Wildlife Photography

It was a beautiful, sunny spring-like day today. The temperature must have been in the low 50's and sunshine was abundant in the afternoon. I got to the park about 2 pm and stopped at the Boreal Owl tree first. There were about 10-15 people gathered there including Lloyd Spitalnik and Peter Post. The owl was barely visible so, after chatting with Peter, Lloyd and a few out-of-town birders I went over to Bow Bridge to see what Lincoln was up to.


I never made it that far because there were two Red-tailed Hawks in a tree on Cherry Hill: a juvenile and possibly Lola. Seems they were fighting over a squirrel carcass and the both eventually flew off. I staked out the carcass and about fifteen minutes and the juvenile landed on the ground next to the carcass and began eating it. At one point a squirrel came up to the hawk (on the other side of the fence) as was watchng the hawk eat. I was shooting from about 50 feet away but a crowd soon gathered and there was one guy who was about ten feet away from the hawk. I tried to shoo him away but he was a tourist and had a hard time understanding that this was not the Central Park petting zoo. The hawk was quite tolerant of him and when he left I moved a little closer and positioned myself so I could stop people from getting too close. My only worry was that the squirrel was not a fresh kill and had died from rat poisoning. Only last week an adult female had been found dead at Bethesda Terrace and the necropsy done by Dr. Ward Stone revealed the hawk had died of rat poisoning of a type not used by the CP staff.

Posted by Cal Vornberger at 12/30/2004 08:42:00 PM | Permalink   

I have seen print-outs of my photos passed around and many people tell me they use my photos for wallpaper or as background screens on their computers. That doesn't bother me so much but when someone tells me their daughter downloaded some of my photos, printed them out, framed them and given them to him as a present that really pissed me off. I work very hard to get my photos and am not in the habit of giving them away for free. I earn very little money as it is (choosing to teach 1/2 time so I have my mornings free for photography) so it riles me that people take my photos off the Web site and print them out and give them as gifts when they should be paying for them.

Today I added some code to my site that disables right clicking. I know it's easy to get around this but I am hoping it will make people stop and think before the take one of my images off the site. I also added additional information at the bottom of every screen--a warning and info about how to purchase a print. I have also registered every image on the site with the U.S. Copyright Office so that I may seek punitive damages against particularly egregious offenders.

Posted by Cal Vornberger at 12/28/2004 09:29:00 PM | Permalink   

Well the scaffolding is down and Marie Winn tells me the two hawks were spotted on the new nest thingie. Thank goodness that is over. Or is it? Today as I walked around the park with my big lens five people asked "Are you looking for the hawks?" "No," I calmly explained to the fifth person to ask me that question, "there are over 150 other species of birds in the park and I photograph them all." They seem disappointed, as if incapable of being interested in any bird the media has no interest in. I can't wait to see Pale Male and Lola on Oprah. Anyone interested in reading about the removal of the nest from 927 Fifth and its subsequent return can view a sampling of media coverage on this page on my Web site.

Speaking of celebrity birds, the Boreal Owl was back in the Norway Spruce where it spent most of last week. That bird is getting a lot of buzz among the birders. Why not shift some media attention to the owl? I propose "Boreal Bob" if it's a boy owl and "Boreal Betty" if it's a female. Maybe that will get the media interested in them and take their minds of Pale Male for a while. Although, true to form, the Daily News did write about the bird and described it as a "Boyle" owl. Only in New York kids...

The bolt holding my Wimberley tripod head to the flat plate on my Gitzo tripod sheared off and dumped my Canon 600mm f/4 lens to the ground along with the camera. Both were trashed and made inoperable. I shipped them off to Canon today but I think it's going to be expensive and I don't know where I'm going to come up with that kind of money so you probably won't see many new photos on this site for a while.

I lay the blame on Gitzo. The brass 3/8" bolt the sticks up through their flat plate that comes with the 1343 tripod legs just snapped. That shouldn't have happened. I had just switched to the flat plate because the Gitzo leveling base I had been using was acting up.

Canon will have the lens and camera tomorrow but this is their busiest time (bowl games and the Super Bowl) so I don't expect to see an estimate for at least a week. I still have my 10D and 400mm f/5.6 but I can really only use that lens when it's sunny out and the 10D won't autofocus at an aperture large than 5.6 so my 1.4x converter is out unless I want to manually focus.

I did manage to get some nice shots of a lone Cedar Waxwing feeding on some Hawthorn berries in early morning sunlight.

It was pretty cold today. The wind chill made it 6 above zero at 7:00am. The sun warmed it up a bit (probably into the mid-20's) but by 2pm there was heavy cloud cover. I am glad I got out today because I think it's going to be the last sunny day for a while.

Posted by Cal Vornberger at 12/28/2004 09:06:00 PM | Permalink   

While everyone was preoccupied with trying to find the Boreal Owl I spent a nice (but frigid) morning at the Harlem Meer photographing Buffleheads mating. There was about an inch of snow on the ground and the cold had reduced the amount of open water on the Meer so that the ducks and geese were concentrated in one area close to shore. A male Bufflehead chased a young female around the open water while an older female looked on. The young female Bufflehead was really not interested but the male would not give up. He finally cornered her but I don't know what happened since they both disappeared under water. A Coot was taking this all hanging out with the Mallards. By this time I was frozen so I took the M4 downtown and stopped in the Boathouse for a cup of coffee. After that I went over to the feeders but there wasn't much there so I walked over to Bow bridge and then to Strawberry fields ending up at Hernshead. By then it was about 1:30 pm so I went home. The sky was clear but the wind from the NW made the temperature feel about 5 below.

Posted by Cal Vornberger at 12/27/2004 06:46:00 PM | Permalink   

On a cold and overcast afternoon with light snow in the air I tramped down to Cherry Hill where the Boreal Owl had been reported. There, high up in an Austrian pine, was the owl--asleep and half-hidden. Not photographable. Besides, it was very dark and overcast and extremely cold. Probably in the low 20's. I chatted with Lloyd, Peter Post and a few other people who came to view the owl and then headed home. Maybe tomorrow. . .

Posted by Cal Vornberger at 12/26/2004 07:44:00 PM | Permalink   

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!


Seems like the Boreal Owl that was first spotted on Sunday, December 19th was not found today. Many birders searched for it today without success.

It was a crisp sunny day in Central Park with little wind and temperatures in the mid-30s. I started at the north end of the park and photographed an American Coot on the Harlem Meer that was very cooperative. I worked my way south stopping at the feeders in the Ramble and the Boat Pond so see what was going on with Pale Male. No hawks in sight, in fact, except for the Coot on the Meer and a juvenile Red-tailed Hawk hunting around the Pool at 103rd St. there wasn't a whole lot of activity.

Posted by Cal Vornberger at 12/25/2004 10:36:00 PM | Permalink