Day 1 -

Searching for nests this weekend was my main objective. Looking for old or possible new nests and scout the locations for possible photographic opportunities. The search has lead to some interesting perspectives and fantastic encounters. From learning to see things differently and the value of patience can make all the difference. Saturday was spent walking one of the trails at the Greenbelt Nature Center and then headed on down to the salt marsh at the Great Kills portion of the Gateway National Seashore. Sunday was my day of patience and surprise. First two locations turned up nothing, spent some time at Mount Loretto unique area camping out for tree swallows and then headed on down to the Conference House and had an awesome experience standing still for over two hours!

Now you may be asking me, “What’s the deal with this photo?” “What’s your point?” Well fine madam or sir; this is a precursor to what I am going to show you next. On my walk throughout the Greenbelt I carried a little point and shoot with me for some fun quick snaps. One thing I learned from it is yes they can take nice pictures too, ha ha. In all seriousness though one huge advantage of these tiny things is that you can stick that itsy bitsy lens in some small and cramped places. Something I will be trying with our much larger DSLR companions in the future.

I think it creates a real ant like view. All to often we are looking with a perspective 5-6ft off the ground. Sometimes getting down and dirty can create some wild compositions.

One more to drive the point home. These were all done in jpeg without a RAW mode unfortunately and a lack of exposure control as well. However exposure control can be gained by half pressing the shutter button toward the sky (or exposure point) a bit to lock in an auto exposure and then recompose for your final photograph.

One thing not in most trails are high speed street crossings with no cross walk or a light. Always fun trying to enjoy nature and play Frogger at the same time. (Photograph is just to help make a point.)

This is one photography I wish I had my regular setup for. By placing the lens of the camera closer to the ground to bring an emphasis on the flora in the foreground. The perspective distortion is key here by bringing myself and the camera lower to the ground rather then just standing and snapping that photo. Just make sure that your subject in the foreground is one you want impacting your photograph. The consequence of this effect is bringing down the importantance of smaller objects in the distance. Just make sure that is your goal.

The rest of the day was spent in search subjects along the Gateway National Park shoreline in Staten Island. Nothing much would make a show. There were a bunch of mocking birds (one of which you see here) going at it in search of a mate for the nesting season. Fun as always to watch, but not as cooperative to capture. The early morning sun was falling on the mockingbird perfectly. Although having your subject always in the perfect lighting isn’t really possible; keeping an idea and mental note of the suns location in relation to where you will be searching is very important. It will help you greatly when thinking about approaching your subject for a photograph. Would sure be a crying shame to finally get nice and close, have that perfect light, and to have’em in shadow. Oh, the humanity!

Now this was a cool experience. Started out lame, got exciting, wet myself and then sat in the cold wind waiting on light fall. Let me explain. After walking a certain portion of the beach I headed down to the salt marsh to see what might be around. A great place to look for wildlife, but very delicate and should be traveled with care. Anyway, as I was getting to the trail head I noticed a bunch of teenagers pushing something with a log. I was trying to see with my binoculars if I could make out what it was. Looked mammalian in nature at first, but then I was thinking maybe it was just a bird that succumbed to the trials of life. After a minute or so of observation I pinned it as a horseshoe crab. I thought it was rather cruel of them to be poking it with a stick and more so shoving it into the ocean. So I decided to go over and check it out. I get there and they start getting nervous when I show interest with what they are doing. Thankfully they lose interest fast and decide to move along (the result I was going for.) Turns out when I probed them for some info they told me they thought it was going to die from suffocation… Now I hope most of readers here know that that isn’t possible based on their normal trips to the shoreline. They put the icing on the cake when they asked me what it was. I told them of course, but not knowing it was a horseshoe crab. I thought the horseshoe was iconic in nature and it also being a ‘living fossil.’ Considering they have changed little in over 445 million years! People just don’t respect their elders anymore. On a more trivia based note horseshoe crabs may have actually evolved from shallow seas in the Paleozoic Era (570-248 million years ago) with other primitive arthropods like the trilobites. The remaining four species of horseshoe crabs are the only remaining members of the class Xiphosura. One of the oldest classes of marine arthropods.
This moment for me was a bit of a special one. He/She would occasionally raise its front end giving me a fantastic natural view of their underside without having to flip them over. A much more natural way to photograph them, although it makes you wonder as exposing their underbelly is not the safest thing for them to do. Probably when being out of water it isn’t as big of an issue. Oh, and as for “wetting myself” I missed judged the tides. As I was working the angles I got so caught up in my subject I got a nice big wave that just drenched my pants and sneakers… All in good fun.

