American Oystercatchers
American Oystercatchers are fascinating birds to photograph, They can strike unusual poses and their plumage is spectacular in flight. I enjoyed watching them pry open bivalves with their long bill
Friday Photos: Great Egret
I know this photo will always remind me of the great times I had photographing birds at Fort De Soto, one of my favorite places on earth.
Shorebirds: Spotted Sandpipers
Spotted Sandpipers are fun to watch as they walk along the shoreline as they teeter, bob and bounce their rear ends up and down.
Limpkins
Limpkins may not be as beautifully colored as a Roseate Spoonbill or as common as Sandhill Cranes in Florida but to me they are uniquely interesting and appealing birds.
White Ibis
In Florida White Ibis (Eudocimus albus) are a fairly common wading bird in Florida they are also seen along the coast of the Gulf of Mexico
Common and Red-breasted Mergansers
Mergansers are considered "diving ducks" and one of the things the three species of mergansers found in North America all have in common are their serrated bills.
Nanday Parakeets
Any bird that eats those nasty sand spurs is a hero in my book and Nanday Parakeets are one of them.
White Balance Mistakes
After my experience with screwing my white balance up that day I had to make a note to myself to remember to check my white balance setting on the camera.
Brown Pelicans – Feeding Behaviors and Identification
Brown Pelicans feed by diving head first into the water to trap fish in the pouches of their bills.
Fish Crows
Fish Crows are fairly commonplace along the coast of Pinellas County and they are often ignored by photographers because they are a "plain" common bird.
So ya think ya want to be a bird photographer?
Be prepared to become addicted to birds. You will have withdrawals if you don't shoot often enough, your shutter button finger will develop a nervous twitch
Bye bye Blackbirds? The USDA is killing birds with DRC-1339
Recently the USDA accepted responsibility for a smaller die off in South Dakota which brought to light a little known program called "Bye bye Blackbird" which uses DRC-1339, a poison that is also called an avicide.
Reddish Egret, Laughing and Ring-billed Gulls
There were quite a few Laughing Gulls on and near the shoreline, a few Ring-billed Gulls and two Reddish Egrets hunting on the beach that day.
Gray Days
Gray days sometimes force me to slow down, to take a deep breath and they allow me the luxury of liesurely looking through my older image files
Hidden Treasures
As a bird photographer I often strive for images where the subjects are out in the open, without distractions in the fore or background, but as with any photographic "rule", they are made to be broken.
Roseate Spoonbills
Cotton candy pink... are the descriptive words I thought of when I saw my first Roseate Spoonbill.
Laughing Gulls
Laughing Gulls are quite common on the east and Gulf coastlines of the US, during breeding season they are usually found near saltwater but in nonbreeding season they are known to wander widely.
Wilson’s Plover
There are times that I open an image on my computer screen and I can't help but laugh. This is one of those images for me because of the tilt of the head of the Wilson's Plover.
Great Egret – Light on White
Great Egret (Ardea alba) in flight, a balance of whites and light
Black-bellied Plover
I love watching Black-bellied Plovers hunting. They take a few steps, stop, look and listen, then do it all over again.
Ghost Crab
This Ghost Crab image was taken on the Gulf coast of Florida while I still lived there.
Wood Stork portrait
It is my opinion that Wood Storks do not get nearly the same exposure as other big white wading birds.
Reddish Egret – White Morph
Breeding plumage white morph Reddish Egret while it hunted and danced in the waves on the Gulf coast of Florida.
Anhinga Portraits
Anhingas have always fascinated me. These are portraits of both the male and female.
Black-crowned Night Heron portrait
Since I moved to Utah I have never been able to get as close to Black-crowned Night Herons like I was able to approach this bird in Florida.
Juvenile Wilson’s Plover – Small in the frame
This juvenile Wilson's Plover was in the company of an adult bird and both of them were scurrying along some vegetation on the north beach of Fort De Soto.
Willet in a fog
The Willet is thought by many people to be a "plain brown bird" but I find their subtle coloring quite appealing whether they are in breeding or nonbreeding plumage.
Shorebirds of Fort De Soto – Marbled Godwits
Marbled Godwits are graceful birds while on the ground, feeding and in flight.
Auto Levels in Photoshop
Auto levels in Photoshop must be used with a light touch. Using auto levels can create too much contrast in an image, can cause color casts, it can brighten an image too much, it can strip the light and can make some images look very unnatural.
Shorebirds of Fort DeSoto – Ruddy Turnstones
One of the easier medium-sized shorebirds to identify on Fort De Soto's beaches and tidal mudflats are the Ruddy Turnstones. The only other turnstone that frequents North America is the Black Turnstone and it occurs on the Pacific coast.