Tripod holes 40

Al Denelsbeck

Pilot Mountain near the town of Pilot Mountain, NC, near peak of autumn colors
N 36°20’21.02″ W 80°27’23.86″ Google Earth location

The location plotted is pretty precise for exactly this vantage, but the timing – ah, that’s up to you! The autumn colors weren’t quite at peak, which is a damn hard thing to schedule when you live two hours away from the location, but I got close enough this day back in 2005 – November 6th, to be precise. I’m posting this early to remind those that need it to make their plans, though I may already be a little late for some – this map will help a bit, but be aware, there are regional variations. Being alongside water sources or major highways seems to cause trees to turn a little earlier, and different sides of mountains often vary. I admit that I have yet to snag a really nice, wide-angle scenic shot at peak colors, but also that I haven’t planned specifically for this anyway. My own area (which is not what is shown here) has too few varieties of deciduous trees, far too interspersed with ugly longneedle pines, but ‘peak’ color is wildly misleading anyway – most trees turn on their on schedule and don’t try to coordinate with each other.

Anyway, this is Pilot Mountain in North Carolina, a curious tall knob sprouting from a landscape of minor hills and visible for kilometers, but this view was obtained from the offramp of Rt 52 Northbound – the Southbound ramp doesn’t even let you see the mountain at all, I believe. You can, of course, get to the mountain itself quite easily and even walk around the base of the knob, but the view is better obtained from a short distance off, thus my plot.

The appeal of fall color images is manifest, at least because we know we like bright colors, and I waited some time to let the passing clouds get past enough to mostly frame the peak in blue here. But I’ve long maintained that another reason fall color images work is that depth becomes far more apparent, the varied colors differentiating different layers of hills and trees, as well as clarifying how much smaller the individual trees start to seem with the distance, plainly visible here – had all the trees been roughly the same color, you’d have a hard time knowing where the foreground trees stopped and the mountain slopes began. At least until we develop true 3-dimensional images…

So, make your plans if you need to, and you know how to get here if this is your chosen subject.

Oh, yeah, September

Al Denelsbeck

American sweetgum Liquidambar styraciflua showing early autumn colors
Rather abruptly I realized, just a short while ago, that it was the last day of September and thus time for the end-of-month abstract. Only thing was, I didn’t have anything in mind, much less prepared, and couldn’t do a lot to remedy this situation, because the computer has once again gone spacey and I’m in the process of unspaceying it. So we’re going with this grab shot from, I dunno, two weeks ago? Probably less, but whatever. It’s not autumn here at all, but the heatwave and drought caused this American sweetgum (Liquidambar styraciflua) to get colorful early. I probably should have cropped in very tight on some aspect that looked more abstract, but I’m not going to.

It is also International Podcast Day (no, really,) and I had intended to put one together, but again, not happening. Maybe in a couple of days. I know I’ve done absolutely none for this year, but I also haven’t had a decent topic and haven’t formulated a formula, or regular topics or anything of that nature.

Right now, I’m grumbling because a) I just reformatted the computer system not all that long ago, b) I had system backups that simply could not be restored because the system was completely down, and as I discovered, they have a specific format that cannot be accessed from an outside source, c) what I thought was the issue before, was not, and d) I have countless programs with specific formats and profiles that have now all got to be reproduced from scratch. This includes the thumbnail program, so even going through photos (which are heavily backed up, and not through someone’s idea of a backup program either, but under complete manual control,) is frustrating because the damn program doesn’t follow the specific commands that I’d created and gotten used to.

I have not been able to track down the culprit at this point and might not ever, but there are indications that it’s related to either Linux Mint 21.2, or recent upgrades to the Mesa packages, so I’d recommend avoiding both at least until later versions. I’m not the least impressed with Timeshift either, which was supposed to be maintaining system backups to prevent what I’ve been doing for the past three days and turned out to be worthless, even though I could access the backup files from an external disk reader. I could go on, but suffice to say it may be quiet for a few days. Tomorrow’s Tripod Holes, however, is in the bag, written a week before and thus already scheduled in WordPress. And I have a handful of recent photos, some of which may peek in here and there when I get tired of reformatting shit. We’ll see.

