Adult Wood Stork along the edge of the rookery swamp at Port Royal.
This spot is half way between the rookery nesting area and the wood line. Storks gather sticks in these woods so they fly right over here all day. If they get thirsty, want a rest, whatever, they drop down here. I can stand maybe 25 yards, 22 meters, away from them.
A nice place to photograph them (except it’s out in the southern sun).
This bird gets your attention when they are nearby. Their wind span is around 6 feet – 2 meters, so they move a lot of air when they push off.
They have a limited breeding range of Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, and North Carolina. We have 5 rookeries across the state. This one the newest in Port Royal. I think we are still at 5 though, these birds just moved down the coast 20 miles or so from another that is not active now.
Best viewed large.
Yes, there is a large number of Wood Stork photographs lately. I am still fascinated by the fact they have gone from an endangered species to this large rookery with nests so easily photographed.
Another month or so and they will all disappear back out to the large marshes. The summer doldrums will be upon us.
The whole neighborhood was there.
Best viewed large.
They look so calm, in control.
Unless you photograph Wood Storks on a regular basis you don’t realize the usual problems when shooting them. The obvious one is size. However it’s more like size and focus.
An example is the wings. Getting the wing tips, on both wings, in focus is tricky. The same goes for getting both his huge beak and feet in focus at the same time. This is not something that’s a big issue with most birds.
Switching to OM helped, depth of field is much better on their cameras. By default most shots will have a deeper depth, which I think is great for wildlife photography.
Below is a good sample. This big bird could not have been more spread out. There’s probably about 8 feet between wing tips here.
I’m not the type of photographer that will be flipping around f stops when a big bird suddenly drops out of a tree.
These are the shots that love to catch. The big wading bird working his way through the swamp. His wing span can be almost 7 feet, yet they can slip between all the branches.
This bird was out collecting sticks for a nest. I think he is carrying a twig 😆.
Captured this Wood Stork returning to the nest.
Clear background pointed out this shot for a monochrome silhouette photograph.
