Toledo Birds

I got some good shots of my bird friends in Toledo November 4.

African grey parrot

 

golden-breasted starling

bald eagle - immature

demoiselle crane

diamond firetail

Fischer's lovebird

black crake

violet-backed starling - male

Toledo October 15

I visited the Toledo Zoo last October 15.

bald eagle

Emma, I think

Renee or Twiggy

scaly-sided merganser

Java sparrow

black crake

diamond dove

I've been trying to get a good shot of a golden pheasant for a couple of years. This ain't it.

Art?

I subscribe to Outdoor Photographer, and I was appalled one day when I read that it's common to, say, remove a utility pole from a picture submitted to a competition. The author was fine with this and wished for a category of competition that allowed lots of manipulation.

Three years ago I wrote that I don't cotton to enhancing photos in software and that I want to capture reality. Two years ago I wrote that software can fix mistakes, and I do fix mistakes in exposure or white balance (color). I still resist improving my pictures using software, until...

I took this picture of a bald eagle at the Columbus Zoo November 29th:

It's a decent picture, but I thought the white was too bright and washed-out in spots. I could have used a little negative exposure compensation at the time I took the picture, but I didn't expect a problem, and the picture looked okay on the camera. Sooo, even though I don't consider this to be a mistake, I brought the photo into Nikon's Capture NX-D.

-1 stop (exposure value)

I took out 1.0 exposure value (one "stop"), and thought, "That is an interesting picture." The eagle's head looks sharper, I hadn't noticed the blood--if that's what it is--on its beak, and there's more detail in the rat on the left. Hmm.

-2 stops

Interestinger or worse? Still more detail came out of the rats. Some highlights are lost (bright white places that can't be enhanced) in the eagle's head and the left rat, but it doesn't look bad over all. It reminds me of a portrait of some courtier standing in his dark tunic and leggings, holding a sword and pondering an apple, or a lady wearing a powdered wig and dark brocade dress and holding a golden chalice--a lot of dark with a few spots of light. I like it.

Why not continue?

-3 stops

This is too much. The rat's belly practically glows, and the too-white feathers stand out in the bird's head. Select a photo and then click through them to see the differences.

So where does this leave me and my desire to record exactly what I see? From Outdoor Photographer I take it that photographers routinely run "captures" from their cameras through Adobe Lightroom or other software to tweak this or enhance that. I still don't have patience for that, and I can't make a decision, anyway. I tried to decide which of the four eagles to keep and couldn't, let alone decide which part of a photo to sharpen and which color to enhance.

Language affects my attitude. A "capture" is somehow different from a "photo." A photo is a fixed thing, but a capture is a starting point for adjustment and improvement. Some photographers say they "develop" captures, which seems okay, rather than postprocess them, which is not okay. The end result is an "image," not a photograph.

I suppose I try to document an animal rather than produce a piece of art. If a photo turns out to have some artistic value rather than simply being a good picture of an animal, that's fine, but that's not my goal.

Ohio Bird Sanctuary raptors

The missing gardener and I visited the Ohio Bird Sanctuary February 27th. There is a songbird aviary, but the focus is raptors that have been injured or otherwise could not survive in the wild. Here are some of them.

Ruby, a red-tailed hawk, was a first-year in 2007 when she was shot for taking chickens.

 

Ruby

Saint Alice is a bald eagle that was hatched in 2018. She contracted West Nile virus and has impaired vision as a result. It takes five years to develop a white head and tail.

Pierce, a broad-winged hawk, apparently had contact with a power line that affected his vision and thinking.

A barred owl, Apollo or Barkley. Apollo imprinted on people after falling from his nest, and Barkley was tangled in a barbed-wire fence. I hear barred owls in my neighborhood, and I saw a silhouette. Once.

Cairo, a barn owl, was found starving on the ground and has questionable vision.

Blaze, a peregrine falcon, was hatched in 2014 atop the Rhodes Tower in Columbus. She has a shoulder injury.

2020 part 3

New Hampshire chicken (Columbus Zoo, October 10)

Finally! Someone whose ears are hairier than mine. (Columbus Zoo, October 22)

This is Lucas, an African elephant, walking away from his mother, Renee, who tried to take away his browse. He went through a gap in the fencing to another part of the enclosure and Renee could not follow. (Toledo Zoo, October 24)

northern ground hornbill (Columbus Zoo, November 2)

A young red panda (Columbus Zoo, November 2)

Aurora in her enclosure (Columbus Zoo, December 2)

bald eagle (Columbus Zoo, December 2)

wolverine (Columbus Zoo, December 16). There was a spin on the platform, so this is probably Guillotine.

female rose-breasted grosbeak (Columbus Zoo, December 16)

San Esteban chuckwalla (Columbus Zoo, December 28)

Birds in flight

My cousin sent me some pictures of flying birds from a magazine. I laughed to myself and replied that the birds in my photos are perching or standing, and for good reason: They weren't moving! Not long after I acquired a camera I made some attempts to capture a blue-bellied roller. I might be able to do better today, and I have caught a few more birds in flight.

Ross, a Lady Ross's turaco (Columbus Zoo)

Ross lives with the African grey parrots and is usually perched in the shade by the window of the building to which the parrots' aviary is attached, and he is a handsome fellow (click the link). I have some nice close-up head shots but nothing that shows his blue magnificence. I had visited his perching self a bunch of times over a year and was stunned when I saw him fly because the red is not visible when his wings are folded.

 

The Toledo Zoo has a pair of rhinoceros hornbills. They're active about half the time I see them, hopping from branch to branch. These are large birds and don't have a heckuvalot of space, but one day they were flying back and forth in opposite directions. I took some so-so pictures and then decided to try the camera's burst mode. I forget Nikon's official name for that, but the camera keeps taking pictures as long as the button is pressed. The shots are not great, but I got this sequence:

I didn't record whether this bald eagle at the Columbus Zoo had just taken off or was heading for a landing. The latter, I'd say.

I was walking from one part of the Columbus Zoo to another when I spotted this wild Cooper's (not sure) hawk. I took this picture and then the hawk took flight.

I got two shots, and here's one. (This might have been a good time for burst mode, but I didn't think of it and I would have been too slow to set the camera, anyway.) I suppose that other bird is thinking good riddance!

Raptors

Steller's sea eagle (Cincinnati Zoo)

This bald eagle doesn't yet have have adult feathers.

bald eagle (Toledo Zoo, 2015)

This bald eagle was making a racket.

bald eagle (Columbus Zoo)

lappet-faced vulture (Cincinnati Zoo)

Last week, at the Toledo Zoo, as my wife and I reached the south end of the bridge over the Anthony Wayne Trail, we saw a hawk land in a tree and heard sounds of apparent alarm. As we got closer, we saw that the bird was not in a tree but on the debris that had collected on the netting over Flamingo Key. There was a buffet of ducks below, but the hawk looked elsewhere. (Seems like a duck would be too large for this hawk, but what do I know? Besides, the netting was doing its job of keeping some birds in and others out.)

unknown wild hawk (Toledo Zoo)

white-headed vulture (Toledo Zoo)

cinereous vulture (Toledo Zoo)

Otis, an eastern screech owl (Columbus Zoo)

About raptors