JUNE, 2008

Well it has been good to be home for a while after a long trip out west. Things have been fairly active in Florida and I think that the overall state of the wildlife world is in a state of flux. I found that the nesting Piping Plovers in Nebraska were running about two weeks late with their nests and I received a note from a friend in the UK who found the same thing in Churchill, Manitoba where the whole migration cycle was out of whack.

The news in South Florida has been reporting that, because of the drought, the Snail Kites are more endangered this year than they have been in a long time. It is therefore, especially pleasing that this year there have been a number of Snail Kite nests close enough to shoot in the Everglades. The nests themselves are a bit far away but it has been fun watching and shooting them coming and going.

It is amazing that there always seems to be something to do and learn on the computer so I seem to always stay busy no matter what is happening out in the field.

May, 2008

May was quite a month. I have wanted to do a trip to the upper Midwest for sometime and finally had a chance to travel up to Nebraska, South Dakota, Colorado, and New Mexico. I had planned to go to Wyoming to see some of Cody and Yellowstone but the weather gods seem to have other ideas. Every time I started to head further west the weather would get really bad out that way. I guess I had conveniently forgotten that the Midwest can be rather windy but I received constant reminders while I was out there. I even had a few days with the winds up in the fifty mile per hour range.

I was going to some of the really remote National Wildlife Refuges out there so I camped for most of the trip. Much to my surprise camping turned out to be one of the most enjoyable parts of the entire trip. There were a few days that caused me to question whether it had been a good decision but it was especially nice to be shooting in the morning in a matter of minutes instead of a forty mile drive away.

An area that was a fascinating surprise was the Pawnee National Grasslands in Colorado. The grasslands are what the name implies but full of diverse wildlife and habitat.

I managed to come back with twelve new species of birds and five or six new species of mammals. I finally had a chance to see American Avocets in full breeding plumage and was immediately smitten. They are absolutely beautiful.

All in all a successful trip with a bit more driving than most would choose but it gave me a chance to see some things I might have missed otherwise

 

April, 2008

Things in Florida certainly picked up in April. All of the local areas in South Florida have been much more active including Long Key with 8 or 9 active Great Egret nests, some with chicks. There was a Pileated Woodpecker nest with three chicks in Flamingo, Everglades National Park, and three Snowy Plover Nests that hatched over four days on Sanibel Island. The link also includes some of the other shorebirds that were on the beach on Sanibel. I am always excited to see Red Knots in any plumage but especially when they are in or changing to breeding plumage. Their numbers have plummeted so dramatically in recent years that I root for them any time I see them. I understand that there have even been some Warblers passing through Fort DeSoto.

One of the things I have been doing differently in my travels is something I haven't done since I lived in the mountains of New England or did under government supervision when I was in the Marine Corps, and that is camp out in a tent. I am planning a trip to some of the more remote reaches of the Mid-West and Western United States, and wanted (or needed) to practice before getting too far away. It has been cool and not too humid in Florida this spring so it has so far been a very pleasant experience. It is a little difficult to do without internet and a few other "civilized" conveniences but is very "do-able".

March, 2008

I am pleased to report that the shooting has improved a lot in Florida in the past three or four weeks. Ding Darling has had some good activity for the first time in many years with some White Pelicans and Roseate Spoonbills in evidence. It is still not a guarantee since the birds may still be a long way away but at least there have been some opportunities. I have spent some time at Gatorland in Orlando, and the founder's son Mike Godwit has gone a long way to make it much more photographer friendly. I have been there a number of times in recent weeks with a good friend Jeff Wendorff and we have had some great success. I spent some time in the Joe Overstreet Road area and have had some great days with the Snail Kites and Osprey even having both Bald Eagles and Northern Caracaras close along the road. There were even five Whooping Cranes in sight flying North of the road one morning.

 

February, 2008

In February things started turning around in Florida, and got a bit more normal than it has been this year. Whether it is global warming or some other cycle, it has not been a "normal" year for photography here in Florida. I lead my first photo tour to Japan in the second half of the month of February. It was a success for all concerned. We had a great group of people who were all receptive to the cultural differences and great photo opportunities that Japan offers. We all (me included) managed to get some wonderful images of the Snow Monkeys, Japanese Cranes, Steller's Sea Eagles, Whooper Swans, and White-tailed Sea Eagles.The pack ice was close to the shore of Hokkaido giving three days of maximum shooting time in the ice for the rare Eagles that winter along that shore. The tour was put together by Infinity Photo Tours and they did a fine job of organization.We are going to do it again next year and I am really looking forward to it. If you want to do a superb photo tour of Northern Japan let me know. I will get the images from the trip on the web site by the end of March, and I will put a link here for the images.

December, 2007 and January, 2008

Between the Holidays and a bout of the flu December and January were so slow that I was too lazy to even type that they were slow. Probably a case of the less you do, the less you want to do. Even some of my usual haunts were unproductive this year. It has forced me to get out and explore some new areas. I was even told that I have a colony of Skimmers just a few minutes from where I live when the wind stops blowing in a day or so I'll get over and see how it looks. I even found a Heron/Egret rookery (Thanks to Michael Wolf) ten minutes from where I live that looks as if it will be very productive.

November, 2007

I was in Colorado the end of October and came home early in November. I spent three or four days in Rocky Mountain National Park shooting scenics and local birds and the did a Raptor shoot with both old new friends. The whole trip was a great experience although my timing was imperfect as the day I arrived they closed the main road across the park for the season.It was the day the first serious snowstorm of the season hit. All of my notes were for the part of the park that was closed but I managed to find more than enough to do in the area that was open. The action in Florida is starting to pick up in early December so I am starting to get serious about shooting locally for the first time in a while..

October, 2007

Well things are still a bit slow in Florida although I had a great morning in Central Florida with a juvenile Snail Kite that was having an even better morning. He was grabbing a snail about every 10 minutes and completely unconcerned with my presence. All in all quite exciting. I followed up with some good shooting at Estero Lagoon where there were around six Roseate Spoonbills active and a selection of waders in the area.

I have put some new Shorebird images up that can be found under New Stuff or in the Shorebirds Gallery.

John

September, 2007

Things slow down a bit this time of the year in South Florida, so it is a great time to catch up on processing and working on images. I've made a trip or two to Fort Desoto and will run up to central Florida in the next few days. I did put a few new images up in Marsh Birds that you might enjoy.

John

Newfoundland, Last Two Weeks of July, 2007

I was in Newfoundland for the last two weeks of July and spent the entire time exploring the Avalon Peninsula. It is the piece of land that juts from the Southeast corner of Newfoundland and includes the charming capital city of St. John’s. Very little time was spent in the city, and the rest of Newfoundland is sparsely populated and easy to travel.   I had never been there before but it is possibly the friendliest place I have ever visited. The drive from one end of the peninsula to the other was quite beautiful and enjoyable and made even better by the wonderful people.

The trip was quite productive. I originally planned the trip to catch the breeding Northern Gannets but I discovered that there are a surprising number of Atlantic Puffins around the island, and had great success with both species. With Newfoundland’s location just north of the confluence of the Gulf Stream and the Labrador currents it can get a bit foggy. As a matter of fact a local explained that they produce so much fog that they export it all over the world. The weather is a bit of a challenge but the fog is an opportunity to work on all kinds of different photographic situations.  The sight of 38,000 nesting Gannets on a sunny day at Cape Saint Mary’s Ecological Reserve, with all their smell and noise, is quite magical.

To see the images click on the Newfoundland Gallery or on the link below.

 

Newfoundland

John