Never before seen

Al Denelsbeck

I think, anyway, unless you’re one of a handful of close friends that I sent this too. But I can find no evidence that I ever posted this before.

unearthed ant colony showing workers, soldiers, and larval queens - I think
This comes from eleven years ago, when I would turn over rocks to see what could be found beneath. It’s not like I’ve outgrown such behavior now, it’s just that there are few rocks in the immediate area. But this ant colony sprung into protective action upon exposure, and I managed to get a pretty detailed image with decent focus throughout most of it. I’m not even going to hazard a guess at the species, but what we’re seeing here are the small ‘workers’ and the medium-sized ‘soldiers,’ both sterile females, gathering up the larval forms of two ‘queens’ to carry them to safety. I believe, anyway – we know I’m not an entomologist and the finer details of colonies have a lot of variations. What I can tell you confidently, however, is that typically all hell breaks loose when a colony is exposed, and getting a decent image that illustrates much of anything, in focus and with clear actions, is more a matter of luck than anything else, especially with the short focus of macro work, so I was very pleased to get this, and I can’t imagine why it wasn’t featured back then. The size and anatomical disparities are plainly evident, the larvae looking surreal with a completely pigment-free complexion (though look closely at the eyes.) It does make me wonder how aware they are at that stage, but that leads quickly down a rabbit-hole of how aware anything is, or how we would even define it. Which isn’t the purpose here – I was just resurrecting an older photo that I stumbled across again. You will no doubt want a poster-print for your walls.

Dittyday 9: Love Is a Battlefield

Al Denelsbeck

I have to admit, I often have to look up the exact capitalization of titles because I don’t understand the rules, and I don’t pretend to know why “Is” is capitalized here, but so be it. I think damn near everybody knows this song, one of the biggest hits for Pat Benatar and never deep into any eighties station’s lineup, but I’m going to urge you to listen very closely to it this time. Released in 1983 on a live album but obviously a studio mix, it showcases Benatar’s voice and energy extremely well, and if you need to hear what she really brings to it, look up Holly Knight’s version; Knight was one of the writers of the song, and while the tune is undeniably dynamic, Knight lacks nearly all of the energy in delivering it that Benatar provides. Benatar runs the gamut from crooning through pleading, desperation to defiance, sounding appropriate in all of them. It’s no secret that great vocalizing is a key to gaining my attention, and this song travels up and down the registers as if choreographed, never abrupt, never strained.

But the music cannot be ignored, and the mix is fabulous. Sit back and listen to the instruments, see if you can determine how many there are, and realize that nothing takes dominance or becomes overpowering. So many little flourishes and insertions have their guest spots, from grinding motorcycle guitar chords to soft backing vocals, bass tom drums (likely synth) that dance between your ears – headphones are recommended – to accentuating keyboards at the top of the beat… even a bar or two of whistling. None of it seems out of place at all, every bit adding to the atmosphere of the song, the things that make it completely unique. The ‘main melody,’ if it can be called that, is provided by a fairly quiet electric bass, relinquishing center stage at times to a guitar, but curiously, numerous drums actually do more than you usually hear in pop songs, not just marking the beat or filling the transitions, but actually serving as a melody by themselves. I tried to find who deserves credit for the studio mixing job but such things are never listed, which is a shame, because this is at least as much talent as the vocalists that receive top billing.

Love Is a Battlefield – Pat Benatar

It’s funny – we all know this song, can recognize it instantly, but how often do we recognize all of the elements that have been there all along? I admit to being surprised listening to it one day a few weeks back, when I realized just how much was within and needed to draw attention to it; it’s easy to imagine that so many instruments and riffs and stings would make a godawful mess, and I’ve heard much worse from far fewer instruments, but this is like a perfect recipe, not half as good without the basil and a squeeze of lime. While I’ve tried to feature lesser-known works or artists in the past (and will continue to do so) – there’s even a little part of me that feels guilty highlighting someone who’s won as many awards as Pat Benatar – this is a composition that I suspect goes past many without impinging on them consciously. Maybe it’s just me, I dunno, but either way, kudos to everyone involved.

