Reddish Egret watches for night

A reddish egret does a one-legged, wait-for-the-night-to-come, stance near Lacissine, LA. The highway night gathering spot for egrets and their friends is one of my favorite places.  Lucky that it happens to be just where I am often passing by as the dark eats up the sky. The assembling includes hundreds (maybe thousands) of Cattle Egrets, Ibis, Snowy Egrets, shore gulls, Blue Herons, Cormorants, an occasional Roseate Spoonbill and more.

It looks as though our solitary sentinel may have snagged a spiders web on his glide to his post.

Flamingos at the New Orleans Zoo

The Flamingos at the Audubon Zoo in New Orleans were pretty listless recently when we went to see them.  For that matter, so were we.  The heat just zaps your energy.

Heron hangout harkens thousands

How many Ibis can you get into the top of a pine tree?

This is the place to find out.  Last night was the 4th time I have visited the spot along I-10 at the Lacassine exit. Three times it looked like this; once there were no birds.  I think I have it figured out now -- they all start congregating here about an hour and a half before sunset. Don't come in the middle of the day.

This time, like the others, there were thousands of herons -- Ibis, Cattle Egrets, Snowy Egrets, Blue Herons, Comorants and even some  shore gulls passed by ( but didn't land).

The spot is in the northwest corner of the intersection on the service road (not on the I-10 on-ramp).  Just as you come onto the service road and negotiate the sharp turn, there is a small industrial facility (looks like a sand operation). The trees behind it  are where the herons hang out. They literally fill the trees and keep coming by the hundreds.  They fill the trees behind the facility first and then spill out toward the I-10 as the sun goes down and room on the limbs runs out.

You can easily get a solid half hour to an hour of shooting photos in, depending on your lenses, the clouds and what ISO you want to go to.  I shot this at 800 and about 1/500 sec. I was using a lens equivalent to 450mm.    If you have better glass, this would be a real treat.

Pigeon wants to know what I am photographing

While I was shooting pictures of  the New Orleans Central Business district from atop the Tulane Medical Center parking lot, this pigeon lighted a few feet away and glanced around, as if to ask "What are you looking at, anyway?"

I felt I didn't really owe this bird and explanation, so we parted company without a word spoken.

Egret shows mating signs

This is a photo from a few years ago.  Notice the green around the egret's eyes-- it appears when they are in mating.  Also notice the showy feathers -- another mating sign.  The photo is from the lagoon island in Audubon Park, New Orleans, LA

Dad gets a chance watching the nest.

Looks like it's dad's turn to watch the kid, while mom takes a break and goes out to search for food. This nest scene was just outside our window four years ago.  One of the two siblings had already been lost at this point. The culprit? Perhaps a cat, or squirrel. Who knows?  I suspect the squirrel that had been hanging around the area. I had scared him away once as he closed in on the nest.

Let us however, give the squirrel his due -- innocent until proven guilty. The real tragedy is that a couple of days after this photo was taken, this sibling would be gone, also.  Mom and dad were then standing on a nearby fence wondering what had happened.  The vigil lasted about a day, maybe a day and a half. Then the parental doves were also gone.  Hopefully, gone to find a safer location for their next nest.

It's mom time now -- egret

Mom egret gets a few minutes for personal grooming while the chick is satisfied and not hungry for the moment.
You can just barely see the chick through the branches to the right of mom.  They get to spend a lot of
time together in these younger days.  This is old shot form a couple years ago in Audubon Park.

Powered by ScribeFire.

High in the Pecking Order

As I was getting in my car at my in-laws house, this Redheaded Woodpecker slashed by.  He zoomed up to the top of this damaged tree across the street and got to work looking for insects.  Unfortunately, he was pretty far away and was working on the opposite side of the tree out of my line of site.  But slowly I worked my way around to capture this shot.

Powered by ScribeFire.

Shadows for the Night Heron

The lighting was a little hard for this young Black-Crowned Night Heron at New Orleans' City Park.  I ran into this fellow is a shady part of the bayou shore a while back

--steve buser

heron, City Park, New Orleans

Powered by ScribeFire.

Don't hit the road Jack!

What do you want to bet this is a family conversation going on with Mom and Dad trying to convince youngster it is not safe to leave home at such and early age?  The shot is in Audubon Park in New Orleans.
--steve buser

egret, New Orleans, Louisiana

Powered by ScribeFire.

