Figure 1 – Yellow rumped warbler, Fresh Pond Reserve, Cambridge, MA, April 23, 2015, (c) DE Wolf 2015.

On Thursday (April 22) and Friday (April 23) I saw my first warblers of the year at Fresh Pond Reserve. Warblers are not necessarily closely related to one another.  The name means one who warbles, a singer or songster.  And it is for their songs that bird lovers so anxiously await them each spring.  They can be a challenge to the photographer as they move quickly and like to hide in bushes and scrub.  I have decided that the best way to go after photographs of small birds is to use my 70 to 200 mm which is highly mobile and doesn’t interfere with my walks, but that invariably requires a lot of cropping, which can sacrifice resolution. So it is a challenge, but a fun one.

I am quite pleased with the way that Figure 1 of a yellow rumped warbler – Setophaga coronata – came out.  He gave in to patience and due diligence on my part.  He was against the dreaded white sky.  But fortunately, there were some blotches of blue, so ultimately pleasing.

On the other hand I remain dissatisfied with Figure 2, which shows a palm warbler – Setophaga palmarum.  He was just too fast and too hidden to get a really good shot at.  This will have to do as my species example until I get a better one.  I compromised by not cropping too tightly, in that way to retain a reasonable level of sharpness.

Figure 2 – Palm warbler, Fresh Pond Reserve, Cambridge, MA, April 22, 2015. (c) DE Wolf 2015.

Figure 1 – Canon T2i with EF70-200mm f/4L USM lens hand-held at 81 mm, ISO 1600, Aperture-Priority AE mode at 1/3200th sec at f/9.0 with +1 exposure compensation.

Figure 2 – Canon T2i with EF70-200mm f/4L USM lens hand-held at 200 mm, ISO 1600, Aperture-Priority AE mode at 1/2000th sec at f/9.0 with no exposure compensation.

Figure 1 – Tree swalloow at nesting box, Fresh Pond Reserve, Cambridge, MA, April 21, 2015. (c) DE Wolf 2015.

This past week has been truly remarkable on Fresh Pond.   Slaves to an ancient schedule, the migratory birds have been returning, species by species. I have seen my first hooded merganser, Lophodytes cucullatus, a lone male out on the pond. On Wednesday (April 21) I was delighted to see tree swallows (Tachycineta bicolor) dive bombing in tremendous haste across the two ponds, and it made me wonder how it would ever be possible to photograph such a graceful but fast bird in flight. A note of natural history – the tree swallow is a long distance commuter. It winters in Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean.  It migrates thousand of miles in great flocks to its breeding grounds along the Atlantic coast of North America. Well nature was about to teach me a thing or two about photographing birds.  I walked further down the path and was dazzled by the iridescent bird inspecting nesting box Number 5.  I was maybe 10 meters away, took out my camera armed with my 70 to 200 mm zoom and started photographing, while I stepped ever closer.  The result is Figure 1, and the only problem here was the man-made habitat.  It was as if this was the address Number 5, Fresh Pond Lane, in case you wanted to send letters to this finely feathered fellow.

Figure 2 – Tree swallow, Fresh Pond Reserve, Cambridge, MA, April 21, 2015. (c) DE Wolf 2015.

I moved on and a while later noticed that these swallows take rests in the trees.  Trees at the edge of the water represent two things I don’t like: invariably because of the protective fencing the distance is too great for even 200 mm, and inevitably you’re shooting into a sky while forced to use positive exposure compensation to be able to get the details on the bird.  Still I got Figure 2, which I like because of the pose that the bird is taking – not just sitting there and chirping.

Then it occurred to me that if I waited long enough the swallow would take flight.  Now this is a photographic crap shoot. Unlike the instantaneous response of the Leica M3 of my youth, digital SLRs tend to be slow to respond and clunky. There is a long time between shutter press and actual exposure.  And many times that I have tried this only the birds tail feathers remain in the image.  But this time it worked. I could see immediately on review that he was squarely in the right hand side of the image.  The result is Figure 3.  I love the beautiful transparency and corrugation of the wings and the way that the feet are pressed up against the bird’s body – landing gear up!

Figure 3 – Tree swallow in flight, Fresh Pond, Reserve, Cambridge, MA, April 21, 2015. (c) DE Wolf 2015.