Three of three

Al Denelsbeck

Getting back now to posting about the second trip down to Jordan Lake and the, what, twelve pics that will accompany it? And it was a slow day, but I’m also cheating a little.

Right as I was bundled up to leave, through the back window I heard a red-shouldered hawk (Buteo lineatus) calling, obviously quite close. Since I had the camera more-or-less in hand, I tried slipping quietly out the back and looked around carefully, but saw nothing. I was just turning to go back inside when I heard it again, and couldn’t pass up the opportunity – it was clearly within 30 meters. With the help of the second call, I spotted it within a minute, then slowly eased around to obtain clearer views. I needn’t have bothered; the hawk was completely unconcerned with my presence, though granted, I was being slow and quiet, but I was within ten meters and it still wasn’t paying me much attention.

red-shouldered hawk Buteo lineatus perched mellowly in tree off back yard
This is cropped, but not by a hell of a lot, and it occurred to me afterward that I had not seen the huge bullfrog by the backyard pond since before this guy’s appearance; frogs and toads are the principle diet of red-shoulders, and while the bullfrog was typically out at night, had the hawk caught it out during the day, the massive meal that it would have provided may well have provoked the hawk to return. I’ll be checking to see if I ever spot the frog again.

And then I went to the lake. The activity was notably absent, with only one or two osprey making any attempts at fishing, and some very distant eagles passing by. But I do want to show this minor little trait that I caught.

tip of osprey Pandion haliaetus wings just after entering water, showing splash pattern
This is an osprey (Pandion haliaetus) just after hitting the water – all you’re seeing are the ‘wrists’ or wing joints peeking above the water. Clicking on the image will take you to the full-frame of the image, which shows the wide splash pattern and even the arcs of the returning droplet (to the right) – osprey tend to hit the water hard, often arresting their dive with their wings, while eagles prefer to snatch a fish during a low pass without getting more than their feet wet. When they’re not just harassing osprey into dropping their own catches, that is.

osprey Pandion haliaetus perched on snag finishing off a fish
This is not the same osprey, who actually came up empty-taloned after that splash, but another who already had a fish when we arrived (the Inestimable Mr Bugg was along this time.) While deep in the trees quite some distance off, the splash of white that appeared and disappeared at times was visible, if you watched carefully, and so we crept up on it to get a fairly close vantage, while the osprey studiously finished off its fish.

One more, before we move on.

osprey Pandion haliaetus in flight
Just one that cruised over without spotting any fish to provide some action shots, but check the focus – both wingtips are softer, but the head and eyes are sharp. That’s what I’d always aim for, but the camera often isn’t that specific. I’m a little surprised that the depth-of-field wasn’t higher than this, though – might have been fairly close, I don’t recall.

Some time later, as things had been too quiet, a great egret (Ardea alba) took off from a distant spot and cruised over the lake, exhibiting a behavior I’ve never seen from a wader before.

great egret Ardea alba backing over deep water
I knew this was over deep water, and the egret suddenly began backing, like the osprey do, and slowed into a near hover over the surface – you can tell from the reflection roughly how high up it was here.

great egret Ardea alba reaching into water from near-hover
And then, barely moving forward, the egret reached into the water almost negligently and snagged a fish – I was almost unnprepared for this shot, but it came out nice.

great egret Ardea alba dipping toes in water after snagging a fish from a near-hover airborne position
with a flex of its body to help arrest its downward motion, the feet slapped water but the egret was already in motion again with its capture, while I blinked and reflected that I hadn’t even thought they were capable of such a maneuver, something you typically see from birds much smaller and more agile that egrets.

great egret Ardea alba flying off with fish snagged while in flight
And off it went with this smug look on its face, probably thinking I’d been too slow and startled to snag it all; I admit I was pleased to have even seen the stunt, much less captured a decent sequence of it. Bizarre, and I’m left wondering if the egret could have gotten airborne again from water it could not wade within if it had floundered (heh!) the catch and entered the water.

