There is a chance that I will be able to get on site and create a series of panoramas of the ship and the excavation but we aren’t sure yet.  Details are still being worked out so I am just headed down prepared to either shoot or work from the hotel.  Whatever happens, We will be in the city for at least the next week or so.  I’ll post some more details about the project sometime this coming week once I know more myself.

If you are in the City and want to meet up for coffee or a drink, shoot me an email or leave a comment here.  Hope everyone has a great week!

Ovenbird (Seiurus aurocapillus) - Genung Preserve, Freeville, NY

Having grown up in central Florida and lived in Texas for the last few years, I am used to seeing warblers during migration, not singing on territory like they do here.  This means I have quite a steep learning curve trying to learn the songs of local birds. I am making rapid progress, but there is an incredible amount to learn!

Just a few weeks ago, I was birding at Sapsucker Woods and could hear a very loud song a little ways off in the forest.  I searched and searched and searched and could not find the bird.  Not a chance.  I knew I had heard it before, but I had absolutely no idea what it was.  Finally, since it was starting to get dark, I gave up and headed back home.

Singing Ovenbird (Seiurus aurocapillus) - Genung Preserve, Freeville, NY

The next morning, I was birding at Genung Preserve very close to my house.  As soon as I stepped out of my car, I heard the song again, and this time it was very close.  After a minute or so of searching I finally tracked down an Ovenbird, singing from a fairly low branch in a conifer.  I tried for a few minutes to get some photos, but the light just wasn’t there, as the sun hadn’t cleared the horizon yet.  Since he was clearly on territory, I decided to go find some Blue-winged Warblers and return later in the morning.

After having a successful shoot with a nice male Blue-winged Warbler, I returned to the Ovenbird and followed him around for a while.  I took tons and tons of photographs, but the low and dappled light made it extremely difficult.  Out of all my frames, I ended up with a single frame (top image) that I was fairly pleased with and a couple more that are ok, but nothing spectacular.  Since this bird is right around the corner from my house, I’m going to have to return to see if I can do better!

Northen Parula (Parula americana) - Foster Pond, Finger Lakes National Forest, New York

On Friday morning at the Finger Lakes National Forest, one of the better birds of the morning was a Northern Parula.  We had at least two individuals but, as typical with Parulas, they were high in the canopy.  At one point, I set up on a blooming apple tree to sit and see if anything would come into feed, as I had seen a several Yellow Warblers do just that.  A few minutes after setting up, this Northern Parula visited briefly for about 30 seconds.  I came away with a couple good frames, the best of which you see here.

Yellow Warbler (Dendroica petechia) - Foster Pond, Finger Lakes National Forest, New York

Yesterday morning, I spent a couple hours with another local photographer Raghu Ramanujan at Foster Pond in the Finger Lakes National Forest.  It was a spectacularly beautiful morning and the woods were alive with warblers feeding and singing.  Despite the huge amount of activity, we struggled to create photographs because we couldn’t really get close to many of the birds.

Rather than get frustrated with myself, I decided to switch gears a bit and focus on creating images of the warblers in their habitat rather than close up portraits.  While I love the challenge of getting close to warblers and other small songbirds, creating environmental portraits can be even more of a challenge and extremely rewarding when one works.

Song Sparrow (Melospiza melodia) - Foster Pond, Finger Lakes National Forest, New York

With environmental portraits, there is a lot more to consider when creating the composition.  Take the above image of a Song Sparrow for example.  Not only do we have to consider the actual bird as part of the composition, we also have to consider all of the other vegetation on the right side of the image.  These additional elements can create for a busy and distracting image unless managed carefully.  Additionally, when we make the bird smaller in the frame, it commands less of a presence in the image so placement in the frame is even more important.

Blue-winged Warbler (Vermivora pinus) - Foster Pond, Finger Lakes National Forest, New York

Whenever I am creating an environmental portrait, it is my goal to use the included foliage to inform the viewer.  For example, in all of these images, the foliage is either in the process of budding out or in bloom.  This clearly indicates the images were taken in early spring.  Additionally, some of the birds are singing which also suggests a bird on territory.  By including all of these different elements, we can start to tell stories through our images, a task much more difficult with simply a single bird sitting on a stick on a solid colored background.

