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all creatures great and small

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Wolfe's pond is not only big it is probably fairly deep. It must be in order for the Osprey I see frequent here to do it's "Stukka" dive bombing run from over 100 ft. up down into the lake completely submerged, coming back up 5 or more seconds later with a fish in it's claws.<br /> <br /> But today Wolfe's ponds water level was so low, it was barely recognizable as a lake. I'd never seen it this depleted of water. Large fish and turtles couldn't even keep their entire bodies submerged. It was a bird of prey's dream come true.
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Wolfe's pond is not only big it is probably fairly deep. It must be in order for the Osprey I see frequent here to do it's "Stukka" dive bombing run from over 100 ft. up down into the lake completely submerged, coming back up 5 or more seconds later with a fish in it's claws.

But today Wolfe's ponds water level was so low, it was barely recognizable as a lake. I'd never seen it this depleted of water. Large fish and turtles couldn't even keep their entire bodies submerged. It was a bird of prey's dream come true.

springWolfe's pondStaten IslandnatureNYCfish

  • Leaving my camera bags behind so I could run ahead, I tried to guess what partial clearing the snapper might come out from next if I was lucky to have it do so, instead of take a more obscured path back to the lake. A possibility I reasoned that could happen if I kept my distance and didn't spook it given the current path it was taking at the moment. And sure enough the clearing I picked was the one he came out of and I quickly grabbed some good shots of it. The cropped sensor of my DX camera combined with the maximum focal length of my zoom lens gave me several nice screen filling head shots of this big boy while still allowing me to stay far enough away not to send it "running" away from me. Wasn't all that keen on the idea of letting those jaws get too close to me either...
  • DSC_0763 snapper in the bush
  • Quickly it reached a slope that would send it scooting down into the lakes muddy waters, and with no interest of getting in between it (and it's jaws) and the lake where gravity and the steep downward angle of the slope would send it sliding towards me while I was trying to move backwards and probably falling backwards over a tree branch onto my behind with disastrous consequences. I decided to let it proceed unhindered and take what shots I could of it from behind. Great shots maybe not , but a WHOOOOLE lot safer.
  • Finally in just two or three minutes after I first spotted it, the big guy had slipped into the lake and disappeared into the murky waters. This was the last image I got of it before he disappeared. It was a brief but happy encounter to cap off my morning.
  • After taking pictures of the local wildlife at Clove Lakes, I decided to hop on the bus and head out to Snug Harbor before heading home and calling it a day. Again turtles turned out to be a running theme of the day. But no big Snappers this time, just the usual painted variety. They are not as plentiful and spread all over as they are at Clove Lake, but in the one area they like to frequent you can occasionally see quite a few of them gathering together to soak up the noon day sun, like today.
  • DSC_0890 cardinal
  • DSC_0992 mating season
  • DSC_1002 mating season
  • Photographing trips to Wolfe's Pond are quite a bit different for me than trips to Clove Lakes. I have just a small handful of shots here on SmugMug from Wolfe's pond compared to Clove Lake, of which I have over a hundred. Part is because Clove Lake is a 15 minute bus ride from the house whist Wolfe's pond is down at the tip of the Island almost as far south from my house as you can get. Also it is much much more spacious than Clove Lake. Clove is probably 75, 80 ft wide at it's widest point, Wolf's average width is more than twice that. If I find myself on the wrong side of the shore from my subject, there's no lens I currently own that will chop down that distance to size.<br /> <br /> Lastly most of the animals here at Wolfe's pond don't eventually become tolerant of close passing people like many of the visitors to Clove Lake at least eventually do. By acting like a jogger or dog walker if I'm slow and careful enough I can eventually get stunningly close to some of the animals at Clove. The ones here, continually maintain their distance. <br /> <br /> On this spring day in 2012 I took the arduous trip out to Wolfe's pond armed with my camping chair, 20 year old 300mm nikkor and 1.4 teleconverter expecting another day of staying still and nonthreatening while hoping to snag a long distance shot or two of something interesting and modestly sharp enough to try and edit. <br /> <br /> What should happen not long after I settled on my first spot near the shore but this goose came up from BEHIND me over my left shoulder. My nylon camping seat which is almost shaped like a mini hammock, sits my butt right on the ground, yet is surprisingly comfortable. However if something comes up from behind me trying to get my body swung around to get in position to photograph it is quite some task. <br /> <br /> Top that off, this guy was so surprisingly close my trusty manual focus 300mm was useless, unless I wanted a head shot. Even using my 70-300mm zoom, was too much lens. But at the 70mm setting I did get this get this view by leaning over to my left. My low to the ground position from my camping seat actually made for a very nice composition. A fine way to start my days visit to the lake.
  • Wolfe's pond is not only big it is probably fairly deep. It must be in order for the Osprey I see frequent here to do it's "Stukka" dive bombing run from over 100 ft. up down into the lake completely submerged, coming back up 5 or more seconds later with a fish in it's claws.<br /> <br /> But today Wolfe's ponds water level was so low, it was barely recognizable as a lake. I'd never seen it this depleted of water. Large fish and turtles couldn't even keep their entire bodies submerged. It was a bird of prey's dream come true.
  • DSC_1048 nowhere to hide
  • DSC_1249 turtlesaurus
  • DSC_1058 nowhere to hide
  • Shots like these of this sandpiper are the type of creature I could almost never hope to get at man made Clove lakes. But here out at the more isolated Wolfe's pond, just a stones throw from the Atlantic ocean. Many people intolerant birds can be found.
  • DSC_1196 spotted sandpiper
  • DSC_1263 purity and mud
  • DSC_1251 great white egret
  • DSC_1562 turtles in the sun
  • DSC_1312 purple Iris
  • DSC_1771 honey bee foraging
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