There wasn’t a lot else to see, and we changed to a different location to wait out sunset while seeing what could be found there. Not long after arrival as we explored the lake edge, a great blue heron (Ardea herodias herodias) croaked loudly as it left its position high in the canopy above us, only to fly no more than 20 meters and alight in a treetop again – I failed to see the point, but I was happy to get the shot, given that the light angle was much better for this than anything that might appear over the lake itself.

great blue heron Ardea herodias herodias perched in treetop near sunset
I could have done with a little more light on the face, but hey…

After that things were too quiet and we waited for a sunset that, as usual, performed poorly. That was when I got the spider pics in part two, and otherwise just a few silhouetted birds because we could only see into the west from this new vantage. But I offer a quick illustration.

bald eagle Haliaeetus leucocephalus in silhouette showing distinctive profile
This is a bald eagle (Haliaeetus leucocephalus) passing, able to be identified by the silhouette if you look for a couple of telling details. Big of course, but with a more prominent head and neck than the similar-sized vultures. Wings held flat, though that’s not too evident here, with a slow beat pattern. But most especially the beak, that huge Durante-schnozz that nothing but the eagles have. Now a comparison.

osprey Pandion haliaetus in silhouette showing identifying characteristics
This is an osprey, smaller of course but this can be hard to tell from any distance at all. The wings will also be held flat in a glide, though they tend to glide less often and so the faster wingbeat will be displayed. But the telltale again is the beak, nothing at all like the eagle’s. The wingbeat is comparable to a crow, as is the size, but crows almost never glide or soar and their wingbeat is usually constant – and of course they have a straight, thick beak. But knowing these traits will help identify what you’re seeing even a great distance.

And finally,

pair of adult bald eagles Haliaeetus leucocephalus soaring off together into the sunset, kinda
Once again, we saw a pair of adult bald eagles soar off together right around sunset, heading in the same direction as before; I don’t pretend to know why this is, especially when there is often no sign of either earlier in the afternoon, and they don’t always remain together as they cross the lake in a southwesterly direction. But we’ve seen it three or four times now, so I’m going to call it a habit. And it makes for a nice closing image, even when the sky could easily have been better, had it made the effort.

Planning produces failure

Al Denelsbeck

Oh yes, oh yes, another holiday has come around, and hopefully you are totally unprepared for this one, because it’s Fuck Foresight Day, the day when we discover (hopefully, except, well, you know what I mean) that we didn’t think about consequences when we should’ve. If you’re on top of things running behind like you should be, you have no plans to celebrate this and are caught totally off guard: no gas in the car right before you have to run out in a hurry, discovering that that really was the last roll of toilet paper, guests coming over with no clean dishes in the house (and if you’re the type to have special dishes for guests, you’re completely out of line with the day, you commie.) It needs to be noted that this holiday has no fixed schedule and is not determined in advance – no one is even sure who’s responsible for it.

In proper manner, I went out this morning and shot 87 frames before realizing that today is going to be a little busy, and the next few days may add a buttload of pics to the sorting folder – which already has 1800+ photos awaiting my attention. Plus another post, that is not this one. I shouldn’t even be typing this, so go me.

Anyway, while I’m here, I’ll compound the error and really get into the spirit of things. It’s been a little while since I’ve been checking out the neighborhood pond, and with clear skies following two days of dreck from Tropical Storm Ophelia, I figured I’d see what might show itself. There wasn’t much – except a hugely cooperative green heron (Butorides virescens.)

green heron Butorides virescens perched on snag
Helpfully, this little guy jumped up onto the branches here from its spot down on the weeds on the water, where it may have remained unnoticed by me because of the bank dropoff there. This was about ten meters off, which is nice, so I froze except for my shutter finger and began firing off frames, This was not the notably undersized green heron that I’d spotted there before, which I was hoping to find so naturally it wasn’t going to happen today. But this heron was helpful enough to turn its head for different profiles and lighting during this, and I regretted not having anything to reward it with – gotta start carrying a pocketful of minnows.

