Calm Reflections Photography shares beautiful photographs that can be placed on mugs, mouse pads, canvas, puzzles, T-shirts, coasters and prints. Joanna Macaulay makes souvenirs of St. Mary’s County for tourists and local residents. Information about St. Mary’s County attractions, travel, events and photography can be found at her site. She now does pet photography as well.

To buy my photos, photo cards, and photo crafts of wildlife, pets, holidays and more, visit my Zazzle Photo store at https://www.zazzle.com/store/calmreflectionsphoto






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Featured Post

The Lonely Buck

I have been fairly busy lately with the Christmas rush, so I thought I would make a few posts about interesting sights that I somehow didn...

Showing posts with label juvenile. Show all posts
Showing posts with label juvenile. Show all posts

Monday, October 11, 2021

Yellow Crowned Night Heron Juvenile?


I am wondering if this bird is the same as the yellow-crowned night heron juvenile I thought I photographed on July 25th.  They like marshes and eat crabs, fish and small snakes.  This part of St. Mary’s County sounds ideal for them, but this is the first year I have seen one.  They are often nocturnal. I couldn’t see its feet to be sure.

Earlier photo on the lawn.



Monday, August 9, 2021

Yellow Crowned Night Heron Juvenile





I spotted a heron in Southern St. Mary’s County July 25th.  I don’t think a yellow crowned night heron is a common bird for this area, but it is in their range. Most photos I saw were from Florida and Texas.  We see lots of great blue herons and occasional green herons.  Elsewhere I have seen tri-colored herons.  I was surprised it wasn’t one of them.

Tuesday, October 16, 2018

Saturday, August 27, 2016

Winning photo from August Camera Club Competition

We had Flight for a theme in August.  I found an old osprey photo I missed to put in the competition, since our osprey didn't have an babies this year and we haven't seen an air show for a while. 

I called this one "Clear for Landing" (1st place digital theme). I think the landing osprey is a juvenile with orange eyes.  An adult is in the middle, and probably a juvenile on the right.




Monday, August 25, 2014

The Sequence Photo Challenge

We had an interesting theme for the St. Mary's County Camera Club August Competition-make a sequence of photos all included in one picture.  The basic idea was to show a moving subject multiple times, while the background remained the same.  This only works with multiple exposures or several layers in a photo creating a composite of pictures.

I chose a photo that was meaningful to me.  Every year, I wait with baited breath to photograph the osprey juveniles as they learn how to fly.  I never know how lucky I will be.  Will they learn to fly at noon, when the light is poor?  Will the juveniles learn to fly on a rainy or foggy day?  Will they learn to fly while I am away from the nest?

This year there was one juvenile.  She learned to fly on a Saturday around 9:30 am.  Lucky me.  They usually flap their wings vigorously and hop up and down a lot!!!  I had watched her practice for a few days.  Finally she took off at a shallower angle than usual toward the south.  (Generally, the experienced birds fly more west and at a steeper angle.)  I managed to get the flight on film with four still shots.

I spent quite a lot of time trying to come up with another sequence photo to add to the competition, but I didn't succeed.  I tried using amusement park photos, but there was lots of equipment that seemed like it would ruin the photo, since the rides were always attached and couldn't be separated to create individual images instead of blurs.  In the end, a blurred looking train photo was the winner.  I took second place with "First Flight".  I think if I did the photo again, I would only show 3 images of the osprey, so she wasn't flying out of the photo so much.  Which photo do you prefer?  The face is fairly hidden in the highest image.  Altogether, it was an interesting challenge.

Second Place photo- 4 images layered


Photo of 3 composite images

Tuesday, August 5, 2014

Survival of the Fittest

Recently, I noticed a dead osprey face down, wings outstretched on a neighbor's lawn.  I suspected it had fallen from the sky because it wasn't huddled into a ball, but spread wide.  I don't think anyone saw what happened.  After a few days, I wondered if it was one of "our" ospreys, since lately I only saw the juvenile and one adult.  Given the fact that earlier there was a private war going on involving "our" osprey, I suspect the bird could have been attacked.  We will never know.

Osprey family in July.  The juvenile is the little speckled bird in the middle.


Since then, I photographed the juvenile defending their food from an adult bird by holding it down with a claw (not very successfully).

The juveniles can be identified easily by their orange-yellow eyes, while the adults have yellow eyes.  


Two osprey in the family with the juvenile in the background.