Sunday, January 04, 2009

Florida Whooping Crane



Through searching the internet I learned that the endangered Whooping Cranes are frequently sighted along Joe Overstreet Rd. Upon arriving at the boat launching/camping area on my first visit I noticed a gentleman with a Canon 500mm L lens set up on a tripod pointing towards an area of trees with cattle and cattle feeders underneath.

He kindly pointed out that he was photographing the Whooping Cranes that were mixed in the Sandhill Cranes around the feeders. Although the distance was quite far for my 100-400 I was still able to capture a decent image of the large white bird. The smaller gray cranes in this photograph are the Sandhills.

During my stay the Whooping Cranes would fly into this feeding area each morning after sunrise and could be viewed most any time of day feeding around the cattle feeders.



9 comments:

Anonymous said...

That's pretty cool. I've never seen a whooping crane before. I've seen Great Egrets hang around goats before, but never cranes. Fun.

gina said...

this is wonderful...i love that big ole tree with the pretty spanish moss!! gives the whole photo a wonderful atmosphere.

Ruth's Photo Blog said...

Wow,those Whooping Cranes are quite the spectacular bird.Thanks for the info regarding lenses.
Blessings,Ruth

SAPhotographs (Joan) said...

How lucky to get pictures of them Coy.

Richard said...

Love how you got the Whooping Crane with the cow. Great shot to show a comparison on the size.

Leedra said...

Great mixture with the cattle. Never seen a Whooping Crane, and only a Sandhill once. Did get a photo of the Sandhill or I wouldn't know what it was.

AphotoAday said...

Hey, good job at 400mm...
And yeah, that 500mm L would be nice, but who has that kind of money?

Gauri Gharpure said...

The tree and the black cow give something imposing to the landscape.. kind of balance the fragile sight of the birds.. especially the tree, i am completely taken by it..

This Is My Blog - fishing guy said...

Salty: I love the photo, nicely done.