green heron Butorides virescens yawning
The heron advanced up the branch a little, obscuring its position slightly, but was kind enough to allow me to take a few steps for a better vantage – slowly, casually – without getting spooked. I wasn’t in ideal position to capture this yawn, but you gotta love the tongue.

green heron Butorides virescens showing lensing hotspot alongside eye
I’ve pointed this out before, but it’s been a while so it’s okay. Just note the bright spot to the lower right of the eye here, where the eye itself, or what we think of it anyway, is in shadow, but the convex curve of the cornea catches the light from the side and focuses it onto the face of the heron, a nice indication of how far the eyes stick out beyond the skull, While I imagine light like this affects vision to some extent – similar conditions decrease contrast in the camera at least – such ocular anatomy allows the heron a very wide field of view, even down underneath its chin; sneaking up on one is virtually impossible, and I imagine the fish find it hard to escape too. I have anouther image from the session that illustrates this even better.

green heron Butorides virescens seen from rear showing eye curvature
Not done with being cooperative, the heron popped down from its branch onto the shore, even closer to me than before – this didn’t seem to make sense, but perhaps it was trying to get back down to its hunting area in the lake weeds. Still, we get a nice look at the momentarily raised crest and the eye from behind now, where we can actually see the pupil twice – straight through, and distorted in the cornea. Like I said, cooperative.

Anyway, enjoy the holiday, and by that I mean, make disgusted noises while you kick yourself, but enjoy doing that.

Tripod holes 39

Al Denelsbeck

five baby American alligators Alligator Mississippiensis clustered together on log alongside Big Cypress Bend Boardwalk, Everglades, Florida
N 25°56’36.64″ W 81°28’12.33″ Google Earth location

There was no question that this one was going to enter the lineup, and I purposefully stalled it to appear today, within two days of its 24th anniversary. This is on slide film so I only have the date developed, but I remember this trip fairly well and know I was further north on this date, because reasons – I just can’t recall if I made it down here the next day or the day after that, but no matter. The location also isn’t precise, because I’m not sure exactly how far along the path I was, but it’s still close enough to get you there, and there remains a reasonable chance that you could see the same thing when you go, because this is Big Cypress Bend Boardwalk in the Everglades, Florida, and there are always alligators there. You cannot imagine the delight that I felt when I came across these guys, small enough to know that they hatched that season, perhaps only days previously, and right alongside the path as the verge dipped into the channel alongside. Which meant that I (and everyone else watching in fascination) were within easy reach of the mother alligator, who was almost certainly very close by yet remained completely unseen. This was not reassuring in itself, because the thicket of foliage could have concealed her not five meters away, and I shot all of my frames with the long lens (the Sigma 170-500mm, at that time) on a tripod from a respectable distance, ready to abandon it as a slight barrier if mama emerged looking for trouble. Meanwhile, the baby American alligators (Alligator mississippiensis) watched us warily, clambering a little clumsily among the logs and tussocks, and wurfed like newborn puppies, a sound that I did not initially attribute to them but connected shortly thereafter, to my fascination – I did not possess any video capability at that time, or believe me you’d be hearing it for yourself right now.

I do not recall whether I had this as a specific stop along my way or simply happened across it while cutting through the Everglades on Tamiami Trail (Rt 41,) but I certainly did not anticipate this find. I’ve been back twice since and did not see any newborns, though I’ve always spotted adults and found young juveniles many kilometers further on – you’ll see alligators if you want to, without a lot of effort.

