I had forgotten just how tiring these national dog competitions can be. As mentioned in the previous post, we made it down here for the Canine Performance Events (CPE) Nationals being held in my hometown of Springfield, IL. Imagine a state fairgrounds stuffed to the gills .. or should I say muzzles with face lickers and tail waggers. Suspect they will have the greenest grass they’ve ever had once this is over ha! The various competitions have been going on all this week. Speedway competitions (think drag and barrel racing) and scent work led it off, but now the Big Kahunas have taken the stage with 6 concurrent agility rings in full swing. Raven did well today qualifying in 2 of his 3 runs with 6 more runs still to go over the next two days. Definitely a tough day for him as he is currently passed out between me and the keyboard – even mom is feeling pretty wiped. Ruger has been watching with intent as he hopes to be making his debut at nationals within two years (he needs more titles before he becomes eligible). We already had to get on him about trash talking some of the current competitors.
“I unplug my muzzle in your general direction, sons-of-a-puppyfarm! So, you think you could outclever us French Poodles with your silly knees bent crashing into agility bars. I’ll wave my private parts at your owners! You cheesy load of secondhand electric butt sniffers!”
While we sit Ruger down and have a discussion about sportsmanship, going to let Brad take the reins and bring you an adventure with a talented member of the birding family (and assuredly a fish trash talker as well).
Take it away Brad…
This story comes at the very end of our Upper Newport Bay Nature Preserve (UNBNP) visit. The visit to UNBNP started with Jan finding the California Thrasher (link here). I finally found her among the trails so we wandered around the upper part of the preserve for a while. After Jan and I had been walking amongst the chapparal for a couple of hours, we headed back along the crunchy pea gravel path back towards the car.
One our way out, we bumped into a nice couple, roughly the same age as Jan and I. After chatting for a while, they asked if we had seen the Osprey (Pandion haliaetus). We had not. Just then the man pointed off into the distance at a tree leaning out over the preserve lower levels, right where Jan and I were about 15 minutes ago. Roughly two hundred yards away there was a twig of a tree, with a white/black lump on the end of one of its three branches. Lo and behold there was a large bird sitting there. I zoomed in as far as I could and was able to capture this highly cropped image (not quite as good as Sam’s photos with her 500mm, visit Sam.Rappen here) of an Osprey.
Hit the jump to read more about this UNBNP encounter!
I asked how the couple knew it would be there, and they replied it always seems to sit in that tree. I then asked if the couple visited often; both said yes. They modestly added that one of the houses on the bluff near the preserve was theirs. He had worked for Oracle (with an early employee number) for many years, or decades. Since retiring a few years ago, they spent nearly every morning wandering the preserve. What a great setting, if it weren’t for John Wayne Airport only a couple of miles away.
Another plane flew overhead, causing us to pause chatting for a bit. As the plane passed, the woman pointed to the sky. The Osprey decided it had other important business to attend to and took flight.
This was the challenging part for me: panning, hand held, with a 500mm lens and trying to get the camera to focus on a solitary bird probably 75-100 yards away from me. Actually, the camera did a very nice job for what it had to work with. The still air had a slight haze that morning; smog or humidity, I really couldn’t tell.
I cranked out a few dozen photos, not knowing precisely what the camera was actually focusing on at that distance. The Osprey was far enough away that it blended into the background as far as the autofocus was concerned. Typical of wildlife, the Osprey didn’t think to give me any sort of warning so I could change the settings on the camera. I had been expecting to find birds near the ground in the brush and wasn’t counting on photographing long distances hand-held against a bright sky. That’s what Lightroom helps with. (If anyone from Adobe Lightroom wishes to sponsor Wildlife Intrigued, please contact our Legal Department.)
The trail we are standing on is roughly 100 feet above the lowest part of the preserve. The preserve is around ½ mile across at the widest part. It is made up of bluffs surrounding the lower wetlands area leading to Upper Newport Bay. The Osprey chose to fly at roughly the height of the bluffs, and nearly right down the middle of the valley. It was probably looking for a quick snack in the shallow wandering waters in the grassy area below.
Not seeing anything easy to catch and eat, the Osprey wheeled to its right and was gone in a flash, leaving us nearly speechless. Ironic that we had to travel to California to see an Osprey, when their range includes most of North America. Time to find the car and pack up the gear for the next leg of our journey.
Thank you for reading. If you want to see more Osprey photos, please visit here.
Credits:
Thanks again to Jan for proofreading and editing. Thanks to Jan for being the spotter for the long-distance photos.
