Lessons Learned from a Spring Photo Shoot on Dewees Island -- April 13, 2012

View of the impoundment --  Dewees Island, SC -- April 13, 2012

           My friend Judy Fairchild, a resident of Dewees Island, and I had been wanting to do a "Girls' Day Out Photo Shoot" for several weeks.  Judy and I have birded together in the Christmas and Spring Bird Counts that we do on Dewees.  We both love nature in general and birding in particular, and we also both aspire to become better photographers.  "A Girls' Day Out Photo Shoot" would allow us to concentrate on just that without the responsibilities of being a count territory leader or a hostess to a group of birders.  We hoped that we could learn from each other as we worked to improve both our birding ID skills and photography skills.   So, we chose April 13,  a day during my Spring Break from school, for our shoot.  And of course, our destination was Dewees Island!

           When I arrived on Dewees, Judy picked me up at the ferry landing, and in short order, we birded our way around to the opposite side of the impoundment, where a young, late-nesting Bald Eagle pair had built a nest on an Osprey platform and were raising, presumably, their first chick!  How exciting!  Judy led me up to one of her neighbor's rooftops for a birds eye view!

Bald Eagle nesting on an Osprey platform -- Dewees Island, SC --  April 13, 2012

Bald Eagle on its nest on Osprey platform -- Dewees Island, SC -- April 13, 2012

 

Parent Bald Eagle stretches while child looks on -- Dewees Island, SC -- April 13, 2012

Bald Eagle and eaglet on nest -- Dewees Island, SC -- April 13, 2012

          Bald Eagles in our area generally nest much earlier than this -- usually they have chicks in January or February.  Also, I have never heard of eagles choosing an Osprey platform as a nest!  It will be interesting to see if this pair returns to nest here next Spring.  Eagles tend to add more nesting material to their nests year after year.  The human residents of the island, I have been told, have plans to reinforce the Osprey platform to support more weight.  Judy reported to me that the returning Ospreys were not too happy about the intrusion but the Bald Eagles held forth in the ensuing dispute.  Living on the island, Judy was able to follow this young nestling's progress.  I highly recommend her exciting post to the Dewees Island Blog on the youngster's fledging! 

Bald Eagle leaves nest to hunt for lunch -- Dewees Island, SC -- April 13, 2012

              The rooftop perspective helped us to easily locate and shoot some newly-arrived Spring migrants -- this singing Orchard Oriole and this chattering Great-Crested Flycatcher. 

Orchard Oriole -- Dewees Island, SC -- April 13, 2012

Orchard Oriole -- Dewees Island, SC -- April 13, 2012

Great Crested Flycatcher -- Dewees Island, SC -- April 13, 2012

Great Crested Flycatcher -- Dewees Island, SC -- April 13, 2012

           Before leaving the rooftop, I took another picture of the impoundment -- what a fabulous view!         

Another view of the impoundment -- Dewees Island, SC -- April 13, 2012

           After our rooftop birding, Judy and I continued around the impoundment.  An upbeat rhythm to life seemed to permeate the Spring air full of birdsong.  Singing birds threw their whole bodies into their songs.  What a delight to witness their enthusiasm!  Though we did not see any,  we verified by ear that the Painted Buntings had arrived.  We enjoyed watching the Laughing Gulls laugh and chase.  All the birds seemed full of frisky energy. 

            Back on our route, rounding a corner, we stopped short.  In the impoundment we saw some Greater and Lesser Yellowlegs, in breeding plumage, fattening up for a journey north to their nesting grounds in Canada and Alaska.

Greater Yellowlegs and Lesser Yellowlegs -- Dewees Island, SC -- April 13, 2012

Immediately after finding the Yellowlegs, we spied the newly-arrived Black Necked Stilts -- my first view of these since last year!  

Female Black-Necked Stilt -- Dewees Island, SC -- April 13, 2012

Female Black-Necked Stilt -- Dewees Island, SC -- April 13, 2012

            Judy and I had great fun watching and photographing the male catch and eat a dragonfly!

Male Black-Necked Stilt -- Dewees Island, SC -- April 13, 2012

Male Black-Necked Stilt -- Dewees Island, SC -- April 13, 2012

         I recently learned to distinguish the male from the female Black-Necked Stilt.  I began to notice some of the differences when editing these photos.  The female has a brown back, white breast and shorter legs.  The male has a black back and in breeding plumage, he has a buff wash on his breast. The Black-Necked Stilt breeds on our Carolina coast.

          After watching the Black-Necked Stilts, we decided to stop at another favorite wildlife viewing spot, a small secluded pond behind a neighbor's house.  With plenty of brush between us and the wildlife, we hoped to be able to view the birds without their spotting us.  First, we noticed some late-staying  female Hooded Mergansers in the water.  And then, we saw 3 female Red-Breasted Mergansers on the floating dock.  NOT!  What I did not realize until yesterday when I was researching links for this blog post, is that I had mis-identified these birds! 

A female Hooded Merganser?  -- NOT!  It is a MALE Hooded Merganser -- Dewees Island, SC  -- April 13, 2012

A female Red-Breasted Merganser?  NOT!  -- It is a female HOODED MERGANSER!  -- Dewees Island -- April 13, 2012

             I was unaware that the male Hooded Merganser had such a dramatic plumage change from breeding to non-breeding.  Who knew?!  Neither my Kaufmann nor my Sibley bird guides showed the male in basic, non-breeding plumage!  I was used to seeing male Hooded Mergansers that looked like the one below.

