A time for molting

The "Dog Days of Summer" begin as the sky's brightest star Sirius, affixed to the dog collar of Canis Major, dutifully follows the hunter Orion up into the eastern sky before dawn. Days later Sirius will drop behind the Sun to linger in the western sky after sunset. The Old Farmer's Almanac as well as the ancient Greeks connected the appearance of Sirius with war, disaster, heat, drought, sudden thunderstorms, lethargy, fever, mad dogs, and bad luck.

Heat stress and the prospect of an active hurricane season make this my least favorite time of year in south Florida. Absent a storm threat, the mornings are usually clear and despite the humidity, the coolest time of day to get out in the wild. Entering the wetlands under a dark sky, we bird by ear, but now there is less to be heard as compared to only a few weeks earlier. 

Many land birds are molting, resting and feeding during a very energy-intensive phase of their life cycle, following nesting and presaging the stress of migration. The predawn chorus of cardinals and mockingbirds nearly shuts down during the first week of August. 

Northern Cardinal in predawn darkness (with fill-flash assist, July, 2020)...



... and, a month later, this one is replacing several tail feathers:

 

Northern Mockingbird in fine feather (February, 2020), and...



...a motley molting mockingbird:



A Boat-tailed Grackle was handsomely clad back in February...



...Oh, but look at him now:



About 40 minutes before sunrise on August 6, Constellation Orion was just to the right of the Planet Venus as we walked into the wetlands. Sirius is closer to the Sun, lurking behind the palm tree (Click on photo to see the 3 stars in Orion's belt):



Red-winged Blackbirds have suddenly departed from their inland breeding areas to congregate in large roosts, often nearer the coast. The coos of doves are heard less frequently, and Killdeers are no longer busy distracting us when we intrude on their now-abandoned nesting areas.    

Red-winged Blackbird:



Mourning Dove:



Killdeer:



European Starlings are gathering in flocks. This is a brown-backed and speckle-breasted juvenile starling:



Our day is divided between morning walks and COVID-19 lock-down, when we remain alert to the presence of backyard wildlife. I captured this Great Egret through the back window as it foraged lakeside, one of the first test shots with my brand-new Canon EOS 90D:





The back yard Muscovy Duck still had 9 of her 15 ducklings on July 26. She was down to 2 on August 18:





Before sunrise on August 3, I heard the cry of several Coyotes to the north. Knowing that they would need to cross the gravel track to return to the wild lands, I stood in front of a shrubby tree to obscure my profile and waited. After about 5 minutes of silence I was ready to give up when I detected motion some 300 meters/ 330 yards away. I could barely discern the shapes of an adult Coyote with two half-grown pups. Look closely and enlarge to see all three:



Both pups were watching their mother:



One pup paraded out in the open:



Walking in darkness makes me ever so mindful of the travels of heavenly bodies across the sky. The August Sturgeon Moon was two days old on  August 5:







As is so common during the Dog Days, the Sun heats the land and hot air rises, drawing in moist ocean breezes and setting up the dynamics for afternoon thunderstorms:

 


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Linking to:

Fences Around the World

Skywatch Friday

Weekend Reflections

Saturday's Critters

BirdD'Pot

Camera Critters

All Seasons

Wordless Wednesday (on Tuesday)

Natasha Musing

Our World Tuesday

Wild Bird Wednesday

My Corner of the World

Timeless Thursday

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Please visit the links to all these posts to see some excellent photos on display
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An eye on the sky

Photographing birds in flight has always been a challenge for me. Slow-moving targets are not too difficult to keep in sight, but framing them in the viewfinder is only the first step in the process. They must also be kept in focus and the exposure must compensate for the brightness of the subject and the intensity of light in the background.

The pink sky is bright, causing the camera to "squint," so the exposure must be manually increased to keep the  Great Egret from being darkly shadowed:



The blue water is darker, and the camera tries to compensate by increasing the exposure. This tendency must be reigned in to keep from over-exposing the white bird:



With small birds perched in the foliage, the camera tends to take care of all this automatically. I usually just set the aperture as wide as possible, to isolate the subject from distracting objects in the background. Birds in groups or in flight are not as accommodating, so the aperture must be narrowed to allow  a greater depth of sharp focus, as was necessary with these White Ibises:



A dark and a white bird against the morning sky-- a Little Blue Heron had a close encounter with a Great Egret:



Black birds in flight are particularly troublesome, as their plumage provides little contrast to show off their feather patterns. Reflected sunshine and pure luck allowed me this shot of a Double-crested Cormorant:



A Red-winged Blackbird puffed up his feathers to catch the light:



Direct sunlight reveals the iridescence of a Common Grackle...



