Birds and Flowers

Do you remember Billy "White Shoes" Johnson? The kickoff return specialist for the Houston Oilers in the 1970s? He was known for his white shoes and his fancy end zone dances. I thought about him when I saw this Neotropic Cormorant in Cameron Parish a few days ago. The bird not only had white shoes, but flew a little awkwardly due to its heavy feet. Perhaps his feet are covered in bird poop. Anyway, it really stood out in a crowd of thousands of cormorants, egrets, spoonbills and herons nesting here. I plan on bringing a photo workshop here next spring when the birds are nesting.

 Neotropic Cormorant
Image #130613-0028

One of his brethren did not fare so well. I was focused in on a roseate spoonbill's nest with my 600mm lens when I heard a big splash and turned to see a small alligator grab a swimming cormorant. As I moved the lens to the left, the alligator submerged with its prey to drown it. After waiting patiently, the reptile resurfaced with the now dead bird locked in his jaws. I got the shot below. 

Alligator eats a cormorant
Image #130613-0399 

Later we went to Lacassine National Wildlife Refuge to find the fragrant water lilies and American lotus in full bloom. Acres and acres of this important wetland were covered in creamy colors. I'll be showing images from this shoot at my lecture at the Manship Theatre on Friday. My intention is to help budding photographers learn the tricks to get the best shots.

American lotus in bloom
Image #130614-0264 

St. Bernard Parish

Image #20616 - 10/19/05

I went to Breton Sound to catch some fish and take some photographs of the birds and marsh southwest of Yscloskey, Louisiana.  With me was expert fisherman Steve Uffman who is also a very good nature photographer.  He will show some of his work at my lecture June 21st at the Manship Theatre (you can buy tickets here).  He loves to shoot flying birds and we saw many species on this trip. Some were Forsters, Least, Royal and Sandwich Terns, Oyster Catchers, Brown and White Pelicans, Snowy and Great Egrets, Little Blue Herons and Laughing Gulls. We did not catch a fish and I'll just blame it on all the time we spent taking pictures.

Image #WE-4191 - 8/10/2006

I’ll show you the birds later. Today I want you to see the same wrecked front porch I had photographed after Katrina.  The house was washed away by that terrible storm.  The three images were taken from about the same spot in different years. The rebuilding is slow for a lot of homeowners in some areas of Southeast Louisiana.  On the other hand, the public buildings and schools have been built back beautifully and looking like they are hurricane proof.  I am hoping we go hurricane free this year.

Image #130509-0481 - 5/9/13

Grand Isle Migratory Bird Celebration

Summer Tanager Eating Mulberry

Last weekend I was back with some serious birdwatchers for the first time in a while.  I had almost forgotten the passion they exude and the hard work involved in searching for beautiful little birds.  The celebration coincides with the spring migration.  Song birds of many species are crossing the Gulf of Mexico to return to their breeding grounds all over North America.  Grand Isle with its live oaks is one of the first landing places.  Here the birds rest up, drink fresh water and eat red mulberries to refuel for the rest of their journey.

A Regal Rose-Breasted Grosbeak

I positioned myself by one of these mulberry trees and waited  for bird of red, yellow, blue and rose to come to eat.  There are a few of these fruited trees along the Griletta Tract, one of the wooded areas the Nature Conservancy manages. Here a continuing flow of binocular clad folks asked me as I peered down the length of my 600mm Nikon lens if I had seen the black-whiskered vireo or the fork-tailed flycatcher, both very rare for the state.  I said no, I was concentrating on the colorful rose-breasted grosbeak and tanagers right in front of me.

Scarlet Tanager

The next morning as the sun rose I sat on the deck of the Nature Conservancy camp with four serious bird counters, David had over 400 birds on his list he has seen in Louisiana alone.  They had spotting scopes looking out over the dune to the Gulf waters, hoping the rare Razorbill could be spotted.  It is a Northeastern Auk type bird that has been seen a couple of times way of its course in Louisiana. I was also surprised to learn that the 430 different species of birds known to Louisiana in 1996 when my Louisiana Nature Guide came out has now been increased to 460. There are a lot of birders finding new avian visitors to Louisiana every year.

