Welcome Home…
Beautiful osprey fly-by in New Smyrna Beach. Nikon Z9 with Z 180-600 Zoom at 250 mm, 1/2500 sec, F/7/1, ISO 800
Could it be Ozzie???
Our living quarters for the winter is a 7th floor condo unit overlooking the beautiful Atlantic Ocean. The temperatures in Florida were unseasonably cold last week and the water lost what little heat it had to the overlying air. Apparently, the fish responded by moving out into warmer water. The local fishermen had been doing quite well in the surf through much of January but last week they were all complaining about the lack of action. The ospreys were obviously not pleased with the conditions either as they were few and far between when we first arrived.
Things took a dramatic change for the better, however, as the air temps rose over the last few days into the 80 degree range. I takes a while for water to absorb heat from the air, but sure enough, the fishing picked up and the ospreys reappeared. Over the past years, we’ve gotten accustomed to having these marvelous “fish hawks” soaring right in front of our abode making for wonderful photo-ops. Today, they were back as if to welcome us home. In the bright early afternoon sunshine, their yellow eyes glow as they cruise by searching the shallows for an unsuspecting whiting or “sail-cat”. After I had photographed this fine specimen and was busy at the computer downloading the images, my wife called my attention to another bird flying by with a fairly large fish in its talons. Wrong place at the wrong time for me I guess.
Over the past few years, we’ve gotten used to calling the local osprey “Ozzie” and we wondered if this could be the same bird. Of course, birds have wings and the one we saw today may have been up in Daytona yesterday or perhaps down in Cape Canaveral. But it is fun to imagine that this is “our” Osprey. Welcome back “Ozzie”
Tech Tip - Zoom or Prime lens? Which is best for quality photos of birds in flight? It has long been accepted that “Prime” lenses, those with one fixed focal length, provided photographers with the sharpest images with the least flare and color aberration. While that is still probably true to a degree, newer zoom lenses now provided stunning clarity and limited distortion. The reason I prefer zoom lenses with moving targets like flying birds is that you can start off with a lower focal length (100 - 200 mm for example) and then zoom into a higher length for more of a close-up shot. When birds are in flight, it can be difficult to get the subject in the frame is you are already zoomed way in on the bird….more magnification means a smaller field of view. So start with that wider field, get the bird in the field of view, and then zoom in for the shot. For a more in-depth view of the differences between zooms and primes or wildlife, click on the button below.