I think this trip was something like ten days long and covered numerous locations in Florida, and on returning I found that my chosen slide-processing lab was still trying to get established in its new location. I eventually dropped 24 rolls of slide film with a different lab, who returned the finished slides to me with a note that read, “These pics are gorgeous!” They managed to retain my business with that one…

Two of three

Al Denelsbeck

No, I didn’t go out to the lake for more photos, and it sure isn’t happening today as the side effects from Tropical Storm Ophelia have produced rain for about sixteen hours straight. I just realized that some of the photos from that last outing didn’t really fit in with the others (of which there are still plenty,) so I broke them off. Someone once told me raptors and arachnids don’t mix, and I’ve always remembered that sage advice. Who said it, I haven’t the faintest…

As I was walking along the lakeshore, there was lots of movement from the sand right near the water’s edge, quick but tiny – so small I had a hard time making out what they were from a standing position. Pausing and looking carefully, I eventually determined that some of them, at least, were tiny spiders, and I took a moment to snag a few frames.

minuscule wolf spider Lycosidae on wet sand along lake edge
I’m calling this a wolf spider (Lycosidae,) but that’s based largely on the body structure because I couldn’t see the eyes well enough – I doubt the overall leg spread topped six millimeters. I wasn’t inclined to get out the macro lens and get wet scrambling around on my hands and knees for the shot, plus I was still watching for raptors, so this was with the 150-600mm; I had to back off a little to get into the short focus range of 2.5 meters. Not bad for that, really.

A little later on, I’d taken a seat on a small rise, still sandy but dry, and noticed another spider, about twice the size, scampering along near me with her egg sac. This time I went ahead and affixed the Mamiya 80mm macro, but was shooting handheld without supplemental lighting.

still small wolf spider Lycosidae with attached egg sac
Several of the spider species carry around their egg sacs attached to their spinnerets – this one might have been 12 mm or so in spread, so I’m trying to imagine how small the spiderlings are when hatched. With that eye pattern, I’m fairly confident this is a wolf spider, and they typically carry their young around on their abdomens for a while after hatching, though without strong magnification I’d never know it. Maybe I should plan a session looking for things like this…

stacked image of tiny wolf spider Lycosidae with attached egg sac
Since I was shooting in available light and it was getting on towards sunset, this was wide open at f4, and is actually a ‘stack’ of two frames: one had the abdomen sharp, one the cephalothorax. Where would we be without Photoshop, or in this case, GIMP? Well, shooting with the macro flash unit at f16 and doing an even better job, really.

And finally,

waxing crescent moon with 'trailing' clouds
I knew the moon would be visible, and eventually located it among the scattered clouds. I waited for some to pass, and snapped this at the right moment, giving me the impression of a cannonball in flight. And now you can’t unsee that either.

One of two (or maybe more)

Al Denelsbeck

These are images from the first of two visits to Jordan Lake this week, and I’m not absolutely sure there won’t be a third before I finish the post for the second, but even if not, there are a serious number of pics. So let’s get started.

osprey Pandion haliaetus wheeling overhead showing entire underside
These are from Monday, which was more active yet still not as much as I’d hoped – I don’t expect anything to beat this day in June but it would be nice. And like the osprey (Pandion haliaetus) above, occasionally one of the birds out there would provide a nice pose.

I’m still after a good shot of the point of entry for a diving osprey, which remains difficult. I had made a minor change to the autofocus system, assigning a ‘lock’ function to one of the buttons on the back right under my thumb, so when I saw a bird starting to dive, I could lock autofocus and prevent it from hunting or grabbing the background horizon as the bird was about to hit the water. As yet, I have not been able to use it, because the autofocus has to be correct first before I can, and so far it’s been hunting just as I was trying to track the osprey’s descent. This might be partially my fault, because I still have to shift my grip slightly to hit the button and it may be causing my aim to wander slightly – this could be enough given the distance of the birds and thus the small AF target, but generally things are happening fast at that point and I’m not really concentrating on evaluating technique.

Also not helping is exposure compensation, to some degree illustrated below:

osprey Pandion haliaetus just before entering water after a fish
You see, I have some over-exposure dialed in for birds against the bright sky, which works well for images like that at top, because the brightness of the sky (and how little of the frame the birds take – that one’s significantly cropped) would cause the exposure functions in the camera to darken things down to ‘average,’ middle-tones, so I over-expose to keep things at the proper brightness – generally 2/3 to one full stop. But then, as the bird crosses the horizon and has a much darker background, this function is making things too bright and actually slowing down the shutter speed. That’s probably not the case here, as we’re about to see – it’s probably just focus wandering.

osprey Pandion haliaetus immediately after splashing down
Because this is a split-second later, same background conditions, and this time the focus locked on just fine and the action is adequately frozen. Still trying to, not perfect this, but at least improve it significantly. Boosting the ISO may help, but there’s a balance point between speed and quality, and I’m playing with that too. I was all ready to do some experiments the following day, and of course then the birds were pretty much not hunting at all.

