Signs of Spring

Just a quick update here - signs of spring are all around us and I've been lucky to photograph a few things that I don't get a lot of opportunities to see.  Last weekend I happily re-located a great-horned owlet sitting in the nest which has historically been occupied by Osprey.  I'm hoping that next time I visit the bird will be in the "branching" phase and will be found on some of the tree snags that are near the nest.

I also went to check out a fox den that I photographed last year at Wertheim National Wildlife Refuge.  I found the den but the kits weren't outside - one of the adults (almost certainly the male) was out in the field hunting though.  Eventually it decided it was time for a nap and it curled up to go to sleep which I viewed from my car via my binoculars.  I took the chance to sneak up and around the bend behind a brush pile where I was able to get a shot or two of the fox before retreating.

While I had been waiting for the fox in the car - this Bluebird landed on a tree branch next to my car which made for an easy photo.  Hopefully this weekend will give me some good weather and let me find a few more treats.

Calverton and North Fork Preserve

Over the weekend I visited a site I'd never been to before in Calverton. Despite it's close proximity to EPCAL which I have gone to regularly for years, I'd never noticed it before. It's just off the road and contains several small, shallow wetlands. My guess is that in the late spring and early summer it will be teeming with interesting wetland plants, frogs, tadpoles and dragonflies. On Friday morning during my brief visit, there was a good flock of Ruby Crowned Kinglets, plenty of Red-winged Blackbirds (who certainly will be nesting there) and a handful of colorful Pine Warblers as seen below.

EPCAL featured lots of the good stuff - Northern Harriers, a couple dozen American Kestrels, Wild Turkeys, herds of White-tailed Deer and plenty of Eastern Meadowlarks who were actively calling. A lone groundhog was seen looking around on the North side of the property (across Route 25).

A trip to North Fork Preserve didn't yield many photos but showed how much potential the site has. I saw Green-winged Teal, 7 Snipe, a Great Blue Heron, 2 red fox, lots of Wild Turkey, several hawk species and heard some warblers and kinglets. I'm really looking forward to the full migration push when Warblers will be coming through as the small pockets of wetlands at the North Fork Preserve are prime habitat for many of these species.

Tree Swallows taking up residence in a Wood Duck box

Nice lighting on "home pond"

I visited another East End location where I'd heard about an Owl nest and sure enough there it was... I stayed for a couple of minutes and then was on my way. I'd like to get back in the early morning for better lighting - but I'm headed on vacation later this week to Florida so not sure when I'll have the opportunity.

This nest has produced at least 1 Owlet

For more on birds that can be found around Long Island - check out this book by John Turner: Exploring the Other Island: A seasonal guide to nature on Long Island

Great Horned Owl Family

It has been a great week of Photography for me - with 2 days being over the top.  Wednesday I took off from work and headed to East Hampton to photograph the beached Humpback Whale which beached itself on our shores.  Unfortunately, it had a sad ending to the story Whale "Euthanized" but I was able to get some amazing photographs of this juvenile Whale (30 feet long, 16 tons) which can be seen on my sister blog: Wild Long Island

Owlets:
After trying several times trying to find Great Horned and Eastern Screech Owls this winter in the Bronx and Nassau County, I got an e-mail this morning from a fellow photographer that a Great Horned Owlet had fallen from its tree and re-habbers were going to retrieve it.  By the time I got there, the Owlet had been taken away but another Owlet and the mother had been spotted.  What I was thinking would be a few shots at re-habbers taking care of an Owlet turned into a fantastic morning trying to track the mother in the trees as it was continually mobbed by Crows and Jays and getting an unreal photo session of an Owlet.

Unharmed:
After trying to get a clear shot of the mother without success we went to Mike Lotito's house in hopes of photographing some woodpeckers which are frequent visitors to his yard.  After about 30 minutes and no woodpeckers, we went back to the owl, only to find that the re-habbers had returned the Owlet after finding it unharmed.  I'm not sure if they let it fly on its own or if it was placed on this branch,but either way it was the perfect spot to photograph it.  It seemed fearless as cars, people on bikes and a woman walking her dog passed by without much of a movement from the owl which allowed us to fire away.  After photographing for a bit, Mike inquired were the Mother might be - I turned around (not expecting to find it) and saw this:

The mother's eyes trained on the nearby Bluejay:

More Owlet:
After spending some time on the mother, I returned my attention to the Owlet on the branch and got several different angles.  Hopefully the Owls stick around for at least the week and I can get some photo ops with proper lighting as today offered some technical challenges.  

On the way home I took a shot down Dune Rd. but it didn't yield much other than this Osprey.  Looks like I was a minute or two too late to get it flying back with its catch: