1. Kleptoparasitism at HBSP

The word that ornithologists typically use to describe the habit of bald eagles stealing fish from ospreys (as well as other cases of food theft in the bird world) is kleptoparasitism.  For the special case of pelicans stealing fish from cormorants, I have my own term: kleptopelicanism.

Kleptopelicanism was much in evidence during my recent trip to Huntington Beach State Park this past New Year's Day.  The pelicans didn't seem at all interested in fishing for themselves.  Instead, they floated around in the freshwater pond, following any cormorant that was actively fishing.  When a cormorant submerged to chase a fish, the pelicans watched the cormorant's silhouette carefully from above the surface.  When the cormorant emerged with its prize, the hungry pelicans were often only a few feet away, ready to snatch the smaller bird's lunch from its beak:

(click to zoom)

Although I never saw a pelican successfully wrest a fish from one of the smaller birds, they seemed more than willing to inflict discomfort on any would-be victim that defied them:


Despite the ever-present pirates near at hand, the cormorants ate very well during the hour or so that I watched:


Catching photos of the cormorants with a fish proved difficult, because they typically swallowed the fish very quickly after emerging from beneath the surface (and I can understand why, with the pelicans near at hand!).  However, the pelicans proved useful to me in this regard, since the pelicans could see the cormorants' underwater silhouettes, whereas I couldn't (due to my angle and reflections on the water). By carefully following the gaze of a pelican as it tracked a foraging cormorant, I could often predict exactly where a cormorant was likely to emerge, and have my camera already focused on that location:


Sometimes a pelican would even resort to short flights over the water so as to stay close to the foraging cormorants:


The cormorants weren't the only ones catching fish in the freshwater pond that day.  This tern caught one that I have difficulty believing the bird could swallow:


An osprey caught several fish close by, though the angle of light wasn't ideal for capturing the moment on "film":

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2. Other Sightings at HBSP

Speaking of lighting, this trip to HBSP provided my first opportunity to test out my new, homemade, "Flashzilla" flash extender:


Not five minutes after getting out of the car, I was given the perfect opportunity test out this beast.  The heron pictured below was probably about 50 feet from me, and was completely backlit, but you can see that the Flashzilla provided more than enough illumination even at that great distance:


Below are some more examples of birds at fairly enormous distances being lit up quite well by the Flashzilla.  Note that the Red Knot was completely backlit, but with the flash you can see that the front of the bird is well lit:


Another thing I decided to test out during this trip was the use of larger apertures for isolating subjects via shallow depth-of-field (DOF).  I was able to isolate one Boat-tailed Grackle from a group of five birds by shooting at f/4 with a 400mm lens at a distance of about 12 feet:


My favorite technique (borrowed from Arthur Morris) for shooting birds on water is to get down to the birds' eye level by lying on my belly at the very edge of the water, thereby compressing the surface of the water to a thin band of in-focus terrain.  Lying down also seems to put the birds more at ease.  At HBSP I found that the grackles would come to within two or three feet of me when I was in this position:


The ibises didn't come quite that close, but they came close enough:



Up at the jetty it's usually fairly easy to get turnstones at eye level:


The jetty sometimes offers opportunities for shots of less common birds, such as loons in winter:


HBSP usually provides plenty of opportunity for getting bird-in-flight ("BIF") shots, though in the past I've concentrated more on portraits of stationary birds.  This time I actively sought out the flight shots, especially those of pelicans at or below eye level:

Even better than flight shots (in my opinion) are those lucky slides that show the bird taking off or landing with wings fully spread:


HBSP generally provides nice enough backgrounds that even shots showing little or no action (or little or no foreground detail) can still be very nice:

Though the level of bird activity was quite low during this particular visit, at HBSP it's usually possible to find something to photograph, even on a slow day.  Though much of the visible marsh appeared pretty inactive, there was a nice pocket of activity right at the causeway on the freshwater side, even allowing me to get a wide-angle group-shot of birds: Out on the beach I found fewer opportunities, though I couldn't resist taking yet another sanderling photo, and this backlit Willet made for a nice silhouette shot:      My favorite non-bird species at HBSP (apart from the alligators) is the mink, which I usually only see up at the jetty.  I was very grateful when another photographer pointed out an individual scurrying among the rocks along the causeway:

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3. A Trip to the Zoo

I wasn't aware until recently that at Brookgreen Gardens, just across the highway from HBSP, is a small zoo with a number of raptors and other photogenic critters.  Below is a mixed sample of images taken at this location as well as some taken at the National Zoo in Washington, D.C.:

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4. Experimenting with HDR

I finally decided to begin experimenting with the new photographic technique called high dynamic range imaging, or HDR.  HDR merges several identical photos taken at different exposures into a single 32-bit image containing a far wider dynamic range than is currently possible with DSLR sensors.  Since HDR is most often used for scenic landscapes and the like, I decided to start with some landscapes in and around Durham:





Although I hadn't seen it done yet, I began to wonder if HDR could be applied to bird photography.  For superimposed backgrounds in composite images it would obviously be possible.  For stationary birds, I thought it might also be possible to image the bird itself in HDR. 

I was right.  Here are two bald eagle photos imaged via HDR:


In this case it was actually necessary to use HDR (or at least some form of tone-mapping) to get enough detail in the brown feathers without blowing the highlights in the bird's head, since the bird was behind a glass / wire-mesh fence and fill flash would have produced unwanted shadows or glare.  Because the bird in the first photo was moving its beak, some extra work had to be done in postprocess to eliminate blurring, but overall I'm quite happy with the results and am eager to see to what extent HDR can be used for enhancing bird photographs.

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5. Other Misc. Shots from Dec/Jan