New Sandhill Crane Families

The fossil records show that sandhill cranes were in what is known as Nebraska more than nine million year ago. There was no Platte River, which is only 10,000 years old, but the area was savanna-like. There are six subspecies of sandhill cranes, three are migatory and three are non-migratory. The Florida sandhill crane is a subspecies which is non-migratory, so we here in Florida have a chance to observe them through all of their life cycles. These cranes can live more than 25 years in the wild. They do not attain sexual maturity until they are three to five year old. When they do find a mate it is for life. Now is the time here in Florida when the nests are made, eggs are laid and the young appear. I have been fortunate so far this year to visit two families, each with two chicks, or colts, as they are called. Unfortunately, the first family I visited ended up loosing their colts to a predator. Sad, but that is the way of nature. The second, I am happy to report, is doing quite well with their two colts, and even better for they are very close to where I live. The images here are of the local family with colts that are between six and seven days old. I hope to follow my local family as the colts grow and will update my blog with new images as I capture them. To view all of my Florida Sanhill Crane family images just click here to go to my main website and Florida Sandhill Crane gallery, http://www.naturesportal.net/Florida/Sandhill-Cranes/16141615_gRLShM.








All images are copyrighted by Nancy Elwood and Naturesportal

First 2012 Trip To Blue Cypress Lake, Florida

I had decided after last seasons trip to Blue Cypress Lake, that I would start earlier and go more often the next year. Well, here it is the next year, and I made my first of what will be many trips to this lovely place February 15th. Blue Cypress Lake is located 18 miles west of Vero Beach, Florida, in Indian River County. The lake is 6,500 acres and has an average depth of 8 feet. It is also home to the origin of the St. Johns River. It gets it name from the blue appearance of the cypress trees as the morning sun's rays reflect off the water. Now, of course, what draws me and most other wildlife photographers to this place is the 300-400 nesting ospreys that gather around this time each year to the lake. It is also a major bass fishing location, which makes for fine food for the ospreys. The best way to view the lake and all its wonders is by pontoon boat. Joe and Jean Middleton, at Middleton's Fish Camp, which is on the lake, have boat rentals. One can even have Joe take you on a guided tour of the lake. They have been on the lake for over 48 years, so have some very interesting stories to tell. Here are just a few images from my first trip.

Dawn on Blue Cypress Lake



Osprey Take Off From The Nest



Osprey



A Bass Lunch



All images are copyrighted by Nancy Elwood and Naturesportal

Merritt Island Wildlife Refuge Continues to Please

So far into the new year Merritt Island Wildlife Refuge has continued to be VERY active. There has been a good population of roseate spoonbills, america avocets, eagles, and all sorts of ducks. Let me see if I can list some of the ducks in good numbers, american widgeons, northern shovelers, pintails, hooded mergansers, ring-necked, lesser scaup and blue-winged teals, oh and also mallards. This year we had a rare appearance of the horned grebe in winter, non breeding plumage. The reddish egrets are back also in great numbers along with the white morphs. The last time I was out there, I had six reddish egrets along with two white morphs fishing in front of me. Most of my visits have been along Black Point Drive, which is always a good place to start your visit. There is a new $5.00 fee per day for Black Point Drive and a few of the other roads, or a seasons pass for $15.00. Do not hesitate! It is for a good cause and is well worth it for seeing some of Florida's avian treasures!

Roseate Spoonbills



Horned Grebe- winter,nonbreeding plumage



American Avocets



Reddish Egret- White Morph


All images are copyrighted by Nancy Elwood and Naturesportal

The Dell UltraSharp U2312HM With LED Flat Panel Monitor Review

Recently my 19 inch, 6 year old, View Sonic flat panel monitor gave up the ghost, as they say. So, time to check out reviews, and get a new one. This would be my main monitor, also using a 15 inch Samsung for NX2 and Photoshop menus, mail and such. I wanted a larger one, but I thought 30 inches would be too large for my office desk setup. Definitely did not want a glossy display, but for sure wanted one with IPS, which is In Plane Switching. You ask, what in the world is this IPS? It is a technology developed in 1996 by Hitachi, but essentially it ensures color accuracy from any viewing angle. I went to one of my main sources of photography information, Naturescapes, http://www.naturescapes.net . It is a great photography forum with like minded folks that have plenty of knowledge and experience. There were a few higher priced monitors mentioned, mostly by NEC, but the more reasonably priced ones that kept coming up were Dell's UltraSharp models. Dell's UltraSharp monitors start at 22 inches and go up to 30 inches. I decided on the 23 inch one, which through Dell was $299.00. They are all wide screen. I clicked the "check out" button and awaited the little brown truck. I received it 5 days later. My husband put the stand on and said it was VERY easy to setup. It comes with VGA and DVI cables and a USB upstream cable, which enables the USB ports on the monitor, which there are four, two on the back and two on the left side. There is also a DisplayPort connector and a DC power connector for a Dell Soundbar. This monitor swivels and tilts for your best viewing angle and can also be positioned in portrait mode. I plugged it in and turned the computer on. The Windows 7 64- bit OS recognized it right away and installed the drivers without any problems. It went to the proper resolution of 1920 x 1080 without any adjustments by me. The colors seemed pretty good right out of the box, but I calibrate all my monitors with my Huey Pro, by Pantene. I did that, and noticed the Huey Pro adjusted the gamma ever so slightly. The main menus can be accessed by buttons on the bottom right of the display. There are brightness/contrast, Auto Adjust, Input Source, Color Settings- where you input RGB or YPbPr, Gamma- PC or MAC, and Preset Modes- Standard, Multimedia, Movie, Game, Text, Color Temp. or Custom Color, Display Settings, Other settings and the Personalize. Since I had used a hardware calibration, I did not adjust any of these settings. So far I am very happy with how it renders my images all through the steps of post processing. I would definitely recommend it or any of Dell's UltraSharp monitors.

