Whiskeyman's March 2021 Wildlife Photo Chase

Whiskeyman

Senior Member
I left the house this morning for a few-days-trek around parts of Florida to capture photos of wildlife. I had lunch with my son before driving to my first stop, Bartow, Florida. I'm in a hotel less than ten miles from my first destination, the Circle-B-Bar Reserve. I plan to be at the park gates before they open at 5:30 tomorrow morning.

After I'm done at the Circle-B, I'm back to Gainesville on Monday night to photograph eagles, ospreys and owls, along with what ever else comes our way on Tuesday.

Wednesday, I'm off to Orlando, via Ocala's Tuscawilla Park to see their duck population, before continuing on to the Orlando Wetlands for an afternoon shoot and recon trip to set up an early morning shoot at The Orlando Wetlands on Thursday morning.

Thursday, after Orlando Wetlands, I may head to Saint Augustine to either the Alligator Farm or to the tidal flats to photograph wading birds, if I'm not too tired. If I'm not feeling like a trip to Saint Augustine, I may head back toward home and stop by St Marks Wildlife Refuge and see what I find there.

Wish me luck. I hope to begin posting photos and reviews here starting tomorrow evening.

WM
 

hark

Administrator
Staff member
Super Mod
Contributor
Sounds like you will cover a lot of ground - enjoy your trip!
 

Whiskeyman

Senior Member
Monday's shooting and travel are done, and the files are loaded onto my external hard drive. I'll look at the files briefly, but will wait until I'm back home to work them extensively in Lightroom.

That's the good news. The bad news is that The Circle-B-Bar is in bad shape compared to my previous visits. Add to that the cold night and steady winds that blew all day, and it ended up as a very disappointing day. I talked to a few people who are from the area, and they indicated that the reserve has been on a downward spiral for a while. For instance, there is a lot of overgrowth along the trails that blocks viewing, and there is also a lot of overgrowth in the field/water habitat area. Some areas were wet, but many were nearly dry or were dry. Many of the nests that were features of the reserve are gone, victim's of Hurricane Irma. In addition, two different people mentioned that in an attempt to get rid of some invasive species, the county applied pesticide to parts of the reserve. As a result, a lot of non-native food sources for some native birds (Limpkins) are either scarce or completely gone. I didn't see one Limpkin in almost five hours in the reserve. It is also likely that some native food sources were also impacted. I genuinely hope that this information is not correct, but it appears that it could be factual. Based upon what I saw today, I will no longer be such a strong vocal proponent of The Circle B Bar Reserve, either in-person or online.

Later in the day, my guide for tomorrow called and postponed tomorrow's Eagle and Osprey shoot until later in the week, which doesn't really work for me. With those issues, and the recent weather forecasts, I've decided to postpone the shoot planned for tomorrow until later this spring. Therefore, I'm cutting my losses and am going to head back home tomorrow. If I can get a good start, I will drive back home over backroads and will stop at a coastal wildlife sanctuary or two, weather permitting. Hopefully, there are good populations in those areas.

On a happy note to end this post, while I wasn't able to gather photographic evidence, I did add two new birds for my life list: the Male and Female Painted Bunting!

WM
 
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Whiskeyman

Senior Member
Oh man, what a shame about all the downsides. Still, happy for you that you got to see those buntings!

Yes, the buntings were a big plus!

I didn't mean to sound so morose in my previous posts, but did want to convey my impressions on the conditions at The Circle-B-Bar Reserve since I've strongly recommended the place to so many before. And I'm not telling anyone to not go there, but will not strongly recommend the place for photographers, as I have in the past. As far as just getting out and enjoying nature, yes, it's still a good place to do so, IMO.

And as for postponing my further adventures this trip, it just gives me another time to plan for later; that's a plus! ;)

I did look through my shots last night and even though I didn't get any BIF shots, I got a few static shots that may have some potential. I'll post them here, and in one of the "Birds" threads later.

WM
 

Marilynne

Administrator
Staff member
Super Mod
Monday's shooting and travel are done, and the files are loaded onto my external hard drive. I'll look at the files briefly, but will wait until I'm back home to work them extensively in Lightroom.

That's the good news. The bad news is that The Circle-B-Bar is in bad shape compared to my previous visits. Add to that the cold night and steady winds that blew all day, and it ended up as a very disappointing day. I talked to a few people who are from the area, and they indicated that the reserve has been on a downward spiral for a while. For instance, there is a lot of overgrowth along the trails that blocks viewing, and there is also a lot of overgrowth in the field/water habitat area. Some areas were wet, but many were nearly dry or were dry. Many of the nests that were features of the reserve are gone, victim's of Hurricane Ivan. In addition, two different people mentioned that in an attempt to get rid of some invasive species, the county applied pesticide to parts of the reserve. As a result, a lot of non-native food sources for some native birds (Limpkins) are either scarce or completely gone. I didn't see one Limpkin in almost five hours in the reserve. It is also likely that some native food sources were also impacted. I genuinely hope that this information is not correct, but it appears that it could be factual. Based upon what I saw today, I will no longer be such a strong vocal proponent of The Circle B Bar Reserve, either in-person or online.

