Sunday, September 2, 2012

Laysan Albatross

Laysan Albatross 30 Miles SW of Half Moon Bay
Pelagic trip out of Half Moon Bay led by Alvaro Jaramillo August 25th 2012.
 A bird that's been on my list and today I saw 2 individuals on this trip.  This one has leg bands which I will show in additional photos. I added 5 birds to my Life List, Laysan Albatross, Wilson's Storm Petrel,Forked-tailed Storm Petrel, Hawaiian Petrel and Long-tailed Jaeger. The Hawaiian Petrel is very rare in this location actually so rare it's the first sighting ever in San Mateo County; it was the bird of the day for the birders on board. For me, the overcast conditions, the difficult boat photography yeilded no decent pictures for the smaller distant but exciting Petrels!



Laysan Albatross Banded Left Orange 3K1 Right Single Grey Band
Grey band on right leg, Orange 3K1 on left.
The boat trip was interesting and long, left 0700 returned 1800. The weather was heavy overcast and cold. I rarely use the word cold in reference to myself.  The good news is I was blessed with seeing my first Laysan Albatross,  actually I saw 2 separate individuals. One had bands see below. We encountered two large rafts of Petrels perhaps about 800 birds in all. Also new for me was a Long-tailed Jaeger, and a Pomarine Jaeger (I need to verify this with my photos). Also new was Forked-tail Storm Petrel, Hawaiian Petrel and a Wilson’s Storm Petrel. Also saw the usual Black-footed Albatross, the Sooty Shearwater, the Pink-footed Shearwater and the Buller’s Shearwater, plus the South Polar Skua, and a Blue Whale. Other Petrels was the Black Storm Petrel and the Ashy Storm Petrel.  All in all I was disappointed with the photos, especially the Petrels. I don’t know what I should expect considering these guys are not much larger than a Barn Swallow and rarely come close to the boat.

We traveled South-West out of HMB to deep water, a good 30 miles out. We hit warmer water, about 60 degrees and deep maybe 5000 ft. All week I had been checking the ocean and noticing the very calm waters around HMB. However over the deep water the swells get very large. This made photography very difficult and dangerous.

I think the combination of the swells and boat geometry made this the most difficult and strenuous time I’ve ever had trying to shoot pictures.  Just trying to keep your balance on such a heaving boat probably uses more calories than a half marathon…….really!  

 

Thursday, August 9, 2012

Capturing Birds in Flight

Yellow-rumped Warbler

Wildlife photography is challenging and bird photography ranks among the most challenging.

Birds in flight photography is the ultimate challenge for bird photographers. I will use this blog to share tips and techniques that I have found helpful over the years. Most of my discussion will be related to Canon and Olympus, but that’s easily transferred to Nikon and other cameras. The most important thing in bird photography is finding birds! You may possess the finest camera equipment on the planet and be a professionally skilled photographer, but you need to find birds. You need to stalk and study birds, know their behavior and habitat. The more you know about birds, the more opportunity you will have to photograph them well. Another point to keep in mind is any bird can make a fantastic or even award winning photo. You don’t need to seek out exotic birds in Costa Rica or Africa for that spectacular photo, any one of your backyard or supermarket birds can reveal to your camera that one of a kind photo.

The next important tip, carry you camera at all times, you have to be ready when that split second opportunity presents itself to you. Some people think their great shots were lucky because they happened to be in the right place at the right time. It’s not as lucky as you may think, you had your camera and you knew how to use it, without that there is no chance to make the shot. Some luck but a lot you. Your camera.........don't leave home without it!!!!

White-crowned Sparrow
Equipment: I'm not going to go into a lot of detail about camera equipment at this time but just a brief overview. Most bird photographers use Canon or Nikon with with a sprinkling using other brands such as Olympus, Panasonic and Sony. Both Canon and Nikon offer a wide range of bird type lenses(wish they were bird like in weight). A good bird photograph can be obtained with inexpensive equipment even an IPhone if you can get very close to the bird.  However, unless the bird is in a cage or dead, the likelihood of getting close are remote indeed. So what this means is your probably going to spend a good amount of money on equipment if you get hooked. 

Both the camera and the lens are important. In the digital photography world today, manufacturers are bringing out new camera bodies every several years with more bells and whistles and performance improvements.  Choose your lens carefully, that's one piece of equipment that will define the quality of your photos. Once you have a lens that you adore and gives you the WOW pictures, you will probably own it for life plus about 3 or 4 or more others.