It was a windy day, making the lake surface choppy but providing plenty of thermals for the raptors to glide within, and the vultures were taking full advantage of it, even though I wasn’t paying much attention to them. But I did watch one approach a perched osprey in the distance – and so did the osprey.

turkey vulture Cathartes aura approaching osprey Pandion haliaetus perched in dead tree
As close as they appear here, it’s a line-of-sight kind of thing and the vulture is a lot farther from the osprey than that. Vultures aren’t too territorial and I’ve never seen or even heard of one harassing anything else (that was alive, anyway,) but the osprey appeared none too sure of that as it approached.

turkey vulture Cathartes aura circling around and landing behind osprey Pandion haliaetus perched in dead tree
But the vulture, used to perching in entire flocks, just wanted a spot of its own in the inviting tree, and the osprey wasn’t fazed by that, once the vulture had taken its perch. This was a turkey vulture (Cathartes aura,) though the black vultures were also quite present that day.

A little later on, the osprey had left and more of the vultures were taking up the tree. I just liked the moment in time captured here:

trio of turkey vultures Cathartes aura in various locations on dead tree
I looked closely at the original frames, and there’s just enough resolution to make out the red heads, making these all turkey vultures. However, in hanging out and waiting, I’d taken a seat on the sand of the lakeshore not too far away from the decimated carcass of a large fish, and my stillness and the overhanging shade tree convinced a black vulture (Coragyps atratus) that I wasn’t around, and it cruised in to land nearby. It saw me at the last second, because I was raising the lens to track it, but this wasn’t enough to discourage the bird and it simply veered off a little and landed farther away.

black vulture Coragyps atratus trying to determine if the photographer poses a threat
It had landed perhaps 15-18 meters off and eyed me warily, but there was carrion there, and it didn’t take long for the large bird to start sidling closer, not hopping as they often do – this required a little more caution, so it stalked carefully, but not too slowly really.

black vulture Coragyps atratus portrait against lake
I still had compensation dialed in for shots against the sky, so this was a little bright and has been darkened slightly in post, which makes the lake look that way. But even the sound of the shutter wasn’t deterring the vulture.

black vulture Coragyps atratus working on carcass of dead fish on lakeshore
Seriously, there wasn’t enough left of the fish to make a decent snack, but the vulture wasn’t absolutely sure of that. This was taking place not ten meters away from where I sat, yet the bird wasn’t overly concerned. Soon, about five more vultures saw the activity and came swooping in, but as I raised the camera they all said, “What, are you nuts?” (or reactions to that effect) and veered off, only one landing much further off before deciding it wasn’t worth it and taking off again. My model here soon followed, and as I type this, I realize that it should have become a Profiles of Nature. Ah well – I have enough birds in those anyway.

There were also at least five bald eagles (Haliaeetus leucocephalus) present, though mostly at great distances, just close enough to make out age-specific markings but little else. One came reasonably close for a portrait, revealing as it did so how old it was.

third year bald eagle Haliaeetus leucocephalus wheeling overhead
The stripes along the face are indicative: this is a third year juvenile, and will gain its adult plumage next year. I’m not sure that I had an example of the third year plumage this clear, but I do now at least.

