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Spoonbill in NY

morris
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p.1 #1 · p.1 #1 · Spoonbill in NY

With the warmer climate, birds have been migrating further north. This spoonbill made it all the way to Long Island and has been summering at a pond just outside of New York City. Most of the pond is surrounded by people's homes yet there is a small public beach that I was shooting from. With my subject very far away, I used 840mm and still had to crop. It was worth it as the spoonbill is one of my faverate birds and I enjoyed this unusual experience photographing a spoonbill 30 minutes from home.

Comments and suggestions welcome,

Morris

1) This was the closest it perched

X-H2S NIKON AF-S NIKKOR 500mm f/5.6E PF ED VR + 1.7X lens 840mm f/9.0 1/680s 400 ISO -1.7 EV

2) I saw it fly three times

X-H2S NIKON AF-S NIKKOR 500mm f/5.6E PF ED VR + 1.7X lens 840mm f/9.0 1/680s 400 ISO -1.7 EV

3) Ready to land

X-H2S NIKON AF-S NIKKOR 500mm f/5.6E PF ED VR + 1.7X lens 840mm f/9.0 1/1400s 400 ISO -2.0 EV

4) NY has great drinking water

X-H2S NIKON AF-S NIKKOR 500mm f/5.6E PF ED VR + 1.7X lens 840mm f/9.0 1/1600s 400 ISO -2.0 EV

5) Preening the pink feathers

X-H2S NIKON AF-S NIKKOR 500mm f/5.6E PF ED VR + 1.7X lens 840mm f/9.0 1/2000s 400 ISO -1.7 EV

6) Spooked by a few photographers that snuck up on it

X-H2S NIKON AF-S NIKKOR 500mm f/5.6E PF ED VR + 1.7X lens 840mm f/9.0 1/1250s 400 ISO -2.3 EV

7) A cormorant as surprised as we are to see the pink bird

X-H2S NIKON AF-S NIKKOR 500mm f/5.6E PF ED VR + 1.7X lens 840mm f/9.0 1/1500s 400 ISO -2.3 EV

Sep 16, 2023 at 11:15 AM

R_o_l_o
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p.1 #2 · p.1 #2 · Spoonbill in NY

Wow, right place at the right time! Nice use of -EV too.

Rolando

Sep 16, 2023 at 11:42 AM

Tyr-Sog
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p.1 #3 · p.1 #3 · Spoonbill in NY

Awesome. Never thought those were this north!
Detail held together at that reach. Good job!

Justin

Sep 16, 2023 at 12:29 PM

Erictator
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p.1 #4 · p.1 #4 · Spoonbill in NY

Very cool! Nice pics. I like how evenly pink yours is, ours tend to be in breeding plumage when I find them with hot spots of almost magenta pink in areas near their wing pinions, probably from all the gulf shrimp in their diet when here, heh.
Eric

Sep 16, 2023 at 02:48 PM

csinseattle
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p.1 #5 · p.1 #5 · Spoonbill in NY

Morris,

Very very nice Spoonbill set, but didn't realize they went as far North as NY

Chris s.

Sep 16, 2023 at 07:57 PM

morris
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p.1 #6 · p.1 #6 · Spoonbill in NY

R_o_l_o wrote:
Wow, right place at the right time! Nice use of -EV too.

Rolando

Thank you Rolando,

It was right on the edge of darkness and made for great contrast

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Tyr-Sog wrote:
Awesome. Never thought those were this north!
Detail held together at that reach. Good job!

Justin

Thank you Justin,
It's crazy, there are Anhinga reported north of me

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Erictator wrote:
Very cool! Nice pics. I like how evenly pink yours is, ours tend to be in breeding plumage when I find them with hot spots of almost magenta pink in areas near their wing pinions, probably from all the gulf shrimp in their diet when here, heh.
Eric

Thank you Eric,
Gulf shrimp are yummy!

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csinseattle wrote:
Morris,

Very very nice Spoonbill set, but didn't realize they went as far North as NY

Chris s.

Thank you Chris,
I think this is a first

Morris

Sep 17, 2023 at 07:56 AM

bcd80
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p.1 #7 · p.1 #7 · Spoonbill in NY

This is a really neat capture. I know there have been some seen this month up the St Lawrence river valley from Quebec so it is not that unusual to be this far north. The uniformly pink coloration really catches the eye with your nice exposure control. What is most surprising is the fully pink bill on the juvenile. Really nice set of compositions even at the distance. Enjoyed.
Bruce

Sep 17, 2023 at 08:50 AM

G.E. Smith
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p.1 #8 · p.1 #8 · Spoonbill in NY

Morris - These are beautiful ! The dark backgrounds make the pink jump out. Really, really like these.

Greg

Sep 17, 2023 at 08:58 AM

IndyFab
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p.1 #9 · p.1 #9 · Spoonbill in NY

A pleasant surprise for your region, wonderful series !!

Sep 17, 2023 at 09:21 AM

dbostock
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p.1 #10 · p.1 #10 · Spoonbill in NY

Awesome images, Morris. Even with cropping there's still plenty of detail. Awesome catch.

Cheers,
David

Sep 17, 2023 at 10:25 AM

jm10
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p.1 #11 · p.1 #11 · Spoonbill in NY

Great captures Morris! Great colors and nice contrast with the background. Hard to pick a favorite here - they are all good.

jacob

Sep 17, 2023 at 11:54 AM

gcooke0522
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p.1 #12 · p.1 #12 · Spoonbill in NY

Great images, Morris. Beautiful bird.

Gord

Sep 17, 2023 at 03:54 PM

OwlsEyes
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p.1 #13 · p.1 #13 · Spoonbill in NY

Way to go Morris!...
It's amazing that a spoonbill chose to spend its summer in New Jersey, I can't imagine that this happens too often.
The first and second images are lovely.

bruce

Sep 17, 2023 at 05:34 PM

morris
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p.1 #14 · p.1 #14 · Spoonbill in NY

bcd80 wrote:
This is a really neat capture. I know there have been some seen this month up the St Lawrence river valley from Quebec so it is not that unusual to be this far north. The uniformly pink coloration really catches the eye with your nice exposure control. What is most surprising is the fully pink bill on the juvenile. Really nice set of compositions even at the distance. Enjoyed.
Bruce

Thank you Bruce,
Wow, they made it even further north. I wonder if we will have snow this winter. Hardly any last winter.

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G.E. Smith wrote:
Morris - These are beautiful ! The dark backgrounds make the pink jump out. Really, really like these.

Greg

Thank you Greg,

You have spotted me working those dark backgrounds. I was selective as it made the bird stand out.

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dbostock wrote:
Awesome images, Morris. Even with cropping there's still plenty of detail. Awesome catch.

Cheers,
David

Thank you David,

I've been amazed how much I can crop images from the X-H2s.

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jm10 wrote:
Great captures Morris! Great colors and nice contrast with the background. Hard to pick a favorite here - they are all good.

jacob

Thank you Jacob. It was a joy seeing the spoonbill so close to home

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gcooke0522 wrote:
Great images, Morris. Beautiful bird.

Gord

Thank you Gord

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OwlsEyes wrote:
Way to go Morris!...
It's amazing that a spoonbill chose to spend its summer in New Jersey, I can't imagine that this happens too often.
The first and second images are lovely.

bruce

Thank you Bruce. It was smart and flew over New Jersey and landed on Long Island. I've never heard of this happening in the past.

Morris

Sep 17, 2023 at 07:49 PM


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