Merritt Island Wildlife Refuge Very Productive In December

In the past Merritt Island Wildlife Refuge has had good activity during the months of Jan-March, but this year it started early. The ducks started to arrive, then the roseate spoonbills, avocets, reddish egrets and the like. Also, a local favorite gave us some really nice photo ops by staying in the same place, with predictable perches, a male belted kingfisher. Merritt Island Wildlife Refuge was established in 1963 and consists of 140,000 acres of water and marshes adjacent to Cape Canaveral. Today the northern half of the refuge, about 20 miles of the 35 mile long refuge is open to the public. It is well worth a visit for anyone interested in viewing some of Florida's precious wildlife! Most all of the areas are accessible by car. The most popular road is Black Point Drive. For more information about the refuge, and a map, just click on this link http://www.fws.gov/merrittisland/Index.html. Here are just a few of the species that can be found now around the refuge.

Northern Shoveler



Male Hooded Merganser



Roseate Spoonbill



Male Belted Kingfisher



All images copyrighted by Nancy Elwood and Naturesportal

A Grey But Productive Day

This past Saturday myself and a friend went on a road trip to Gainesville, Florida to visit the Butterfly Rainforest, associated with the University of Florida. It was rather an overcast day, with the sun sneaking out on occasion. We looked along the way at different small ponds and the like to see what we could find. Well, we found this rather small pond with numerous pairs of hooded mergansers. We setup with our tripods and camo, and ended up being able to get ourselves some nice images. Of the three kinds of mergansers found in North American, the red-breasted and common the others, the hooded merganser is the smallest. The other three kinds of mergansers are the Chinese, Brazilian and Auckland Islands mergansers. The Hoodie is the only merganser endemic to North America. We were able to get our shoot in before the rains came, and then we were off to the Butterfly Rainforest. Being a bit cool and a tad wet, did not make for great butterfly activity. I learned that until a butterflies body temperature reaches 100 degrees, it just does not do much flying or moving around. But, we made do and I was able to get a few images I liked.

Female Hooded Merganser



Male Hooded Merganser




Isabella's Longwing Butterfly (C)- Native to the tropical and subtropical areas of the New World




An Owl Butterfly (C)- Native to the rainforests of Mexico and Central and South America


All images are copyrighted by Nancy Elwood and Naturesportal

And The Action Continues!!

Merritt Island Wildlife Refuge is now full of ducks (northern shovelers,pintails,american wigeons and blue winged teals), roseate spoonbills, kingfishers, and the like. The trick is getting them in the right light. Black Point Drive seemed to have most of the action this past weekend. The early morning or late afternoon light is so much better! The Viera Wetlands still has numerous nesting great blue herons. The crested caracaras and bald eagles are being seen regularly catching their meals on the 100's of coots that have populated the wetlands. The early morning light proved to be wonderful for the great blue herons and feeding bald eagle. A little bit of cloud cover or darkened sky make for nice surrounds, but will force you to use higher iso's, to get enough shutter speed to catch the action. Remember the secret to using higher iso's, without the added noise, is to expose to the right of the histogram. Just dial in a bit of plus exposure compensation, either by the exposure compensation dial, if using aperture priority mode, or if using manual exposure, moving into the plus side of the exposure scale at the bottom of your view finder. Take a few test shots looking at the histogram each time to make sure the exposure is showing at least to the middle of the right side. This type of information is all included in my workshops. For more information please see my website, http://www.naturesportal.net/.








All images are copyrighted by Nancy Elwood and Naturesportal

The Activity is Heating Up!

This past weekend I was at the Viera Wetlands, located in Viera, Florida. It is one of my favorites places to photograph. This time of year the activity really gets going and it did not disappoint! The ducks haved started to arrive, as in hooded mergansers, blue winged teals and northern shovelers. The crested caracara's are back setting up their nests as are numerous pairs of great blue herons. It is also a favorite place to see american and least bitterns. There are also a couple bald eagle nests close by, so they make appearances also. Here are just a few images from the weekend.

American Bittern



Crested Caracara



Mating Pair of Great Blue Herons



All images are copyrighted by Nancy Elwood and Naturesportal

The Deland Fall Festival of the Arts

The art show that I had my booth the weekend of November 19th was in Deland, Florida. It turned out to be one of the best yet for me!! It also turned out that the National Wildlife Federation Magazine arrived in members mail boxes that weekend, showing my winning image. That turned out to be a BIG draw! Thanks for all who stopped in!! It was great meeting and chatting with everyone!

Halifax Art Festival

This past weekend was the Halifax Art Festival in Daytona Beach, Florida. A lot of folks came out to view the more than 200 artists that had been juried into the 49th year of this show. I made some great contacts and was able to chat with many very nice people. It was certainly a wonderful way to start the art show season and was the first public viewing of my winning image of a black skimmer with its chick!