Cape May

We spent 4 nights at Cape May.   I was enchanted from the first day.  We started the first morning at sunrise at Cape May Lighthouse. 

The lighthouse is tall and stately, and the beam still shines brightly.  

I always try to look around at my surroundings when I'm photographing. I noted the sky away from the lighthouse was filled with these lovely pink tinted clouds. So I'm playing with a composition taken before the sun was up, with the light shining and the pink clouds.  All true to what was there that morning, but I think this version still needs work.

After taking care of trying for dawn and lighthouse shots, I headed over to where the Hawk Watch was going on.  For several years, I've heard  and read about hawk watches. During the fall migrations, people pick places with high numbers of passing raptors and count them as they go by. Some are volunteers, some are paid.  It was on my list of things to attend sometime because you can learn so much about identifying raptors when you have so many passing over you in one day. But more importantly, you are surrounded by folks who really know how to identify hawks even when they are far away and only specs in the sky. 

While the day started sunny, there was a cloud bank coming in.

You could see getting larger and larger and filling the sky.

Before too long, it was dark and hard to see the hawks.

I did have a couple of people who were helping me identify the hawks and other species flying by. I think the most amazing thing was when the gentleman next to me spotted and identified a flock of blue jays just by the way the flock was grouping as they flew.  And . . . I had NEVER seen a flock of blue jays - only individuals. The tree sparrows also came by in large flocks and looked ever so much like a swarming bunch of gnats as they crossed the sky.  The raptor identification was still hard, but I saw a sharp shinned hawk, a Cooper's hawk, a merlin, and a peregrin that morning.

The Dipper

Back when we were camping in our truck camper with the kids above Silverton, Colorado, we saw our first dipper.



We saw this cute bird that kept submerging himself in the icy cold, rushing waters of South Mineral Creek, jumping from rock to rock inbetween. He was easy to identify as a "dipper."

I've been trying to find good photographic spots around Breckenridge. (Yes, I know all of Breckenridge is scenic, but I've been trying to find magic, undiscovered places.)

I went up a road called Tiger Run and had found a creek that has areas with running, unfrozen water.


I'd been intrigued by the areas with running water surrounding rocks with caps of snow.



We've startled a beaver and watched him quickly dive out of site. One morning there was a mallard couple swimming and foraging. And we've consistently seen a dipper in this area.





I've had opportunites on three different days to photograph the dipper that frequents this area. None of the photos are competition quality. But I've had more fun watching. The first day he spent a lot of time running along the ice along the edge of the creek.


I had a lot of fun watching him fish one day. At the base of a beaver dam, I watched him catch a small fingerling trout. He bounced it on the ice until it quit wriggling and then swallowed it whole.


It is fun to watch him hop out of the water after he has been foraging on the bottom. Sure looks cold to me!

Today I watched him flip rocks searching for food underneath them. The fun ended when another dipper flew in. My dipper chirped and began to chase the intruder away. I saw him land some distance upstream. The visibility for viewing is not as good there. So I gave up for the day.

Because we know this dipper feeds here regularly, I will come by regularly in hopes that one day I'll get the right lighting, a good photogenic position, and perhaps even the catching of a fish! Whether I ever get an award winning photo of this cute creature, I get a lot of enjoyment spotting him and observing him.

Nature - On the Back Porch

For several years now, we've had bird feeders around our house. Recently we've had an interesting bird visiting. When I first saw him, I thought he was a juvenile, because his flight was irratic. He flew almost like a cartoon bird - never straight toward his destination. There were times when we wondered if he was going to make it to his destination. At times he hovered much like a hummingbird, but not as effortlessly. When Henry got a closer look, his feathers were in bad shape and his eyes looked almost blind. He was a regular visitor to the feeder so I felt like this feeder was probably keeping him going.

This morning while sitting in my living room I saw a much larger shadow on the back porch. While I caught the action out of the corner of my eye, I could tell something momentous had occurred. We have roadrunners in the yard - and we had one now on the back porch - with a bird in its mouth. I was astonished, because I did not realize roadrunners ate birds! The roadrunner had jumped up to the feeder (4-5 feet off the ground) to get his meal. When I first saw the situation the smaller bird was probably still alive, but damaged. I watched the roadrunner briefly before he disappeared with his prey further into the yard and out of site. The smaller bird was no longer moving with feathers disarrayed.

Perhaps I'm tendered hearted, but I'm pretty sure it was our weak bird. I allowed myself a few moments of grief for this handicapped bird. It is a fact of nature that it is the weak and injured animals that are the easiest prey. But it is also part of human nature to protect the weak and helpless.

I had always assumed that roadrunners ate insects. But Henry did some research this morning after the fact - they eat insects, small rodents, small birds, baby birds and small snakes. Since we found baby rattlesnakes right by the house last month, I'm still glad we have roadrunners in the yard. I had also been glad when I realized that my bird feeding had attracted a Cooper's hawk to the yard on a regular basis, realizing that Cooper's hawks feed on smaller birds. A mystery to me is why I was more disappointed about the roadrunner's feeding than I would have been had it been the hawk. But I think it was because the victim this time was an individual bird we had connected with on an emotional level - an underdog we were rooting for.