Birds in the Hocking Hills

While I was taking photos during the Shoot the Hills photo competition this past weekend, I made sure that my ears were "on" so I could listen for birds. I was not disappointed.

I was absolutely delighted to hear my first Wood Thrush of the season (haven't heard any in our own woods yet), and I also heard my very first Hermit Thrush - EVER! Unfortunately I didn't see either of them, but their haunting, beautiful songs were rewarding enough. The Hermit Thrush should be preparing to head farther north to its breeding territory, whereas the Wood Thrush is just migrating into its breeding range from down south, so I imagine the window of time of being able to hear both of these thrushes on the same day is probably pretty small. How fortunate I was!

I also heard plenty of Phoebes, a Chipping Sparrow kept me in constant company at my campsite, and I was lucky to hear (but not see) the Black-Throated Green Warbler. One of the easier warblers to identify by ear, it has an easily recognizable song of "zoo-ZEE, zoo-zoo-ZEE!" I heard them all over the place, and was happy to be sharing space with them as they make their migratory way through to points farther north. Apparently there were also Blue-gray Gnatcatchers in the area, because several folks captured photos of them, but I didn't see any personally. (The Photographer's Choice winner was an wonderful photo of a Gnatcatcher perched on a blooming Redbud tree.)

One place in the area to stop for some good water bird photography is Lake Logan. The north end of the lake is quite the haven for Great Blue Herons, Great Egrets, Mute Swans and Canada Geese. I'm sure other birds like it there, too, but these were the most obvious species. I also heard lots of Red-winged Black Birds around, too, but did not spot any of them.

Here's a Great Egret coming in for an awkward-looking landing (please excuse the photo quality - shooting right into the sun here):

Here is a Mute Swan in the middle of flapping his (or her?) wings:

There was also a female Mute Swan on her nest:

... and in mid-preen:

Finally, I got a series of photos of a Great Blue Heron catching his dinner:

Afterward he had to shake it out and got his feathers all floofy:

Only to quickly return to his calm, cool and collected self:

Hocking Hills State Park naturalist Pat Quackenbush informed us that Double-Crested Cormorants and Red-throated Loons have also been spotted at the lake, passing through on migration.

Coming up... wildflowers of the Hocking Hills!

Hills entries

This past weekend I had lots of fun up in the Hocking Hills. I took LOTS of pictures (over 400 for the competition, plus almost 175 more the next day at a fun wildlife photo shoot). Since it's a competition, you can only submit a limited number of photos, so that means I had to whittle my 400+ shots down to only 6. That part was NOT fun.

I'll start off by sharing the photos I submitted (click on any photo to be taken to a larger view in my Picasa web album):

Category: Abstract
Subject matter: Leaves of Dutchman's Breeches

Category: Flora
Subject matter: Round-lobed Hepatica

Category: Flora
Subject matter: Dutchman's Breeches

Category: Human Interest in Nature
Subject matter: Reflection of me in stream at Ash Cave

Category: Landscape
Subject matter: Reflection of surrounding trees in strean at Ash Cave

You are not allowed to manipulate images in any way for this competition - the photos must be submitted as they were captured in your camera. For this reason there were a lot of photos I took that I knew would be better cropped down (like photos of waterfowl that I just couldn't get close enough to). Also, I feel that even some of my entries look a little better with a flip of the "monochrome" switch:

This, however, is my favorite photo taken during the entire competition. I played around with my camera settings a lot to get this coloring.

I submitted this photo to the "Photographer's Choice" category. This category was voted on by all of the participating photographers rather than the judges, so it was a peer-based category. Any guesses as to what the subject matter might be?

Unfortunately, I did not win any prizes for my submissions. Oh well. There were almost 200 folks competing this year, so I was up against lots of other super photographers. Maybe next year!

Tomorrow I will be sharing some VERY cool bird photos I captured after the competition was over.

Images from the Hocking Hills

As we round the bend to spring, I find that I have the Hocking Hills on my mind. The Hocking Hills is one of the most beautiful natural areas in southeastern Ohio, and it's home to the Shoot the Hills photo competition which is held in April. This will be the competition's 8th year, and this will be my second year to compete.

Last year, I made several trips up to different regions of the Hocking Hills to "prep" for the competition. Here are some images that I came away with. These were all shot at Cedar Falls.

Hemlock branches shine in the sun

The water was crazy clear, and beautiful

The water shapes the sand and rocks in brilliant patterns

Sand - close up

A narrow pass of just downstream from a waterfall

And here's the waterfall. I'm thinking about entering this photo in the "print" division of this year's competition.

I love to photograph water (moving and still), rocks, and sand, and the Hocking Hills is full of all 3, so it's a little slice of heaven for me and my camera.

The weather this Sunday is supposed to be cloudy, good for photographing waterfalls (although I don't know how strongly they'll be running). Might just have to take a trip up there to start prepping my photo-brain for this year's competition.