Two important characteristics of lenses are focal length and aperture.  When digital cameras were designed the sensor size was changed in relationship to the 35mm camera for some cameras.  Cameras that use a sensor size the same as the 35mm film are called Full Frame Cameras.  In that case when a 300mm lens is put on a full frame camera, it's a 300mm lens just like in the film days.
Cameras with smaller sensors such as the Olympus E-1, E-3 and E-5 have a 2.0 Crop Factor. Therefor in the case of an Olympus E-3 placing a 300mm lens give it the equivalent of a 600mm lens.  You will find much technical discussion on a full frame system compared to a reduced sensor size system.
That's beyond the scope of this discussion. However, a reduced sensor size such as the Oly E-3 or the Canon 7D (crop factor 1.6) is a definite plus for the bird photographer. You gain a smaller and lighter lens with a longer focal length. Here is an extreme example. Take a full frame Canon Camera and attach the $14000 9.9 pound Canon EF 800mm F5.6 lens and you have an 800mm system.
Take the Canon 7D camera, attach the EF 1.4 extender and the EF 400 F5.6 lens and you have a 896mm system with a cost of about $2000.00 (lens + extender) and a weight of about 3 pounds.
Have you ever tried to swing a 10 pound lens around hand held to catch a bird in flight?

Monday, July 23, 2012

Pelican Die-Off, Bait Fish and El Niño

Typical Brown Pelican Fish Dive
The Brown Pelican has had a successful breeding season in 2012 and are now showing up in significant numbers along the California Coast.
Young juveniles, first year birds however are showing signs of trouble. Many are emaciated and starving and many are filling the local bird rescue stations for treatment. Scientist have not come up with an explanation yet. It could just be a successful breeding season, coupled with limited resources is just a natural culling of the weaker individuals.

Fisheries in Santa Barbara, Santa Cruz and Half Moon Bay are reporting low volumes of of anchovy and sardines, bait fish that are a staple food for the Brown Pelican.

Probably unrelated, but NOAA has issued an El Niño Watch because of water temperature fluctuations in their model predictors. The last significant  El Niño event was the winter of 1996-97. Having lived on the coastside at that time, I'm seeing subtle changes in temperature and fog distribution this summer similar to what I experience in 1996.
I will continue to monitor the Brown Pelican situation on the coast and report any new information. If you come across any Brown Pelicans acting strangely or in need of help, please call this number 1-866-945-3911, Thank you!

Tuesday, June 26, 2012

Our Beach Watch team spotted this Luecistic Black Oyster Catcher at Franklin Point on the Northern California coast in 2009. Since then we have seen it occasionally in the same area for the last 3 years. It seems likely it was a first year or hatch year bird in 2009. It's age today is probably 3-4 years. It seems to be thriving well!

Monday, June 11, 2012

"anthropogenic fingerprint"


Practicing Nessun Dorma for Princeton Has Talent
A new study was published in Nature Climate Change finds  "anthropogenic fingerprint" (human influence) on our warming oceans. This is in line with my argument of Global Destruction most certainly human influenced, see my previous post December 14, 2011.
I'd like to start a dialog about climate change, global destruction and the role of large multi national corporations as well as cultural and political factors contributing to the rapid decline of planet earth. Please join the discussion and air you views on these issues?  

Tuesday, June 5, 2012

Pillar Point Harbor


Red-breasted Merganser in Flight
Today at Pillar Point Harbor there was 5 Common Loons, 4 Red-breasted Mergansers, and a Great Blue Heron trying to snag a Whimbrel!
The Great Blue slowly crept up on the Whimbrel. I knew the intention of this stalk and was nervious for the Whimbrel. I was almost tempted to warn the Whimbrel, when it launched into flight.

I also spotted what appeared to be a stranded Northern Fur Seal pup. I called Marine Mammal Center, and they were going to investigate!

Finally the Whimbrel gets wise!
Great Blue Eyeing Whimbrel


Northern Fur Seal Pup

Wednesday, December 14, 2011

Climate Change is a Subset of Global Destruction



The debate on climate change, its legitimacy, whom is responsible, and the science behind it
all can easily be brought to a conclusion. No science is necessary, and any human being on this planet can participate and understand just through observation. Climate change is a subset of a much broader phenomena occurring at this moment and has for many years, and that is Global
Destruction
. Global Destruction can be observed by most people with little
effort.

For example, many people living in West Virginia can merely look out their window and see
the tops of their mountains being removed. Actually they can breathe in the toxic dust and ingest toxins from their well water. This is not a natural phenomenon, nor is it caused by giant mountain termites. Human beings are hacking away at these once majestic hills and mountains in a desperate attempt to keep an unsustainable lifestyle alive.

