This Tricolored was out one morning doing the typical hunting dance. Drama and comedy at the same time.
Spreading their wings makes a shadow over the water and helps them spot prey. Even early light out here can cause a glare.
They also dance around kicking their feet (like a Snowy Egret) to flush out anything in the mud.
I need to be shooting before they go for a fish, lightning fast.
When the show is over they exit with a strut.
There is just a little ‘pink’ on this young bird. He also had a full ‘feather’ head, adults are almost bald.
I found this one off at the edges of big flock of mixed wading birds. The others were all grouped together, this one was keeping his distance.
There is safety in numbers, but competition for food. My guess is food was more important.
I have shot birds with the light bouncing off the grasses before, and they make what could be a flat photograph pop that much more.
In the case of the Herons it also makes it clear how the can blend right into the reeds and never be seen.
I could not have asked for any more drama in a photograph than this. A pod of Dolphin were herding schools of fish at the mouth of a river. This is a favorite hunting spot. This is one of a few groups in the world that have learned to herd, and push, fish to shore. If the bank is steep enough, they go right up with them.
Here a large adult forced the school to shore, and has caught one, a second is jumping to escape. Adults grow to about 13 feet (4 m) and weight between 600 – 1100 pounds. They swim at 17 mph (27 K).
Best to use common sense around them.
Black Skimmers are one of those challenging photographs that we all work hard to capture. We don’t catch them very often either. Like a gull they change direction in an instant and by flying so low and fast they’ve gone by before we raise the camera.
The other morning everything fell into place. Skimmers were all along this shore line, at the waters edge.
Dolphin were pushing schools of fish and all the shore birds joined in.
Small fish were in the surf so these birds could not have fished any closer.
As with anything in photography it’s feast or famine. Later on flocks of Skimmers gave me all I could handle for the day.
One of the most exciting things about photographing pods of feeding Dolphin is watching and anticipating where the school of fish will be attacked. It’s almost never where you think, but to get the chase I at least try.
Because this pod can strand schools of fish a Dolphin will travel along the shore pushing fish. The deep slope of the sand makes it easy for them to be only a few meters away, a pain when using the required long lens.
An adult is about 13 feet (4 m ) in length, big enough to see them as the glide just under the surface.
This one turned away and went back out towards the others in the channel. he may or may not have also been pushing the fish towards them.
If he had made a sudden turn, especially to his left, it would have meant the push was on.
Not this time though.
It’s a little usual for Night Herons to be out in the open like this. Ellen and I both captured some nice photographs of these birds. Click here to view PassingByPhoto.
There is a small (very small) island in an old rice field here that the Night Herons nest in so some are always around. Just hidden a little better.
The water level was very low so food was probably easy to find right there.
The most striking thing about these birds is their ruby red eyes. Not shown to their best in this light though.
I had seen other photographers work of this location, I was not prepared for what I found. Mine will probably fall short of it’s simple grandeur.
Religious camp meetings are the ‘ole time revival’ tent meetings. Only a permanent location. The first camp meeting here was held nearby in Indians Fields, 1801. This campground was built and first used in 1848. Since then it has held camp a week out of every year (it was shorter during the civil war, people were busy).
The tabernacle is a wooden pavilion (new roof) that seats 1,000 people, in the center of an octagon. It is surrounded by 99 wooden ‘tents’. The camp design and layout follows the old testament book of Leviticus, ’99 wood tents and a tabernacle’.
The campground was placed on the US National Register Of Historic Places in 1973.
The grounds are in a very rural location. A circular dirt road winds around the camp. If you look at these photographs (and more to come) you will see everything is open, no walls, high rafter ceilings. The floors are straw / dirt.
Now… there was not a single birds nest, spider web, dust, or any type of animal to be seen. This is in the woods. The local Methodist church must clean and maintain every building, constantly.
I’m not sure how big the overall camp is, but huge works for me.
