May 2006 Archives

(This entry was intended for uploading yesterday but I couldn't get to town to upload it)

Not exactly a poetic name for a place that would be the site of some great moments, but it was there that I heard the “Call of the Loon” for the very first time. I was at the lake with Roxie this morning to try out my new kayak and, while I was unloading I heard the call and, scanning the lake, found them swimming in the mist.

That was the first of several "firsts" on the day since I’d canoed before but this was my first time in a kayak. It was also the first time (and hopefully last) I had an 80+ pound Lab/Border Collie mix try to join me in a kayak. While I was about 40 or 50 feet from the shore. I was glad I didn’t take camera gear on the boat with me this time because there was much splashing (actually I keep the stuff in a “dry bag” when I’m out on the water except when it is time to use it). After paddling around a little being pursued by the aforementioned dog I decided that it would be best to take her “home” and then return to the lake for some photography.

I got back and they were closer to the loading ramp but, since the sun was not where I needed it to be, I had to paddle out toward the center of the lake first then come back so I would have the light behind me. I tried at first with just the 500mm lens but the loons were a little to wary for me to get a tight shot with that combo. I’d packed my 1.4X converter in the dry bag but would need to first fish it out of the dry bag, then very carefully remove the 500 from the camera body, add the extender, then attach both back to the camera body. I was nervous the whole time you can be certain.

Of course by the time I was ready again the loons had wandered off to another part of the lake. And as before they were between me and the sun so I would have to do another end-around to get in a good place to shoot.

Just I was getting in position I suddenly heard a not unfamiliar sound over my right shoulder. It was the sound of air rushing over wings and, as I turned my head, I caught sight of another loon in full landing mode, then watched it land almost right in front of me. Another first as I’d never seen an airborne Common Loon. Of course this all happened so fast that there was no time to react and get a shot. (A little later I would watch a pair fly over in formation as I was loading up the kayak to head back to the campground).

After shooting a few more frames the three of them went off in a dive and, with the wind starting to pick up and my arms getting a little tired, I headed for shore.

Even if I hadn’t made any decent images it was still a memorable day out with the birds.

I notice things when I travel and, traveling essentially alone, I have lots of time to think (I do share some of this stuff with Roxie but she just raises her ears a little and cocks her head with this “WTF are you rambling on about now?” sort of look).

Near Bemidji, Minnesota, Friday May 26:

(click any image to view larger)

Somebody must have told the Eastern Kingbirds of Sherburne National Wildlife Refuge yesterday that I was coming and it was “okay” to ham it up for me and my camera. There were three of them in all as I made my way around the 7.5 mile Prairie’s Edge Wildlife Drive at this refuge about 60 miles northwest of the Twin Cities. The area the drive takes the visitor through is a combination of prairie grasslands (dotted with clumps of wildflowers), oak savannahs (for my Florida friends, not unlike the “cypress domes” of the Everglades), lakes and ponds, and deciduous woodlands.

My limited experience with Eastern Kingbirds in Florida was that they were particularly skittish but these guys weren't that way at all. The bird in these two images flew to three different perches while hawking insects and let me drive up and stop for more photos each time. Birds, for whatever reason, can be that way though - some will pose and some will take off if you just think about trying to get close.

I wish I had a couple of more days to hang around the area and work on some of the little birds but, in a stroke of poor planning for the holiday weekend, I’m forced to move north today to the Bemidji area in the north central part of the state. Not that this is necessarily all that bad because most – if not all – of the same bird species will be present further north. I’ll be visiting sites on the Upper Mississippi Birding Trail. One of those I didn't get here but will encounter in much greater numbers as I move west are Yellow-headed Blackbirds. I saw about five yesterday and, though I'd seen them at Bosque and in California, they were not as close as they were here so I didn't really know how striking they are. Another I look forward to shooting is the Northern Oriole - what a beauty!

I know I lot of people label me as a "bird photographer" but I like to think I'm just a specialist in that area and consider myself a "nature" or "natural history photographer". I really do like to shoot it all including wildflowers and dragonflies. And here I got both - the flowers are Columbine and someday when I have a little more time I'll research the Odonata species of Minnesota so I can properly catalog this guy. Tell you what, when late afternoon comes around you can almost cut the dragonflies with a knife around the shaded woodland areas at Sherburne.

Strange Behavior Department: I get my chances to see unusual and/or interesting behaviors while I'm out there like the Wood Stork incident I wrote about a little over a week ago. Now I tend to think of Sandhill Cranes as rather laid back and somewhat docile creatures. Having said that I've also seen what lash out with its bill rather violently at a Black Vulture that got a little too close to a chick. Yesterday as I was about 2/3's of the way around the drive I saw a pair making their way through the marsh being followed by a youngster. Though they were too far away to shoot I stopped to watch just because I like cranes. As they started moving into the tall stuff I realized they were getting mobbed by a couple of Red-winged Blackbirds who I can only guess may have had a nest nearby. Heavily cropped to try and show a little bit of what was taking place (700 focal length just wasn't enough) the male blackbird has just swooped by the cranes head while the other (who had just landed after taking a turn) is perched and yapping away just below and to the right of the crane's head (as always, click on the images to view them larger and in a new window). I've seen a lot of mobbing behavior - various little birds chasing crows or hawks, Blue Jays after Bald Eagles, Mockingbirds after Great-horned Owls - but just don't think of Sandhill Cranes as the kind of bird that the smaller ones would be bothered by. Gotta love those birds - you just never know what they'll do next.

After spending the night in the southern part of the state I’ve now made my way into what I will call central Minnesota a little northwest of the Twin Cities. As I was crossing over the west bank of the Minnesota River (from St. Paul into Minneapolis) I was treated to the sight of an adult Bald Eagle soaring over Interstate 94.

This afternoon I got settled in at the campground I’ll be calling "home" for the next couple of days then took an exploratory trip out to Sherburne National Wildlife Refuge under pretty scary looking skies. Dreary skies and a stiff wind kept me from doing much photography though there was no shortage of things to shoot if the weather will cooperate (and, unfortunately, the forecast doesn’t look promising over the next couple of days). Bird were calling all around in the woodlands, Sandhill Cranes were carrying on noisily over a hill not far from the wildlife drive, and I saw several pairs of Canada Geese being followed around by anywhere from 3 to 5 goslings. There are also wildflowers blooming everywhere, a few butterflies were bravely fighting the wind, and I saw some incredible hoards of dragonflies (not sure what they were after since I wasn’t being attacked by mosquitoes).

At one point out on the wildlife drive this afternoon I stopped and pondered the scene in front of me: angry clouds were off in the distance as prairie grasses and clumps of wildflowers swayed in the wind, songbirds sang in the stand of oaks behind me, a pair of geese loudly announced their arrival as they landed on a pond to my left, while in front of me the cranes called from over that hill. It was one of those moments when I feel connected, when I feel a part of the world around me.

I hope for many more of those moments in the weeks and months to come.

Today was a travel day as I make my way north in earnest. My stops in Jacksonville and at Harris Neck NWR in Georgia were complete busts – at Jax the place I wanted to visit was closed and, surprisingly, I did not see a single Painted Bunting in mythree trips out to Harris Neck (which was a little weird I thought). So I left earlier than planned and traveled on up to the Nashville area to visit my mom (she has been visiting my aunt). Yesterday we had a big family get together at my cousin’s house where I ate too much of that good home cooking.

The campground I’d been staying at the last few days was chock full of American Robins (who begin singing and carrying on at about 4 a.m.). Some of their young ones apparently have a little difficulty staying in the nest – Saturday I saw 4 running around on the ground and being fed (plus a couple not far from my trailer that hadn’t fared so well). It may be due to some pretty severe weather they’ve been having around central Tennessee and they were been blown out of the nest. This photo is of the first one I saw – I thought about trying to find a local rehabilitator but chasing them all down might be a full time job. Plus the adults were coming to feed them constantly.

As I was driving back to the RV park after my first family visit I noticed quite a few swallows flying around a spot that looked to be a park and ride lot. I made a point to stop by there with camera gear and do a little shooting – this image is one of a pair who were obviously quite busy tending to a hungry brood as they were flying in and out every few minutes - in with the food and out with the waste matter. The cavity in the background is where the nest is in a rock wall created when part of the hillsidewas blasted away to build the parking area (I also noticed a lot of flight activity where the road cuts were made on the onramps for I-40 nearby). Swallows have always been tough for me to ID but I’m pretty certain what I have here is a Northern Rough-winged Swallow.

In addition to the Robins all around there I saw (& heard) chickadees, had a great look at a male Baltimore Oriole singing waayyyy up in a tree, Chipping Sparrows, an Indigo Bunting, and some Goldfinches among others. If there had been more time (and less rain) I think I could have some fun there.

I've stopped in central Illinois for the night and should arrive in southern Minnesota tomorrow. This campground is a few miles from Bloomington, IL and also has its share of Robins and a lot of Common Grackles.

As I'd mentioned in my previous post, last week at Lakeland I witnessed a brutal attack by a pair of Wood Storks on a juvenile stork. I received a response to my query about this behavior from Dr.Jim Rodgers, Avian Research Program Leader with the Florida Fish & Wildlife Conservation Commission:

"The 2 photos appear to show 1 or 2 adult storks attacking a 4-5 week old nestling. From the images it is impossible to determine the relationship between the individual birds. However, occasionally older nestlings wander from their nest into the territories of adjacent birds and this is not tolerated by the adults as they will protect both the integrity of the territory and the nest contents."

