Days off are for Living out Your Passion

I went out in search of the Eagle. I saw the nest but, I didn't know if it was active or not. I went there on Sunday to check it out. I couldn't see anything in the nest, I brought binoculars, and my zoom lens. I got to the location, and I was wishing I was at the Lake because of the beautiful streams of light coming though the clouds. Wow, what a shot that would be at the lake.

I know, it's pretty here too, but, I have a thing about the lake, I guess I have to get over that, because, it's really pretty here too.  

I take some pictures of the nest, much to my dismay I don't see anything.  Oh well, I'll move on to the Lake.  I wanted to go to the Outer Harbor, but, there isn't much time before the sun sets, so I go to somewhere closer to my location to the nest.

I get to the lake, it's a little more frozen than I thought it would be. I'm glad that I prepared, I have my wind pants on, my carhart, warm gloves, I'm ready...

so pretty with the reflection of the sun on the city of Buffalo

Yeah, it looks cold. Yes, it is cold out! 

Later I'm doing stuff around the house and I look outside, Ohhhh The moon and the clouds, I set everything up on my camera, get my tripod out, set everything up and .. the moon moves out of the clouds. I missed the cool shot. But, as I look though my view finder, I see that there is ice on the buds of the tree, and it's reflecting the glare of the moon...

I finish up doing stuff around the house, I look at my pictures I took throughout the day on the computer and much to my surprise I see it!!!!

It is an active nest. The eagle is sitting on the right side of the nest. I couldn't see it on my little LCD screen of my camera or with my binoculars! The nest is very far away from where I took it. This is cropped. But, you can see it! How cool is this!!!?

Hoping that there is a pair of Eagles here nesting, and soon there will be little baby eagles hatching....!!!!  As soon as the leaves pop out, this nest will be protected and no one will be able to see it, or I should say, it will be very hard to see it, we won't be able to tell what is going on in the nest. 

Information about Bald Eagles while nesting

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Daniel and I make arrangements to go to Tifft Nature Preserve early Monday morning. Neither of us are early birds....   <------ Hahahaha.  We both work second shift and stay up way to late nights. But, he saw a rare Owl there on Sunday, we want to see if it is still there and capture some shots of it.

It is flipping cold out. 17 degrees out, but, we are both dressed for the weather, so no fear.

Beautiful Cardinal 

I have my mega zoom on, I'm really happy with the outcome of the photos of the birds, I haven't had the best of luck with this new lens, but, today it proved itself.

downy woodpecker

Downy Woodpecker... "you looking at me?"

I believe this is a Red Tailed Hawk

Mocking Bird

Mocking Bird eating Sumac

We finish up at Tifft, we have to pick up my mom to have lunch with my cousin. We have a wonderful visit then we start heading home. I though, hummm lets take mom out with us to look for Snowy at the Buffalo Marina. We go there Dan looks for it while mom and I sit in the car. Nothing that we could see, so I tell my mom about the Eagles nest and ask her if she wants to see it.  She does, so we head that way. We go there, stop and take some photos, and nothing at the nest.... 

Well that is what I thought, until I cropped the photo of the nest. I can see the head peaking out of the nest.

We drive around a couple of times, and then we head down a road, I look up, and there it is a Bald Eagle flying over head! I pull the car over, jump out, and look up. The eagle is flying back and forth over 18 mile creek. I run back to the car, and yell to Dan, "give me my camera!!!" I grab it from him and catch a few snaps of the majestic Bald Eagle.

it's snowing out pretty good. He flies back and forth over us, I'm in front of my car, I look back at my mother as she is watching him, and she looks at me, smiles and gives me the Thumbs up. So flipping cool that we got to share this sighting with my 86 year old mother. To see a Bald Eagle in the wild in our own town. How Exciting!!!! And to share it with my mom.... Truly spectacular!

Being the crazy people that we are.... After we drop my mom off, and I hook up mom and dad's email from Verizon to Aol.... Dan and I head back to Tifft. Still no Owl, but we find snow. I take a bunch of photos of him, then realize that while walking I accidentally changed the settings on my camera while walking with my camera under my arm.  Thank goodness that I shot RAW, I was able to save the photos of snow. 

 I just liked how the snow was laying on the reeds.

What a fun couple of days. The highlight was definitely sharing the Bald Eagle sighting with my mom. Also finding that the Eagle Nest is active.... Hoping that there are eggs in the nest and that more eagles will be hatch in the spring!  

Signing off of Facebook for Lent: Crazy Winds Across Lake Erie

Signing off of Facebook for Lent: Crazy Winds Across Lake Erie: I got called off of work yesterday, so, my camera and I went out in search of waves and to capture the effects of the winds.  I started out...

Crazy Winds Across Lake Erie

I got called off of work yesterday, so, my camera and I went out in search of waves and to capture the effects of the winds.  I started out going to Hamburg Beach, where it was really cool, but, the sand was pelting my car, and I thought this would not be good for my camera or my lenses!! so I drove on. I think the best place was the Outer Harbor of Buffalo. The Winds got progressively stronger throughout the day. 

This Video is from the Outer Harbor, Crazy Waves.  I usually Kayak around here, I think I'd get thrown out of my Kayak...!!!! 