Threw this one in for you to demonstrate it’s defensive maneuver by using that spine to let you know who’s boss. You can also see the bivalves and barnacles wanting to hitch themselves a free ride.

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Day 2 -

Getting up before dawn and out to the main objective before the sun sends its first rays of sunshine to kiss the morning dew is becoming a top priority for me. My goal is to have myself in the right place and fully setup with less ability to be detected. Much easier seeing with the light for most of our subjects. I would think most of you would all agree? The day began at a special spot in an effort to use the tide to gain an advantage on the birds. Get them closer to me and make the best of my Nikon 80-400mm lens. In an effort at first to cover the most ground I didn’t stick around long after noticing nothing I was interested in was in sight. No ruddy turnstones, sanderlings, killdeer, special gulls, etc. Moved on to a Wolfe’s Pond and found no birds in sight. I wondered why and then saw a stray cat. Problem solved. People should really bring them to shelters to get spayed and neutered. It is the best for both worlds. Feeding them in the wild isn’t the answer. Running tangent aside it was on to the next location. A location I haven’t spent too much time with and and deserves more of it; Mount Loretto unique area. It’s actually New York City’s largest natural field of its kind. Has a wealth of habitat for all sorts of species and is always worth a stop by. Plus it’s a heck of a lot of fun come big time insect season and all the milkweed grows in.

When I arrived at Mount Loretto the sun was still low and air was crisp. As I came to  a hill crest I saw something that I never thought I would see here. A white tailed deer! This might seem odd to most that I am excited about an extremely common species. The reason I am so excited is that they haven’t been on the Island for a very long time and have only been arriving in frequency recently. Many don’t spot them and have them documented, but I finally got the chance.

We met at a distance, but soon our position grew closer.

WB for this shot was originally on cloudy, but I soon changed back as the sun was finally making its way through.

Soon after we narrowed our proximity to each other he decided I wouldn’t budge and he took off into the distance. Why my autofocus seemed to track his behind more then this torso I do not know.

The most interesting compositional shot of the day. That is a fellow male hangign out on the far left upper section of the photograph (f/11 just didn’t bridge the gap to bring the other male into focus.) The perch I was waiting 2.5 hrs for them to land on didn’t happen. As you can see the perch and the shot that got away 2.5 hrs of waiting and a split second of landing; they were gone. These little buggers are tree swallows and they don’t like to stick around for too long.

The last part of the day was spent near and around the Conference House. These Great Egrets are some real skittish bastards. Lost two opportunities throughout the day with them at different locations. This fella after flying away from me once settled down and went to work looking for fish. Watching them hunt for fish is truly an amazing treat. They sit there totally still moving as if a big cat stalks game on an African savanna. Just when you think the fish is right in front of him he snaps his long neck plunging it in the completely opposite direction coming up with one big fishy meal.

Unfortunately in one photograph here on the blog you can’t appreciate the true detail (pst!, check the link for a better view), but watching as nature takes its course was a very humbling moment for me. It was a pleasure to end the day sharing his company for brunch. Walking away with over 200 keepers on this one subject was fantastic. It retaught myself how important having patience is in nabbing that wildlife photograph. Makes standing still and making no movements as bugs crawl on and around you all worth it.