Mountain Top Removal Mining has destroyed 500 Appalachian Mountains, decimated 1 million
acres of forest and has buried 2000 miles of streams. Want a source,
want a name, Massey Energy is responsible for most of this carnage.

Many folks in the gulf region experience Global Destruction when they come in
contact with the Gulf waters, and interconnected beaches, estuaries, and wildlife
habitat. Despite BP and the EPA’s massive cover-up and media blackout, evidence
of the destruction is everywhere. The ocean water has large plums of toxic
dispersant and oil droplets throughout the Gulf region. Scores of sea turtles,
birds, dolphins and other marine mammals have vanished. Evidence of toxins is
wide spread in plankton throughout the Gulf. Marshes, estuaries and grass lands
are fouled with oil, and tar balls are frequently found on beaches. Everybody
knows where this damage came from, no need to pour thru reams of scientific
documents, BP did it. BP and other giant petroleum companies will continue to
plunder the earth in a profit driven frenzy. Their underhanded deceitful TV ads
spinning them as good environmental caretakers of the planet will not cover up
the destruction and rape of the planet carried out by these corporations.

There are 5 ocean gyres or garbage
patches in our oceans. Two are in the Pacific Ocean, 2 are in the Atlantic
Ocean and 1 are in the Indian Ocean. One in the pacific is larger than the
state of Texas. The Patch is characterized by exceptionally high concentrations
of pelagic plastics, chemical sludge, and other man made debris. Now it is
pretty evident this is not a natural state of being. The only species on this
planet involved in the manufacture, distribution, and disposal of plastic is
man himself. So no scientific input is needed to verify this. Check it out,
take a boat trip to a gyre, look at it for yourself; run your hand thru the
water and feel the tiny plastic particles ooze thru your fingers.

Is this negatively affecting the planet? The most graphic visual evidence is right
here, be warned the images are disturbing:
http://www.chrisjordan.com/gallery/midway/#CF000313%2018x24
No need to consult with a scientist here, your very own eyes will do fine!

Australia's Great Barrier Reef is the planet's largest reef system and one of the seven
natural wonders of the world, but it may not survive the century. The claim is
made in a book published tomorrow, which says coral reef ecosystems are very
likely to disappear this century in what would be "a new first for mankind
– the 'extinction' of an entire ecosystem". Its author, Professor Peter
Sale, studied the Great Barrier Reef for 20 years at the University of Sydney.
He currently leads a team at the United Nations University Institute for Water,
Environment and Health……… Published on Sunday, September 11, 2011 by the Independent/UK.

Scuba dive down on to a Coral reef in Komodo National Park destroyed by blast or dynamite
fishing, a destructive and unsustainable method of fishing prevalent in select
areas of the South Pacific. Again, you will not need any scientific instrumentation, just gaze at the carnage, it’s evident this was not caused by Blue fin Tunas or Hammerhead Sharks?

We are traveling thru the universe in a tiny fragile space ship called Earth, which supports our
very existence, and protects us from the hostilities of the rest of the
universe. Like a crew on a nuclear submarine, we should be caring for every
aspect of our vessel, with a carefully planned maintenance schedule which
includes meticulous tending to every element of our ship, engines, turbines,
fans, pumps, reactor, surfaces, plumbing and air conditioning, lubrication,
monitoring and documentation. The crew knows that one overlooked aspect of the
care of the ship can end up in disaster as experienced by the crew of the
Russian submarine Kursk!

Mankind, instead of being the respectful caretakers of their precious space vessel is the exact
opposite. They are hammering the bulkheads with giant sledgehammers like an out
of control army of “John Henrys”. They are fouling the plumbing and air conditioning with the most toxic material they can create. Liked a crazed mutinous crew they are attacking every component of their ship pillaging its supplies, and scuttling every nut, turnbuckle,
stanchion, riggings, mainmast, foremast and mizzenmast, in a belief that somehow
they can escape the ship at the last moment in some hastily put together raft.

Climate Change is minor collateral damage in the broad consequence of Global Destruction. Well
before temperature rises will adversely affect this planet, the earth will lie
in shambles with dead oceans, extinct food sources, and air and water unfit for
life support. Direct observation of the destruction mankind is inflicting on
this planet, one would have to be a moron not to envision the consequences,
which includes climate change, and the ultimate elimination of the life support
systems of earth.

So in conclusion, if we change the terminology from Climate Change to Global
Destruction, all ambiguity and scientific spin is eliminated. The evidence is laid out for all to see.