More Nesting birds from Southern Ohio!

I went with a friend to his 75 acre property in Hocking County.  It's a great piece of land with hardwoods, pine stands, fields of scruffy mixed stuff and a couple ponds.  As you could image, it was bird haven!  We just show up, and we hear a Pine Warbler singing, oh and a Black-and-White Warbler.  The Pine was so wonderful, and not the slightest bit shy.

Click on any photo to see a bigger copy.

Pine Warbler

Black-and-White Warbler

Next we went to a little ravine like area with a flowing  creek through it.  I heard Bee Buzz Buzz.  My heart stops and I get really excited.  Unfortunately it was not what I so hoped for.  This area was loaded with birds.  A Hooded and a Kentucky were to be found here, but these guys do not like their photo taken.  They are on the top of my target list because of this.  Here are two photos that I really shouldn't have even bothered processing, but I do love them so...

Kentucky

Hooded

Took a break to eat lunch.  Thanks to my wife who made up some awesome home-made barbeque sauce and chicken!  After lunch we tried again at those two but gave up.  Off to the ponds!  This is just a awesome area.  I wish I had taken a few environment photos, but did not.  I'll have to do that next time down.  After seeing a Spotted Sandpiper at the pond we searched out more song birds.  We found them!  Seeking a b-list target bird, Yellow-breasted Chat we stopped and were surrounded by White-eyed Vireo, Blue-wing Warbler, Common Yellothroat, and Indigo Bunting.  I didn't get photos of the Vireo or Blue-wing, but I got the others.

Yellow-breasted Chat

Common Yellowthroat

Indigo Bunting

One of the treats of the day was to see this Female Indigo Bunting.  I can't remember seeing one before.  I'm sure I have, but it is a rare sighting.  She is a beauty!

By now it was getting late.  What a wonderful time shooting birds.  I was really thursty and my water supply had run out, so back to the truck we went.  We took the long way around. As we got back to the truck we heard and then saw (wonderful looks) 2 Great crested Flycatchers.  I so wanted a picture of them, but it was not meant to be.

Onward  home.  Over all I didn't get a lot of photos, but some of the ones I did get, turned out pretty nice.  Thanks Greg for sharing this awesome place with me.  I can't wait to go again.

Thanks for looking!

Bruce

Warblers and Friends from Shawnee State Forest

One of my favorite trips (if not my favorite trip) of the year is going to Shawnee State Forest in southern Ohio. Warblers are the prize and it is just so much fun. I went down two days that had marked different weather. Friday was spectacular. The kind of days where even if I wasn’t seeing anything, I’d be happy just to be outside. Lighting was awesome! Amazing what the sun does. Unfortunately in Ohio, we’re lucky to get one or two days like this a week. Saturday it was the overcast with a couple showers that we had to sit through. But I have been trying to learn how to use flash more effectively for days like this. I ended up only needing it for the last two birds (Black-and-White, and Cerulean) we saw and I got nice results!

Friday:
The first place we stopped was really the best place of all. It was still pretty early and I screwed up the flash on this try. Messed up some of the best bird poses, but I got lucky that a couple shots did come out.

Click on any photo to bring up a bigger picture.

1
Pine Warbler (This was a “A-List” target bird for the trip.)




2

3
Blue-grey Gnatcatcher (Common, but still a very cool bird)

4

Eastern Towhee (I love Towhees, even if they are a dime a dozen)

The next stop was to photo one of my favorite Warblers. These guys always put on quite the show, and they are so pretty. Even though I already have great shots of them, I can’t resist getting more. The light could not have gotten better!


5
Prairie Warbler




6





Lastly we were hoping to find a Blue Grosbeak, but none was the luck. However, we did find this beauty! These guys are known skulkers. But he was so cooperative. Light was fading at this point and I turned up the ISO in lieu of flash. A little skittish from the morning…


7
Common Yellowthroat




8





9





Saturday:
The Saturday pictures just don’t have the same pop because the lighting was simply not as good. These first ones were close call, either crank up the ISO or use flash. These were higher ISO. Good or bad, here they are…


10
White-eyed Vireo (This was a “B-List” target bird for the trip.)






11




12




13
Blue-wing Warbler




14





It poured down rain for a while. We used this opportunity to move from one end of the forest to the other. As you can see in the second picture, he was soaking wet! I did use flash on these.

15
Black-and-white Warbler





16




17





Lastly another a “A-List” target bird for the trip! By this time is was really bad light. I used flash and was very happy with the results. It really was either flash or put the camera away.

18
Cerulean Warbler




19





That's it!

Thanks for looking!