Reconnecting with nature through hiking, camping, and paddling
This is the same Osprey I photographed and featured on the blog a few months ago under the title “Osprey Hovering In Flight“. It was much closer when I took this picture, revealing much more detail. Please click the image to see a larger version of it.
Great Blue Heron’s never hang around long once they notice you’re paying attention to them. I paddled past this one at a distance and ignored it until I got close enough to snap a few pictures.
Osprey’s are one of many fishing birds that will hover in mid-air when they see a potential meal. To stop themselves they push their wings forward which creates the dramatic shape displayed here.
If you click on the image, above, you can see a larger version of the photo, which shows more detail.
This Grackle seems to have learned a few things from the Sanderlings on North Carolina’s Outer Banks. It waited for the waves to bring tiny mollusks and crustaceans into the shore and then tried to catch them before they dug into the sand. I captured this image just as the Grackle realized the wave was a little too big.
During a photo outing to shoot wildflowers I decided to take a few backlit shots. In the process I began tracking a few Eastern Carpenter Bees as they passed by. I was lucky enough to capture this one as it prepared to land on a thin-leaved sunflower.
I like the way backlit flowers almost glow but that’s pretty easy to predict, setup and shoot. After all, except for the wind, the flowers aren’t really moving. I was really pleased with the lighting of the bee in this photo.
Like most of the photos on my blog, you can click the image to open a larger version of the photo. Check out all the pollen covering this bee. This clearly wasn’t its first flower of the day.
I watched these tundra swans paddle around in the water for a while and hoped they would take flight. When they finally did I was able to capture a few photos.
During a hike near the James River, I came across a group of Forster’s Terns flying above a stream. I watched as they floated, effortlessly in the air above the water. After a few seconds they would dive out of view and then come flying back up, circle around, and start over. I assume they were catching small fish but I couldn’t get close enough to be sure. The tern pictured here is hovering in position, waiting to dive.
