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This Week at the lake – 48/52

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48 Weeks in and I get my first hawk photos of this project (not counting the occasional fly over). I believe this is a juvenile Red Tailed Hawk. I’ve been wanting to get a shot of one of these for so long! It was very cold on Thursday but I decided to visit the lake on my lunch break anyway. My fingers nearly froze while I was watching this guy but I got some shots before having to get back to work. The top photo is in HDR, the others are not.

I thought this one was kind of cool…

And here are a couple shots from Wednesday mornings sunrise:

And that’s it for the week!

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All of the “This Week at the Lake” photos are available for purchase as fine art prints and a portion of the proceeds will be donated to the Friends of Radnor Lake! Send me an email for more info (m_macgregor@comcast.net)

This Week at the Lake – 47/52

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More snow in middle Tennessee!? We’ve had quite the winter so far. I haven’t lived in this area for long but even I know that this much snow is pretty unusual. Tuesday night into Wednesday morning we got more snow so I headed out to Radnor Lake. I got the above shot before anyone else messed up the snow on the deck by putting footprints all over it!

Other shots from the snowy morning:
Caught these bucks in a battle to the death! OK, not really. They were more just kind of playing I guess. It never looked real intense and it certainly didn’t last very long!

I really liked the framing of the trees here and cold tones.

More random texture work

I haven’t gotten a shot of this stream at all during this project. This is downstream from the dam.

I went back to the lake on my lunch break to try to get more snowy shots:

Saw this deer about to cross the road as I leaving to go back to work. I got out and ready just in time! (I wish that sign was a “Deer Xing” sign)

I also went on Monday when I got these Deer shots:

And just to say I saw the owl again, here is a shot from Friday:

And that’s it for the week!

Thanks for looking!

Check out all the previous weeks by Clicking HERE

Don’t miss a week! Subscribe to this blog and you will receive an email every time I post something new!

Malcolm MacGregor Photography is on Facebook, check it out and become a fan!

All of the “This Week at the Lake” photos are available for purchase as fine art prints and a portion of the proceeds will be donated to the Friends of Radnor Lake! Send me an email for more info (m_macgregor@comcast.net)

This Week at the Lake – 46/52

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That’s pretty much how this entire week looked – Dark, cloudy, rainy/snowy, cold….

Because of all the rain, I was only able to visit Radnor Lake twice this week. I went Wednesday morning, and Friday mid-day.

Wednesday morning was very dark and rainy so I was only able to get a couple shots, the one above and this one:

Finally the sun broke out briefly on Friday so I headed to the lake on my lunch break. Of course, I ran into the owl again! I believe this is the same one as last week because they were in the same area. This time, however, he was not very active. It was mid-day and very cold. He found a spot in the sun and was just sitting tight:

While watching this owl, I saw another bird that I’ve only seen one other time at the lake. I have no idea what it is but it looks pretty awesome. This time, I actually got a shot of him:

Anyone know what this is??? He’s fairly large, probably about the size of a blue jay.

Also got a shot of this little snow covered ceder:

Got this on the way back to the car

I’m sure not many people go to Radnor Lake and take a photo of the equipment in the parking lot, but hey, I thought it looked cool!

And that’s it for the week!

Thanks for looking!

Check out all the previous weeks by Clicking HERE

Don’t miss a week! Subscribe to this blog and you will receive an email every time I post something new!

Malcolm MacGregor Photography is on Facebook, check it out and become a fan!

All of the “This Week at the Lake” photos are available for purchase as fine art prints and a portion of the proceeds will be donated to the Friends of Radnor Lake! Send me an email for more info (m_macgregor@comcast.net)

This Week at the Lake – 45/52

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One of my favorite weeks of this entire project! I have so many photos to share!

