From Central Florida / 2014 April 3

Hello, Everybody,

It's been only a few weeks since I put up the last slideshows, but I've
hit a bonanza for bird photography. Jim Neiger knows the best places
around, and knows how to call the birds in using recorded calls and
songs. We first spent a half-day on land, calling in a pair of
Red-shouldered Hawks who obliged us with a lengthy copulation just a few
yards in front of us, and a Barred Owl who posed obligingly. The
afternoon was on Lake Tohopekaliga on his pontoon boat, at a Great Egret
rookery on a tiny island, with many nesting and displaying birds, in
good light and at just the right distance. One male (presumably)
repeatedly brought sticks to add to the nest, and I was amazed to see
that both birds placed the stick into the nest together, a really nice
example of pair bonding behavior.

I agreed to spend a day a couple of weeks later with Jim on Blue Cypress
Lake, roughly 3 x 6 miles, and with cypress lined shoreline completely
absent of human buildings or roads, except for a 'fish camp' on the
western shore, mostly set back on little canals and barely visible from
the lake. A small free camping area and easy launch facilities make it
perfect for both birders and kayakers. Jim calls the lake 'Osprey
Heaven' for the several thousand Osprey (aka 'Fish Hawk') who nest in
the cypress trees around the lake. There are so many they chase the Bald
Eagles away, and I did not see a single one in several days. The trees,
many growing out in the water up to 200 yards from shore, and little
reedy areas, provide a whole system of beautiful little chanels along
the shoreline which are perfect for exploring in a boat, and which give
birds nesting and flying close-by overhead. We were also able to call in
Pileated Woodpeckers, which are really difficult for me to photograph in
flight, as they move very fast and undulate in both altitude and speed.
In a dozen tries I was able to capture one usable image, but Jim was
capturing long bursts of beautiful images nearly every time. I've
learned the techniques from Jim, but his 10 years of daily practicing he
hand-eye coordination needed makes all the difference. In one day with
Jim I shot more than 2,000 images, probably 200 of them usable, and 50
good enough to share. Many of he Osprey are seen carrying around a fish,
usually beheaded, and I've wondered if it might be the male showing the
female how good a provider he is.

I was so impressed with Jim's pontoon boat for birding that I bought a
one-man version for myself, with a very quiet little electric outboard
motor. I've used it several times to explore the cypress maze along the
shores of Blue Cypress Lake and think it is going to be a great addition
to my traveling and camping,The deflated boat stores in my right front
seat and is quite quick to inflate and get in the water. Here is a
snapshot by a kayaker I met on Blue Cypress Lake.



In between my two days with Jim, I took his advice and went back down
south to Green Cay northwest of Miami to look for a target bird, the
Least Bittern. It's a great place; EV and I birded there last year and
saw our first Limkin. Quite soon a seeming expert pointed out a Least
Bittern visible from the boardwalk, so I happily took a bunch of
pictures of it. When I pointed it out to an even more expert birder, he
said "That's twice too big for a Least Bittern, it's an American
Bittern. The Least Bitterns are over at that part of the marsh"
(pointing), and sure enough when I went over there I found several
birders watching much more shy Least Bitterns. So, after several years,
success.

The little camping area at Blue Cypress Lake is great -- very low key,
with lots of 'nature'. Limkins screaming all night long back in the
forest, and wandering around the channels nearby,'pig frogs' chugging
and snorting in the little channel just a few feet behind my camper,
butterflies, and after many hours trying to call in Pileated Woodpeckers
to catch in flight, one flew in to perch very near the camper as I was
standing outside talking to a visitor admiring my truck and boat -- of
course my camera was inside the camper.

In this slideshow, I have not titled some pictures which are random
scenics or shots of Osprey, and on some which form a series I have
indicated something like '1 of 5'. Some could be improved by heroic
reconstruction of clipped wingtips, but this is very time-consuming and
seems more in the spirit of winning contests or selling images than in
having fun.

Remember, these large files may take several minutes to download; Joey
has doubled his uplink speed, which will speed things up for those of
you who have a very fast download connection. There has been a myriad of
opportunities for typographic errors in putting up all the older
slideshows; please let me know if you run into any problems.

The server address is:     http://john.qued.com

The new slideshow (at the top of the list) is: 14_03_Mar_FL.exe

If you can easily change your screen brightness, you might optimise it
for the best viewing.

NEW: For Mac users there is a .zip file to download, and here is how to
use it (please let me know if you have any problems):

go to    http://john.qued.com/   and click on the blue line for a list
of slideshows

click on a zip file for a slideshow

after downloading, open the zip file

open the extracted folder which will be in the same folder and have the
same name as the zip file (likely in Downloads)

select all of the jpg files, using Cmd+A (select with this method only,
to keep them in order)

use the space-bar for a Quick View slideshow

use the spread arrows in the upper right corner for full screen

don't click the menu bar, it will disappear

use the right and left arrow keys to navigate

use Escape to exit full screen

optional: delete the zip and/or extracted folder

Boilerplate follows: Each browser is a little different, but generally
you can either choose OPEN to view the show once, or choose SAVE TO DISK
and then OPEN if you want to have it your hard drive for future
re-viewing.

Right-Arrow or Right-Click or SpaceBar will advance to the next picture.
Left-Arrow or Left-Click will return to the previous picture. Esc will
end the show at any time; use Esc if the show ever seems stuck.

If you would like any of the individual images, perhaps to print, just
let me know. If you don't want to get any more emails like this one in
the future, please let me know. If you have friends who might be
interested, I'll be happy to add them to my email list and they can
download the slideshows if they have a broadband internet connection.
None of this is commercial or copyrighted, the more who enjoy the
pictures, the better.

Regards, John Armitage 1-970-250-6080 john@qued.com