The Homemakers

There is a dead branch on a tree overlooking the marsh pond that is a favorite perch of larger birds. At this point in the life cycle of a tree, most of the smaller branches have fallen off, so there is less risk of a bird accidentally damaging it's wings when landing there. A mated pair of Osprey are one of the bird species that enjoy the view.

If you watch a bird land on a tree branch, it is actually pretty cool. First of all, they face into the wind so they can take full advantage of the wind in their wings. They also come in below the branch they want to land on. As they near the target, they go into a steep climb calculated to cause a stall just as they reach the branch. It is similar to a person who, before kicking a football, has to judge how many steps he has to take and how far apart they have to be to get to the ball at just the right point. This permits a soft landing and reduces the risk of injury. Osprey, like all raptors, have quite a set of talons as you can see here.

.

Osprey are obsessive about continually fortifying their nest. I have seen them add branches and nesting materials before nesting season, while the chicks were in the nest (which is a little dicey since they are a bit clumsy with a big stick) and after the chicks have left the nest. The last gives you an indication of their forward thinking. After one of the Osprey flew off in the last photograph, the other took a branch in it's bill and tested it to see if it would be easy to snap off. I have enlarged it a little to make it easier to see.

The trees in this picture are in the same area as the previous photos. I don't know what motivated me to keep my eyes on this Osprey because it wasn't doing anything particularly unusual, but I watched it fly through a tree and snap off a dead branch. How it was able to tell the difference between the dead branch and one on which the buds had simply not emerged (and is therefore green) is beyond me. Consider also that it was flying, so the choice of branch had to be made rather quickly.

And, here it is with the branch it broke off. I don't know about you, but that kind of exhibition of reasoning power in a "dumb" bird impresses me. I saw this same kind of thing one other time on the Patuxent River. Since then, I have read accounts where others have seen the same behavior.

DDT did not only affect the Bald Eagle — although you hear them mentioned almost anytime the subject comes up. Many species were experiencing alarming reductions in numbers until Rachel Carson put her finger on the cause in her book, "Silent Spring."

As populations of many species such as Osprey have again increased, ideal nesting locations have become contested by competing families. These two Osprey are desiring to build a nest on a utility pole only a couple poles from another established nest. I have seen this behavior before. This pair are almost certainly wanting to build their first nest. I watched a pair do the same kind of thing (make poor choices) for five years before experiencing successful. There has been a lot of squabbling between the two pair and it may even be that one of these two birds is an offspring of the pair in the other established nest.

Foreground/background

I wrote the following yesterday:

"There are two relationships in a photograph that give it a distinct look. The distance from the camera to the subject and the distance from the subject to the background. The second factor determines how much blur the image will have. Different length lens give these two related factors their unique photographic qualities." 

I would like to go into a little more detail about how this affects the look of a photograph.

Illustration 1

There are many factors that invest a photograph with it's final look. One of the most important factors is the relationship defined above. When the subject to background distance (B) is less than (A) the subject to camera, very little blurring occurs.

In this image of an Osprey in flight, the background is only slightly blurred and is easily identifiable. It does not detract from the photo.

This photograph of a White-throated Sparrow shows surroundings (both foreground and background) that are more distracting because of the ground litter, but you can see that as the distance behind the sparrow becomes greater, so does the blurring.

Illustration 2

In this second illustration, the subject to camera distance (A) is less than the distance from the subject to the background (B). The further away the background, the more indistinct it becomes. Telephoto lens are able to take great advantage of this relationship.

I took this picture last summer with the idea of illustrating how this principle works in a real situation on the blog. This is a picture of the woods at the edge of my front lawn. It was roughly fifty feet from the camera. The area highlighted in yellow is approximately the area of the background in the next photo.

The hummingbird was only about eight feet from the camera while the distance to the trees remained the same. Because the bird was so much closer, the background becomes a simple wash of color. The blue sky in the upper left corner of the last image corresponds to the blue circle in this photo. The green circle beneath corresponds to the green circle of light in the image above. The dark area on the right is the tree in the other photo.

Knowing how this relationship works allows the photographer to take advantage of the "raw" ingredients that are available to produce the desired look. Under the right circumstances, the background can even be aligned to select a specific color as a backdrop. That was what I did in this image. I changed the angle of the photo to incorporate sunlight streaming through the trees in the background.

Sparkles of light and small holes of light in the background can be incorporated into the image to become something called "bokeh," which is defined as the visual quality of the out-of-focus area. This can greatly enhance the interest of a photograph as I think it does in the image of an Eastern Bluebird.

The distance relationships described here become part of an arsenal of tools to create better pictures as they are incorporated into the photographer's experience. It becomes second nature to look for situations where you can take advantage of this.

Postcards from the Edge

There are two relationships in a photograph that give it a distinct look. The distance from the camera to the subject and the distance from the subject to the background. The second factor determines how much blur the image will have. Different length lens give these two related factors their unique photographic qualities. Sometimes, everything comes together just right to produce the characteristics you look for in a picture. That happened in this image. Beyond that, I like the classic look of the waterfowl (Mallard) in flight.

It wasn't until after I returned home that I realized this Sandpiper was probably not a Lesser Yellowlegs, but a Greater Yellowlegs. I did notice a couple of things that were different about it. For one thing, it was by itself. And, for another, it had a fairly loud call. It also seemed slightly larger. But the clue that did it for me — and unfortunately you cannot see it in this image — is that the bill is slightly upturned. A Lesser Yellowleg's bill is not. And too, the legs are more vividly orange.

