Morning Light on Coote's Paradise

Today was Canadian Thanksgiving, so I'm going to try and accomplish two things... finish this post, and then share some thoughts on thanksgiving itself. :)

A couple weeks ago I left home for work early and headed to Coote's Paradise for one more morning shoot.  The early light of morning is great for picture taking - it's colour is warmer and if the sun is at your back, it illuminates what your photographing directly in stead of with hot, bright spots on top of your subject..

Many of the shore birds were already on their way, making their trip south, but the outlet bay of Chedoke Creek was full of white birds: about 14 Great Egrets, many juvenile Caspian Terns, and lots of gulls.

Coote's Paradise full of white birds.

Further to the right.

My first tendency to take pictures was to go to the east side of the water, with the sun at my back and light on the birds.  But I thought I'd try the back-lit view first.  My dear wife loves this setup for people pictures, and is very successful at using it well too.  I took the picture below, and never realized till editing it later, that the Great Egret was standing on an old barrel of some sort.  A sad mix of natural beauty and someone else's very poor judgement and carelessness!

back-lit Great Egret 

A juvenile Black-crowned Night-Heron was a short distance away to my left, blending into the surroundings with its first year colours.

juvenile Black-Crowned
Night-Heron

Once I moved to the east side, my pictures were front lit, a little closer, and free of any debris.

Brilliantly lit Great Egret

With the group of egrets jostling about for the prime spot, it was funny to watch them... I think it was the "quarter on the ground" syndrome.  You know, when you were young and your buddy would find a quarter on the ground?  What did you do right away?  Come over and look in the same area, hoping to find "the other one" before they did.  Well, the egrets were doing the same.  One would catch something and the neighbouring egrets would hurry over for a look-see, hoping to cash in on the great spot surely evidenced by the recent catch.  That would usually result in a few short lived, noisy chases like the picture below.

Great Egrets jostling for hunting space.

As I walked along the mud flats that even now are still there and even larger, I was accompanied by one of the few remaining Lesser Yellowlegs.  It was a little braver than the ones I had photographed before, so I got some closer shots.

Lesser Yellowlegs

Lesser Yellowlegs

"Aagh! I swallowed a bug!"

A wary eye to the sky...

...possibly checking out this juvenile Caspian Tern - note the
patchy, smoky black cap.

Lesser Yellowlegs with some sort of catch.

On my way back over the baily bridge that crosses the Chedoke Creek, I spotted another juvenile Black-Crowned Night-Heron. Again, its first year plumage helps it to blend in well, compared to the much more obvious what and black feathers it will wear next year.

juvenile Black-Crowned Night-Heron
on the bank of Chedoke Creek

It flew under the bridge and landed on the
other side into much better lighting!

juvenile Black-Crowned Night-Heron

juvenile Black-Crowned Night-Heron

Well, Thanksgiving Day has passed (for us Canadians at least).  On the way to my parents today, Holly pointed out how blessed we are where we live, to be able to enjoy this holiday when almost every year at this time, God has just painted the countryside with the perfect combination of bright colours, the cooler air is crisp, and extra big clouds fill the extra blue sky.  And on top of that, we live in a privileged country, with more comforts and wealth than we know.  At my family's gathering this afternoon, someone noted that many of us today spent the day in a spirit of thanksgiving.  Thanksgiving is a good thing, but who too?  That person pointed out that, if all this blessing we enjoy is not from someone specific, than why all the thanksgiving?  Aren't the recent harvest, another year of provision and protection cause for thanksgiving to someone?  Isn't thanksgiving by nature directed to someone personal, and not just to chance?  Can all around us that we see, enjoy, live and experience really just have happened? Or is all the beauty, intricacy, and provision all crying out, pointing us to Someone who longs to have us personally say, "Thanks!"?

For most of us, with bellies full of turkey, roofs over our heads, and work to go back to tomorrow, we're also challenged with the fact that "too whom much is given, much will be required."

I bet you came here expecting only bird pictures and not a "sermon"!  :)  Was my post introduction fair warning?  I love wildlife and the creatures we get to enjoy seeing, but hopefully you can also tell that I have a God who I get excited about, both in what He has created, but also who has done great things for me.  He has given me so many reasons to be truly thankful, not the least of which is to rescue me and save me!  That is my greatest reason for thanksgiving, especially at Thanksgiving.  We all have a need much greater than just our daily sustenance to be thankful for... We all mess up daily and we really can't even say "thanks" properly to Him because we repeatedly made choices and live lives that break His perfect standard repeatedly - sometimes in big ways, some times in small ways.  Since He's an honest judge and He can't just bend the rules or look the other way, all the mess-ups/sins make us guilty on the scales of justice.  But as well as being just, He's being gracious and He's provided a way through Jesus to cover our debt!  My debt and your debt too if you'll accept the gift.  If you're ever curious or interested in knowing more about this fix, I'd be more than glad to discuss it more with you in any way you like.

As I keep saying, I'm behind on posts and have at least two more coming when I get more time to edit and type up a post - you might think leaving the sermons out will make that more likely! :)  One upcoming post is my recent week at the Lodge (with a life bird no less), and some pictures from today at my parents house.