Morning, Mourning Dove

Two years ago this week, we were watching this Mourning Dove cuddle her two new born chicks just outside our bedroom window.  Those were exciting time.  We would wake up each morning to see how much they had grown.
--steve buser

Mourning Dove, New Orleans, Louisiana

Powered by ScribeFire.

Pick me, Pick me

Is this a good photo? The reason I ask is that I was driving through a rural area today, sans camera, and I saw shot after shot that I wished I could take.  Correction, of course,  if I didn't have a camera it's not a shot.  It is more a mental image of shot.

That got me to thinking. Does the photographer create the "shot" before the camera?  Well of course, in most instances --though,  I have had a few great shots that I thought were junk until I pulled them up on my computer.

But, this picture, for instance, what makes it a good shot, mediocre shot, poor shot, or even worth shooting?  Why did I shoot this shot? There were lots of other ducks on the lagoon in Audubon Park in New Orleans when I shot this. Does a duck shaking the water off his wings have more of a photographic value than one gliding on pollen-populated water?

Well, of course it does.... to me.   That is why I shot it.  Why did it have more value to me?  Because I got my start as a newspaper reporter.  This is the proverbial "boy bites dog" -- the story that sticks out as unusual.  You see thousands of duck photos.  Few of them are shaking their wings off. That makes it at least mildly unusual.  So it is worth shooting to see how it comes out?  That's where my value system ranks it.   I saw the photo in my "photographer's" mind, then shot it.

So, the photographer makes the photo,  then shoots it.

Do you agree?

Photography, New Orleans, Louisiana

Powered by ScribeFire.

Black-bellied Whistling Duck

A group of Black bellied Whistling Ducks enjoys the quite of the Audubon Park heronry in  the bayou.  The New Orleans middle-of-the-city park is know for its scenery, jogging, walking, golfing and more.  It is however, a wonderful bird watching stop for the out-of-towner.
--steve buser

Dndrocygna autumailis, Black-bellied Whistling Duck, ducks

Powered by ScribeFire.

Glossy Ibis

It's hard to feel sunny sitting in a cold wet rain.  This Glossy Ibis does its best to get interested in fishing. This just may be one day he goes to be hungry.  The photo is from Lafreniere Park near New Orleans.
--steve buser

Powered by ScribeFire.

Gull catches wind

Catch wind.  

The gusts are brisk and swirling. Cold.  You have fine tuned your muscles to find stability in this.  Your feathers respond to every updraft, every downdraft.  You can catch wind and soar into the chilly sky.  It is the reason you were born, the reason you are here.  To tickle the sky's belly.

The photo is on the lakefront in Mandeville, LA.
--steve buser

Powered by ScribeFire.

Ibis eating -- Lafreniere Park, Kenner

(I know I said I would show you that other shot today but I haven't got it ready yet)
This is a shot at Lafreniere Park out in Kenner in Jefferson Parish.  The park was created on an old horse racing track.  It now features a beautiful lagoon where Ibis and Herons and other birds share the space with muskrats, turtles and a small alligator or two.
--steve buser

Ibis, Kenner, Louisiana

Powered by ScribeFire.

Tri-colored Heron -- patience practice

A tri-colored heron, doing the patience thing at Lafrenniere Park in Jefferson Parish, which lies next to New Orleans.  This park was made from an old race-track, Jefferson Downs.  I went to a few Scout events there as a youngster.   I like the park a lot better.

This guy stood in this position for 15-20 minutes before was satisfied I had enough shots and I wondered off.  For all I know he is still standing there like this, trying to get in the Guiness Book of World Records.
--steve buser

Tri-colored Heron, Louisiana, New Orleans

Powered by ScribeFire.

The Duck Book of Rules

You get a mouthful of tasty stuff from the bottom of the pond and then strain out the water -- you want this to be better tasting, not more filling, right?
--steve buser

Sacked out

Sitting on the Canal Street ferry wharf,  these two Brown Pelicans wait for the ferry to come and whip up fish from underneath the rolling Mississippi River.  Notice the pelican on the left.  He has leaned his head so far back and opened his beak so wide that it has pushed his gular sack - usually hanging below his beak -- up through the top of the lower mandible -- a sight I have never seen before.

--steve buser

Brown Pelican, New Orleans, Mississippi River

Powered by ScribeFire.

Glossy Ibis

This Gloss Ibis is a frequent wanderer around Lafreniere Park in Jefferson Parish (the neighboring parish to New Orleans)
--steve buser

Powered by ScribeFire.