zackiedawg

I was thrilled to learn we'd have our coldest Christmas likely in forever, at least in the last 30 years...don't get too many chances to enjoy cold down here in S. Florida. Christmas Eve was overcast and grey, so not the best light, but with a high temp of 54 I had a wonderful 8 mile walk through the levees of the western Wellington wetlands spots, then over to my local wetlands grounds - so amazing to walk 10 miles and come home without a drop of sweat! Unfortunately, Christmas Day which had an even-lower high temp of only 47, was constant drizzle and rain, as was the Monday holiday at 52 and constant, all-day rain - so Christmas Eve was the only day I was able to get out and shoot: A usually very secretive bird, this sora came out in the open as I passed by: Dozens of these little cruise missiles were buzzing just above the water, catching bugs...the tree swallows are incredibly difficult to pan with as they fly really fast and erratic: The river otters seemed to genuinely love the cold - they were hopping and playing and rolling around on the levees and jumping in and out of the water: Unfortunately, they'd run quite suddenly and I didn't always have the right shutter speeds to freeze them: Something seemed very interesting to this group of ring-necked ducks - they were all watching intently. I've only seen ring-necked ducks 2 other times: The long-billed northern shovelers were also hanging around, like this female: A great blue heron flying by, showing off his wingspan: Another sneaky little bird that let me get pretty close without running and hiding - a male least bittern:

Back to the wetlands after missing a week up at Disney! Visited on Sunday, as Saturday was a rainout and spent wrapping Christmas gifts. The strange and alien chuck-will's-widow was still hanging around: A great egret coming in for a somewhat messy landing: A glossy ibis about to land, showing some of those iridescent brown feathers that give them the name: A great blue heron walking across the levee: A grey-headed swamphen wading through deeper water than it expected: A red-shouldered hawk flying over me near sunset: A wood stork all spread out in the last of daylight skies: By 5pm, the sun has dropped below the treeline and the wetlands fall into dusk - the last shot I could manage was this great egret flying in to roost at dusk - ISO 6,400 needed at this point!:

Dec 6 - 12 I was on vacation at Disney World, for our annual Disney Photography group gathering...always a great time reconnecting with friends and enjoying photography together. My 1-bedroom villa at the Boardwalk Resort had this view from the bedroom balcony (the Dolphin Resort across the river): Epcot Center has a Christmas tradition called the 'Candlelight Processional', and every few nights they have a new guest narrator telling the Christian tale of Christmas, with full orchestra and chorus inserting songs between the stories. The guest narrator on our night was Draymond John, from the show Shark Tank: The Hollywood Studios Christmas tree: Wandering through Epcot at night, enjoying some tripod-mounted long-exposure night shooting - this is The Land pavilion: Spaceship Earth, Epcot's landmark symbol, has all new lighting which is very cool at night: On that night, I was traveling light and just had my camera, tripod, and 18-135mm lens. Some of my fellow photographers who only get to Disney once a year had backpacks full of lenses. We decided to ride the Spaceship Earth ride tracing the history of Communiction, but I had no fast prime with me. A fellow photog offered to lend me his Sony FE 24mm F1.4 GM lens...and WOW that thing is sharp! Like 'don't cut yourself' sharp. Wide open at F1.4, and ISO 5,000 for this scene of Rome: Or here at ISO 8,000 and F1.4, of Jewish scholars keeping records after the fall of Rome: The new Guardians of the Galaxy ride entrance, with the Star Lord's ship and a glowing Spaceship Earth in the background: The Haunted Mansion at Magic Kingdom: The fire breathing steampunk dragon from the Festival of Fantasy parade: As there were about 15 of us in the group, we got spread out on the line for Splash Mountain. That allowed me to exit the ride and rush around to the viewing spot for the big drop, and catch some fellow photography group members dropping down (if you couldn't tell, the two in the first row were in my group): Cinderella's Castle puts on some intricate Christmas lighting and projection: As you all know, I'm a wildlife photographer, so I was quite thrilled to be enjoying coffee on my balcony before heading to the parks when I spotted a bald eagle on the hotel roof across the river. I grabbed my 70-300mm lens which was the biggest one I had with me, and got lucky when it decided to fly off in my direction: It was a good start to that day, which was going to be spent at Animal Kingdom park - so that same lens would be getting more use. First, with the lovely cheetahs, who were up and pacing around: And continuing the cat day, the Sumatran tiger was also active: And finished off wandering around the African village of Harambe just after the park closed, for some blue hour and night shooting:

I learned a long time ago - there is NO way to win that war. I tried to fight off the squirrels from my bird feeders - using every new-fangled device that was supposed to prevent them from getting to the feeders - cones over the top, spinners that were supposed to throw them off, weighted roosts that close the feeder holes if too much weight gets on them...the squirrels are way too smart for all that - I've watched them slide down the cones and do acrobatic flips onto the feeder lip just before they fall...watched them spinning at 200RPM while they still proceed to grab the seeds - or spew them onto the ground from the spinning where they still get their meal. They defeat the weighted roost by hanging down from above and reaching into the holes. And when all else fails, they spend a few days gnawing on the ropes until the feeder falls to the ground. So I decided to give up on the other expensive and failed efforts, and just buy 5Lb bags of peanuts, which I lay around the ground by the feeders for the squirrels. They like the peanuts more than the seed, so it tends to keep them off the feeders. Unfortunately, some birds like blue jays ALSO prefer the peanuts, so I have to contend with great flocks of jays storming the nuts and clearing them out in minutes...I tried a plastic owl, but the blue jays seem to enjoy landing on its head to eat their peanuts. So I'm left swinging open the patio door every few seconds to scare off the jays until a few squirrels arrive - then the squirrels will defend their stash from the jays by chasing any bird that lands...though the jays are fast and still get their share. I think I need that squirrel ornament though!

I got two days to get out over the extended weekend - so I decided to take the Friday off to head up to a wetland farther north than my usual spot - because it tends to have a few different species than my local parks...then went to my two local spots too. And I did get some different and less common species, and even a first-time lifer bird I've never seen before. Starting off with this red-shouldered hawk on lookout: A spotted sandpiper had decided this capped pipe was a great lookout spot: My lucky find - and a new lifer to add to my list - this is a migrating bird that usually heads to S. America via Texas, so it's very rare in Florida. This is a Wilson's warbler: The gorgeous male northern shoveler: This gadwall was showing off its belly and stretching its wings: The colorful and lovely northern parula, here for winter: Sometimes it's fun to include some human element into a wildlife shot - this great blue heron was coming in low, and as it was passing over the boardwalk it went right past another wetland visitor: And this time, a great blue heron was flying past with the sun at my back for some nicer color on the bird: A pair of cooter turtles sharing a log: And I was able to find the strange and mysterious chuck-will's-widow again: One more...because it's such a strange bird:

Florida wetlands this Saturday, November 19th... Squirrel having a rest on a branch: Chunky knight anole lizard climbing around on some downed palm fronds: Lucky to find the strange and elusive chuck-will's-widow again: Pied-billed grebe: Circling back to chuck again: Green heron on the hunt: The ruddy ducks were back again - actually, just one this time...but since it's often 5-6 years or more between sightings, I'll take any I can find: A popular tree - roseate spoonbill sharing the space with a glossy ibis and a little blue heron: Then the pink bird decided to be a diva and chased the other two away to take over the tree: A great blue heron with a great big catch:

Both weekend days were lovely, so I got two afternoon visits to the wetlands again...and got some nice surprises this week: A yellow-rumped warbler, a winter visitor: One of the more limited woodpeckers to see - the yellow-bellied sapsucker - they seem to only hang around our wetlands in winter, and even then, only once every couple of years: Right after seeing the sapsucker, I got an even better surprise - an American lifer bird for me (I've seen them before, but only in Costa Rica)...a yellow warbler: And just minutes after the yellow warbler, I was pleasantly surprised to run into these visitors - ruddy ducks. It's only the second time I've seen ruddy ducks at this park in 15 years, and only the third time I've seen them anywhere: Closeup of one of the ruddy ducks: A male downy woodpecker: A grey-headed swamphen coming up the bank from the shadows of the trees: An anhinga drying itself off: A tricolored heron in lovely light and lovely sky reflections in the water: A black-crowned night heron, sitting in the shade backlit by the sun, and looking pretty happy and relaxed:

