photoartflightRoseate Spoonbill Flyby
Posted on October 3, 2021
Roseate Spoonbills are one of my favorite Florida birds to photograph! Plus they are a large colorful bird that fills the frame & stands out in photos. In this image I really liked the outstretched wings showing the feather detail and the size of the wingspan. Their wingspan on average is 47 to 52 inches. Image taken at J.N. Ding Darling NWR in Florida a few years ago with a 300mm lens, 1.4X teleconverter on a Canon 7D.
Roseate Spoonbill Closeup
Posted on December 30, 2020
Since we are not traveling to go to Florida this year, I am going through my images from past trips there. The featured Roseate Spoonbill image is a 2 image panorama taken with a Tamron 150-600mm @ 600mm on a Canon R. I zoomed in close to get a full image of the Spoonbill’s head, so while getting that image I thought I should do a pano and include more of the body also. This Spoonbill was near it’s nest so I was able to get a few images of the young Spoonbills trying to get a meal from the parent.
Wood Storks From St. Augustine Rookery
Posted on December 10, 2020
We found many Wood Storks at the St. Augustine Alligator Farm Rookery on our trip there last January. They seem to like nests more in the top of tall large trees and many times you see multiple nests in the same treetop. It is an interesting place to photograph a wide variety of birds, many nesting there. They are constantly coming & going and it can be quite noisy at times. For this post I am featuring some of the Wood Storks from the same general area around one treetop. Some think they are ugly birds, but I prefer to think of them as interesting photo subjects with character. They also seemed to interact with Spoonbills quite often. The featured image is a 2 image slight pano to not crop off it’s feet in the branches.
Roseate Spoonbills Splashing
Posted on April 17, 2020
I am still finding images to post from my backup files since we can not go out to even local parks here in NJ. These images are from a past trip years ago to J.N. Ding Darling National Wildlife Refuge in Florida. These were fairly far out in the water along the Wildlife Drive. I was using a Sigma 300 – 800mm f/5.6 zoom lens @ 800mm (The Sigmonster as it was called.) With Heavy Duty Gitzo tripod, Wimberly Gimbel Tripod head & Canon 1 Series Camera Body – total weight ~25 lbs. But once setup you could certainly work an area and get great images from subjects near & far.
Pink Wings
Posted on April 5, 2020
More Roseate Spoonbill images from our trip to Florida a few months ago. They are one of my favorite birds to photograph in Florida. They really stand out in the treetops and are fun to watch interacting with each other & other birds.
Roseate Spoonbill Tree
Posted on March 17, 2020
It was interesting to see this tree full of Roseate Spoonbills surrounding this White Ibis. The featured image was captured with a Sigma 300-800mm lens @ 800mm. It seems to be very helpful at J.N. Ding Darling to have a long zoom lens with a long telephoto zoom range. Many photo opportunities there are quite far in the distance. So instead of severely cropping your image you can frame a nice pleasing image to fill the frame with your subject. The Sigma 300-800mm lens was a huge & heavy lens and with a camera body was about 12 lbs. Add a Wimberly gimbal head & heavy duty tripod and you basically setup in an area and just work that area for a while. That is why I usually also carried another camera on my shoulder strap with a 400mm DO lens for faster moving subjects that flew close by.
Roseate Spoonbill, Sigma 300-800mm @ 631mm
Roseate Spoonbill 400mm f/ DO lens
Splashing Roseate Spoonbills, Canon 400mm DO lens, Canon 7D
Roseate Spoonbills En-Garde In TreeTops
Posted on March 6, 2020
It is also fun photographing Roseate Spoonbills interacting with each other around or by their nests or just roosting in the tree tops. They seem to be in small groups scattered around the nests. They can also be quite vocal! Sometimes it sounds a little eerie! The featured portrait image looks a little strange because you do not see the usual striking pinkish color of these birds. All images captured @ 400mm with a Canon 7D (effective full frame FOV ~ 640mm)
Roseate Spoonbill FlyBy
Posted on March 5, 2020
Here are a series of images of Roseate Spoonbills in flight. These are from a previous trip to Florida, but did not post them before. One of my favorite birds to photograph! Plus they are a Large and Colorful bird. Easier to fill the frame and you definitely see them coming! Also they are interesting to watch how they interact with each other in the tree tops. My next post will show some of those images. Being retired now I have time to go through my large backlog of past trips. These are all taken back then with a Canon 400mm f/4 DO lens on a Canon 7D (Full Frame FOV ~ 640mm)
Incoming Roseate Spoonbill
Posted on February 25, 2020
I am going through backup Hard Drives cleaning up and removing unneeded files. Sometimes you find interesting images you have not used before or you want to try different ways to adjust the file and bring out more details on already worked on files. The more you adjust files you find different ways or techniques to improve the image. This image was taken years ago at Ding Darling NWR with a Canon 7D with a 400mm f/4 DO lens with a 1.4X Teleconverter ( ~ 896mm effective Full Frame FOV)
Roseate Spoonbill Antics
Posted on June 8, 2019
While I was photographing birds at the St. Augustine Alligator Farm I noticed these 2 Spoonbills, high up on a branch, interacting together. They kept prodding each other and making quite a bit of noise squawking as they were going at it. But it gave me an opportunity to get some interesting photos of them while they were busy. I was using a zoom lens from 350mm to 600mm. Maybe the one just wanted the spot on the branch the other one was standing. After a few minutes it did get the spot on the branch. While I was working on my files I was amazed at the detail of the images from the Canon R. Especially the fine feather details and the clean look of the files.