Dark-eyed Junco (Junco hyemalis) - Summerhill State Forest, New York

Dark-eyed Junco (Junco hyemalis) - Summerhill State Forest, New York

Like yesterday’s Song Sparrows, many Dark-eyed Juncos hang around the area over the winter and are commonly seen at feeders.  They also set up territories and begin singing early in the spring.  They breed in forests dominated by conifers but are also seen in mixed woods.  I have had them singing in my back yard in the past few weeks, but I was able to photograph this male singing in Summerhill State Forest last week.  I have enjoyed photographing these sparrows both this spring and last fall because we don’t get them in central Florida.

Song Sparrow (Melospiza melodia) - Summerhill State Forest

Talking about Song Sparrows as a migrant might not be totally fair as some birds stay over the winter and some migrate south.  However, regardless of whether they are returning migrants or just over wintering birds, Song Sparrows are one of the first birds of spring to start singing.  Here in Central New York they are everywhere and their song is ubiquitous.  It seems that nearly every time I put my binoculars on a sparrow, it turns out to be a Song Sparrow.

Song Sparrow (Melospiza melodia) - Summerhill State Forest

As far as images go, I have some better images in my catalog from a few years back, but I am posting images taken last week so we’ll have to make do with this one.  Trees and underbrush is starting to really leaf out now so getting more spring like images should be easier next week.

Northern Parula (Parula americana) - Anhinga Trail, Everglades National Park, Florida

Yesterday I looked at the flycatchers that can be seen and photographed on a regular basis at Anhinga Trail, so today we’ll look at the Wood Warblers.  These small, typically colorful birds can be extremely difficult to photograph.  Most prefer the canopy of tall trees and rarely come down to eye level.  Well, at Anhinga Trail there are no tall trees so you can get lucky and get a canopy loving species like a Northern Parula at eye level.

The obvious warbler that is commonly seen at Anhinga Trail is the marsh loving Common Yellowthroat.  These birds are ubiquitous here, though they are often difficult to photograph.  They are fast moving, like dense vegetation, and never stay in one position for long.  Photographing any of these warblers will be an exercise in quick and accurate focusing and require a ton of patience!

In winter, Palm Warblers are also very common.  They can be a little bit easier to photograph as they will forage in open ground and perch some of the small trees in the open.  They are easy to spot and identify due to the constant tail flicking.  I’ve had decent luck with these birds feeding in the reeds, on the ground, in willows, and even in a small pond apple.  Be patient and position yourself so as the bird feeds, it works towards you.

Palm Warbler (Dendroica palmarum) - Anhinga Trail, Everglades National Park, Florida

I have also seen and photographed Northern Waterthrush, though I didn’t get any new photos of one this year.  You might also spot a Black and White Warbler in the trees and of course a trip into the Gumbo Limbo Trail can be even more rewarding, though it can be difficult photographic conditions since it’s so dense and dark.  Also in migration, warbler numbers can increase rapidly but heron and egret numbers at Anhinga Trail have decreased and the mosquito population has become hungry so if you visit, do so at your own risk.

Eastern Phoebe (Sayornis phoebe) - Anhinga Trail, Everglades National Park, Florida

Anhinga Trail is known as one of the premiere locations to photograph Anhingas, herons, egrets, Wood Storks, and more.  The place is so well known that on Saturday evening I witnessed well above $100,000 worth of lenses and camera equipment pointed at a single Great Blue Heron.  It’s a popular place and I have been there so many times, I am much pickier where I point my lens these days.  On Friday morning, I decided to focus on the often ignored songbirds of Anhinga Trail.

The marsh and reeds that line the edges of the canals can be extremely productive for a number of songbirds.  On most visits, I see at least several species of warblers, a couple flycatchers, a couple blackbirds, and typically a handful of other species.  Most photographers simply ignore these birds as they look for the charismatic herons and egrets.

Eastern Phoebe (Sayornis phoebe) - Anhinga Trail, Everglades National Park, Florida

Today I’ll share with you a few of the flycatchers that can be seen hunting and calling around the boardwalk.  The first, and most common one, is the Eastern Phoebe.  There are always at least a couple individuals that winter along the trail and seem to have their own preferred hunting areas.  I spent a few minutes observing this particular bird’s favored perches and then set up in a good position where I could photograph several of the perches.  After that it was just a matter of waiting and making the image when he landed on the perch.

Great-crested Flycatcher (Myiarchus crinitus) - Anhinga Trail, Everglades National Park, Florida

While I was waiting for the phoebe to land in the right spot, a Great-crested Flycatcher flew into range.  These much larger birds are a little more difficult to photograph though you can hear them calling on a regular basis.  I find they only like to sit low enough to be photographed for a brief period of time before moving back to the taller trees.  Because of this you have to work fast and make do with what he offers.  In this case, he used a couple perches in this area but this was the only clean shot I had.  I would have preferred to have him perched on one of the tall reeds but again, I’ll take what I got.

Tomorrow I’ll look at the different warbler species I have seen and photographed at Anhinga Trail.  Next time you are there, pay attention to the smaller birds hopping in the reeds above the heron you are photographing.

Clay-colored Sparrow (Spizella pallida) - Eco Pond, Everglades National Park, Florida

It’s always fun when you find an unusual or out of place bird when birding.  I had the pleasure to do just that twice over last weekend.  Now when I am talking about unusual birds, I’m not talking about the birds themselves being weird or strange, I’m saying that their mere presence is unusual.  So this past weekend I had two pretty cool and unusual species show up in Everglades National Park.

The first species I found on my own at Eco Pond in Flamingo on Thursday afternoon.  This location used to be one of my favorite haunts when I lived nearby in 2005, but today Hurricane Wilma has radically changed it.  More on that in an upcoming post.  On Thursday, I was mostly wandering around seeing if I could find any songbirds when a small brown sparrow dashed across the trail.  After about 10 minutes, I managed some great views of the bird only to quickly realize it wasn’t one of the species I see regularly and can identify by sight.  I made a mental list of all the field marks and back to the car I went, only a couple hundred yards.  With a field guide in hand, I quickly and easily identified the bird as a Clay-colored Sparrow.  This is a very irregular visitor to South Florida, judging by the range map, and listed as rare on the park checklist.

Since I hadn’t seen the bird before (ends up it is on my lifelist but with no date/location notation), I decided to head back with the camera and get some photos that could support my identification.  I spent a while chasing down this active sparrow and managed a few photos that clearly show all of the field marks and confirm the identity of this little beauty, but nothing that would be classified as marketable or saleable.  What you see on this blog are very significant crops of the original frames.

Clay-colored Sparrow (Spizella pallida) - Eco Pond, Everglades National Park, Florida

The second bird came Saturday evening at Anhinga Trail.  This bird could be called unusual in itself as it has a giant beak and is a little odd.  The Smooth-billed Ani apparently has been seen for about the last month, but it only showed up on the state wide bird lists in the last couple days.  This bird I did not find on my own, in fact I saw the bird with at least 50 other birders as one person spotted it and we then followed the “ani parade” to his location.  Like before, I was able to get confirmation and documentation type photos, not my usual high quality images.  Regardless, it is always fun to see an ani.

Smooth-billed Ani (Crotophaga ani) - Anhinga Trail, Everglades National Park, Florida

Smooth-billed Anis are resident here in South Florida but their numbers have crashed over the years and I’m not sure why.  I don’t think they were ever all that common, but they are seen on a regular basis.  Today, I only hear about specific birds a couple times a year.  There used to be a family group on the backside of the Ft. Lauderdale Airport that was very reliable, but I have no idea of that group is still there.  My first ani was as a very young kid at Eco Pond and it was a big deal then, though there weren’t 50 or more birders staking it out.

Finding rare and unusual birds is a lot of fun and if you choose to give it a shot there are a couple ways to approach it.  First, you can chase a bird someone else has found and posted to your state or regional Rare Bird Alert or email group.  This is easiest as there are often very specific directions and you know what you are looking for.  Or you can simply go find one on your own.  It takes a lot of patience and attention to detail, as you may need to double-check every common bird to ensure it isn’t something rare.  While chasing someone else’s rare bird is fun, finding one on your own can be even more rewarding!