A weekend out in the wetlands again - short Saturday trip interrupted by rain, followed by a clearer Sunday: A male common yellowthroat: Female cormorant standing on and enjoying the smallest island in the wetlands: The white eyed vireo, showing how it got its name: A tricolored heron flying towards me: A black-crowned night heron getting drenched in a downpour - the photographer looked about the same: A green darner dragonfly in flight: Getting closeup with a Wilson's snipe: If you're a fish, lizard, or snake, this is NOT a face you want to see emerging from the reeds...the American bittern, a well camouflaged and accomplished hunter: And here's a snake that unfortunately got to see that very face come lunging its way - the only thing the snake could do was to quickly coil around the bird's bill to try to prevent it from opening to swallow it: The duel went on for quite a while - the snake holding on tight, and the bittern violently whipping and flicking to try to dislodge the snake: In the end, the master hunter won out - once the bittern managed to dislodge the snake's coils from his bill, he was able to snatch the head and whip the snake around until its neck broke...once he's got the head, it's all over - the snake went down the gullet quickly after:

Another weekend, another visit to the wetlands. Actually, two. I went briefly on Saturday, but got tired of getting rained on every 5-10 minutes and left early after just a few hours...then Sunday was clear and sunny, so I headed back again. A red-winged blackbird, looking about as annoyed with the rain as I was at this point: The black-bellied whistling duck mom was guiding her growing ducklings across the open lake. The ducklings start out an adorable yellow-and-black bumble-bee pattern when small, then go through this dull brown 'teenage' phase, before finally morphing into the lovely adult coat: Once the most common lizard to spot in South Florida, the green anole is now vastly outnubered by the invasive brown anole, invasive northern curly-tailed lizard, invasive house gecko, and invasive green iguana. So it's a treat to get to spot one of the native Florida lizards: This tree frog came hopping right into my field of view - a good 3-4 foot hop from another reed - and immediately upon seeing me, hopped away another 3 feet to this reed, where he tried to scurry behind to hide. I guess he wasn't expecting a large human standing right where he was hopping to: A red-shouldered hawk standing guard on a dead tree overlooking the wetlands. Very far away - I took this shot from about 300 feet: A beautiful little bird that's usually spotted on the forest floor in dark thick forests. I was lucky that this ovenbird decided to hop out of the forest and briefly into the sun as it went after a bug, and I even caught it with its crown fluffed up: Another big raptor a few hundred feet away - this osprey was high atop a pole, working on eating a fish it had caught: I'm not even sure how he got under there! A small island clustered around some pond apple trees had 4-5 turtles sunning themselves on it, while poking out from UNDER the island was this juvenile alligator: A palm warbler working its way through the reeds, hunting bugs:

Some Saturday action, October 22: Raccoon searching around the cypress forest for some food: Alligator closeup: Eastern phoebe: Black-and-white warbler: Osprey flying over the lake looking for fish: Green darner dragonfly in flight: Unfairly maligned vulture - a very useful and purpose built bird but always dismissed as ugly or creepy: Lovely northern shoveler duck - this female just arrived back as it is a winter visitor to our area: Very close up with a tricolored heron, busy watching the water below for fish: Boat-tailed grackle singing away: Anhinga, working its way back to shore to eat its catch:

Something that's been fairly rare of late here in Florida - a weekend without all-day rains and overcast skies! Finally had a decent Saturday with rains in the morning parting way for a clear afternoon, followed by a sunny and clear Sunday. So I got a chance to wander the wetlands both days and catch some nice bird action. Ruby-throated hummingbird male, sitting still for a rare moment: Well I did say rare...back to the firebush tree for some more feeding: And why is it called a 'ruby throat' when it pretty much looks green and white? Well those little black-looking feathers in a spot on the neck, which appear black from almost any angle...when seen head on and with the light hitting it just right, that little spot lights up with a brilliant ruby red, like a jewel: A winter visitor has returned - the elusive Wilson's snipe was trying to stay hidden about 100 feet away, but my big 600mm lens was able to frame him: This red-bellied woodpecker was busy grooming - all fluffed up, and with a feather stuck on his bill: Much bigger than most lizards, but smaller than iguanas, the knight anoles are striking lizards in brilliant green with yellow racing stripes: More wintering birds back in town - the male common yellowthroat: And the black-and-white warblers have really started to populate down here in their winter home: All wintering birds need to be wary of the red-shouldered hawk, always looking for a small bird as a nice meal: A lovely green iguana - this one stood out as the lighting was really nice, with strong backlight coming in from behind him as he sat in the shade on a branch: The female American redstart is also a snowbird winter visitor: The small, endangered atala butterfly, enjoying the coontie plant where they exclusively lay their eggs:

A very rainy weekend for me - managed a few hours out in the wetlands on Saturday, and had to walk through three rainshowers, and hide out for 30 minutes during a downpour in a shelter. But got a few shots: Green iguana sitting in the water - he didn't mind the rain: Black-crowned night heron sitting in the trees getting wet, and giving me a look: Great blue heron standing down in the water: There was a light rain and heavy cloudy skies as this osprey flew by with a fish half-eaten in his talons. He had to scatter from his treetop dinner table when another osprey tried to swoop in and steal his catch: The other osprey, pursuing: Rubber neckers all gathering to look at a wreck - theee glossy ibis joined by a pair of black-bellied whistling ducks. Except they were all looking towards me - so I guess I was the wreck!: Another great blue heron standing regally in the trees:

Thank you for the kind words. I was always a wildlife fan and photographer, but really came to appreciate and love photographing birds when I started noticing the incredible variety and colors. BTW - our pigeons are very romantic around here:

Finally a nice, normal weekend back in the wetlands. Activity is picking up a bit, with fall and winter approaching in the rest of the country, driving more birds down here where those two seasons don't ever come! Female common yellowthroats - first one I've seen since before summer: Green heron, showing some particularly lovely and strong coloration down in the shadows by the water: Our strange visitor from this past winter is back - and in nearly the same spot in the forest. The odd looking chuck-will's-widow, trying to nap away the afternoon, being a nocturnal hunter: Closeup of that strange head: The bird world can have some strange looking creatures, but the bug world can have some downright Space-Alien looking things...like the spiny-backed orb-weaver spider: Hard to hide in the wetlands when you're pink - the roseate spoonbills don't bother with camouflage - they just stand right out proudly and let everyone see that they're in town: Closeup of the beautiful feathers and colors of the green heron: The anhingas are great spearfishers - they dive underwater and use their spring loaded neck to stab out at passing fish, then bring them back to a perch to eat if they're big. This female seemed to have eyes much bigger than her mouth with this catch: What - you think she can't swallow a fish that big? We'll she disagrees, and decided to spend 15 minutes trying to do just that: She got the fish this far - and then seemed to be stuck trying to figure out how to get it down her skinny neck. I've seen them do it - so I figured she had a shot, but I took one more closeup then gave up and left: Another photographer was watching and a few minutes later caught up to me to confirm she got that fish down!

I spent the 19th at Animal Kingdom in Disney World...always a favorite park as anyone who sees my photos would know - anyplace I can photograph animals and birds, I'm happy! It was hot and humid, but a nice day at the park. Started out by driving over to the Animal Kingdom Lodge - love the theming and construction of this hotel: Walking into the theme park, I still had the 18-135mm lens on and was taking scenic shots when I walked right into the exotic bird flight - two or three times a day they have these beautiful macaws come flying over and around the park, landing near the main overlook where they tell you about the birds, then they fly off again - they've got run of the park and often after the show they just fly to some random spot and hang out for a bit, so you can run into them anywhere. Eventually they go back to their backstage area where they sleep and feed, but they're surprisingly allowed free flight around the 600+ acre park: A giraffe reaching high for some food: A female lion, resting but still vigilant: Not the case for the male lion, napping soundly: Wanna get close to the lowland gorilla? Well, here he is in all his glory, staring right at the camera: Meercat on lookout duty: Back to the Animal Kingdom Lodge, it was still a little early for sunset, but the Sunset Room already had some neat light and shadow play going on for an HDR shot: From the Animal Kingdom Lodge, I drove over to the Coronado Springs Resort for dinner reservations...this is the grand lobby of the new Gran Destino Tower: The new tower connects to the old Coronado Springs resort's main building through what used to be the old check-in desk area for the resort (now relocated to the tower): And just to wrap up...at the other end of this week's date range, I got back out briefly to the wetlands on Saturday the 24th before rains chased me home...got this shot of a female anhinga with her fish catch:

