I discovered the Bombay Hook National Wildlife Refuge in the summer of 2003,
after living two hundred
miles from it for nearly five years. Casual tourist guides had always
given me the impression that winter is the only time when it makes sense
to go there; at any other time, you risked being eaten alive by insects,
and it wasnt that interesting anyway. In 2003, weighed down by
(non-photographic) work but desperate to get away somewhere to shoot,
encouraged by reports of shore-bird sightings in spring, I decided to
make a trip. It was a little early for shore-birds, but I discovered
that Bombay Hook, with its marshes and impoundments, is a haven for
wading birds that feed off the fish in shallow waters. So far, among all
the wildlife refuges in the Chesapeake Bay region, this is where my
photography has been most fruitful.
The most common species here are herons and egrets (both Great White and
Snowy Egrets), which seem to be present almost all year except in winter,
with glossy ibises, avocets and stilts being common during specific
months of summer. The great blue herons seem to be the most tolerant of
human presence, and also have great personality; I imagine the egrets were
so hunted for their plumes that the nervous gene has been naturally
selected. Of course, once you get out of the car, any bird will fly.
I struggled for a long time to identify this bird; finally, from the Stokes
guide, which has pictures of both the adult and the juvenile, this seems to
be an immature Black Crowned Night Heron on its way to adulthood.
Interestingly, only once have I managed to see an adult, that too pretty
late in the day, but I have seen juveniles quite a few times, some in broad
daylight.
If you're up early and stick around late, even on overcast days, you can
get pretty interesting light effects.
Sometimes, you get the opportunity to observe a bird for a length of time,
completely absorbed in its daily tasks,
harvesting a small territory for its daily rations. To abandon
the the tiny, dim viewfinder for the bright, stereoscopic image of a
binocular is very tempting.
There is actually a fish in one of these pictures; I noticed it only recently
through a good 4x loupe while picking the slides for this page.
Did I drag this egret into my studio, set up the umbrellas and fire away
the flashes?
Very occasionally, luck and patience really come together. I was
driving along a dirt road in Bombay Hook on a quiet afternoon,
approaching one of the water-control
gates that the birds really seem to love hanging around, but where the
wheels and fences always seem to spoil the shot, when I noticed a Great
White Egret sitting atop the wheel, only a couple of feet from the edge of
the road, over to the passenger's side.
I drove past the bird for some distance and then turned the car around, and
slowly approached it, but keeping the car on the other side of the road.
After securing the best shots that I could from there, I slowly drove the
car over
to the bird's side. I was happily clicking away, hardly taking my eyes
off the viewfinder except to change rolls, when at one point I realized
that a Snowy Egret had settled much closer to me;
then a few minutes later there
were a couple more Great Egrets, this time plumb in the middle of the road
right in front of the car! I felt accepted.
It's easy to be a Photoshop wizard if you have a nice smooth background.
It was getting late in the long summer evening, I was wondering if I
should be heading back to negotiate the length of the New Jersey Turnpike,
when I noticed this egret fishing along the edge of the water.
For the next half
hour, till it almost got too dark to shoot, I'd shoot a few frames, the
bird would move along parallel to the road,
I'd start the car, roll a few yards along with it, switch off the engine,
take a few shots, then move along again with the bird... it seemed to
completely ignore my presence and was totally undisturbed by the sound
of the ignition going off and on.
i am SO delighted with the beautiful photograph of the egret (I think it's an egret!) I bought from you in Montauk and so glad you sent me the postcard re: the show in Armonk this weekend. I'm going to try to make it and have already invited my sister so we'll see. In the meantime I'm so glad I have your website information. You are an amazing photographer and I am one of your biggest fans. (You should see how beautiful your photograph looks - I had it framed and it is gorgeous!!!)
