Griss
New member
- Post score: 3
- #1
Was sent to Florida last minute for some work in Miami, landed in Fort Lauderdale. Decided to go on Saturday and took my camera so I'd have Sunday free to go birding.
I've been to Green Cay and Wakodahatchee Wetlands before, but you really can't beat them for guaranteed close sightings. Furthermore I saw someone had posted an Eastern Screech Owl on ebird, and I've never seen any owl other than Great Horned Owls from miles away, so that was my target.
Anyway, went in both the morning and evening for two hours a piece and had a great time but no lifers until right before sundown when I saw a Least Bittern. Then I saw a group of people all standing on a boardwalk ooh-ing and aah-ing, but they were watching Black-necked Stilts - super common where I'm from. But while there I overhead a lady mentioning having seen an owl... I followed her directions and soon found a group with cameras pointed up into a palm tree. It was quite dark by then - especially in the hammock of trees - and I honestly could not make out the owl to the naked eye. Fortunately, modern cameras are insane (I was at ISO 25600 here), and I could clearly see the owl - dozing off and just waking up for the night ahead presumably - and I got some shots. The images below are pretty heavily cropped and denoised but I'm just delighted to have go them at all! With bonus Little Bittern, a grumpy Purple Martin and lovely Tricolored Heron - where I'm from Heron beaks do NOT change colour in breeding season, so that's always a delight to see.
All of the above are with a Nikon Z8 with a Nikkor Z 180-600mm lens at f/6.3.
EDIT: Oh, the website adds that automatically? Now that's convenient. Love it.
I've been to Green Cay and Wakodahatchee Wetlands before, but you really can't beat them for guaranteed close sightings. Furthermore I saw someone had posted an Eastern Screech Owl on ebird, and I've never seen any owl other than Great Horned Owls from miles away, so that was my target.
Anyway, went in both the morning and evening for two hours a piece and had a great time but no lifers until right before sundown when I saw a Least Bittern. Then I saw a group of people all standing on a boardwalk ooh-ing and aah-ing, but they were watching Black-necked Stilts - super common where I'm from. But while there I overhead a lady mentioning having seen an owl... I followed her directions and soon found a group with cameras pointed up into a palm tree. It was quite dark by then - especially in the hammock of trees - and I honestly could not make out the owl to the naked eye. Fortunately, modern cameras are insane (I was at ISO 25600 here), and I could clearly see the owl - dozing off and just waking up for the night ahead presumably - and I got some shots. The images below are pretty heavily cropped and denoised but I'm just delighted to have go them at all! With bonus Little Bittern, a grumpy Purple Martin and lovely Tricolored Heron - where I'm from Heron beaks do NOT change colour in breeding season, so that's always a delight to see.
You can only see EXIF info for this image if you are logged in.
You can only see EXIF info for this image if you are logged in.
You can only see EXIF info for this image if you are logged in.
You can only see EXIF info for this image if you are logged in.
You can only see EXIF info for this image if you are logged in.
All of the above are with a Nikon Z8 with a Nikkor Z 180-600mm lens at f/6.3.
EDIT: Oh, the website adds that automatically? Now that's convenient. Love it.