Painted Birds, etc.

I use Photoshop almost every day for work and to process raw photos and many other tasks. However, I’ve never used Photoshop effects on my outdoor photos. Thought they (the effects) always looked hokey.  The latest version (CS6) has oil painting in the menu and I couldn’t help trying it. Here are a few of my photos painted by Photoshop. What do you think?

Painted Indigo Bunting (not to be confused with a Painted Bunting)

Painted Swallowtail

Painted Iris

Painted Bittern

Cape Coral Burrowing Owls

On an afternoon during our January Everglades trip, Bonnie and I sat in the car and waited and waited in the Cape Coral library’s parking lot. We had hoped to see one or two of the Burrowing Owls that nest there. Apparently, they’re morning birds — we didn’t glimpse a feather that afternoon. Finally, today, I was able to get to Cape Coral in the early morning (before 7 am) to find the owls and take a few shots…

There were only two active owls, which was surprising because it’s a big field with lots of burrows. The burrows are marked off with stakes and perches. While I was there, the owls snacked on a spider and a very large grub and dug a little in the ground.

Burrowing Owl on a perch

Burrowing Owl in the library field

Eating a grub

Migration

In one of my bird guides I read that about 50 percent of all birds migrate. If you think about it, that’s a huge number of birds. I hadn’t considered that I might see many migrating birds locally until the local Audubon chapter started to e-mail notices about outings to spot them. Happened that I was working or had other plans during most of the trip times. But the e-mails mentioned that the mulberry trees at Ft. DeSoto were an important stop for the birds. And… the e-mail also included a PDF map pointing out where to find those mulberry trees.

Bonnie and I took a ride over on a Thursday morning. There’s a well worn path from the parking lot around the ranger’s house to an area with mulberry trees, nice benches, and a fountain with fresh water for the birds. Almost every day, people who love the birds stock the feeders with orange halves. Posted signs warn birders never to use recorded bird calls or pick the mulberries. The best thing to do is sit quietly on a bench and the birds will come out.

I’ve gone back once or twice a week since then. Each time I saw something new that drove me back again. The first time it was a glimpse of a shy Ovenbird venturing out from the scrub oak. Then a bright blue Indigo Bunting at the fountain. Then a pretty yellow female Orchard Oriole. Then, last weekend, a storm blew through and the park exploded with Rose-breasted Grosbeaks, Scarlet and Summer Tanagers and multitudes of warblers. Late one evening I sat on the ground in a field as dozens of deep blue and rust barn swallows swooped inches away, picking insects from the air. This is what I’ll remember about the spring migration.

Baltimore Oriole enjoys an orange

Blue Grossbeak  in tall grass

Circle B

For the second week in a row Bonnie and I have spent the good part of a day at the Circle B Bar Preserve near Lakeland. It’s become one of our most cherished places. We’ve never been disappointed after spending time there. Last week, we were fortunate to have as guests Don and Jan from upstate NY. They got up early and drove over two hours to meet us at Circle B around 8 a.m., and said they added seven new birds to their life list that day. Very cool.

Circle B is a birder/photographer’s favorite, and we notice heavier and heavier use. I’m trying to learn to be patient with groups out birding. Sometimes they come in handy, spotting things we might have missed, like this muddy otter across the bank.

Circle B Otter

You can tell it’s spring because everyone has their breeding plumage. The glossy ibis are aglow with  glossy colors, which I hadn’t noticed before. The morning started out foggy and dark, and the partly cloudy day really helped show off the Ibis’ deep colors. Ibis, by the way, are in the same family as Roseate Spoonbills.

Colorful Glossy Ibis

I learned about Mottled Ducks this week. According to the “interesting facts” in  iBird (which is loaded on my iPhone), Mottled Ducks can be found Florida’s wetlands, along the Gulf Coast through Texas and Mexico. The Florida population is a subspecies occasionally called the Florida Duck or Florida Mallard. Until recently, no other ducks of its genus, Anas, nested in Florida marshes, and the distinctive male plumage has vanished. The two sexes are colored the same. The Mottled Duck is a relative of the Mallard, and is in danger of being displaced (by hybridization) as Mallards are introduced into the same habitats.

Mottled Duck

Flight of the Black-Bellied Whistling Ducks

A pair of Sandhill Cranes built a nest right off the Rabbit Run trail. The eggs are due to hatch mid-March.

Sandhill nest

Glades

Jan 30 – Feb 2, 2012

This is our 4th yearly trip to the Everglades National Park. The photo above is my first attempt at a panorama… using Photoshop CS5’s photomerge feature. Who says you can’t teach an old dog? Each year, we’ve discovered something new and wonderful. Last year, it was Snail Kites at the Stormwater Treatment Area off Hwy 27 (south of Lake Okeechobee). This year, at the same spot, the water level was very high, and we saw herons and masses of coots and ducks, no kites.

The trip began with a good exercise in patience. Bonnie and I drove to Cape Coral hoping to get a glimpse of a Burrowing Owl. Cape Coral, which made national news because of the enormous number of foreclosures there, is also home to the largest concentration of burrowing owls in the state. Well, in the world, they say. We found plenty of burrows, each marked by a cross shaped perch where the owls can hang out and watch for predators and prey. We parked in the library parking lot (it was Sunday, and the lot was empty) and waited. And waited. There’s about nothing as boring as waiting next to a burrowing owl’s burrow. I counted the number of people walking their dogs. We waited from late afternoon to sundown without seeing an owl.

The next day, we spent the morning at Audubon’s Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary, and drove to the Travelodge in Florida City that afternoon. On the way we detoured through the Okaloacoochee Slough State Forest (Co. Rd. 832), which was wonderful, teaming with hawks, American Kestrels and wading birds. The photos below are from the national park, our final destination.

Great Egret in a great clump of bromeliads

Snowing egret with breeding plumage

While I was photographing the egret, this gator ambled onto the bank a few feet away...

American crocodile sunning on a bank at Eco Pond.

I think this is the same Little Green Heron I photographed a year ago!

American Bittern camouflaged in tall grass. These were the first photos we've been able to get of Bitterns.

Little Pied-billed Grebe shakes off water.

Cormorant wing. I've been looking for images that might translate well into black and white.

Walking on water: Snowy Egret hunts for minnows.

It's Anhinga nesting season. Here, the male and female prepare to switch spots on the nest.

Always fun to watch the Purple Gallinules.

Operation Migration

Operation Migration was held up in Alabama as the FAA investigated whether the organization had violated pilot compensation rules.  The group is trying to resurrect the tiny population of Whooping Cranes by establishing an Eastern migratory flock that breeds in Wisconsin and winters in Florida. This year, nine young cranes are following the ultralights to the wintering ground in Chassahowitzka National Wildlife Refuge. Bonnie and I photographed the 2009 Whooping Crane flyover at the Dunnellon Airport.

Waiting for the flyover

Cranes in the distance

Whooping Cranes

Whooping Cranes

Ultralight

Landing