Later in the day, my guide for tomorrow called and postponed tomorrow's Eagle and Osprey shoot until later in the week, which doesn't really work for me. With those issues, and the recent weather forecasts, I've decided to postpone the shoot planned for tomorrow until later this spring. Therefore, I'm cutting my losses and am going to head back home tomorrow. If I can get a good start, I will drive back home over backroads and will stop at a coastal wildlife sanctuary or two, weather permitting. Hopefully, there are good populations in those areas.

On a happy note to end this post, while I wasn't able to gather photographic evidence, I did add two new birds for my life list: the Male and Female Painted Bunting!

WM
@Kevin H

Looks like Wayne beat you to it!

Just to rub it in a little more Kevin - saw a male Painted Bunting in my backyard a couple of days ago. Sorry!
 
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Whiskeyman

Senior Member
Change two! I'm still on my adventure.

My guide and I talked early this morning and he let me know we're on for Thursday, which works for me. I just have to remove a couple of items from my itinerary and add a couple of replacements. It does mean that I won't be driving into Orlando tonight or tomorrow, which is a plus to me.

So today I spent the morning in Ocala at Tuscawilla park, which was recommended due to its Wood Duck population. I planned to visit there previously, and was going to depart for home afterwards, but that is OBE (Overcome By Events.) When I got onto the road I called my wife, hands free, of course, and she got me two more nights in a hotel.

After reviewing my shots from yesterday and today, I can only conclude that it's a good thing that I didn't go out on the guided excursion today. Man-oh-man, are my skills rusty! So much so that they can't be termed skills. Somewhere I forgot how to hold a camera steady and also got the bad habit of moving the Command Dial without need. Detrimentally, even! I also thought that I was set up for shooting my D500 with the 300mm lens, but ended up with a shutter speed of 1/250 of a second, when I needed to be shooting at 1/500 or even faster.

Since this is supposed to be a photo forum, I'll actually post a couple now. The first is from yesterday at The Circle-B-Bar Reserve. It is actually uncropped.
Early Plumage Egret-1.jpg

The second is from today at Tuscawilla Park in Ocala. This Hooded Merganser pair dove and came up with acorns, and ate them after washing them thoroughly. It is heavily cropped.
Hooded Merganser Pair-1.jpg

WM
 

Whiskeyman

Senior Member
Well, I'm back home from my trip! I didn't post yesterday due to my late arrival back at my hotel and the early morning showtime for the boat birding excursion.

I spent yesterday at the St Augustine Alligator Farm, having purchased the annual photographer's pass at just short of $120, but I got to stay late last night (until sunset) and I think that I just might make it back once or twice before the end of "rookery season." No matter, what I saw there last night was worth every penny of the price! There were plenty of birds, and a lot of them were very close, which was good for photography. After the regular park hours ended, those with a photo pass got to stay an extra hour, and in that hour the light got good, but it eventually got dark enough that my camera couldn't focus, and I could barely see what I wanted to photograph. So I put my gear away and was waiting for the park representative to come and take us out of the park, when I witnessed an incredible event. The western sky was still orange when hundreds, more like thousands, of birds that had been away from the Alligator Farm rookery started arriving for the night. They were coming in to roost and it was a complete chaos of flying birds. Think flying monkeys from The Wizard of Oz, and then double it, at least! It was a fantastic display, even in the dim light! Incredible!

Then, early today, I met my guide at the lake and away we went. We saw several wading birds successfully fishing/hunting, but not so with the eagles. The eagles would stay perched when we were near, and might fly down to the water once in a while. I didn't see a single eagle catch a fish all day; that's the first time that's happened to me. There was one opportunity to photograph an eagle in a good position, but I wasn't ready for it, having my attention on another eagle and my back to the one who flew. I did take some shots of the perched eagles, and of the wading birds. We passed through a creek to another lake, and when we were in the creek, we saw Pileated Woodpeckers, Owls (which flew back and forth across the creek) and a possible Red-Shouldered Hawk.

Here are a couple of shots.

Adult Eagle-1.jpg From today,

and

Roseate Spoonbill-1.jpg from yesterday.

Today's shot was cropped, but yesterday's was not cropped. At all!

More to follow after I look through my shots and rid the collection of the culls.

WM
 

Whiskeyman

Senior Member
This Roseate Spoonbill was at the Alligator Farm. It was very content to pose.

Roseate Spoonbill -2.jpg

While this one wanted to hide.

Roseate Spoonbill -3.jpg

And this one just wanted to be above it all.

Roseate Spoonbill -4.jpg

WM
 
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