Bearing Gifts
See me. I come with my plumage all asplender and carrying the down-payment on a nest!
Of course you see a lot of nesting behavior at the St Augustine Alligator Farm rookery. This Great Egert had landed on a branch above the nest and was displaying, as well as carrying substantial offering. That is a bit unusual. Generally the male comes right into the nest with material. Maybe he and his lady had had a tiff? Or maybe she was saying “Now where am I supposed to put that thing. I mean, look at the size of it!” Sorry. It is almost impossible not to anthropomorphize when dealing with nesting birds.
Canon SX20IS at 560mm equivalent. Oddly enough, though these images were taken seconds apart, the EXIF data varies widely from f5.7 @ 1/800 @ ISO 80, to f5.7 @ 1/1250 @ ISO 125 to f8 @ 1/1250th @ ISO 250. ?? Go figure. All were close enough to correct exposure to for very similar processing in Lightroom. The first two were cropped slightly for composition.
Recovery for the highlights, Fill Light for the shadows, Blackpoint to the right slightly, added Clarity, a tiny bit of Vibrance, and Sharpen landscape preset.
From St Augustine FL 2010.
Pic of the Day 