On the last two days of this weekly thread, I was on vacation up at Disney World - Saturday Sep 17th was spent at Magic Kingdom, and Sunday Sep 18th at Epcot... Those who aren't Disney photographers and dark ride enthusiasts won't understand the significance, but this is a holy grail shot for dark ride shooters. In the Haunted Mansion ride, you come down backwards from a hill and the ride car spins around to forward - right at the corner when it spins is this animatronic grave digger and his dog - and you've got about 5 seconds to get a shot - in horribly dark light. What's more, I was shooting a manual focus Voigtlander 35mm F1.4 lens, ISO 12,800, handheld at 1/4 second shutter and F1.4...not bad!: It was a rainy day - showers came in and out - which helped thin the massive crowds a bit: The overcast light was interesting as the evening approached - this scene is of Frontierland, looking across the river at Splash Mountain: Dark came by 7pm - a little earlier than normal - you can just see the rolling front of clouds rising above the buildings on Main Street, as a huge storm approached: At Epcot the following day, it stayed mostly rain free until much later in the evening. Though that's not always a good thing, as it meant temps of 97 degrees with humidity around 80%! Taiko drummers at the Japan Pavilion pagoda: It was the Food & Wine festival, so admittedly I was doing a lot more eating and drinking than photography...the light was nice passing through Morocco so I decided to take a shot while walking with my tangerine daquiri: And to end the day, this is the view from my huge balcony of my villa at the Boardwalk Resort, looking over the resort lagoon at Beach Club Resort across the way. and the approaching clouds of a distant storm:

Major catch-up project for me - been off the boards for a bit as it's been a hectic September! Some extra duty at work trying to carve out a hole to go on vacation, then a vacation in the middle of the month, then followed by Hurricane Ian which didn't affect me on the east coast, but my office has two branches, including one in Port Charlotte that went through the eye - the 5 employees over there were all riding out their houses in the eye wall and have varying levels of damage from near-total home loss, to no damage at all but no power. All the prep to roll over their operations to our office location and me taking calls for 6 people instead of 1 has made me quite busy. Finally, I can get in and post some weekly photos from the last 3-4 weeks! Starting off with some birding on the weekend of 9/10: Pig frog sitting in the water: The weekend of 9/10 was also the first strong signs of migration - lots of different species in the trees passing through and feeding up, like this black and white warbler: The lovely northern parula: Super-rare sighting - I've only photographed this bird twice before, in 20 years...the prothonotary warbler: A female American redstart: The tiny little blue-grey gnatcatcher is here all winter - this one seemed very curious about me and my lens, from about 8 feet away: Another black-and-white warbler: The male American redstart - much bolder pattern than the female above: And finally, the more common and year-round resident, a northern cardinal, just because they're so pretty against the green foliage:

A little late to post last weekend's photos - but I finally got around to it! A white peacock butterfly: Female downy woodpecker: Pied-billed grebe: Black-bellied whistling duck in flight: Young Florida softshell turtle yearning to fly: Walking around a bend in the boardwalk, this green iguana came around the opposite bend and we had ourselves a gunfighter standoff: A grasshopper: Green iguana having a soak on a hot day: My favorite spider - the spiny backed orb-weaver: And finally - no award winning photos, these. Light was terrible, deep under the tree cover and end of daylight. But I had to take a few shots because they're cute, and they're not always easy to find. Fresh hatched baby alligators, just 4 days old: Here's a challenge - it's like 'Where's Waldo' - or 'Waldos'. A few of the baby gators are fairly obvious here, but some are harder to spot. Can you find all 5?

