Wet footed scratching Great Blue Heron

I took great joy in being with my wife Gretchun on Friday, September 5, 2014 at the Circle B Bar Reserve. She and I both got multiple pictures of this Great Blue Heron as it was wading and hunting in the water alongside the Wading Bird Way Trail. The bird was about fifty or so yards away, necessitating the use of my tripod. I had to take several pictures as it stopped and scratched an itch in hopes of getting one good one. I unfortunately could not get a good angle to take a clearer shot of the reflection under the bird.

I'm scratching as fast as I can.

This is still another example of my wildlife photography that involves the Circle B Bar Reserve during the summer of 2014. This Great Blue Heron was vigorously scratching the side of it's head when I captured this image. This is also the sam GBH from the previous two posts.

Bad hair day for a Great Blue Heron

This Great Blue Heron is the same one from yesterday's post, just a few minutes later. I do not know if birds can be infested by fleas or not. If they can be infested, the Great Blue Heron, as the largest of the Heron family has plenty of room to carry them. I am thinking that what ever is causing this Great Blue Heron to scratch was also giving him a bad hair day.

Itch and Scratch week.

First, let me apologize for the break in posting, but as all of you can say, life gets busy and choices have to be made. I think (and hope) that I have enough photographs of animals itching and scratching or at least preening to do one a day. The first photograph is of a Great Blue Heron in a Cypress tree at the Circle B Bar Reserve in Polk County, Florida. If you look really closely at the right hand side of the Heron, you can just see one toe/claw sticking out from under the wing where it is apparently scratching.

Osprey 108

I managed to get this image of an Osprey perching on a Cypress tree Branch at the Circle B Bar Reserve. The Circle B Bar Reserve is located in central Florida about half way between Winter Haven and Lakeland, Florida. This photograph of the Osprey bird is one of many I took of that bird on July 12, 2014. The fishhawk is a large predatory bird that is common in Florida and often seen along lakes and rivers perched in trees or on telephone poles. It's primary food source is the various types of fish found in both fresh and saltwater here in Florida.

Lake Howard Sunrise 001 Draft

I took this pre dawn landscape photo from a public dock at the Lake Howard Nature Park in Winter Haven, Florida. It was a little bit past oh-dark-thirty (6:40 A.M.) on August 13, 2014 when I took this photograph of the eastern side of Lake Howard. I was using as many manual settings as my GE X2600 camera would allow me to use. The Fstop was f/16.1 at 1/5 second with an ISO of 64 and a 35mm focal length of 199. I was of course also using a tripod for the shoot. While I feel that my X2600 is a great little camera for a bridge camera to learn on, it has some things that are annoying. One of the majorly annoying things is the picture degradation when using the electronically augmented part of the zoom magnification. Another annoyance is the lack of the ability to attach a secondary flash unit over the top of the onboard flash. As is the case with many point and shoot or other types of cameras with "on-board" flash units, the subject of the picture can get "burned out" when the flash unit is used. If it doesn't get burned out it is frequently underexposed, while experience will mitigate some of these problems, a secondary flash system is a definite plus. I am dreaming and scheming about a digit SLR as a replacement for my X-2600. I think that it is time for some serious research on the three major brands of camera. Well maybe this Christmas Santa will leave a new (or used) digital SLR under my Christmas Tree. I would not even care which major brand it was. Olympus, Nikon or Canon, in any order of preference. 

Gulf Fritillary butterfly

I captured this photograph of a Gulf Fritillary butterfly on June 16, 2014. I believe that I was at the South Lake Howard Nature park in Winter Haven, Florida. I got busy with a different part of my life and have been unable to stock pile any posts or in fact keep up with my writing schedule. Sorry about that.