But for now, I hope you enjoyed a great weekend, and now have the bonus of a short week!

Take care,

Brian

Back to an Old Spot

Over lunch earlier last week, I headed over to an Osprey nest that I drive by on the way to and from work every day (bottom of Hwy 6 and Hwy 403 in a cell tower by a Motel).  I think I see at least one of the Ospreys on every trip as I head to the office or home.  But this time they were either sitting on the nest, or out hunting for food and I saw nothing.  Of course, as I drove home I saw one sitting on one of the antennae again.  I'm hoping later on, if their eggs hatch, I can get some flight shots as they come back with caught fish.  

While there, I heard, and then sighted this pretty little Yellow Warbler.  They are a bit special for me as it was the first "non-backyard" bird that I found on my own as I started out on this adventure. 

Yellow Warbler

Instead, I headed down to an old favourite spot - Valley Inn and there was quite a bit of activity.  Terns, the compulsory Canadian Geese and Mallard Ducks, a Trumpeter Swanbut and there were a couple Great Blue Herons, and a Great Egret there.

Great Blue Heron and Great Egret

Great Blue Heron fishing

Great Blue Heron

I walked out onto one of the man made dividers which the RBG staff make out of the Christmas trees discarded every year after they have assisted with the seasonal festivities.  This one has become quite solid and gave some interesting views.  This Red-winged Blackbird wasn't so sure what to think as I don't know that too many people venture onto this location. It seemed paralyzed from getting out of its awkward position.

Red-winged Blackbird

I purchased Sibley Bird guide for my phone, and a small powered speaker to play bird calls.  There is a lot of care needed to be taken with this setup - it can get people quite upset if you use this to attract birds, and is illegal in many parks.  One thing I noticed recently at another location, is that some people are very use this method without asking those close by first.  It can get quite annoying too if used repeatedly.  I thought I recognized the characteristic Oriole sound, and tried out the setup.  Sure enough, coming to explore the potential intruder was a Baltimore Oriole.  It works, though aside from territorial defense, most birds are paired up and aren't going to come quite as quickly to investigate I don't think.

Baltimore Oriole

I'm actually getting quite behind on the blog posts.  Today we substantially finished with some landscaping work around the house.  That has taken a number of evenings and the weekend.  I hope to catch up at some point. Though I guess it's a good problem to be getting good shots that I want to share but can't seem to get to.

Hope you all enjoyed the great weather during this Long Weekend!

Myrtle Beach - March 2011 Part 2

Continuing my Myrtle Beach post from a few weeks ago....

I went for a late afternoon trip to Huntington State Park - to see what there was to see.  There is a very nice, untouched and ungroomed beach here compared to the beaches by the condos.  There are some mild dunes that find themselves between the southeastern forests and the ocean.

Beach at Huntington State Park

Here are some of the shore birds I was able to see and capture some photos of.

Willett Sandpiper

The Willett Sanpiper is one of the larger in the sandpiper family.  It's about three times the size of the sandpipers were used to seeing on the beaches in Southern Ontario.

Willett Sandpiper

The Ruddy Turnstone gets its name for doing it exactly what it sounds like, flipping stones over looking for bugs and small sea creatures to make lunch out of.  Sometimes they will dig holes larger than themselves pursuing something like a crab, burrowed in the sand.

Ruddy Turnstone

Apparently, if you've seen a shore bird, you'll most likely have seen one of these - a Sanderling - as they are the most wide spread shore bird in the world.

Sanderling in Winter Plumage

Also at Huntington Beach State Park, there is a unique feature called a salt water marsh.  The tides flood it with salt water, and it is a breeding ground for things like shrimp.  The egrets, herons, and terns usually flock here, but I must have hit a slow day.  I saw some, but not many...

Immature Double Crested Cormorant sunning

Great Egret

Great Blue Heron

Snow Egret

Great Egret

The park also has a fresh water lagoon which had a large number of American Alligators.  They got quite close to a number of us were standing (about 5 other photographers there - with much bigger "fire power"!!) which was somewhat unnerving at first.  However, we were up an embankment which separated the fresh water lagoon from the salt water marsh.  Apparently they cross this every night, and we were counting on the fact that they were planning to do this later in the evening when we were gone.

A young American Alligator

A younger American Alligator, waiting in the algae.  Probably was about 5 ft long

A large bull American Alligator sunning in the mud.

American Alligator - swimming towards the crossing point we were taking pictures from.  It was probably about 12 ft long.

The common Moorhen is a unique bird.  The males exclusively build the nests, but they build more than one.  One is used for hatching the young, but when the babies are mobile, they will travel around use the other nests for sleeping at night.

Common Moorhen

And of course a turtle had to be sunning somewhere...

What I think is a River Cooter

As I was leaving, I saw this Merlin up in the trees. Though I followed it for quite a while, it was not going to let me get too close, so this was the best I got.  The Merlin is a small falcon, very active and very aggressive, often pestering and competing with larger hawks.

Merlin

All in all, a great 6 hours or so of enjoying a wide variety of animals and birds I don't get to see in my part of the world.  What a vast number of creatures He has made for us to enjoy and marvel at.