It has been awhile since I posted here, and it is high time I did again.

So this past weekend I drove to downtown (well almost downtown) Baltimore, MD where it was reported that there were a dozen Yellow-Crested Night Herons roosting.  And they were there as reported, or at least 10 of them were there.

Two Yellow-Crested Night Herons biding their time.

There were three nests in three different branches, although one of the three did not appear substantial enough to support any eggs.  The other two nests each contained one small blue egg (quite a pretty color too I might add).

Mother Yellow-Crested Night Heron tending her nest - and her egg.

We could see the birds and the nests from above from the Wyman Park Drive Bridge, and from below if we hiked down the trail to the stream-side on the other side of the stream from the railroad tracks.

The light was not good as the weather was significantly overcast, but with the D700 and the 200-400mm zoom, I was able to get some very nice images.

I don’t know how many years these birds have been nesting here, but generally once they select a location, they keep it for awhile (each year).  I also don’t know how long they will spend here but they can’t leave until their chicks can fly (I’m guessing that will be a few months, but I’m not sure).

Mating pair of Yellow-Crested Night Herons... The male is the smaller.

While I was there, many passersby stopped to see (many may have been attracted by the fact that there was a guy with a big camera looking over the bridge).  Hopefully they won’t be annoyed and have a peaceful visit.  I would have loved to get some images of them in flight, but they just weren’t in the mood to fly while I was there.

Denver

Denver is a different place.  It is filled with young people!  There are a few old people, but most are young.  The old ones mostly go hide in the mountains and don’t come down unless they have to.  Some of those old people go to Boulder though.  They all swear that Boulder is NOT a suburb of Denver.

They have a nice botanical garden in Denver.  Orchids below:I have no idea what this is but it looks a lot like a yellow hibiscus:They also have neat rocks and mountains.So the old people have somewhere to go.

Watermelon Mountains

To the east of Albuquerque, New Mexico stands a mountain range called the Sandias.  They are also identified as the Manzanitas to the south.  The major mountain is called Sandia Peak and is home to a large number of radio and television antennas.  There are also ski runs and restaurants on the mountain and the longest unsupported tram that carries riders to the peak from just east of town in an area referred to as High Desert.

The word Sandia in Spanish means watermelon.  The mountain gets its name from the color of the mountain at sunset during different parts of the year.  The mountain displays a pinkish cast and the dark scrub brush looks like watermelon seeds.  I was never able to capture the exact image that gives the mountain its name.  This is about the closest I ever got in capturing that image.

This image is a two frame panorama (stitched with Adobe Photoshop Elements) taken from the top of a cliff on the western side of the Rio Grande river west of Albuquerque.

Albuquerque Buffalo

In late September, 2010 an unexpected weather system approached Albuquerque, New Mexico from the west.  Flash flood watches and warnings abounded, and everyone took shelter where they could if they needed to.  A herd of buffalo near the Sandia Resort and Casino were herded into a much smaller corral than they normally were allowed to forage in.  They looked pretty depressed in their confinement.  I suspect they were collected there to prevent any risk from the potential flash floods and other effects of the impending storm.  Regardless of their “protection” I was compelled to document their situation.  The big guy in the center looked particularly depressed – as if he felt that his status should have afforded him special privacy away from his “minions.”

This image exists in both color and black and white, but I posted it here in b&w because the effect (in my mind) emphasizes the negative impact that it left with me.

New Mexico Rail Runner to Santa Fe

A new commuter train runs from Santa Fe, NM through Albuquerque to Belen to the south.  It makes a dozen or so stops and does a good deal of business during the week.  We decided to take it from Albuquerque to Santa Fe on a Saturday to let the grand daughters experience a short train ride and spend some time in Santa Fe too.

Trains don’t arrive exactly when you want them to, so you have to find something else to do occasionally.  When they do arrive, they are BIG!

The Santa Fe Plaza is a calm comfortable place to enjoy.  Traffic is limited (pedestrians have the right of way) and the sights and sounds are interesting.

A French bistro selling hot chocolate and ham-baguette sandwiches was a high point at lunch,

There are still may Native Americans (of all ages) in the area and the weekend and special events bring them to town in larger numbers to sell their wares.

Santa Fe was replete with its customary traditional wares.  This week was Wines and Chilis week.  We saw lots of chilis but not a lot of wine (but then we weren’t looking oir wines today).

Huntley Meadows Park Wildlife

The Huntley Meadows Park has both forests and wetlands, but the wetlands seem to be much more populated with wildlife than the forests.  The image below reminded me of a robot flying device from the planet Pandora (remember the movie “Avatar”?).  The connection of his wings to his back even look like little masks!

The forests are inviting however and this is an infrared image of the trail leading back to the visitor’s center and parking lot from the wetlands.  The IR image was so B&W that I had to add some color (via curve-bending) to get this final product.

You may not see it at first, but look closely and you will see the head (or snout at least) of a snapping turtle poking out of the water on the right.  This is another IR image.

An infrared image of a part of the wetlands.  There is not a lot going in this image.

The wetlands are quite vast and offer a lot of space for waterfowl to nest, fish and generally congregate.  I saw Egrets, Blue Herons and other smaller birds that I could not identify.  Lots of turtles abound too, as well as aforementioned dragonflies, and other smaller creatures.

And finally the Egret with lunch in his beak.  This fellow was snatching up little fish just as fast as he could find them (and with the water low there may have been a better concentration of fish).

Since that day (9-10-10), I visited Huntley Park again and recorded these images.

The Ugly Duckling, 9-18-10

Goose, and wingman.

Can someone please help me identify this shorebird (?)

Backyard Birds

New birding images taken at one of my feeders in the backyard

The first image is of the female (of the couple or mating pair?) perhaps watching for her mate to arrive…

The second is a full-up of the male getting some seeds…

And finally a close-up image of the male…

The first of these three was taken with the D700, Nikkor 500mm f/4P lens @ f/8 and 1/250″ and ISO400 with WB set to auto.  The latter two were taken at 1/500″ (with all other characteristics the same).