Air Travel At Bunche Beach

Inclement weather virtually all day during what I thought was my only opportunity to photograph some new wildlife material for the blog this first week of Fall scuttled hopes that I'd have something fresh to write about.

The Snowy Egret above was photographed at Bunche Beach Preserve in September 2011.

With thanks to my supervisor, Mark Tvaroha, allowing me to leave work an hour early on a succeeding day led to my arrival at the beach two hours before sunset.

Mark has been telling me of his successful video capture of the micro world with his recently acquired video camera.

The Roseate Spoonbill above was photographed at Bunche Beach Preserve in September 2011.

I'm still unsure the value of video capability of DSLR cameras considering if video were my interest over photography, I'd be using a video camera.

Thunderstorm activity in the area made its way through in the late morning and early afternoon this day.

The Black Skimmer above was photographed at Bunche Beach Preserve in September 2011.

I primarily chose Bunche Beach Preserve as my destination with the tide receding a few hours from its high earlier.

I also hadn't been to Bunche in the evening in a long while.

The Black-bellied Plover above was photographed at Bunche Beach Preserve in September 2011.

Upon my approach to the Preserve while traveling Summerlin Road, the clouds to the west were incredibly captivating.

The clouds reminded me of images I've seen of majestic snow covered mountains at relatively close range.

The Roseate Spoonbill above was photographed at Bunche Beach Preserve in September 2011.

I was so entranced that I had to force my attention back on the road.

The tide would turn higher at about the time of my departure from the Preserve which was a minor disappointment.

The primarily Short-billed Dowitcher above was photographed at Bunche Beach Preserve in September 2011.

A change of tide from its low is best seen in San Carlos Bay a couple of hours before sunset.

Wading birds will take best advantage of this situation with their prey brought back onto the flats after those fish unlucky enough to have been caught in the pools were consumed.

The Marbled Godwit above was photographed at Bunche Beach Preserve in September 2011.

The Reddish Egret in particular puts on an especially entertaining show as it feeds.

Black Skimmers were congregated in a few different groups in the bay and became most active at sunset when they were most impressive in a number I'd guess well over 500 individual birds.

The Short-billed Dowitcher above was photographed at Bunche Beach Preserve in September 2011.

Prior to that observation I had in sight and sound of me virtually all the species seen in my previous report minus Wood Storks.

Immature skimmers were very abundant while one showed that it had yet to perfect the skill of flight as it crash landed and caused a pile up.

The Black Skimmer above was photographed at Bunche Beach Preserve in September 2011.

An additional species seen this visit was a Belted Kingfisher that was extremely vocal unlike I have heard before with the bird apparently not taking a breath for several minutes.

It was actually quite annoying to hear while there was no apparent threat to the bird.

The Least Sandpiper above was photographed at Bunche Beach Preserve in September 2011.

I had never heard this species vocal before when perched, but very often so while in flight.

A particular surprise this week was an Osprey that landed in the water closer to me than I ever dared approach previously under similar circumstances as I thought the bird might take flight.

The Royal Tern above was photographed at Bunche Beach Preserve in September 2011.

I devoted a lot of time observing it with hopes that it would put on a good bathing show which it failed to do.

At the time of my arrival to the Preserve there was a fairly good wind from the west which is always favorable to photograph birds in flight.

The Osprey above was photographed at Bunche Beach Preserve in September 2011.

I devoted the majority of my time attempting to capture everything that would fly by me.

I had many more failures than successes as the lens often doesn't focus on the subjects quickly enough if I have a delay in observing what's coming at me.

The Black Skimmer above was photographed at Bunche Beach Preserve in September 2011.

This problem may in part be attributable using a 1.4x extender that reduces the number of automatic focus capable points in the camera.

Particularly challenging for this effort were the peeps which are able to move not so much faster than their relatives of significantly larger size in many cases, but are comparatively miniscule in size.

The Sandwich Tern above was photographed at Bunche Beach Preserve in September 2011.

It was a treat to see the American Oystercatcher make a flyby again with prey.

A Royal Tern made its characteristic flyby with prey in its beak as it called seemingly to flaunt it.

The Black Skimmer above was photographed at Bunche Beach Preserve in September 2011.

The species that flew by me in greatest numbers was Willet which is incredibly attractive with its flashy appearance.

The fifteen or so Marbled Godwit seen are always particularly beautiful in flight as well.

The American Oystercatcher above was photographed at Bunche Beach Preserve in September 2011.

There was a mere solitary Roseate Spoonbill in the immediate area feeding in the water while seven more were seen to fly overhead from the west.

An overheard comment made by one of the fishermen within earshot was that the birds were helping them capture fish in their cast nets.

The scene above was photographed at Bunche Beach Preserve in September 2011.

With a need to leave the Preserve earlier than I would have liked, the skimmers were enjoyable to watch from the parking area against one of the most remarkable evening skies I have seen in a long while.

With the air very still at this point, the biting insects were noticeable, but not voracious as experienced in the past.

The sunset above was photographed at Bunche Beach Preserve in September 2011.

A cool down of ten degrees is taking place this first week of October.