I went around the Outer Harbor taking pictures

In front of the break wall you can see the Ice Boom.  I wonder if it broke loose yesterday because of the winds.  The Ice boom was not needed in the Lake this year, It didn't freeze.  Not like years prior at least.  This may bring us an early spring!

The winds were so strong I had to dig my foot into the ground in front of me. The wind still blew me around a bit. And I'm not a small person.

this is by the wind sculptures at the Outer Harbor.  It was so windy, I went to the top of the hill and put my back up against one of the sculptures to keep me in place, then I had a thought, "what if one of the wind sculptures breaks loose because of the wind!  OMGosh... " After that thought, I stepped away from the wind sculptures!

As I was leaving the Outer Harbor, they closed off the Sky Way to all traffic because of the wind. Great, now I'm going to have to figure out the back roads to get back to the Outer Harbor.

I went to "my Spot" and there was another photographer there from the Buffalo News.  "Hey, this is my secrete spot!"  anyway.. There was another guy taking photo's further up from us.  I think he was also trying to get pictures of waves.

I started heading back to the Outer Harbor since it was starting to get close to sunset.

Yup, I took the back roads into the Harbor since the roads heading to the Sky Way were still blocked off. As I park my car, I have learned that I have to park so that I can get in and out of my car without the wind blowing my door off, so I park accordingly.  

As I walk up to lake, I am stunned by the beauty of the sunset, it brought me back to Norway where I was also brought to tears from the beauty of the sunset

I was not the only crazy one trying to get pictures of this amazing sunset with the wild winds. 

What an amazing day out in the wind taking pictures.  The powerful winds were recorded in Hamburg, NY at 75MPH wind gusts. That's just crazy. The strange thing about yesterday's storm, was that it was sunny and beautiful out.  The temperatures were in the mid 40's which made it nice out for taking pictures, I had my wind pants on later in the day helping with the wind chill. But, over all it was a beautiful day, just super windy!

I was in Awe over the power of the wind whipping through Lake Erie. It was incredible.  Many people were driving around checking out the waves caused by the winds. Not many got out of their cars to get a close up look. For me it was invigorating and powerful! Just try to keep me away!  

Signing off of Facebook for Lent: Fat Tuesday......

Signing off of Facebook for Lent: Fat Tuesday......: So, I decided after many years of not giving anything up for Lent. I decided to give up Facebook this year.  But, I still wanted to share my...

Iroquois Wildlife Refuge

Both Daniel and I got called off of work today, so we decided to check out Iroquois Wildlife Refuge again. Nicole met us and took us around.  We pulled up to where the Eagles Nest is, and no eagles around the nest.... But, Nicole and her Hawk eyes spots something flying toward us..... Two juvenile Bald Eagles over head!!!!

 So Beautiful.

We went to another location and instead of just hanging out in the car, I decided to walk around a bit.

I was in between two ponds, I was really wishing that I had two cameras to work with, My other lens' were in my car, and I really wanted to capture the beauty of the refuge, but, I can't really do that with the lens that I had on my camera for capturing the birds.  I felt so torn. I feel like I'm more of a landscape photographer, but, I love capturing wild life....  Can't do both with the same lense, but, I can't be changing lenses ever 2 minutes either.  I can kind of see me walking around with 15 pounds of camera equipment around my neck.... 2 cameras around my neck at the same time. 

Ohhhhhh Boy! 

Tundra Swans

We saw something else too flying across the road as we were parking to take pictures of the Tundra Swans.  I'm not sure what they were, but, someone got out of his car, to tell us that we just saw something very cool.   We didn't really hear what he said, just heard the excitement in his voice.  Do Dan and I remember what he said we saw..... Nope.....   They were big, and white.... I think some kind of Crane? not sure. didn't get any pictures, but, I saw them.... 

Ok..... we found out what the Cranes were....  Sandhill Crane.  I just checked out their Migration route. No wonder he was so excited.... they usually don't come into NY State at all.  So we some something very cool. No wonder he jumped out of his car to share it with us!!!!

Thanks Leah for sending me this link !!!

After we left the Refuge we took the road trip to see the Short Eared Owls.  But, they were quiet and weren't flying around.  We will try again before they migrate back for the season.

Days off spent with friends and family is Awesome.  Getting out, freezing my butt off, getting wind burn on my face, capturing G-d's creatures is amazing. It is something that makes life worth living. 

It's awesome to see the beauty around us and to capture it, and share it with others.  Like I told Lisa the other day.... Photography is kind of like a calling....  It's something that you can't explain... You feel drawn to do it, and share what you capture.  It is a fulfilling sensation.  I hope you enjoy!

Photo Adventure Fat Tuesday.....

After many years of riding though and past the  Iroquois Wildlife Refuge , I was able to go in and see the Eagles, and then a little road trip to see the Short Eared Owls.  Thanks to some special people... Lisa and Nicole Wickins for showing me around.  I can't wait to go back again soon.

Flying into view!!!

Thought that this was a cool capture of the Geese

I couldn't believe how many migrating geese that I saw.... Wow

Short Eared Owl waking up for dinner

The Short Eared Owl pictures are really grainy

it was pretty dark out, and they were really hard to 

capture. They blend in really good with everything around them. 

This was a real challenge for me