Figure 1 – Canon T2i with EF70-200mm f/4L USM lens hand-held at 172 mm, ISO 3200, Aperture-Priority AE mode at 1/640th sec at f/9.0 with + 1 exposure compensation.

Figure 2 – Canon T2i with EF70-200mm f/4L USM lens hand-held at 200 mm, ISO 1600, Aperture-Priority AE mode at 1/4000th sec at f/9.0 with no exposure compensation.

Figure 3 – Canon T2i with EF70-200mm f/4L USM lens hand-held at 176 mm, ISO 1600, Aperture-Priority AE mode at 1/4000th sec at f/9.0 with no exposure compensation.

Figure 1 – Fresh Pond puppy, Ellie. (c) DE Wolf 2015.

Recently, dear friend and loyal reader Jane posted a comment to one of my blogs which was to the effect, “enough with the birdies and the cats how about some dog pictures?” It is certainly the case that I have a preference for furry friends of the feline purrsuasion. Dogs are way too accommodating. Cats must be won over. A dog can usually be won over with a biscuit. This is not to say that I have anything against dogs.  the Fresh Pond Reserve is a dog’s paradise and there are so many of them on any given day.  I have, in fact, made it my business to befriend as many of them as possible. The City of Cambridge allows them to run off leash if they have a current City of Cambridge dog license, and you can walk up to three dogs at a time.  Fresh Pond even has a little beach for the dogs, not on the main reservoir but on axillary Little Fresh Pond. Anyway,

In addition to the dogs there are the dog walkers, and you get to know them as well. There is this nice young fellow, a professional dog-walker, named Max, who by serendipity has only white dogs as clientele.  Recently he expanded his business and can now be seen in the company of a precocious black dog named Luca.

The thing about dogs is if you once greet them they are your friend for life.

“Woof! – how you doing?”

“Woof! – don’t pet him, pet me.”

“Woof! – no I mean it, pet me!”

“Woof – how about a cold, soggy, nose, and a slobbering tongue?”

“Woof – haha, bet you have no idea where this nose has been.”

“Woof, – got any treats in that camera bag?”

“Woof – hey do I smell cat?”

“Woof, woof, woof.”

So anyway, Figure 1 is a woof for Jane.  Her name is Ellie.  Being a Cambridge dog, Ellie is kind of an intellectual.

“Woof – photograph me. I suggest in black and white.”

Woof, woof – maybe with a warm sepia tone, not over wrought.”

At least I’m pretty sure that she said over-wrought.

Figure 1 – The pensive little man in the pansy. Acton, MA. (c) DE Wolf 2015.

I don’t what to seem like a broken record, but I posted about Pansies last May. So I am seeking an indulgence from my readers for repetition. “… there are pansies, they’re for thought.” Those are Ophelia’s words from Shakespeare’s Hamlet and they remind us of the medieval association of the flower “pansy” with thought.  The English name pansy comes from the French word pensée “thought.”  It was imported into Late Middle English as a name of for certain violets in the mid-15th century.  The why lies in the flower itself, the face of a little thoughtful man.  To me it resembles more a thoughtful lion, especially when, as in Figure 1, the pansy is yellow or orange.

But, and here’s the significance, every spring when I see pansies of whatever color, I look for that little face, the little thoughtful man.  That instantly reminds me of Hamlet, always one of my favorites, and of visits to the Cloisters in New York City growing up where they have this wonderful Shakespeare Garden of all the plants mention in his plays. So please indulge my repetition and enjoy the face of the lion.

Figure 1 – Canon T2i with EF70-200mm f/4L USM lens hand-held at 81 mm, ISO 400, Aperture-Priority AE mode at 1/640th sec at f/11.0 with +1 exposure compensation

Figure 1 – The chartreuse moment – willows leafing out, April 2015. (c) DE Wolf 2015.

It is April. It is New England. For the last couple of weeks I have been eying the willows.  Even before the snow melted there were signs of life in their buds. They are the first to leaf in spring and the last to drop their leaves in the fall.  I caught this pair yesterday.  They are harbingers of a very special moment among the seasons.  Trees do not just turn green. First there is a short, chromatically warm, and spectacular season of chartreuse. And even today the color of this pair of willows is just a bit more mundane shade of green.

Figure 1 – Canon T2i with EF70-200mm f/4L USM lens hand-held at 81 mm, ISO 400, Aperture-Priority AE mode at 1/400th sec at f/18.0 with – 1 exposure compensation.