Local Birds Survived Irene

Posted on August 28, 2011 by Stephen L Tabone

Yesterday and last night, hurricane Irene slowly passed along the Virginia coast on its way to the northeast. We experienced a lot of rain during the day and evening and significant winds and wind gusts last night. By this morning, it was over, the sun was out and the birds were back at our bird feeder.

During the rain yesterday, I photographed “wet” birds. The hurricane did not seem to impact their appetite. In fact, there seemed to be a feeding frenzy at times. Maybe, they were preparing for the storm. Various images of the birds follow. Be sure to see the last image–it is my favorite of the day.

In the above image, you can see rain drops falling while the male Ruby-throatded Hummingbird shook off some of the rain. Notice how his head and beak are parallel to the falling rain. That’s not a coincidence. This hummingbird, and the others, were constantly looking directly into the falling rain.

In this photo, my speed light (with Better Beamer attached) highlighted the hummingbird’s ruby colored throat.

During the rain, the hummingbirds, when not flying, sat on the branches looking skyward letting the rain run down their bodies from head to tail. Their behavior in the rain seemed a bit odd, but I am sure it had a purpose.

Above, the male hummingbird was stretching upward keeping an eye out for the other hummingbirds. This particular hummingbird was very aggressive and was regularly chasing away the other hummingbirds from “his” feeder.

Above, I captured a shy Cardinal peering out from behind some leaves in a tree.

The above images, a young Red-bellied Woodpecker was waiting for his turn at the feeder.

And above, a Downy Woodpecker also waits for its turn.

Hopefully, you made it to the bottom of this article to see the above photograph. Although I captured some good hummingbird and other bird photos yesterday, the above image is my favorite. It is a female House Finch feeding her fledgling.

It might have been a wet and miserable day up and down the east coast, but it was a good day for photographing birds in the rain.

Posted in Bird Photographs | 7 Comments

Merrimac Farm Wildlife Management Area

Posted on August 25, 2011 by Stephen L Tabone

On August 13, I conducted my last check of the 15 Bluebird boxes at the Merrimac Farm Wildlife Management Area, which was something I volunteered to do this spring and summer. There was not any nesting activity in the nest boxes, which was not surprising since it was late in the nesting season. It was a very worthwhile volunteer activity, since I was able to witness many active Bluebird nests, hatchlings and fledglings.

I took advantage of being at Merrimac Farm WMA on the 13th and photographed some of the natural beauty located on the 300 acres, while checking the nesting boxes. However, I was not able to review and process the images until this evening. I was pleased to see that I had successfully captured some of the late summer beauty on the farm.  Below are some of those images.

Above:  An open field of yellow Goldenrod flowers. (Nikon D700, ISO 200, 24mm, f/11, 1/60 sec.)

Above:  Female Monarch butterfly on a thistle flower. (Nikon D700, ISO 200, 200mm, f/8, 1/125 sec.)

Above:  Fritillary butterfly on a thistle flower.  (Nikon D700, ISO 200, 200mm, f/9, 1/80 sec.)


Above:  Queen Anne’s Lace, also called “Wild Carrot,” is a common plant in dry fields, ditches, and open areas. It was introduced from Europe, and the carrots that we eat today were once cultivated from this plant.  (Nikon D700, ISO 200, 105mm, f/11, 1/60 sec.)

Above: Queen Anne’s Lace bud that did not bloom.  (Nikon D700, ISO 200, 105mm, f/20, 1/40 sec.)

Above:  As I was leaving the farm and driving down the dirt road from the stone house on the farm, there were two flocks of turkeys walking along the tree line, but as I approached they quickly moved into the underbrush. I managed to get one image of one of the turkeys just as it was about to disappear.  (Nikon D700, ISO 3200, 116mm, f/9, 1/640 sec.)

As most of you know, Hurricane Irene is heading this way this weekend. Therefore, I do not expect to get out to do any photography, but will attempt to shoot some of the action/activity on the lake from the house. If we are lucky, we will only get rain and no wind, and I will not have any interesting hurricane photographs.

Posted in Landscape Photographs, Merrimac Farm Wildlife management Area | 3 Comments

More Hummingbirds

Posted on August 24, 2011 by Stephen L Tabone

When I got home late this afternoon, the Ruby-throated Hummingbirds were again buzzing around the trees behind the house. I could not resist trying to photograph them in flight. My hummingbird images from Monday were of them sitting on tree branches, which are much easier to capture. I was successful today.

Below are two of the inflight (actually hovering) images. Hummingbirds fly way too fast to capture in mid-flight. The first image is of a female and the second of a male whose throat is ruby red when the sun strikes it.  The female’s throat only has one small ruby red spot that also glows when the sun hits it just right. Unfortunately, in the below images the sun was not at the right angle to illuminate their throats.

In order to photograph the hummingbirds inflight, I cranked up the ISO on my Nikon D700 to enable a higher shutter speed. The EXIF data for the first image:  ISO 1600, 300mm, f5.6, 1/800 sec., and for image two:  ISO 2000, 135mm, f7.1, 1/800 sec.

Posted in Bird Photographs | Tagged | 2 Comments

From Venice to Rome

Posted on August 23, 2011 by Stephen L Tabone

If you have been following my blog, you know that in June I traveled to Italy, and while there, I photographed my way from Venice to Rome with stops in Cortona, Siena, Florence, Pompeii, Positano, Capri, and Ravello. I recently completed reviewing my images and selected almost 300 for a recent slideshow presentation. I uploaded those same images to my Website today, and they are organized as they were in the presentation, that is, by location and in the order that they were photographed.

If you have seen some of my previous blog articles about the trip through Italy and enjoyed seeing the images included in those articles, I encourage you to visit my website and see the slideshow presentation. To do that go to: http://stabone.com/p275192001 and when there, click on “Slideshow” in the upper right corner of the web page.

This article concludes my articles and images from Italy (until the next trip). It was a fantastic visit to a country that is a photographer’s dream. There was an beautiful image to be made just about everywhere, everyday.

My upcoming photography plans include photographing hundreds of acres of fall blooming sunflowers west of Baltimore, waterfalls in Ricketts Glenn in Pennsylvania among fall colors, sunrise and sunsets in the Shenandoah Mountains, and Chincoteague National Wildlife Refuge.

Posted in Italy | 1 Comment

Ruby-throated Hummingbirds

Posted on August 22, 2011 by Stephen L Tabone

Our home in Montclair, Virginia, is located in a designated bird sanctuary, and the birds apparently know it. We have many species that live and thrive here to include Ruby-throated Hummingbirds. This afternoon when I returned home, there were two pairs of hummingbirds that were buzzing in and out and around the trees behind our house. I could not resist photographing them and set up my Nikon D300 on my tripod with my Nikon 80-400 lens and photographed them for about an hour. Below are are a few of the images. They are amazingly fast and were very entertaining.

If you have never seen a hummingbird “stretch,” in the above two images that is what this one is doing. In addition to the hummingbirds, there were many other birds in the trees behind our house today to include Bluejays, Cardinals, Titmouse, Chickadees, Red-bellied Woodpeckers, American Goldfinches, House Finches, and a Carolina Wren–one of my favorite birds.  Therefore, below is an image from today of the wren crouching beneath a leaf in one of the trees. I photographed many of the other birds too and will post them later this week.

Posted in Bird Photographs | Tagged , | 3 Comments