I go to the marsh to film the more exotic birds, but I am not averse to photographing the more "mundane" birds in the right setting. If this had been a Red-winged Blackbird (RWBB) on a limb with nothing else in the picture, I probably would have passed. But, the pine cones add a layer of information about it's environment, giving the picture more depth. I could wish the sky was a more colorful blue, but to do that, the bird would have had to have been a black blob. To obtain detail in the RWBB, I had to allow much more light into the camera (on the order of two full stops).

I saw one Great Egret do a fly through without stopping at the marsh pond a couple of weeks ago. On my most recent visit, one had dropped in. They are quite a bit larger than a Snowy Egret, closer to the size of a Great Blue Heron. This one seemed small to me. There are only three white herons found in North America, the Cattle Egret being the third species. They don't inhabit marshy ecosystems, however.

This image allows a comparison of the two egrets. First of all, the Snowy Egret standing next to it made the appearance of the Great Egret look more normal in size. It no longer looked small. The bills are different in color and so are the lores, the area at the base of the bill near the eye. The Great Egret's lores are lime green and the Snowy Egret's are a deep orange to red this time of year. The feet of the large bird are black while those of the smaller are orange. I just happened to press the shutter when the Snowy yawned.  A heron yawning happens too fast to react, so it really was coincidental.

An Invitation to the Dance

There were more Snowy Egrets in the marsh pond on Saturday than any day so far this year. There were half a dozen visible when I first arrived and more kept appearing from deeper in the marsh. There is another inaccessible open area back there that can be seen on a Google Earth map where they hang out unseen by people.

While the Snowies were initially hunting, more and more kept filtering back into this one small cove near the back of the pond. There, they weren't fishing but appeared to be simply standing around looking at one another.

I didn't see any movements that I would consider courtship displays, but there was a lot of displays of feathers (the breeding aigrettes, as they are called) by some of the birds.

Some were also quite vocal, which amounted to loud single-note squawks. All the birds appear to have the long breeding feathers, so I assume the females are also wearing them. There doesn't seem to be any obvious way to distinguish between sexes.

Blue-winged Teal 3

I would never have thought of combining tan and black, but the combination on the male's flight feathers is very striking.

 Once the male and female have chosen a mate, the pair are almost inseparable. Even when they take off in a flock, they will stay near one another. You can imagine the problem created if they were to become separated. It isn't like they can call each other on a phone and say, "Hey, where are you?"

BWT only have one brood a year, a clutch which can be anywhere from six to fourteen eggs. The nesting period is  from nineteen to twenty-nine days. Chicks are precocious and are able to leave the nest soon after hatching. The two closest males in this image have just landed.

Blue-winged Teal are the second most abundant duck in North America. They are especially common in the prairie pothole region of the Midwest, habitat they find ideal for raising the next generation. The female has complete say so in where the nest will be located and she may take several days to decide.

BWT are vulnerable to DDT in South American countries where they winter and where it is still being used. Ingestion of lead shot and fishing sinkers are another threat to waterfowl. The lead problem is affecting many species of birds, including Bald Eagles. Loss of wetland habitat is another continuous challenge to their population.

Blue-winged Teal 2

The Bay watershed is actually included in the breeding range of the Blue-winged Teal (BWT), so it is possible the ones I have been seeing of late won't be migrating. The male migrates south as early as August or September while female and young often wait until the feeding grounds become iced over. In the spring, they are among the last ducks to migrate.

Is it my imagination or does the male's bill seem a little larger than you would expect? In many photos, the female's head seems slightly larger and out of proportion to the rest of her body, but it may just be the angle when the picture is taken.

BWT form pair bonds in late winter which last through one breeding season. If a male suspects another male of showing a little too much interest in his mate, a fight can result. First the males have a little display of bravado, pumping their heads up and down and blustering like these two were doing.

Notice how the male on the left is talking about the other one under his breath. Meanwhile, the female hopes to avoid the disagreement altogether.

It takes a little bit of study to figure out what is what in this image. I doubt they can hurt each other very much, although a pinch with a duck bill can be painful.

The water probably wasn't over a foot deep there. That is why there is so much mud welling up in the water. I doubt the fight lasted more than ten seconds.

Was there a clear winner? Not that I could tell.

The male aggressor had a mate. She was off camera to the left while the fight took place.

Clearly, this male feels he adequately defended the honor of his maiden.

Meanwhile, she demonstrates her ability to talk a little trash too. Life quickly returned to normal and the four sailed on as though nothing had happened.

Blue-winged Teal

Blue-winged Teal (BWT) are just about the first duck species to migrate in the fall and the last to migrate in the spring. This means they are not hunted as heavily since they are mostly gone before the hunting season starts.

The male BWT has a distinctive white crescent-shaped patch in front of the eye. When not in breeding plumage, as he is here, he resembles the female. Both sexes have the sky-blue patch on their wings that give them their name.

Their preferred habitat is exactly the type of shallow marsh pond found outside North Beach. They also have a preference for quiet, calm waters and like to haul out on low lying objects just above water to rest and preen.

BWT are among the smaller dabbling ducks. In this image, a comparison with a sandpiper — a small bird in it's own right — highlights how small they are. The way the female has dipped her head below water is a pretty standard attitude for feeding. They do this so much, it is difficult to obtain pictures of them with their head above water!

BWT become flightless during their molting period which can last up to four weeks. I would think that would have to be a dangerous time for them. The molt occurs after the nesting season is finished.