Hiking/Birding in Congaree National Park

I spent most of the day in Congaree National Park yesterday.  I stopped too often to watch birds to be able to say that I was hiking, and I made too much noise to be able to say that I was birding.  So, I'm not sure what I was doing.  But, I got plenty of pictures. :-)


I saw a few Yellow-Bellied Sapsuckers.

And a ton of Red-Bellied Woodpeckers.

A beautiful Northern "Yellow-Shafted" Flicker:

I don't know what this is (now known to be a Winter Wren), but it is so adorable!

And there were several others little guys, but the pictures are probably not worth subjecting y'all to. 

Now, for the grand finale!  Congaree National Park serves as a breeding ground for a number of bird species.  It's an International Biosphere Reserve, and a designated Globally Important Bird Area.  One of the species that breeds in CNP is the Pileated Woodpecker.  I saw 5 or 6 of these guys.  One wasn't concerned about me at all, and was completely focused on breakfast!

This one was quite concerned by my presence, and flew off soon after I took this photo.

I'll be sending the above photo to the park for use on their website/newsletter.

More around the house

I spent some time on the dock again Saturday.  A lot of old friends showed up.  But, while I was taking a shot of a Great Blue at the end of the lake, I caught sight of a Wood Duck!  They are fairly common, but I've never seen one before, and they are pretty striking.  They were too far away, even for the fancy camera.  This is the best I could do:

While I was gawking at the wood ducks, I noticed a massive bird headed my way.  Some how I managed to snap a couple of photos.

I shall call him "Tank"

Bald Eagle flying over Springwoods Lake

Check out this Cormorant flying over the lake.  What I love about this picture is the green eye!

And what I love about this one is the way the light from the water plays on the underside of the Great Blue's wings:

A Hooded Merganser showed up.  He was by himself and very focused on breakfast.  I tried and tried to get a shot of him diving, but each time ended up with a picture of just a splash, or , at best, the tip of a tail.  I watched him for a little while and noticed that he was swimming around with his crest up, and each time about half a second before he would dive, he lowered his crest slightly.  So, by watching for this sign, I was able to get several shots of him diving.  Rather than this GIF, I could post a video, but I think this is more fun!

Enough of the waterfowl.  I can only get so close to them.  For the first time, I had a go at photographing some of my "backyard birds".  Some of these I'm sharing because I like the pictures, some I'm sharing because they show off the camera.  All of these were taken from at least several feet away.

I love how well camouflaged this little Song Sparrow is in the pine straw (that my yard guys rake into piles against the fence every time and never actually pick up!). This shot was taken from maybe 15-20 feet.

This Brown Thrasher (10-15 ft) is another one that is well camouflaged for his pile of leaves.  I don't really see the point of it though, considering all the noise he was making rooting around! 

 The Dark-Eyed ("Slate-Colored") Juncos are the biggest fans of my bird feeder, or at least the seed on the ground.  They are too cute.

Now, this picture cracked me up like no other!  This little Junco could not be more round, but here he is, birdseed stuffed in his mouth, standing his ground!  I love it!  One of my all-time favorite pictures!

Finally, here are a couple of shots of a Black-Capped Chickadee.  This is the only bird that has figured out how to use my squirrel-proof bird feeder.  Incidentally, I caught a squirrel on it yesterday, but I think he was having a pretty hard time of things.

All-in-all, I think I'm going to have lots of fun (and bore lots of people) with the new Canon.

Birds

"[Birds] are the most intensely alive of all creatures---often moving, darting, hopping, flying, or at times migrating thousands of miles."

-Roger Tory Peterson

Escapades with the new camera

My new camera (Canon SX40 HS) arrived yesterday evening.  It was around dusk, so I did not have enough light to play with it.  I sat out on the dock at sunrise this morning.  The windchill was 20 degrees. I managed a couple of hours, but I still feel like my fingers are frozen!

Bear with me here, this post is pretty much going to be photos that I took this morning while playing with my new toy.  All, save for maybe one or two, were taking on Auto mode, but I've big plans to learn how to use the camera properly.  Many are cropped, and I've applied MS Picture Manager's "Auto Correct" to several of them which brightens the color but sacrifices some of the detail.

If it's not obvious from my previous posts, let me illustrate one of the reasons I decided to finally get a new, decent camera.... In the middle of this photo, there is a little light-blue circle WAYYY off in the distance. There is nothing to be seen inside of that little circle, even if you abuse digital zoom.  But, back in the real world, there is a Great Blue Heron in it.

The new camera has a 35x optical zoom.  I don't know about the digital zoom, I've turned that off because I find that I can't resist crossing that threshold when I'm excited about something I'm trying to capture.  So, look at the wide shot above, and imagine this heron in that little circle:

Great Blue Heron with a fish in his mouth

This is cropped a little, but not much.  Now if you use the digital zoom (or if you have a halfway decent imagination), you can even see that this fella is holding his morning catch!

There were six Great Blues on the lake this morning.  They are pretty territorial.  When I see one flying I've come to expect that he is headed to where another is hanging out, will try to land, and in the end only one will claim that spot, or perhaps they will both fly off.  It creates a neat domino effect!  Here's a rare shot of two of them tolerating each other.  It's not the best photo, but I thought it was neat having both of them in the frame, and I like the Cormorant in the foreground.

Two Great Blue Herons and a Great Cormorant

Here are two chasing each other with the three Pie-Bill Grebes, Huey, Dewey, and Louie, in the background.

Two Great Blue Herons with three Pie-Bill Grebes in the background

Speaking of Huey, Dewey, and Louie, they are a reliable bunch.  They have been around for a while, and are always in my area of the lake.  They are still pretty cautious and will not venture very close if I'm out.

