September 7: Bird is the Word — Shutter Sights Photography

As I mentioned, I was blown away by how difficult bird photography is. Mark Thomas, the photographer who guided our tour, was very blunt: “If you shoot in an automatic mode, you will miss the shot every time.” So he would have the boat drivers line all the boats up so that everyone could get a clear shot, and then he would call out the manual settings he wanted us to use. Our results on Day 2 were markedly better….

Note: I have put these photos in a particular order to give you a feel for the “story” of photographing birds of prey. I didn’t actually shoot them in this order, and it’s not the same individual bird in every frame of a sequence—but you get the idea….

Black-collared hawk ©️APaige Baker, 2019 — Black-collared hawk
*©️APaige Baker, 2019*

“Attack launched” Black-collared hawk ©️APaige Baker, 2019 — “Attack launched”
Black-collared hawk
*©️APaige Baker, 2019*

“Empty-handed” Black-collared hawk talons ©️APaige Baker, 2019 — “Empty-handed”
Black-collared hawk talons
*©️APaige Baker, 2019*

“Success!” Black-collared hawk retrieving a piranha ©️APaige Baker, 2019 — “Success!”
Black-collared hawk retrieving a piranha
*©️APaige Baker, 2019*

The following photos are my favorites of the “birds-in-flight” photos I took. A professional bird photographer would have captured the whole bird, but I think these images are more powerful without the entire bird in the frame. YMMV.

Black-collared hawk talons clutching a piranha ©️APaige Baker, 2019 — Black-collared hawk talons clutching a piranha
*©️APaige Baker, 2019*

It’s hard to believe that Cocoi herons can go from sitting in a tree and looking so regal …..

Cocoi heron ©️APaige Baker, 2019 — Cocoi heron
*©️APaige Baker, 2019*

…to looking like the most awkward, skinny teenagers you’ve ever seen when they decide to go fishing. (FTR, this is not a good photograph. I cut off the bird’s left wing. But it makes me laugh every time I look at it, so I really don’t care.)

This is my other favorite shot. Click on this one to make it bigger and then take a close look at the bird’s face. I wish I could concentrate like that!

“Eye of the Storm” Cocoi heron ©️APaige Baker, 2019 — “Eye of the Storm”
Cocoi heron
*©️APaige Baker, 2019*

I included this photo of a ringed kingfisher diving for one reason only—I captured it.

Mark kept trying to get a pic of a kingfisher diving but he wasn’t successful. They are so incredibly fast, and they are small—so they are in and out of the water before you can even get your camera focused. It was pure luck that I got this one, but a good shot would show its face, not its tail feathers.

Ringed kingfisher ©️APaige Baker, 2019 — Ringed kingfisher
*©️APaige Baker, 2019*

Sometimes motion blur is not such a bad thing…..

Roadside hawk ©️APaige Baker, 2019 — Roadside hawk
*©️APaige Baker, 2019*

Amazon kingfisher ©️APaige Baker, 2019 — Amazon kingfisher
*©️APaige Baker, 2019*

If you look closely, you can see that this Anhinga has an injury on its neck…

Anhinga ©️APaige Baker, 2019 — Anhinga
*©️APaige Baker, 2019*

Jabiru storks look like something out of a cartoon! Just don’t stand under a tree where one is nesting. You will find out pretty quickly that they only look like cartoon birds…

Jabiru stork ©️APaige Baker, 2019 — Jabiru stork
*©️APaige Baker, 2019*

These two sat and stared at each other for a few minutes. Then the caracara capitulated and flew away.

“Face Off” Southern crested caracara and Jabiru stork ©️APaige Baker, 2019 — “Face Off”
Southern crested caracara and Jabiru stork
*©️APaige Baker, 2019*

In addition to the birds….

There were these giant spider webs! I never saw the spider that created that incredible web, but it must be the size of a basketball!

Spider web ©️APaige Baker, 2019 — Spider web
*©️APaige Baker, 2019*

And there were capuchin monkeys…

Capuchin monkey ©️APaige Baker, 2019 — Capuchin monkey
*©️APaige Baker, 2019*

And these terrifying Giant River Otters. Sea otters are small and cute. The Portuguese name for these guys means “river wolf,” and it fits. They look as if they would rip your heart out and eat it in front of you. And that’s AFTER they gang up on a jaguar and basically tell it to piss off. (We saw this happen.) They scared the living daylights out of me. You’ll understand better when you see the photos from later in the trip….