Lights, Camera, Action

The learning curve of capturing video with the Canon 5dmk2, making very basic editing of the video for its duration, and uploading it to the web for viewing was accomplished in the past few weeks.

The Burrowing Owl above was photographed at Cape Coral Library in April 2010.

The subject of the video involves the mating behavior of the Florida Burrowing Owl which has been observed with concerted effort at Cape Coral on Florida's west coast about two hours south of Tampa.

Although only having observed the Burrowing Owls for the first time in the 2010 mating season, I have devoted countless hours to learn about the behavior of these birds that occasionally provide an opportunity to document their behavior visually for a mere few seconds at a time.

The Common Gallinule with juvenile and White Ibis above was photographed at Lakes Regional Park in May 2010.

There have been a few instances when the mating event was observed to occur twice with the same pair of birds within 10 minutes.

I haven't devoted an entire day to the observation of the birds uninterrupted, so cannot speculate the average number of times the birds may attempt to copulate in a day.

The Common Gallinule juvenile above was photographed at Lakes Regional Park in May 2010.

Mating behavior certainly occurs daily, however, as I have observed the behavior with numerous pairs of Burrowing Owls in the neighborhood of the Cape Coral Library and Skyline Boulevard.

A visit to the area on 6 May 2010 with hopes of observing owlets as anticipated proved to show that the offspring are relatively late in their arrival this year potentially due to unusually cold winter weather and early heavy rains last month that may have flooded burrows.

The White Ibis above was photographed at Lakes Regional Park in May 2010.

Mating was also not observed yesterday although both male and female owls were seen at the entrance to many burrows in the area.

Mating will typically last for mere seconds which offers great challenges in photographing the event successfully.

The Anhinga above was photographed at Lakes Regional Park in May 2010.

Tim Rucci commented to me this week that there might be disturbance of Burrowing Owl behavior with the use of flash photography.

The owls have not appeared to be affected by the accessory at all.

The Scarlet Ibis above was photographed at Lakes Regional Park in May 2010.

My video capture of a typical mating of the owls can be seen here and is also now a permanent link from the sidebar at my blog.

It is interesting that certain owls will apparently only mate after sunset, yet others will do so in late afternoon hours, perhaps distinguishing the maturity of the owls.

The White Ibis above was photographed at Lakes Regional Park in May 2010.

I have noted most recently that the male is much more distinguishable from the female as coloration in his feathers is evidently bleached from the sun that has become ever stronger as each spring day passes.

In addition to observing the owls this past week, I also made another trip to Lakes Regional Park to attempt to observe the Scarlet Ibis which I was able to do and photograph the species for the first time.

The Common Gallinule juvenile above was photographed at Lakes Regional Park in May 2010.

I also observed the juvenile Common Moorhen that was surprisingly absent from the exact same location the day before.

Audio Visual

In my hope to observe the Scarlet Ibis, I finally found it at Lakes Regional Park this past week.

The scene above was photographed from a kayak at Lakes Regional Park in April 2010.

I had brought my kayak with the expectation that I would find it roosting in one of the park's many very small islands within it.

Mere minutes after getting the watercraft on the ground upon my arrival, I caught a glimpse of a red spot out of the corner of my eye.

The scene above was photographed from a kayak at Lakes Regional Park in April 2010.

The Scarlet Ibis was in a group of White Ibis feeding in the shallow water at the park's south beach.

As I stealthily approached to get my first photograph of the creature, from about 50 feet, all the birds nonetheless took flight and I missed the shot.

The scene above was photographed from a kayak at Lakes Regional Park in April 2010.

Within minutes all the birds returned after circling the park, except for the Scarlet Ibis.

I launched the kayak to have an enjoyable morning attempting to find the Scarlet Ibis roosting, though was disappointed to find that the prime area for that possibility is off limits to public paddle boats.

The Green Heron above was photographed from a kayak at Lakes Regional Park in April 2010.

There are tremendous opportunities to capture images of a diversity of birds in flight at Lakes Park and I will return to take advantage of that.

Yesterday evening offered another first for me when I made another trip to Cape Coral to observe the Burrowing Owl.

The juvenile Bald Eagle above was photographed from a kayak at Lakes Regional Park in April 2010.

While I initially captured a few still images of the birds I was observing, the primary intent was to create a movie of the owl's mating behavior which the Canon 5DM2 is capable of doing.

After finding a burrow and birds that might accommodate my mission, I settled down and prepared the camera's settings.

The White Ibis above was photographed from a kayak at Lakes Regional Park in April 2010.

With patience, I was rewarded with documenting the event at the burrow which I had only observed the male at the last few occasions I drove through the area.

Regrettably on this first attempt, the male's wings were clipped out of the frame and the composition of the birds could have been much improved.

The White Ibis above was photographed from a kayak at Lakes Regional Park in April 2010.

The quality of the audio recording could also be much improved with an external mic as the wind was buffeting the camera gear pretty hard.

When I acquired the latest version of Photoshop Elements this past week, I chose the basic version, so back it will go to be exchanged for the version that can edit movies.