Male Hooded Merganser in breeding plumage in neighborhood pond -- Charleston, SC -- December 3, 2011

           
OK!  So a male non-breeding Hooded Merganser has basic plumage very similar to a female Hooded Merganser.  So how do you tell them apart?  For example, in the photo below, is the bird in front of the obvious male, breeding plumage Hoodie a male in non-breeding plumage or a female?

Two Hooded Mergansers with a Boat-Tailed Grackle -- Bear Island WMA -- March 6, 2010

 Drum roll please ...... It is a female Hoodie!  So how do we tell them apart?  We look at the eye and the bill color.  The female Hoodie always has a yellowish bill (slightly tinged orange) and the male always has a black bill.  Also, the male always has a gold-colored eye and the female'e eye is a rusty brown.

         Now what about that bird on the floating dock?  I had originally identified it as a Red-Breasted Merganser.  But when I looked at the pictures of the female Hooded Merganser on the Cornell Lab of Ornithology All About Birds site (referenced also in the links above), their picture of a female Hooded Merganser out of water looked like our bird on the dock.  With further study, I had to change my original identification to female Hoodie.  The bill of the bird on the dock is not thin nor long enough, nor is it red enough.  For comparison, here's a photo that I took in March of a Red-Breasted Merganser on the beach on Kiawah Island at Captain Sams Spit.  Lesson learned -- I corrected my eBird listing and decided to bring this recently learned lesson to the blog post. 

Red-Breasted Merganser -- Captain Sams Spit -- Kiawah Island, SC  -- March 25, 2012

By blogging, I seem to be educating myself as I look to find details to share with the readers -- a happy endeavor it is!


           Now, I wonder if anyone will challenge me on my ID of the Boat-Tailed Grackle in the Hooded Merganser photo above.  Believe me, I have studied this photo closely and I will admit to a certain small amount of uncertainty.  Though the angle of the photo makes it more difficult to judge the relative thickness of the bill (thicker on the Common Grackle; thinner on the Boat-Tailed) or the length of the tail (shorter on the Common; longer on the Boat-Tailed), I finally concluded  that this was indeed a Boat-Tailed.  But hey, if someone has any other input into that ID, bring it on!  Challenge me; educate me!

           Returning to the birds in this pond that Judy and I visited, there was a Snowy Egret enjoying the sun, along with a turtle, on the floating dock.

Snowy Egret -- Dewees Island -- April 13, 2012

And because we were hiding in the brush, a flock of Blue-Winged Teal came flying in and landed right in front of us!

Blue-Winged Teal -- Dewees Island, SC -- April 13, 2012

           Before I had to catch the ferry back to the mainland, Judy took me to a place where she knew of a Killdeer on a nest! 

Killdeer -- Dewees Island, SC -- April 13, 2012

Check out this very cool, infornative post that Judy wrote later for the Dewees Island Blog on the nesting Killdeer and her hatchlings!

       Sadly, it was time for me to go.  Of course, there were birds, such as the Brown Pelican,  to photograph on the way back to the mainland.

Brown Pelican -- Intracoastal Waterway off of Isle of Palms -- April 13, 2012

 Time flies when I am on Dewees and I always find it hard to leave this little piece of paradise.  It was great to have a "just girls" photo shoot.  Capturing good nature shots takes practice and we can share more of what we are attempting to do with the camera when it is just the two of us.  It is great when we can learn from each other.  Most importantly, Spring on Dewees offers many lessons on nature to the observant.  The camera certainly helps us to become more observant -- even after the fact when we study the photos and the available literature in preparation for a blog post!  Thank you Judy for the invitation, your blog posts, your expertise and for your wonderful company!  I am looking forward to doing this again! 
     

Credits

•  Dugger, B. D., K. M. Dugger, and L. H. Fredrickson. 1994. Hooded Merganser (Lophodytes cucullatus). In The Birds of North America, No. 98 (A. Poole, and F. Gill, eds.). The Academy of Natural Sciences, Philadelphia, PA, and The American Ornithologists' Union, Washington, D.C.
• Elphick, C. S., and T. L. Tibbitts. 1998. Greater Yellowlegs (Tringa melanoleuca). In The Birds of North America, No. 355 (A. Poole and F. Gill,eds.). The Birds of North America, Inc., Philadelphia, PA.
• Post, W., J. P. Poston, and G. T. Bancroft. 1996. Boat-tailed Grackle (Quiscalus major). In The Birds of North America, No. 271 (A. Poole and F. Gill, eds.). The Academy of Natural Sciences, Philadelphia, PA, and The American Ornithologists' Union, Washington, D.C.
• Robinson, Julie A., J. Michael Reed, Joseph P. Skorupa and Lewis W. Oring. 1999. Black-necked Stilt (Himantopus mexicanus), The Birds of North America Online (A. Poole, Ed.). Ithaca: Cornell Lab of Ornithology; Retrieved from the Birds of North America Online: http://bna.birds.cornell.edu/bna/species/449
• Titman, R. D. 1999. Red-breasted Merganser (Mergus serrator). In The Birds of North America, No. 443 (A. Poole and F. Gill, eds.). The Birds of North America, Inc., Philadelphia, PA.
• Tibbitts, T. L., and W. Moskoff. 1999. Lesser Yellowlegs (Tringa flavipes). In The Birds of North America, No. 427 (A.Poole and F.Gill,eds.). The Birds of North America, Inc., Philadelphia, PA.