The Trail at Griletta Tract

Eagle Expo

A bald eagle swoops down to pick up some food.

The Eagle Expo concluded yesterday and as usual more bald eagles were seen than the previous year.  I spent three days in the Morgan City area and got some of the best shots yet, before and during my Bald Eagle Photography Workshop.  It was cold, but sunny on all my swamp and marsh outings except Thursday afternoon.  The blue skies behind the brilliant white head and golden beak of the adult bald eagle made for great images.

One of the twenty-two alligators we saw catching rays.

In my lecture we talked about digital workflow using Adobe Lightroom and the basis for a good digital natural history photograph, particularly those of eagles. I tell my students there are four parts to a great photograph. Perhaps the most important is being there.  And we were here by the largest concentrations of bald eagles iLouisiana so everybody had a chance to shoot.  Luckily we got one beautiful adult bird swooping down to water level very near the boat.  Other wildlife seen were egrets, herons, ibis, owls, hawks, nutria and alligator.  Even though it was cold, the sun brought numerous three to six foot gators out to warm themselves on logs.

One nest we visited had two large eaglets that will probably be testing their flying skills in about 10 days. We got good shots. A behavior highlight, yet too far out for good pictures, was an immature eagle chasing an osprey carrying a fish. After a few minutes of aerial acrobatics the osprey drops its fish. The eagle caught it in mid air and was soon being chased itself by an adult eagle, who eventually got the fish. Life is tough in the great outdoors.

A bald eagle nest with eagle and eaglet.

Armadillo

Armadillo, Dasypus novemcinctus,  Dragging Leaves into Den.

At dawn while brewing my tea, I saw an armadillo crossing my back yard.  It stopped when it got to some ground cover by a pine stump and began arching its back, jumping up slightly and moving backwards.  My first thought was it got in a mound of fire ants.  But this action continued all the way across the yard.  Even in the low light, I finally figured that it was gathering and dragging leaves back to its den beneath my shed.  I grabbed the camera and hurried out to get a shot just before it went under the building.  I guess we will be having quadruplets soon, as armadillos have same sex litters of four.  Raccoons can also have four; one of my favorite pictures is of a mother raccoon nursing 4 cubs.

Raccoon,  Procyon lotor, nurses quadruplets in hollow tree.

Alligator

An American Alligator sunning on a log in Bayou Black.

Yesterday I saw my first wild alligator of 2013 in the Bayou Black area of the Terrebonne Parish marsh.  It was a medium size reptile sunning on a log in the late afternoon sun.  After a string of cold days it was about 72 degrees warm and I am sure it did not want to jump back in the cold water until the sun went down.

It certainly is not spring yet and I am glad, for we need a good winter to knock back the multitude of exotic aquatic plants that are terrorizing our wetlands.  The signs are there though, with days getting longer, the yellow top is blooming on some of the spoil banks.  In Baton Rouge the Japanese magnolias bloom and many restaurants are serving up crawfish. Hold off, let us have a little more winter.

Wrong Was the Weather

Camping is one of my favorite hobbies.  It could be deep in the piney woods or on a West Texas Mesa, it really does not matter where, just so I am under the stars and by a campfire.  This time it was on an island in the Mississippi River with sand almost as white as Pensacola Beach.  I took off at noon Saturday with 8 friends in two bateaus; it was cold ride.  We found a place to beach the boats away from the tugboat wakes and set up camp on soft sand.  The weather forecast a few days before said partly cloudy Saturday and with a cold night and a sunny Sunday.  On Saturday morning the forecast had changed to 40% chance of rain today with a 38-degree night.  Who would have guessed they got it wrong, dead wrong.  Luckily we got tents set up before the 100% rain started and continued all night.  They were wrong on the temperature too, for it never got below 50 degrees.  Lucky again, we were wet, but not cold.

Campsite Breakfast.

Not one of our hardy nine complained.  The rain quit at dawn and with Boy Scout level skills we got the fire started to cook eggs, toast and sausage on the grill.  Two bald eagles and a flock of white pelicans brightened the skies. Back to the percentages, 50% is good for me.  I got no stars but a roaring campfire made the trip a joy.