Nunnington Natural Images

Osprey chasing Turkey Vulture. Flamingo Marina, Everglades National Park, Florida.

Action photography is always something I have been drawn to, and particularly raptors in flight. The Everglades National Park is really Osprey heaven. There are roughly 20-25 pairs of Ospreys in the Flamingo area, and many have their nests close to the shoreline, for ready access to the abundance of Florida Bay. Ospreys are remarkable in many ways; one fortunately is that for a large raptor, they are remarkably tolerant of humans. Vultures are another story, however, and the ever present vultures eventually annoy either of the nesting osprey parents into a chase. The vultures often appear to deliberately provoke the ospreys by gliding within a few feet of the nest, and then just take off with the angry osprey parent close behind. Unlike other smaller raptors, I have never seen an osprey actually strike a vulture with deadly intent in their mid air combat displays. Like most images involving a chase, it is difficult to have both animals in focus at the same time, particularly with the narrow depth of field available when using a long telephoto lens and teleconverter. Another problem is on which of the birds do you hold the AF sensor to achieve the maximum sharpness? One trick I have learned is to use the AF stop buttons on the lens and camera back – particularly when the birds are flying parallel to me. As they are not rapidly moving out of the zone of sharpness; once the AF has locked on, I use the AF stop button to hold the focus, then recompose as I am panning (to ensure both birds are in the frame) and then release the shutter. After a single frame or a short burst – I then engage the AF again, and repeat the process if there is still an opportunity.

Image available as a Limited Edition Print.

Snowy Egret “walking on water”. Everglades National Park, Florida

This year Mrazek Pond in the Everglades actually had some water, and there were plenty of birds making good use of the fish fry (as were several gators).

I am always drawn to action photography and managed to catch the reflection just at peak action as the bird is flinging water droplets off its beak after unsuccessfully trying to grab a fish. For me, the image is all about the symmetry of the water droplets and their reflection. For shots such as this, a high shutter speed of 1/1600 sec or faster is required to freeze the action.

Image can be purchased as an Open Edition Print.

Peregrine Falcon administering the coup de grâce to a laughing gull. Flamingo Marina, Everglades National Park, Florida.

As a photographer I believe you make our own luck. This can be through knowledge of your subject, technical skills, or just putting in the time in a location and being prepared. The latter was more important when the opportunity to capture some unusual behavior with a peregrine falcon and a laughing gull (although at the risk of stating the obvious – the demeanor of the gull is anything but humorous!). I had just finished photographing brown pelicans at close range diving for fish at Flamingo Marina. This had been my third session with the pelicans, and I had spent quite some considerable time around the marina over the last three days. On my walk back to the parking area, I felt a dull blow to my shoulder and something flashed past in my peripheral vision. The falcon had landed a few feet away and was pinning down the gull – trying to administer a killing blow. Fortunately, I still had a 300 f2.8 lens attached to a body around my shoulder. Backing off several yards (to lower the chances of the falcon abandoning her food) I dropped to near ground level to obtain a better perspective. I knew as soon as the falcon had killed the gull, she would take off again. I managed to take about 10 frames with different expressions of both birds – then she was gone with the now dead gull. It was interesting to see the power as she took off with a dead weight of maybe a third to a half of her own weight – almost effortlessly. Afterwards, I realized what had happened- the falcon had struck the gull with insufficient velocity (probably from a low altitude) to kill it outright – as would normally happen. The struggling gull was large enough that the falcon could not control her flight – and I just happened to be in the way!

This image may be purchased as an Open Edition Print.