Wilson’s Storm-Petrel, Oceanitis oceanicus, is very common in east coast waters. Less common but regularily seen are Leach’s and Band-rumped, and the White-faced which is very rare. Very widespread, and commonly feeds around the slicks of ships. While members of the Storm-Petrel family all have a habit of pattering with their feet on the surface of the sea, this species is especially prone to it.
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Comstock Covered Bridge, Vermont
When Built: 1883
Builders: Sheldon and Savannard Jewett
Description: An 60 foot span over the Trout River on Comstock Bridge Road, just off Highway 118 near Montgomery
 Comstock Covered Bridge, Vermont |
 Comstock Covered Bridge, Vermont |
This is part of a series on Vermont’s Covered Bridges. You can find an index here.
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Manx Shearwater, Puffinus puffinus, a small shearwater told from Audubon’s Shearwater by light under tail coverts as well as a pale crescent behind dark auriculars. It is also proportionally longer winged and shorter tailed than Audubon’s. Less common of the two in this area. The bird was originally named Manx because it was found on a small island off of the Isle of Mann.
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Sooty Shearwater, Puffinus griseus, breeds on sub-Antarctic islands but disperses widely. For an interesting report on their marathon migrations, see here.
An all dark upper plumage with underparts showing a varying lighter flash. The Short-tailed Shearwater is very similar but this species hasn’t been recorded on the east coast.
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Cory’s Shearwater , Calonectris diomedea , is the most common of the larger shearwater species seen on Carolina pelagics. It is characterized by a brownish appearance on the upper parts. primarily white underparts and with a long yellowish bill tipped black. It will often closely approach and follow ships. Found in the north and south Atlantic plus a portion of the eastern Indian ocean. A Mediterranean subspecies is sometimes considered a separate species,known as Cape Verde Petrel or Scopoli’s Shearwater. It is a bit smaller than the nominate species, and with care, may be picked out. It should be looked for on Carolina pelagics.
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Yesterday I posted some images of these boathouses from Port Rowan. I mentioned that I had fixed the prospective. Above is the original with buildings on a slant towards the edge of the frame. This is due to the nature of how light hits the sensor or film through a standard lens. There are Tilt/Shift lens designed to correct this problem but they are not in most people’s camera bags.
While often the whole image is selected for correction, we are just going to work with the buildings. First we give ourselves room to work with by adding canvas all around the image (Image 2).
Then we use the Rectangle Marquee tool to select the portion above the post. If we right click on the selected portion, we can choose “Free Transform” from the menu, and another right-click allows us to choose “Skew”. We now grab the corner handles on the selection at each top corner and drag them inward, and drag the bottom handles outward, until the side of the buildings are vertical (Image 3). When satisfied, double-click or press enter.
We crop the image to eliminate the border and do a bit of touch ups like cloning in the small empty triangles from the corrected portion and are image is ready (See final image below)
This tutorial is a part of the Photoshop Workflow Series
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Port Rowan Boathouses
In Port Rowan, Ontario, this interesting set of boathouses lines the tiny harbor, and makes an attractive subject. A touch of HDR treatment brings out more of the color and texture.
The biggest problem faced in processing was correcting the prospective, with the lens I used the houses were tipping towards the sides of the frame. In tomorrow’s post, I’ll give you a tutorial on Fixing Perspective in Photoshop.
 Port Rowan Boathouses |
 Port Rowan Boathouses |
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Salton Sea Sunset
The Salton Sea is a large inland sea in southern California of high salinity. It was created after diversion schemes on the Colorado River ran into a major flood in 1905. This flooding event continued for two years resulting in millions of gallons of water pouring into the area which is the current Salton Sea.
It has become a major wintering area for many bird species. These include Western Sandpiper, Marbled Godwit, Willet, Long-billed Dowitcher, Red-necked Phalarope, Black-necked Stilt and American Avocet.
One of my favorite species was Burrowing Owl, which can be found by checking out the banks of the irrigation ditches which line the roads.Also found in the surrounding fields are White-faced Ibis, Cattle and Great Egret, and Wood Stork.
 Burrowing Owl |
 Burrowing Owl |
In the drier areas you may see Western Kingbirds, Gambel’s Quail, and Abert’s Towhee.
The Yellow-footed Gull is rarely found anywhere else in the U.S. but here.
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Immature Great Blue Heron, Ardea herodias
I came across this first year Great Blue Heron with an interesting fishing technique. He had stationed himself along a quiet pool by a fast stream with a rock bottom. The usual method of plunging the bill would probably result in an injury in this circumstance but it had found a solution by moving to shepherd small fish into the shallow portion where it then just picked them up and ate them.
This bird show as an immature with its all black cap, darker areas on the face and less developed feathers on the chest. See the image of an adult just below for a comparison. You can also see the beginnings of the adult head plumes. See also the image at the bottom.
Adult Great Blue Heron, Ardea herodias
Immature Great Blue Heron, Ardea herodias
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American Pipit, Anthus rubescens
This small bird is seen in my area of southern Ontario in migration, usually singly in spring and sometimes in large number in fall. It breeds in the arctic and mountain areas and winters in the southern portions of North America.
It was previously known as the Water Pipit and grouped with Anthus spinoletta of Eurasia but the three North American subspecies as well as one Asiatic, were split into a separate species.
The images shown are from a flock working a newly plowed field here in Ontario.
 American Pipit, Anthus rubescens |
 American Pipit, Anthus rubescens |
 American Pipit, Anthus rubescens |
 American Pipit, Anthus rubescens |
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