Had a rainy weekend here - Saturday started out with pouring rains until around 1pm then a window opened, so I managed to do a short trip to the wetlands - storms came in right behind me as I left and Sunday was all-day rain. Mixed overcast light, and steamy hot, but a few critters were still around willing to be photographed: Yellow-crowned night heron: Little blue heron doing some fishing: An invasive species - the largest of the anole lizards...this is the knight anole, not as big as an iguana at around 2 feet long, but still a pretty hefty lizard: A wider shot of the knight anole, to show more of his length. They're pretty much just like their small cousins, the little brown and green anoles that kids pick up and handle...except that much bigger head comes with a more powerful bite - this is one you don't want to let bite your earlobe or lip and run around scaring the girls in the schoolyard: And another reptile you'd probably prefer not to let bite you! An American alligator hiding in the reeds: A marsh rabbit: Blue dasher dragonfly: The tiny little blue-grey gnatcatcher, a winter staple here, arrived early for migration: The mom anhinga arrived back at her nest where two growing chicks were waiting - as she brings up a regurgitated fish, one chick is on the ball and ready to grab it before its sibling:

Another weekend, another visit to the Florida wetlands! A dragonfly, I believe a marl pennant: Tricolored heron standing on a broken half-submerged log: Two black-bellied whistling ducks hanging out on the shore of the wetland waters: A young purple gallinule, on its own: Black-crowned night heron hanging out under the shade of a tree in shallow water: A juvenile tricolored heron taking a bath: A young purple gallinule chick, just starting to get some of its first colors: A raccoon, pausing down at the end of a levee to look around: The first blue-grey gnatcatchers returning for early fall migration:

Another week, another visit to the wetlands. Actually, TWO visits to the wetlands. Saturday, I started out at noon hoping to get some shooting in before a predicted rainy day...but by 12:30pm, a nasty black sky closed in fast, and I high-tailed back to the nature center building at the entrance of the wetlands with lightning smacking the ground less than a mile behind me. I spent about an hour sheltered in there until the lightning let up a bit, but clearly the rains weren't going to stop, so I jogged back to my car to call it a day. Sunday looked considerably better, so I headed back out again and managed to visit my two local wetlands in about 3 1/2 hours and get out just before more rains returned. A basilisk lizard climbing up a tree on Saturday: A purple gallinule chick looking up at me...then again, it could have been looking up at the nasty black sky forming over my head!: Final shot out in the wetlands - this green heron was clucking nervously every time the thunder pealed...I was trying to stand firm hoping the storm was going to slip by, so I was waiting for the green heron to open its bill...but the lightning was starting to get close enough to make me as nervous as the heron: Sunday, with a clear start to the day, I found this grasshopper enjoying a flower bud: A lovely roseate spoonbill hanging out in the shallow water: Somebody had been eating pond apples on the ground a few yards away...as I approached this green heron, he couldn't really deny that it had been him, as the remains on his face gave him away: Another double-crested cormorant letting me walk right up to him - and take a closeup portrait from just 4 feet away: A bee on a purple flower: A least bittern - it looked to be a juvenile male, out in the open for a few seconds:

Only got in a shortened day at the wetlands Saturday - rain in the morning, hot and humid afternoon, and threat of more storms late in the afternoon drove me back out. Here are a few shots from the brief visit: Green heron looking up at me: Tricolored heron, very close up: Great blue heron, very close up: A cooter turtle, perched on his shell with feet dangling - he looked like an of-road vehicle that got high-sided...but they like to do that to rest their legs - and when he wants to get off, he just tips his balance point forward and drops down into the water: Grey headed swamphen using those big chicken feet to grab at reeds - they pull the reeds out of the water and only eat the root side: Crystal, a 9-foot female alligator, sitting in the shade, still watching over her nest...it will take around 60-65 days for the eggs to hatch - she's in that window now, so hoping the eggs hatch::

