Cedar Bog Snakes

Cedar Bog Walk

I spent a beautiful spring afternoon at Cedar Bog. During this pandemic, we are all expected to use "social distancing" to help limit the spread of the virus. During my walk, I only saw about 7 folks, and they were all adherent to the guidelines. At one point, a young couple were closing in behind me on the boardwalk, and they stopped...allowing distancing between us. I laughed, and told them to go ahead and pass, as I would be moving very slowly and didn't want to hold them up. So they passed as I kept stayed as far to the edge as possible, with my back toward them. Such are the ways of the pandemic. 
Some of my finds on this visit..... 

Snyder Park Birds

Red-Bellied Woodpecker

This fellow was looking in our kitchen window this morning.

Song Sparrow

Some Song Sparrow pics from Buck Creek State Park.

Flight Practice

More flight shot practice today with the Olympus EM1 M3 and Zuiko 300mm. I am using the C-AF Track mode, which locks focus on a subject and tracks it. A green box around the subject indicates that it is in focus, and if focus is lost the box turns red. 
There's a low spot in the corn field across the road from us, that becomes a duck pond in the spring. Since we had good light today, I took advantage of the opportunity and pulled my car off of the road parallel to the water. Although it's just across the road, the ducks tolerate the car, whereas if I walk over, they fly. 

Killdeer

Killdeer flight shot

Crazy Coots!

American Coots at Old Reid in Clark County yesterday.

Sometimes when I watch them, I understand where the saying "Crazy as a Coot" comes from.

An excerpt from Wildlife Center of Texas:

"Some animal sayings make sense, “busy as a bee”; while others “she eats like a bird” couldn’t be further from the truth. Birds are gluttons since they must have the energy to sustain flight, so if she “ate like a bird”, she’d be quite round. Maybe the familiar saying, “crazy as a coot” has more to do with the dichotomy between the peaceful bird quietly paddling in the middle of the pond and the aggressive display as it runs over the water towards its target flapping its wings and screaming wildly. The Doctor Jekyll personality is relaxing to watch, but the occasional burst of Mr. Hyde is quite entertaining."

If you've never seen those big green feet, they look like they were borrowed from a cartoon character. Coots are fun to watch and they may be crazy, but I think they're pretty clever and fun regardless!

The Way the Crow Flies....

Flight shot practice .....Olympus EM1M3 and Zuiko 300mm. 

American Kestrel

We were doing our little drive-about and headed down Hodge Rd, in Clark County to check on the eagle nest there. This Kestrel was perched on the telephone line, and was fearless as we approached. When we stopped, he flew down and perched on cat-tails at eye level. 
I added the 2x converter to my Olympus EM1 Mark 3 and Zuiko 300mm combo and took some shots. I didn't plan on them being much...he was fairly distant, it was windy, and background separation wasn't great. 
Up ok n pulling up the images, I was ppl pleasantly surprised that there were salvageable...processed with Topaz AI Denoise and AI Sharpen.

CJ Brown Evening Walk and the Moon!

We had our evening walk at CJ Brown tonight, and caught a lovely sunset. I love watching folks enjoy our local park. These folks were enjoying the sunset with their dogs. 

One of the coolest moments was catching images of a plane passing in front of the nearly full moon. 
I was using the Olympus EM1 Mark 3 with the Zuiko 300mm lens and MC-20 2x converter...because of the 2x crop factor of the micro 4/3 camera, I was effectively shooting at 1200mm....handheld. I've been amazed by the sharpness of this combo, and was not to be disappointed. 
As we walked, we watched about a dozen planes passing close, but never in front of the moon. We were almost back to the car when we noticed a plane moving in a vector that looked like it had a good potential. Here's some images....we were both cheering when we saw the results on the camera LCD screen. 
Why did this image work so well? Normally, an image of a plane in front of the moon would just show a silhouette of the plane due to the backlighting of the moon and no light on the plane. The moon and the plane would both be in focus; as both are at the infinity focus plane of the lens. However, as you can see in the image above (which was shot about fifteen minutes after the plane images) there was a gorgeous sunset going on. The sunset was directly behind me as I tracked the plane. This allowed the plane to be bathed in the lovely light. I couldn't have planned this better.....and I will admit that I hadn't planned it at all....just a lucky sequence of events!

After posting on Ohio Wildlife and Nature, several commenters noted that the plane is a C-17 Globemaster from Wright Patterson Air Force Base. Wright Pat Command requested and was provided with images for use in their publications!

The image also won a "Best of the Month" on the Universe of Color Photography site. 

I've added more of the sequence (roughly every 3rd image)....straight out of the camera with only my logo added. Unreal details in the plane due to the reflected light!
Click to enlarge. 

Pelicans

We saw on the Ohio Bird List that some American White Pelicans were sighted at CJ Brown Reservoir at the north end of the lake. Our first stop was at the Grant Rd access road.  We walked back the 1/2 mile road, only to find that a helicopter flying over had flushed the pelicans.
We could still see them, and decided to try the Mechanicsburg Rd. access to get a better look.
After walking back that trail, we had a pretty good view of the 7 Pelicans. We watched them for a while until they headed back towards the north end of the lake.

Redwings are back!!

Some Redwing Blackbird images from CJ Brown Reservoir. 

Using the C-AF Tracking mode on the Olympus EM1 Mark3 with the Zuiko 300mm. 

This one had me laughing....looks like they are in battle formation.

Olympus Pro Capture

OLYMPUS pro Capture

Fun with the Olympus EM5 Mark3 using Pro Capture mode!

Golden-Crowned Kinglet

    The temp of 62° today tied the record for this date in 1927. It was breezy, but truly felt like spring.
I walked the loop trail at the CJ Brown Overlook and tried out my new Op Tech USA camera harness. I have adapted it to use with one camera rather than 2, so that I can hike without having to hold on to my camera. 
    It worked quite well for my purposes, and attached to the lens tripod mount plate. This is important because attaching it to the camera can lead to breaking the lens mount on the camera; particularly with heavier lenses. The Olympus Zuiko 300 F4 Pro isn't heavy by any means (2.8#), but I wanted the ablility to support the lens and camera separately. This lets me change lenses without worries of dropping the camera or lens. Overall, it was very comfortable to hike with!
    Here's a few images I shot with the Olympus EM5 Mark 3 and Zuiko 300mm. I am more and more impressed with the autofocus and sharpness of this lens each time I'm out. Because of the EM5-M3 crop factor of 2x; this lens is actually a 600mm equivalent. 

Golden-Crowned Kinglet. Olympus EM5M3, Zuiko 300mm F4, ISO 250, 1/400, F4.5. Spot metering, handheld.

Golden-Crowned Kinglet. Olympus EM5M3, Zuiko 300mm F4, ISO 250, 1/400, F4. Spot metering, handheld.

Golden-Crowned Kinglet. Olympus EM5M3, Zuiko 300mm F4, ISO 250, 1/400, F4. Center Priority metering, handheld.

Golden-Crowned Kinglet. Olympus EM5M3, Zuiko 300mm F4, ISO 800, 1/2500, F4.0. Center Priority metering, handheld. This image was shot using the Olympus Pro Cap mode.