Wildlife Intrigued 
Congratulations Raven. Humiliate those electric butt sniffers in your next 6 runs. Ruger’s a bit of a loaded pistol! While some dogs are Jive Walkin’, Ruger is Trash Talkin’ and Draggin’ The Line.
Beautiful Osprey photos.
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Thank you Tim. Funny how I have to travel all the way to the Coast to see birds that can be right in my back yard, so to speak.
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We have Osprey up here, also. It strange seeing them in the high desert.
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But it is fun to hear their funny accents!
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Hahaha, he doesn’t need much encouragement to let his competition know who their dealing with. “Jive talking, leavin’ them lookin’ like a dumbstruck fool” – in the end, I think everyone could have done with less Bee Gees hehehehe. Thanks for dropping in Tim, now Ruger is walking around doing the Travolta dance.
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Ruger’s like a Saturday Night Special with Saturday night fever. I had a real Saturday night special, and it was a real piece of junk. A friend who is into junky stuff felt he had to have it.
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Grandfather was the police chief of my hometown so the S.N.Ss were always around. I didn’t like them because they had the overpowered shells, shortened barrel and then they put a tiny handle on the damn thing..bad combination in my opinion – and those speed loaders work like crap with sweaty hands. Ruger prefers mags, firm grips and smooth slides and tritium sights…we do require him to have a manual safety mechanism at his age. Does your friend have Hi-Points?
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Hi-Points are too high-end for him. He had a black powder carry pistol for awhile, and then an old Russian Nagant revolver for a carry pistol. Nothing practical.
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Great captures of a beautiful bird.
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Thank you very much. I’d like to be closer to the subject next time, but I’ll take whatever I can get.
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Maybe Ruger needs to taunt them a second time. Offer a biscuit that is just wafer thin . . . ?
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Oh he was taunting a second, third, fourth time – these New York dogs apparently come with an attitude ha. Kudos for the additional Python reference!
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Did he ask if they were done with their livers yet?
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thanks for the duck you left on my jeep! hope you and your dog had a fun time at nationals. i know my toller and i did! 🙂
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You are quite welcome!! Linda and Raven definitely have a good time at nationals and came home with more ribbons that expected, although I think the heat eventually got to them towards the end – nothing like sweltering heat in the middle of a concrete jungle ha. Appreciate you dropping by and best of luck on all your future shows – and, of course, a wonderful Jeep life!
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Brad, you did a great job, keeping the focus spot on that Osprey as it sailed in front of the hills and cliffs. The hazy air gives just the right sense of depth to this long-range view. Thanks for the shout-out for my osprey post, most appreciated!
And Brian, that’s some of the best trash-talking I’ve ever heard, you may have missed your calling!
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Don’t attribute that to me, Ruger is the one that can weave a tapestry of trashing his opponents – on one hand, not very becoming, on the other paw quite hilarious to see the other competitors flee with their tail between their legs. Mom isn’t on board with this as she has to deal with the fall out from their doggy moms.
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Thank you Sam. Always good to reference other photographers, it helps me try to be a bit better at my retirement hobby. I’m not ready for the gigantic glass quite yet, I’ll stick with just the “overly large and heavy” glass at this point. We find it hard enough to fly with the big glass from our regional airport as it is. They actually tried to make me check the gear last time we flew. I blurted out, “Are you kidding me?!” We were eventually allowed to board with our camera gear, and received a very delayed apology from the airline when I mentioned it to them later.
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Interesting! And a real warning to the long-glass traveler. I haven’t tried to fly with my 600mm yet, all my trips with it have been driving trips. I’ll have to do extra research if I contemplate any regional flights in smaller aircraft – they have extremely limited carry-on space. Glad they had the grace to apologize!
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Some regional jets are no problem. The small CanadAir jets are an issue for us. Seems the further the connecting airport is away, the larger regional jet they use and the less hassle I have. Good luck. Of course, some just buy hard cases and check their gear. Intrigued’s expense structure doesn’t allow that yet. 🙂
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You want to use the corporate jet AND get a gear check allowance ?!?!
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Yes! I want my cake and be able to eat it too.
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Ha!
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Definitely do your research, we have a Pelican cases for our multiple bodies and LInda’s glass and then The Beast has its own suitcase so we have to pay the additional baggage fees when we used to travel by air – these days we go hassle free in the RV.
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I can relate – as I mentioned before when I traveled with The Beast I asked them which specific individual was going to be responsible for the 12 grand glass…it boarded with me as well ha.
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