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all creatures great and small

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DSC_6252 great blue heron at Clove lake
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DSC_6252 great blue heron at Clove lake

fallStaten IslandClove LakesGreat blue heronbirdsnatureheronsNYC

  • I slowly followed our blue fellow here as he travelled from fallen tree to fallen tree. I came to complete stops and looked off in other directions. I sat motionless at times, all to make it feel like I was just like all the other people in the park, off doing their own thing walking their dogs, jogging, fishing, reading the newspaper, doing anything but stalking it.<br /> <br /> As I got as close to it as I dared I became as slow and quiet as possible, I even switched shutter modes on my camera. As I traded in my old D300 two months ago for this D300s, which has an optional mode of shutter release that is surprisingly quiet. Great feature because this close, the sound of the reflex mirror clapping up sounds a lot like a predator stepping on a branch.
  • DSC_6252 great blue heron at Clove lake
  • DSC_6255 great blue heron at Clove lake
  • As I have said many times before the various types of fish hunting birds that visit the many lakes of our city, cycle though them searching for food. They hang around a particular lake for a few days then move on. When it comes to lakes that are constantly visited by people, if they are not use to sharing it with humans, your never getting a good shot of them. You can hide in a bird blind, stay totally quiet, but the other people traveling through the park will scare them off before you get your shot, unless they are positively starving. Ones like this fellow here are wonderful exceptions, and at this particular lake not all that rare an exception either. Though one that let me get this close I've NEVER come across before.
  • I kept hoping to capture some shots of this heron hunting for fish, at this range the shots would have been superlative. But the beautiful bird never did. Though it turns out there sure was fish for it to hunt right here, as this cormorant, blissfully swimming by in the foreground, dove a few seconds after this and came up on the other side of the tree with a fish in it's mouth that it quickly devoured. ln fact in the next shot, which is also the next picture in this sequence, you can see the cormorant in the background getting ready to happily flip it's prize down it's gullet.
  • That wasn't the only time I watched this cormorant (in the back ground) dive down at this exact spot in front of this fallen branch, and come up on the other side with a fish in it's mouth. I tried to anticipate where it would come up to get a nice shot of it, but my guess would have had to have been perfect, and it was far from it. Oh well the shots of this great blue heron were definitely nothing to sneeze at.<br /> <br /> I had attracted quite a crowd from time to time, as many folks pointed out to other people how long I had been there (about 45 minutes), and they wanted to see what I was so intent on capturing with my fancy equipment. I tried giving one girl the exposure settings I was using so she could capture a good shot of it too, but she told me she was using her cellphone and she couldn't adjust the settings. Too bad, a great moment like this one might not come along again for quite some time.
  • Yep, you'll never get this close to a bird like this unless it has become totally used to people - people that ignore him and go about doing whatever they are doing. If you hope to get this close prepare to spend 45 minutes or so, slowly taking a zig zag path towards it, stopping often to make it think your one of the many other people sharing the lake that have no particular interest in him. I doubt any other heron but this one will let me get this close again, and hopefully if I do he'll be hungry next time, so I can get some nice action shots of the hunt.
  • DSC_6410 great blue heron at Clove lake
  • I still wanted to make another trip to Snug Harbor this vacation, and this afternoon was the best time to do it. I wanted to see if the Chinese Gardens there had any interesting fall shots in store, so after over an hour from the time I first spotted this elegant fellow, I determined that it was time to move on.
  • Any idea's on which species this fellow might be?
  • DSC_6665 feathered friends at Snug Harbor
  • Boy those are some serious feet. Look at the feet of the bird I photgoraphed at Snug Harbor in the previous shot, and then look at the size of the mitts on this guy at the Central Park Zoo.
  • With the fall colors around the city still a tad weak in many spots, a short trip to the Central Park Zoo was a nice way to look at some of nature's other wonders wrapped up in beautiful colors all year long. After taking several pictures of the birds flying in and around the vines and branches at the tropical bird house, I went upstairs to the tropical reptile exhibits for a few minutes. Far too crowded at the zoo today to pull out my elaborate and clunky gear which would have allowed me to deal with the tough lighting conditions and many reflections on the glass of all the exhibits, my pickings were slim. Fortunately I was able to find one great camera angle on one of the displays that was free from spotlight or people reflections in the glass. And what a colorful creature it was relaxing on a branch in that display. This marvelous lizard is called a knight anole, and while many lizards like the spiny crevice lizard I photographed a month ago at the Staten Island zoo practically disappear into the surroundings with their great camouflage, these guys are eye poppingly colorful.<br /> <br /> As I've mentioned before, when I traded my old Sigma 18-50mm macro zoom in for their 17-70mm macro lens, I did so because the former zoom, while great at macro shots, was poor at photo's from medium distances out. This 17-70mm was definitely far superior to the former at taking pictures of subjects at medium to long distances. So I naturally worried if it's fine performance there would end up being at the expense of the great macro performance I used to get with it's predecessor, essentially just flipping my performance problems around. Fortunately though that hasn't turn out to be the case, as it has showed me time and again that it's macro performance is top notch.
  • Walking into the tropical rain forest house in any time of year other than summer is always quite an adjustment to the body. When I stepped inside the building from the slightly chilly fall temperature outside, I was smacked in the face with the hot and steamy tropical conditions in here. As I took off my totally fogged over glasses so I could clean them, I slid out of my coat and squinted as I looked around trying to see what the birds were up to even though I was half blind without my still foggy specs. Finally after several minutes I was once again "unfogged" and seeing 20-20, so I reached into my bag for my 70-300mm zoom. After looking around several times in my jumbo camera bag, I couldn't believe it when it finally sunk in that I actually forgot to pack it!! Well at least I did bring my old manual focus 300mm nikkor, so I would be able to get some nice shots if they were out there.<br /> <br /> Perhaps this lens is a relic from a time long past, but it still takes crisp rich images. No it can't auto focus, but back then when I was first getting into photography none of us ever thought about having a camera that could focus for you. So how did we ever capture a great looking shot back then without autofocus? Somehow, some way, we managed.
  • DSC_7024 blue grey tanager
  • DSC_7098 parrots at the Central Park zoo
  • DSC_7133 parrots at the Central Park zoo
  • My plans for shots this morning were for scenes of the hillside near Wagner College at sunrise, and maybe some other autumn shots of the surrounding area. I threw my 70-300mm lens into my camera bag in case I came across some interesting birds to capture. Sure as heck I never thought that this is the kind of bird I would run across.<br /> <br /> Don't stand too long in front of that house my succulent feathered friend. Thanksgiving is just around the corner.
  • DSC_8246 wild turkey, not the drink
  • Ah that's it, I ran into him on the way to his morning classes.
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