Pie-Bill Grebes: (from left to right) Huey, Dewey, and Louie

Okay, now a bunch of other Great Blue shots:

Great Blue Heron on the opposite bank.

Great Blue Heron on the opposite bank.

Great Blue Heron

Great Blue Heron

Great Blue Heron

Great Blue Heron on a dock off the opposite bank

I froze my ass off for two hours.  The sun came up and I think it just got colder!  I went in to get a heavy blanket at some point, but eventually gave up.  I had hoped the Hooded Mergansers would make an appearance, but I was pretty well frozen solid.  I stepped out around 10:30 to take some photos of one of the grebes who had ventured close to the dock.  Of course, as soon as I walked out he saw me, dove under, and resurfaced 15 yards further out.  But, as I was taking shots I saw the Mergansers hanging out on the other side of the lake!  I still hope to catch them closer one morning, but at least I was able to test out the camera on these very photogenic birds.

Hooded Merganser drake and hen

Hooded Merganser drake (Background: Canada Goose)

Hooded Merganser hen

Hooded Merganser drake and hen

Hooded Merganser drake and hen

I keep trying to catch some good photos of birds, particularly herons, in flight, but I haven't figured that one out yet though.  Most of these a pretty blurry, but I still find them interesting.

Great Blue Heron in flight

Great Cormorant in flight

Great Blue Heron in flight

Great Blue Heron in hop.  (This pose reminds me of an origami swan.)

Finally, I love this "compilation picture" where I've captured four different birds: Great Blue Heron flying, two White Egrets, two Canada geese, and two Great Cormorants.  Plus, as a bonus, a squirrel in the upper left.  Makes me smile.  :-)

Left to right: Squirrel, Great White Egret, Great White Egret, Great Blue Heron in flight, Great Cormorant, Great Cormorant, Canada Goose, Canada Goose :-)

Hopefully the photos will continue to improve as better opportunities arise, and as I learn how to use the gazillion buttons and dials on the camera.  Until then!

Mystery Resolved

After some discussion and collaboration with others, we've decided that my guest geese are probably Blue-Phase Snow Geese.  If so, they are a little out of range.  I had not seen them again until this morning when one of them swam up to my dock with some Canada geese.  I was out before jetting off to school because I had spied the Hooded Mergansers playing about my dock (short video of them below).  This time I was able to get some decent photos.

I added a quick video of the Hooded Mergansers preening, but the Blogger retained almost no video quality.  I thought about leaving it up for later comparison, but thought better of it.  It's a shame it wasn't two days later.  I'm waiting for my new camera to arrive tomorrow night, then I should be able to take awesome photos and videos!

Mystery Goose (or Swan)

This morning there were a couple of impostors mingling with the Canada geese.  I could not get any decent photos, but I watched them for a while through the binoculars.  I'm dying to find out what they are, but from what I have found, there are only a few different types of geese and swans in the US, and they don't look like any of them. 

There were two of them, the one circled in the back (obviously), and the arrow is pointing to another that is next to a Canada goose. 

These guys were a fair bit larger than the Canada geese, and as you can see, they looked a bit different from each other.  The white patches on the circled bird were more obvious than the photos suggests, and it had a white dorsal line down the back of the neck seen here:

They were both pretty motley looking around the beak, head, and neck.  One of them may have had some nobbly/wartiness around the beak, but it was hard to tell.

We are looking at the guy on the right. (He is looking right back at us)

Finally, when they took off (inspired by a huge flock of Great Cormorants), you can see, in this horrible photo, that this one (on the right) has white wingtips.  This is the one with the white patches and white stripe down the neck.  The bird on the left is a Cormorant.

Someone please tell me what they are!!!

Recent Visitors and Old Friends

Since I haven't kept y'all updated about the happenings on Springwoods Lake and I don't feel like trying to rehash the last few months in my head, I'm just going to post some photos and my random comments.  I'm open to second (which are usually better) opinions on any identifications that I claim here.  The photos are taken at a pretty high optical and digital zoom, then many of them are further "blown up".  I'm not trying to collect points for artistic style, and I apologize for the pretty crappy photos.  Except for the very last one...I offer no apologies for that one cause I like it! 

Back in October I was trying to identify some divers on the lake and I thought they might be Pied-billed Grebes.  After watching them for a couple-a-few weeks I decided that they were not.  I begin to think they might be juvenile Hooded Mergansers.  But then I wasn't so sure.  It was very frustrating until I realized that I was looking at two different flocks.

I'm claiming Grebes on these guys:

and Mergansers on these:

Speaking of Hooded Mergansers, I woke up one morning to these visitors.  Beautiful!

I watched this guy for a while through my binocs, and I recall deciding that he was a Double-Crested Cormorant.  But, I would not attest to that now.  The photo certainly is not suggestive of anything to my untrained eye.  It had a reddish throat that made me think it might be an Anhinga, but the tip of its bill seemed to be slightly hooked.  It's a shame he was so far away.

Now, Anhingas and Cormorants...  Anyone have any thoughts on these guys?

They don't have the sharp bills of the Anahingas, but I thought Cormorants sat higher in the water than this.  Here's a shot from this morning, I think these are the same guys.

I think this must be a Bald Eagle.  It was huge and soaring high, and I don't know what else it might be.

I love the Belted Kingfishers.  I don't see them up close quite as often now that the water levels are back up, but I heard them a lot.

Okay, I'm a little tired of adding random pictures and trying to be clever enough to come up with something to say.  And who wants to look at a photo without a proper lead-in and caption?  So, I'll sign off here, but before I do, I want to leave you with these little guys because they make me smile: