Storytime: The Lost Gosling

 

On May 2^nd, I noticed that the geese on the osprey's nest hatched their goslings. Daddy Goose was on the lawn, keeping an eye on a little gosling that had somehow fallen out of the nest.  The little bird stumbled around and got caught briefly under the base of the cedar tree by the water.  

Daddy Goose couldn’t find it hidden under the trunk, so he wandered off toward the osprey nest where Mama was still sitting on the other goslings. 

 

The baby wandered around, stumbling a lot.  It swam toward the nest, but Daddy Goose was looking the other way.  

I purposely left the bulkhead in my shot, so you can tell the little gosling was trying to swim back and forth and came back to the yard.  Mom and Dad were still looking around.  

The gosling tried walking along the bulkhead.  

This took quite some time and after a long while, some other birds tried to help.  This surprised me, because I wasn’t sure if the other birds would attack, but they actually seemed to try to let the geese know that they had found the little one.  

They landed quite near the gosling.  The photos are not very good, but you can see that the Great Blue Heron and the black birds were not attacking.  

Daddy Goose got quite close by, but still didn’t see the baby just sitting near the bulkhead.  He just kept looking the wrong way.  

And Mama goose was still sitting on the other young ones.  

Finally Daddy Goose spotted the gosling in the water by the pier where I couldn’t see them, and they swam away from my view.  I don’t know if they stayed on the shore or what happened overnight.

On May 3rd, I saw three adult geese and a family with 6 goslings by the bulkhead.  I don’t know if the little gosling survived or if the family was the same one.  It seemed likely and I can only hope the little gosling survived.  

After swimming around for a bit, the geese abandoned the nest and later I saw a goose pair checking out the osprey nest.  I kind of doubted it was the same pair since there were no little ones.

The End

The Azaleas are Starting to Bloom

We traveled to Annmarie Garden again this year to photograph their azalea collection.  There were quite a few different varieties.  Last year we were a little late, and this year we were almost too early.  Enough were blooming for me to get some nice photos.

Osprey April 8, 2024

After photographing the eclipse, I decided to photograph the neighbor's osprey since I had the longest lens handy and I didn't have to carry it very far .  This year our nest is occupied by a pair of geese.  I prefer the osprey, but unless they object to the geese, there isn't much we can do, but watch the geese.  No little ones yet on either nest.

Solar Eclipse of April 8th, 2024 from Southern Maryland

At the last minute, we found our solar filter which fit perfectly on my Tamron 150-600mm lens, and shot it with my Nikon D850 until 3:45 PM when it was obscured by clouds.  I had difficulty tracking the motion of the Sun across the sky and Jim had to do some difficult adjusting in Photoshop.  It's not perfect, and too few shots, but it's interesting anyway.

I'm also adding some composites I made, with clouds.

Spring Cherry Blossoms Part 2

Here are more cherry blossoms to enjoy.  I get a second chance at photographing them because the weeping cherry trees in my own yard bloom a lot later than the trees in Lexington Park and elsewhere.  The first photo is a stacked photo to improve the sharpness of the image, taken in a Lexington Park parking lot.  Notice how much more impact the photo with just a blue sky makes than the others with blurred backgrounds.

Photographic Society of America Contest Third Prize

 Just for fun, I entered an International photo contest with the Photographic Society of America.  I am a member and decided Just for fun, I entered an International photo contest with the Photographic Society of America.  I am a member and decided to try photojournalism, a category I practice when I photograph the River Concert Series.  I rarely sell any of them, because it would be hard to get written permission, even though the photos are technically at a public event.  I entered 4 photos and most of them were accepted, but one actually won 2 prizes.  The photos were sent to 4 different regional PSA organizations.  This one won in a multiple tie for third place in the Mid-Atlantic region and honorable mention in the Florida Chapters.  Three out of 4 of my photos were accepted into the competition. They claimed about 30% of the entries would be accepted into the competition, so I figured the odds were fairly good to at least be in the competition.  I liked the photo because it implied a sweet story.  The dancers were from Ballet Caliente.

Spring Camelias to Enjoy

I wish I could grow camelias in my yard.  Unfortunately, our land was a garbage dump for Native Americans a long time ago and is high pH (lime soil).  I couldn't grow azaleas here, even with extra stuff added to the soil.

Fortunately, there are some camelias not to far away that I love to photograph.