalk the reed beds hunting for fish and reptiles that make up their diet.  When Bitterns sense they have been spotted, they freeze, their head and slender neck held high imitating the long leafed cat tails. Take your eye off of them for an instant and poof, they melt into the back ground.
    Other of the local herons are not so reclusive; such as the Green, Blue, and Night herons. These birds simply fly away the moment they detect your presence. While it's tough enough getting a clear shot, lighting conditions further complicate the challenge of capturing these waders. Back-lighting has always been a problem for me. I like to have the sun over my shoulder, but who doesn't?
    It seems like I see birds quickly after entering a patch and not so much later. I take pains to plan a route that optimises lighting angles and make sure to click off a few test shots before taking the plunge. Thing is, my exposure might be set for shadow play but what happens when suddenly, a spooked heron takes to flight in a super bright sky, can I remember to change the shutter speed on the fly?
    Since bird photography is still, and always will be, the art of the happy accident I wonder; what do you do to prepare mentally and technically for a day of photography? Of course, nothing happens unless your out there trying!

P.S.
    The thumbnail board that is created by adding your blogs to WBW is an amazing display. Your artistic bent has taken thumbnail composition unto the next level. Thank you for your kind participation as a World Birder and creating this fantastic virtual quilt!
   
      

This is the home of World Bird Wednesday. A place for bird photographers from around the world to gather and share their photographs and experiences as they pursue Natures most beautiful treasurers, the birds.

You don't have to be a Bird Watcher or expert photographer to join in, just enjoy sharing what you bring back from your explorations and adventures into nature!

#1Simply copy the above picture onto your W.B.W. blog entry, it contains a link for your readers to share in the fun. Or, you can copy this link on to your blog page to share WBW. http://pineriverreview.blogspot.com/

#2Come to The Pine River Review on Tuesday Noon EST North America through Wednesday midnight and submit your blog entry with InLinkz.

#3Check back in during the course of the next day and explore these excellent photoblogs!

The idea of a meme is that you will visit each others blogs and perhaps leave a comment to encourage your compatriots!

Come on it's your turn!

World Bird Wednesday LXXXI

Terror Birds!

    My late night reading in the early months of retirement has taken me far adrift. Having lost my moorings to the regular hours and work schedule that keeps much of the world thinking about practical matters I surf at the mercy of whimsy and chance encounters. Oh, the shocking things one stumbles across.
    I think it is human nature to trust other people, to take for granted they are what they say, that they don't have a dark past or some hidden skeleton hanging high in the family tree. Perhaps I am being a bit naive in this same way when it comes to the gentle creatures I spend so much photographing.
     Of course birds are wild animals and we should make no bones that their everyday actions consist of certain bloodthirsty behaviours that would bring you or I a life sentence in prison. Anything resembling civilised conduct in the animal kingdom is probably a hallucination brought on by our own misspent sentiments. I am weak that way. Still, imagine my shock when I discovered the evidence of a axe murderer in the fossil record!

 But let me regress about about two million years...

up to that point the landmass of South America was an island continent. The isthmus of Central America was soon to be formed by volcanic irruptions that would make a way for the vastly divergent creatures of N. and S. America to mingle. Unlike the North, where giant mammals and cats ruled the day, in the Southerly Continent avian life reigned supreme, the apex predator, Phorusrhacids, was a ten foot tall flightless bird weighing in at three hundred pounds with a massive hatchet like head used to bludgeon its prey.Terror birds indeed!
    Picture credit Ohio University.

    Terror birds dominated South America for an estimated sixty million years in various forms.  Recent fossil discoveries in Texas and Florida indicate the the arrival of TB's in North America may have even pre-dated the so called Great American Interchange of species when the continents where permanently connected by the land bridge. The mysteries abound. Imagine the Saber tooth tiger facing off against Phorusrhacids, that fight surely happened.
    It was once thought these predators became extinct about the time man arrived in the new world about ten thousand years ago, that possibly our spear technology spelt an end to them like it did so many of the Mega beasts of North America. Not guilty! Floridian fossils had become mixed with those of more recent epochs in tidal waters causing some theoretical misconceptions. Trace elements indicated these misplaced fossils where about two million years old, not ten thousand! However; no one believes we have made a discernible dent in the true history of these astonishing birds.
    What ended it all? Well, maybe it's not over yet.  The Seriemas birds of South America are thought to be the closest living relative of the ancient Terror Birds and exhibit the same grizzly technique when hunting larger prey, beating it into submission. Could the Terror Bird reemerge if fate deals our planet's current apex predator (us) a fatal blow?
    I must stop drinking coffee so late in the evening!

Click here for Bonus Terror Bird Video from NG!

This is the home of World Bird Wednesday. A place for bird photographers from around the world to gather and share their photographs and experiences as they pursue Natures most beautiful treasurers, the birds.

You don't have to be a Bird Watcher or expert photographer to join in, just enjoy sharing what you bring back from your explorations and adventures into nature!

#1Simply copy the above picture onto your W.B.W. blog entry, it contains a link for your readers to share in the fun. Or, you can copy this link on to your blog page to share WBW. http://pineriverreview.blogspot.com/

#2Come to The Pine River Review on Tuesday Noon EST North America through Wednesday midnight and submit your blog entry with InLinkz.

#3Check back in during the course of the next day and explore these excellent photoblogs!

The idea of a meme is that you will visit each others blogs and perhaps leave a comment to encourage your compatriots!

Come on it's your turn!