At least one pair of adults were cruising past in the distance at one point, and individual adults later on, but I couldn’t say for sure whether these were the same ones or not – they did at least seem to prefer the same spot, well down the lake from me. But then, just a tad closer, another pair started wheeling around close together – very close, at times, and then they started ‘interacting.’ The following animated gif (pronounced, “IN-kor-EKT-lee“) is a sequence of seven consecutive frames shot within two seconds as I watched.

animated gif of two juvenile bald eagles Haliaeetus leucocephalus, likely second-year, harassing one another
The potshots, of which there were several, were unmistakable, but at no point did either veer off and change direction or anything; since I’ve seen this before, I’m inclined to say this is play behavior among siblings, practice for the real actions of harassing other birds like osprey for their fish, one of the ways eagles get their food. We’ll illustrate these two a little better.

full-frame view of two juvenile bald eagles Haliaeetus leucocephalus interacting in distance
This is one example of the frames I was capturing, uncropped to give you an idea of the distance involved and my view through the camera – yes, this is at 600mm, so they weren’t much more than specks to the naked eye, difficult to determine that they were indeed eagles (mostly by the wings held flat while gliding, and the slower speed of their flapping pattern when they weren’t.) Now we’ll look at the same frame a bit tighter.

pair of juvenile bald eagles Haliaeetus leucocephalus, probably second-year, demonstrating harassing behavior
The one on the left is clearly a second-year juvenile, but the one on the right might be a first-year; speckling on the head and underwings may or may not be present. Still, since it didn’t try to flee under this harassment but continued on its path, I’m leaning towards these being siblings just goofing on one another.

Without more action to be seen, I eventually wrapped it up and headed home. But then a bit later on as I was doing yardwork, I spotted another raptor sitting in a tree about a hundred meters off, grabbing the camera and long lens again and slowly stalking it. The stealth turned out to be unnecessary, since the hawk wasn’t paying the least attention to me or the various neighbors who marched by directly under it.

juvenile Cooper's hawk Accipiter cooperii perched nonchalantly on dead branch
I was initially identifying this as a juvenile red-tailed hawk, partially because I’d heard one call only a few minutes before, but on closer look I’m pegging this as a juvenile Cooper’s hawk (Accipiter cooperii) instead – the red-tail’s belly band is missing. It was big enough for a red-tail and acting like one – normally the accipiters are quite shy and avoid people quickly, and this one couldn’t have cared less not only that I was standing right underneath it, but conversing with neighbors as I was doing so (this is never my doing; I remain silent when stalking critters, but too many other people fail to understand this concept, and I’m polite enough not to ignore them or glare at them.) Anyway, if you want to understand my identification uncertainty, take a look at the photos for juvenile Cooper’s hawks, and then sharp-shinned hawks, and finally red-tailed hawks.

That was only part one. More on the way.

Coupla portraits

Al Denelsbeck

Just a pair of portrait perspectives taken yesterday – nothing deep or meaningful.

hummingbird clearwing moth Hemaris thysbe resting on butterfly bush Buddleja davidii
Late yesterday morning I was surprised to find a hummingbird clearwing moth (Hemaris thysbe) remaining perched on the blossoms of one of the butterfly bushes (which I keep forgetting are now Buddleja davidii, and not Buddleia – quite an annoying change, to be honest.) While I’ve actually never seen either Hemaris species holding still at all, I know they must alight to sleep and it got kind of chilly that previous night, but it was also late enough (with enough full sun) that the moth should have been well-awake and warm by that point. It remained in place long enough for several close portraits and detail shots, and even while I was removing old, dead blossom clusters, but then was gone when I turned back during this task. I’m glad it stayed long enough at least.

And then, much later:

pair of juvenile green treefrogs Dryophytes cinereus perched on empty planter
A pair of tiny juvenile green treefrogs (Dryophytes cinereus) were hanging out together on a planter on the front walk in the evening, and very nicely got together in the frame as I was shooting. From the size difference, I would say that they were different broods, but the largest (in the back) wasn’t even half adult size – nothing handy for scale, though the planter wall itself is only 10mm thick, if that helps. Which means the foreground one could perch comfortably on your thumb.

Amusingly, I rotated the planter gently to try and achieve a head-on view of both, but they remained oriented the same way, turning as the pot did to keep facing in their original directions. It’s counter to expectations, because they were both sitting there unmoving without any apparent focus, but they both definitely wanted to be facing that way. Pardon me.

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