Thank you - it's very cool when they do that - usually just after or just before a swarm. I've had two other occasions like this - about 7 years ago I encountered a bee ball like this, though even larger, on a walking trail near my house: The other occasion was considerably more unnerving - I was walking when I heard a droning buzzing sound in the air from behind me - when I turned to see what it was, I was facing a swarm of bees that looked like a cloud just a few feet away and headed right at me. I could do nothing except stand very still and hunch over, covering my face with my hands...5-8 seconds later, though it felt a lot longer, the cloud moved on past...not a single sting or even a bump (I guess they're pretty goo at flying around objects). It's said that when they're in transit and following a queen, they are extremely unlikely to sting as their mission is to follow her and watch over her...as long as she doesn't land on you, you should be fine...if she lands on you...you might become the bee ball!

Lovely day at the wetlands - despite the heat and humidity. Very few people willing to deal with the heat out there in the swamps, so I have it mostly to myself and the animals don't seem threatened by a single person. This means I can get some pretty tight closeups sometimes! A pig frog, looking up out of the duckweed covered water: I happened upon a 'bee ball' in the pine scrub forest - this typically occurs when a hive becomes too crowded and the original queen moves out - most of the workers follow her, and when she lands somewhere, they surround and protect her. Temporarily homeless, the scout bees will head out looking for a new spot to build a new hive...then will let the group know where to go and they'll settle the queen in and build a new home: This lovely double-crested cormorant was enjoying the rail of the boardwalk and couldn't bother to move when I walked by just 2 feet away...I love their eyes: And a few hundred feet farther down the boardwalk over the main lake, this black-bellied whistling duck had the same attitude, finding me to be no threat worth moving for: An Egyptian goose wandering along the levee: Also barely visible right at the edge of the levee, a row of black-bellied whistling ducklings were walking in a row behind their parents: A juvenile black-necked stilt, only recently free from its parents, was out exploring the wetlands on its own - wandering past this large and gaudy roseate spoonbill: A cattle egret mom, raising her plume after having a near-wrestling match with her two chicks - both grabbed and pecked at her hoping she had some food to deliver when she came back to the nest, and she finally got away for a break:

I can't say my early photography days influenced how I shoot now, settings-wise...back then, I was shooting mostly full manual, setting shutter & aperture and choosing film speed for the situation (77 Pentax ME Super). I occasionally used Pentax's 'auto' mode when I first got it and was trying to learn (I was 9 when I got the camera at Christmas!). I went through a few more automated SLRs into the late 80s/early 90s, including a Canon EOS-IX, which was an APS format SLR...I'd still often shoot them manual, but take advantage of autofocus. As I got into digital in 1997, I considered it an entirely different beast - almost more like using a video camera in those early days (A Sony Mavica 1MP floppy disk 14x zoom)...so I really started learning to use the EVF's display to see my setting effects and start to use more of the digital features that weren't around with film cameras...it was freeing to know I could shoot all I wanted to and only keep or print what I really liked...so I started shooting a whole lot more (cruises with my film camera might mean coming back with 3 rolls of 36 shot...coming back with digital meant 300-500 shots in those early days...and as digital got higher-resolution, more capable, and much better, into the thousands per trip. As I transitioned through P&S ultrazooms, to larger sensor P&S to DSLR, and into mirrorless, I still enjoy taking advantage of building my shot in the camera, using all of the camera's digital abilities and features, often switching between P mode (lazy days, A&S mode (for specific types of shooting like wildlife and long-exposure), and full Manual (long exposure, macro, experimental...or just when I'm feeling retro). The one thing that kind of stuck with me from film days, since I never did my own developing, was the desire to get my final result, or as close to it as possible, out of the camera - so I still remain a big fan of doing all my processing/manipulation while shooting, and shooting in JPG, with no (or very little) post processing on the computer...and not as a statement or position on 'right' or 'wrong' with photography, but purely because that's where I get my pleasure from - the shooting and working the camera...I've never been a big computer geek so I don't really enjoy spending all that much time on one - the idea of hours and hours of editing and tweaking photos just doesn't interest me, so I avoid as much of it as I can.