Jones Beach Migrants

This morning I arrived at the West End of Jones Beach just after sunrise anxious to shoot some birds. Due to weather and other factors beyond my control I have been able to do little shooting - and the birds that have been around haven't been terribly exciting. The winds today are not what drives good birds through migration but I figured there would be something around. I cruised around the West End for a few minutes and spotted this Merlin in a tree (one of only 3 I saw this morning).

I then met up with Richard Ettlinger (author of the visually stunning book  On Feathered Wings: Birds in Flight)
  and we headed into the Dunes to try and get some raptors.  The birds we were after were few and far between, but while we waited we were treated to several Osprey returning from the inlet with Fish in their talons, along with plenty of Northern Flickers.

Around 9 AM a Cooper's Hawk that had snuck up on us exploded out of the shrubs and gave us beautiful views and photographic opportunities.  I took my success as a cue to leave and headed to the Coast Guard Station in an effort to find some smaller birds - maybe even get a new species, and as luck would have it that's exactly what happened.

I didn't have to look long before spotting this Magnolia Warbler in beautiful fall plumage (I had originally thought Nashville Warbler until looking it up in the book - this bird certainly looks different than when it's in breeding plumage).

A couple other birds were around as seen below (Golden Crowned Kinglet, Song Sparrow, Palm Warbler, Northern Mockingbird, Juvenile Osprey) and I soon packed it in and headed home.  I'll be there tomorrow though so let's all pray for Northwest winds.

Jones Beach West End

I had the good fortune of running into the extremely talented avian photographer Richard Ettlinger at the West End of Jones Beach on this gorgeous October morning ripe for migrants.  While I wasn't able to stay long, I had some quick success and hope to have more in the future.  Merlins were just about everywhere, mostly perched on snags but lots flying around.  Northern Harriers, Sharp Shinned Hawks and a few lingering Osprey were also filling the skies.  On the non-raptor front I found Northern Mockingbirds and Yellow Rumped Warblers plentiful - as well as a Baltimore Oriole (below)

This Merlin was searching for prey from a snag along the parkway:

And another one was found in the median near the Coast Guard Station:

One of the first birds I came upon was the Northern Mockingbird, lit-up by the warmth of the rising sun:

And lastly (for now anyway) a Sharpie showed up to pursue the Merlin seen at the start of this posting:

Owless Adventure

Where are the Owls?
Yesterday I went "Owling" with my friend Stella Miller (of Huntington-Oyster Bay Audubon Society) in the Brookville/Mill Neck area.  While my hopes were high, Stella reminded me that this is nature and things aren't guaranteed.  Everytime I saw a cavity in a tree I was envisioning the Screech Owl or Great Horned Owl that was sure to be there, sunning itself, to no avail.  We saw a few common species (Mockingbird [see below], Cardinal, Junco, etc.) but nothing of true note.  I was shown the location of a historical nest, and it will be monitored over the next few weeks for Great Horned activity - I can only hope some Owlets are produced.  I will be trying again with Stella this weekend up in Pelham bay for Saw-Whet's and Long-Eared owls with hopefully much better results!

Redheads
The day was not a total loss however, as I had just enough light to photograph two pairs of Redhead Ducks at Lake Orowoc in Islip.  The "lake" is really a pond adjacent to a McDonalds (of all places) and while the Redheads could be anywhere on the "lake" they hangout right next to the concrete bulkhead making photographing them ridiculously easy.  I actually had to remove my 1.7X teleconverter for these shots and instead used just the 300mm f/4 lens.  If/when I return, I am going to try shooting with my 105mm Macro, possibly paired with teleconverter which should provide excellent detail.  While I used the on-board flash for the photo above, the photo below was photographed at ISO 1000 to get the needed shutter speed for a sharp image.  The fact that I did NO noise reduction in photoshop on the bird is amazing as this same photo at ISO 1000 on my previous camera (the Nikon D60) would be virtually unsusable.  This was my first time seeing/photographing a Redhead as they are quite scarce on Long Island and when they are found they are NEVER seen at such a close proximity, so a big thanks to my friend John Turner for tipping me off to this location.

Morning Red-Tailed
This morning when I got to work I was rewarded for always having my camera.  Just as I pulled in a Red-Tailed Hawk came screaming down off the roof of Town Hall chasing a pigeon, with crows in hot pursuit.  As I parked my car I lost track of the pigeon (which got away) but saw the Red-Tailed perch in the nearby woods, directly behind a sewage treatment plant building that would shield my approach.  I took some photos from my car before getting out and approaching being cautious not to spook it.  The Hawk was too preoccupied for looking below for squirrels and listening for birds that it didn't even notice me and made it quite difficult for me to get a good photo showing off its eye.  I was quite pleased with the warm early morning light that lit up this beautiful hawk.