We’re back to the Jordan Lake session again, but this time we’re going for the high art angle, better than A through E art, and frame-worthy portraits to boot. Get out your checkbook! And do a websearch to find out what a ‘checkbook’ is…
It’s gonna be a little heron-heavy, since that’s what was most present that day, but hey – herons are majestic birds anyway, as long as you can’t hear them. That’s why the focus above is clearly on the great blue heron (Areda herodias,) which also helps distinguish the gap between it and the great egret (Ardea alba) that was much closer.
Also hanging out were the double-crested cormorants (Nannopterum auritum,) but they were showing little in the way of majesty so they’re just background elements here.
It seems casual and simple, but with the working distance and the entire lake to fish within, catching all three together in nice framing was much more a matter of timing, since within two seconds this looked entirely different, and within a few more, none of them would be in the same frame as another. Trains passing in the night, uh, late afternoon…
By the way, while the water level was down significantly to be showing these rocks in the shallows, it’s not the lowest we’ve seen it; if you go to this post and scroll down to the sleeping cormorant, I’m pretty certain the rock it’s snoozing on is the same one making an appearance here.
Even narrower timing was this:
Okay, i admit it – there was a dash of luck involved, but I was tracking the egret, and consider it more lucky that the autofocus stayed locked on tack sharp on the egret while panning. Still, I find this spacing more than acceptable.
As the previous post showed, there were a couple of other species, but really, not many. This osprey (Pandion haliaetus) was one of them.
Even with the lower angle of the late afternoon sun, this could have been lit better, getting the undersides more, but at least it came through on the eye, and that’s what we look for most. Unless we’re weird. Nice spread on those tip feathers though.
It’s funny – it wasn’t all that long ago that we never saw any bald eagles (Haliaeetus leucocephalus) at Jordan Lake, and even though they were nesting at another lake several kilometers off, I’d never even seen one there either. Now, it seems like something’s wrong if we fail to see at least one for any given trip. This afternoon had been so quiet that I was resigned to the possibility, but then one passed by straight overhead and at least kept up standards.
This is a tight crop of a still-pretty-distant juvenile, the first frame obtained, but it shows the eagle was at least aware of us as it approached. This did nothing to alter its path or behavior, and it flew right overhead, intent on some other task.
Between the two frames, there’s enough to determine that this is a second-year juvenile; this year’s brood would be almost entirely brown with perhaps faint flecks on the wings, while a third-year would have noticeable white along the sides of the head, and from four years on, they appear as everyone knows them, white head and tail but otherwise deep brown. Now, why they have such distinctive and different plumage through their first three years, I can’t say. I could understand the youngest being dark and blending into the shadows while perched and awaiting food, even though once they leave the nest they’re only fractionally (if at all) smaller than a full adult so, you know, not vulnerable to a hell of a lot. What the mottling does, I have no idea, but the white head and tail don’t seem to serve a purpose either, though it does distinguish them from golden eagles and ospreys, even at a great distance, so perhaps this is why? I’m just spitballin’…
Yet another heron – this one probably could have gone into the behavior post…
Herons clearly take some effort to gain altitude and rarely attempt it, often staying just barely high enough above the water, and this displays how barely: its wingtips are touching on the downstroke. You can also see why we work this spot in the afternoon, since it faces east and thus the westering sun provides good light. It had rained overnight, in fact, and it was touch-and-go as to whether the clouds would clear enough for a decent session, so this is pretty good really.
Some songbirds were active in the trees on the lakeshore, in some cases disputing territory, like this brown-headed nuthatch (Sitta pusilla):
As arrogant and disdainful as it appears here, it was paying little attention to me and far more to the chickadees flitting around nearby, to which it seemed to take exception. Nuthatches never struck me as being aggressive or territorial, but then again, I don’t think I’ve ever watched them long enough, or seen them near other species much at all.
Rustling in a forked trunk not far overhead led us to this one, who watched our approach with trepidation:
That’s an eastern grey squirrel (Sciurus carolinensis) peeking out, that drew down out of sight and held still once we stepped just a little closer than this. Squirrels can make noise all out of proportion to their size, which is odd because everything preys on them, and this one appeared to be making a nest; this is not too odd, since at this latitude, grey squirrels often breed in both the spring and the fall.
Getting seriously fartsy with this one, while also chronicling some details:
This shows the quality of the sky and why we were lucky to have the light that we did, though this is faintly later, on another arm of the lake about a kilometer away. It also shows a fallen trunk that, when upright, had served as a perch and setting for numerous photos appearing here, among them the bored eagle in this post. Not too long ago this dead tree had finally given up the ghost, and I wanted to capture it here before the winter storms and water levels carried it off.
[Funny, that linked post noted another trunk that we’d been very familiar with that had fallen not long before…]
Two more to close it up, both similar – it’s up to you to pick which one works best, but they both show off the cloud conditions as a nice backdrop texture. So do you like this one?
Or this one?
Only one of which is correct, so take your time and don’t screw it up.
That closes out the Jordan Lake photos – now I just have to get to the local shots that have been piling up. A blogger’s self-imposed workload is never done. Until they quit, anyway.