"Also, sometimes nestlings "mistake" other adults for their parents when the latter birds return to their own nests. These nestlings approach the adult and beg for food. However, adults will not feed nestlings that are not their own; for obvious reasons they must feed only their own young. These interloping nestlings usually pay the price of getting too close to a non-parent bird."

"By the way, this also is the case for younger nestlings trespassing onto the territory of older nestlings of an adjacent nest--these older nestlings will defend their nest from other nestlings too. In most instances, the injuries appear to be limited to some cuts and the offending bird returns to its own nest. Occasionally, a bird falls out of a tree."

I feel a little more at ease thanks to Dr. Rodgers reply because I was quite certain that I had been witnessing a brutal killing that I could not come to grips with - though it still makes me a little queasy when I look at the images. The adults seemed to be relentless and did not stop until the younger bird appeared to stop moving around (plus there looks to be another one about the same age that is down in the nest and I don't think it moved throughout the entire episode). It is always great to be able to contact an expert like Dr. Rodgers when we encounter something in Nature that we don't understand and I thank him for his quick reply.

In other news, Roxie and I are currently in a great little rural RV park south of Savannah, Georgia (Lake Harmony RV Park near Townsend). I was outside a few minutes ago and the frogs are making quite a ruckus while this afternoon I was happy to see or hear a lot of birds around. Close to our site a Blue Jay was feeding a just-fledged youngster, a Red-bellied Woodpecker kept flying back and forth and was problably tending to young of its own, Northern Parulas were singing nearby while a Yellow-throated Warbler landed in a tree right over our heads and sang for us. Northern Cardinals were around as were Mockingbirds, a couple of Great-crested Flycatchers, and two Spotted Sandpipers were foraging at the edge of the lake. Tomorrow I will be venturing out to Harris Neck National Wildlife Refuge in search of Painted Buntings (and whatever else I might find).

Singing Northern Parula - Lakeland, FLThe time has finally come to hit the road. After many months of waiting for my house to sell, an equal number of months planning stops and routes, two weeks of thrashing to get things sorted and boxed, and, now, two weeks of becoming accustomed to life in a 30+ foot travel trailer. The adjustment seemed to be much more difficult for Roxie than it was for me - while the Birdchick has her Disapproving Rabbits, I had (maybe still have) a Disapproving Dog.

Common Nighthawk - Lakeland, FL It is an interesting mix of emotions, a journey into the unknown coupled with the excitement of new places and new experiences. Leaving behind the friends I've made and places I've known for the last third of my life. Of finally pursuing a dream with all of my energies focused (bad word for a photographer I suppose) in one specific direction and one very specific goal: to do the one thing that brings me so much joy and, hopefully, earn a living at it.

Wood Stork chicks - Lakeland, FLI spent three days in Lakeland last week where a friend took me to a rookery which was mostly Wood Storks. It was an incredible experience which I truly hope is a preview of things to come. We also visited a site called Circle-B Bar River Preserve, a property owned by the local water management district and Polk County that is undergoing some restoration in some areas but is still a very productive site for birds (and is where I shot the Parula and Nighthawk above). The rookery visit was interesting in that it was Roxie's first experience in a canoe (or boat of any kind) and she took it all in stride; my big fear was that she would try to climb over the side and jump into the water - she is part Lab and loves to swim, luckily there were no tennis balls around. One disturbing aspect of the morning at the rookery was witnessing infanticide involving a pair of Wood Storks. It was quite brutal and I've contacted an expert on the species at the Florida Fish & Wildlife Conservation Commission and hope to post a report within the next few days.

After attending to some business matters this morning we will be hooking up and heading up the road with a couple of short hops to a pair of sites normally reliable for Painted Buntings. We'll follow that with a stop east of Nashville to visit with family before continuing north and west to Minnesota (never have seen a Common Loon in breeding plumage). From there we will work our way ever westward through the Dakotas, Montana, and Idaho until the end of July when we begin a 7-week trek through British Columbia and Alaska. We'll circle back to Florida during the Fall and early Winter via the Pacific Coast and desert Southwest before heading out again in early February. Though the trip is built around birds it is not just about them as I hope to see and photograph so much more of the continent's wild things and places. The original idea for creating this blog was so I would have a place to write about my experiences and share some images. I won't always have access to the Internet but have found WiFi in some unexpected places along the route (an RV park in Whitehorse, Yukon Terr., for example) and will post entries here as often as possible. If you have any suggestions for "must see" places to visit (I've put together my intinerary around National Wildlife Refuges but know there are many other great places out there) please post a comment or send me an email. Maybe we will get the chance to meet some of you along the way!