Stephen L Tabone Nature Photography

Yesterday was an interesting day here at the house.  Late in the afternoon, Angela spotted an eagle above the lake and TOLD me to get my camera, which I did, quickly assembling what I needed.  By the time I was ready, it was flying north toward Powell’s Creek.  All I could see was its tail and large flapping wings moving further and further away.  That alone would have made the evening, but there was more…

Later, Angela thought the eagle was back.  This time, the camera was ready, and I ran with it for the dock.  By the time I got near the dock, the osprey–yes, osprey this time–was hovering above the lake and about to dive into the water.  I got off a few shots, but as the osprey got closer to the water, it was partially blocked by a thick, leafless bush.  I could see through the bush that it hit the water, but could not get off a shot.  By the time I got to the end of the dock, it was flying out of the water with a fish in its talons.

The osprey and fish were quickly flying parallel to me on the dock.  I got off a few shots, but I could not get a good focus on the quick flying bird and fish.  From what I did capture, I could see that the fish was a young large mouth bass.  It was flying by the osprey’s talons with its mouth wide open and flopping around.  (Sorry, poor quality photo not included below.)

Later after dark, I heard noises on our upper deck.  It was a raccoon hanging from the bird feeder trying to get food.  When I opened the door, it quickly leaped off the feeder and ran away.  I had forgotten to bring the feeder into the house after dark.  One recent evening, a mother raccoon was on the deck with three baby raccoons, and I have been removing the feeder each evening ever since.

A somewhat typical late afternoon and early evening here at our little, hidden jewel of nature in the middle of the Washington metropolitan area.  It will be difficult to leave here someday.

Angela came in from outside and said that a couple trees in a common area in front of our house were full of small birds.  They had been eating red berries from a large nearby bush.  I grabbed my camera with the 80-400mm lens and went out front.

The birds were high in the top of the trees, but they were well lit by the late afternoon sun.  Their chests were glowing from the sunlight.  We were not sure what they were because of their distance, but when I zoomed in with the camera, we could see that they had dark masks with a white streak and bright yellow chests.   It was a flock of cedar waxwings.  There were more than 25 flitting around the tree tops.

From out of nowhere, a hawk flew quickly through the tree tops, and the cedar waxwings took flight chased by the hawk.  They were fast, and I did not see the hawk catch any.  The hawk circled a few times, but the cedar waxwings had left.  By the time I was able to focus on the hawk, it was high in the sky.

Below are a few photographs of the cedar waxwings and one of the hawk.

This morning after the snow quit falling–yes, it snowed, but only about an inch, I went to Leesylvania State Park with the camera gear.  As always, it was great being outside and wandering around in the woods and along the Potomac River.  However, it was not the most productive photography morning with the BIG exception of capturing a gorgeous or handsome pileated woodpecker that was “working” hard on a tree.

I have been wanting to capture an image of a pileated woodpecker for a long time, and in about a two week period, I managed to do that twice.  Usually, you can hear them pounding away on a tree, but not see them.  Today was an exception to that, and I was able to get a very good image using my 28-300mm handheld.  I did not have time to breakout the tripod and longer lens.  I stopped just after the CSX trestle, turned on my flashers, and ran around behind the car to get my camera, adjust, and shoot a few times.  Fortunately, it was a very quiet morning and nobody came from around the bend.  No bass tournaments.  Peaceful.

It is below or for a better view go to: http://stabone.com/p626760728/h615fad#h615fad

Today, Angela and I visited Caledon Natural Area 45 miles southeast of here along the Potomac River.  Caledon has over 2,500 acres of protected land and is the summer home for one of the largest concentrations of bald eagles on the East Coast. As many as 60 eagles have been spotted on the bluffs overlooking the Potomac River in King George County where it is located.

We did see some eagles, maybe ten.  However, they were only flying high above the trees and could not be photographed (by me).  So, instead after carrying about 25 pounds of gear on about 5 miles of trails, I settled for a couple of landscapes, spring tulip tree flowers and some brightly sunlit red flower buds that were just about to burst/bloom.  Angela helped, as always.  She is the best assistant one could ever want and great spotter too.

It was a perfect day for a hike, blue skies with puffy clouds and only in the high 40s. We thoroughly enjoyed our visit to the Natural Area.

Tomorrow snow–couple inched expected.  Maybe some photography of snow on spring flowers.

Below is one of today’s images.  The rest can be seen in the Spring 2011 Gallery on my website at: http://stabone.com/p1039989315/h196947f7#h196947f7