...and a Boat-tailed Grackle:



White birds sometimes show up best when they are illuminated from the side or even slightly from behind:



The sky has presented some interesting sights this month. Since we walk out into the wetlands in pre-dawn darkness, we are aware of the movements of celestial objects-- the Moon, planets and bright stars.

Lately we have watched Venus move towards the eastern horizon. On the morning of January 2, the waning crescent Moon was aligned with Venus and Jupiter.



Both planets brightened up as they moved away behind the sun, appearing to move closer together. Actually, the distance between them is never less than 365 million miles. Venus is much closer to the sun and moves along its 422.5 million mile orbit at 78,337 mph (35.02 km/second). Jupiter moves more slowly, at 29,236 mph (13.07 km/second), along its huge 3 billion mile orbit and takes 4331 days to circle the sun. 

On January 17, they shone brightly before sunrise:



This week we witnessed a "double feature,"  first a full eclipse of the Moon on January 20. The Wolf Moon rose over our back yard:

 

My hand-held images are not very crisp:







Then, stormy skies caused us to miss the conjunction of Venus and Jupiter, when they would be horizontally aligned. Their conjunction on January 22 would bring them almost 2 degrees apart, about the width of 5 full Moons. Here they were on January 21:



The morning after the conjunction (January 23) was also overcast, and  they briefly peeked out from behind the clouds. Now Venus had moved beneath Jupiter:




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Linking to Misty's  CAMERA CRITTERS,

Linking to Eileen's SATURDAY'S CRITTERS,

Linking to SKYWATCH FRIDAY by Yogi, Sylvia and Sandy

Linking to WEEKEND REFLECTIONS by James

Linking to BirdD'Pot by Anni

Linking to Our World Tuesday by Lady Fi

Linking to Wild Bird Wednesday by Stewart

Linking to Wordless Wednesday (on Tuesday) by NC Sue

Linking to ALL SEASONS by Jesh

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Please visit the links to all these memes to see some excellent photos on display

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Crops & Clips: Flashback to July, 2013

We started the month of July, 2013 at our second home in Illinois, having just returned from our RV trip through Arizona and Utah. Join me once again as we direct the Retrospectroscope and flash back to events three years ago. As usual I will look for photos in my archives to meet the themes of SKY, REFLECTION, FENCE, MACRO and CRITTERS. And, I will add FLOWERS for Denise's meme. I succeeded in finding examples of all!

Construction on the new housing was proceeding at a fast pace. Yet this Red-tailed hawk roosted on a street light as if refusing to believe that our front yard was no longer a prairie rich with prey:



At Nelson Lake preserve, milkweed was in bloom and thistles were going to seed, ideal conditions to begin the nesting season for the American Goldfinches: 



The Common Milkweed looked too healthy; there were no signs of Monarch butterfly larvae:



A Song Sparrow perched on a Sunflower bud. In a few weeks the prairie will turn into mid-summer gold:



Tiny energetic Sedge Wrens were in full song:



Common Yellowthroats were, well, common:



The songs of Red-winged Blackbirds resounded all along the path:



Then, presto! We were back home in Florida, out early on the local wetlands as rain threatened:



Rain began falling out of a blue sky and we were rewarded with a rainbow as we exited our birding patch:



Florida Box Turtles manage to survive in the wounded wetlands. This one was crossing the path in front of us:



An immature Tricolored Heron struck a pose reminiscent of one of John James Audubon's watercolors:



Three Common Nighthawks flew together and one repeatedly "boomed" me-- diving down low and pulling up sharply. The sound is created by its wing feathers just as the bird starts to regain altitude:



A Great Blue Heron on our lake posed in front of a neighbor's fence:



During mid-month we had a rainy spell which persisted for over a week. One morning a Marsh Rabbit emerged from the water of a ditch along the path. Although a form a Cottontail, it is darker, has smaller ear, shorter lags, and lacks the white on its tail: 



Note the yellow eyes on this Eastern Towhee. Further north this species has red eyes:



The female towhee has brown where her mate is black:



This fledgling Eastern Towhee had me stumped as to its identity until a parent joined it:





A male Soldier butterfly:



A Morning Glory:



At the end of the month a back yard Wood Stork let me capture a video about its foraging habits (If video fails to load, CLICK HERE):

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Linking to Misty's  CAMERA CRITTERS,

Linking to Eileen's SATURDAY'S CRITTERS,

Linking to GOOD FENCES by Tex (Theresa). 

Linking to SKYWATCH FRIDAY by Yogi, Sylvia and Sandy

Linking to WEEKEND REFLECTIONS by James

Linking to BirdD'Pot by Anni

Linking to Wild Bird Wednesday by Stewart

Linking to Today's Flowers Friday by Denise
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Please visit the links to all these memes to see some excellent photos on display
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