These photos were taken over a few hours at the Marine Nature Study Area in Oceanside on Long Island. It's a fantastic place for bird photography as you can get exceptionally close to many of the birds.
The last two photos are of Earl, possibly the oldest Great egret at 25 years while the typical lifespan is 15 years with captive ones sometimes living to 22 years. Earl is very friendly and flies or walks over to humans he knows. He is also best friends with a Snowy egret and they are frequently seen fishing together. Earl seems to understand some english and one time when I asked him "Where is Mike?" he looked across the preserve and directly at Mike, the parks manager. Amazingly Earl is a migratory bird and as we suspect this healthy looking old man has a similar set of friends someplace in the South.
Comments and suggestions welcome,
Morris
1) Tree Swallow
X-H2SXF500mmF5.6 R LM OIS WR lens500mmf/5.61/3800s800 ISO0.0 EV
2) Yellow-crowned Night Heron just before a storm
X-H2SXF500mmF5.6 R LM OIS WR lens500mmf/5.61/3000s800 ISO-0.3 EV
3) Muskrat
X-H2SXF500mmF5.6 R LM OIS WR lens500mmf/5.61/1800s800 ISO0.0 EV
4) Osprey with fish and kelp
X-H2SXF500mmF5.6 R LM OIS WR lens500mmf/5.61/5000s800 ISO0.0 EV
5) Earl, the Great egret
X-H2SXF500mmF5.6 R LM OIS WR lens500mmf/5.61/6400s800 ISO-1.3 EV
6) Purple martin
X-H2SXF500mmF5.6 R LM OIS WR + 1.4x lens700mmf/8.01/2000s800 ISO+0.7 EV
7) Earl, the Great egret waiting at the edge of the parking lot at closing
X-H2SXF500mmF5.6 R LM OIS WR + 1.4x lens700mmf/8.01/15000s1600 ISO-1.7 EV