We got some snow in middle Tennessee again this week. Sunday night/Monday morning we had several inches of snow fall. The roads were terrible first thing in the morning but I couldn’t stand to see all the snow falling out the window – I had to go! It took me almost an hour and a half to get to Radnor Lake that morning (usually would take 45 minutes), but it was worth every second. I finally made it and headed out down the lake trail. Unlike the snow pictures from Week 41, there was no sun. The skies were dark and it was still snowing off and on. I first headed to the edge of the lake to get a snowy lake scene:

Then headed back to the trail. I told myself I was going to get more shots of snowy land and lakescapes this time since I didn’t get any last time. Right after crossing the dam, I got this shot:

As soon as I heard there might be snow, I new I wanted to get a shot of an owl in the snow. I’ve gotten shots of the owls at Radnor Lake in all the other seasons, now I needed winter so I was really hoping to see one this morning. Well, it didn’t take long. Right after I took the shot above, I saw a barred owl sitting on a tree limb! I saw he was getting ready to fly, so I got the camera set for some fast shots thinking that may be my only chance! Little did I know that he would put on quite a show for me for the next 60 minutes!
Here he is leaving his original perch:

He quickly landed on another tree branch. I could tell right away that he was actively hunting! I have never seen an owl so active. He flew from branch to branch scanning the ground all around. Then he saw something:

This attempt resulted in no food, but he didn’t give up! Off he goes to find another perch:

This time he dives pretty close to the walking path but he was behind some heavy brush. I actually crouched down and crawled down the path and peeked around a tree looking for a better view. As soon as I peeked around the tree, I saw him toss back and swallow an entire mouse. By the time I raised the camera, the mouse was gone and he turned to look at me:

Back up to a tree:

He then went to a tree that was a little far for my 200mm (remember, at Radnor Lake you are not allowed to leave the path). I was so excited about the shot I just got that I was about to just leave and let him be. I also figured that, since he had caught a mouse, he would find a good resting spot and settle down. I was wrong! As I got up to leave, he flew to another tree that was right on the path and was still looking around for more to eat:

He dives again but comes up empty again. Head to a new spot:

Again he dives. This time in clear view of me. As soon as he dives, I drop straight to the ground to get a ground level shot:

You can see how he flattened out his wings on the ground to try to trap the mouse. It worked, he headed up to a tree with a large mouse in his mouth:
From there I watched him swallow the entire mouse again.

Then he flies right to a tree that I’m standing under!

He dives from that spot and is now on the ground probably only six feet from me! He’s keeping an eye on me this time so I can’t drop to the ground because I’m afraid it will scare him off. So I grabbed these shots from a standing position:
(For you photographers, this was only at 110mm and not cropped – to give you an idea of how close he was)

He ate another large mouse and headed up to a tree. By then, I had been there for an hour and had over 150 photos. I finally decided to head on.

I went ahead and took the lake trail and Otter Creek Rd all the way back around. Grabbing these shots along the way:

All of these shots were from Monday morning. I was able to go again Wednesday morning, and sure enough, in almost the same spot:

But this time it was much earlier in the day. I had to use a tripod to get this shot, so there would be no chasing him around again!

And that’s it for the week!

Thanks for looking!

Check out all the previous weeks by Clicking HERE

Don’t miss a week! Subscribe to this blog and you will receive an email every time I post something new!

Malcolm MacGregor Photography is on Facebook, check it out and become a fan!

All of the “This Week at the Lake” photos are available for purchase as fine art prints and a portion of the proceeds will be donated to the Friends of Radnor Lake! Send me an email for more info (m_macgregor@comcast.net)

Murfree Springs Wetlands – The Ducks

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More for my Murfree Springs Wetlands series. The last post for this series featured the Night Herons that can be found there, this post will feature the Ducks!

All these shots were taken this summer at the Murfree Springs Wetlands, in Murfreesboro Tennessee

Thanks for looking!

Murfree Springs Wetlands – The Night Herons

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I’ve decided to try to post more series, my last post was the start of my Back Yard Fun series (that one for Humming Birds) — So here’s another series I will start – photos taken at the Murfree Springs Wetlands, at the Discovery Center in Murfreesboro.

Most everyone already knows how much I enjoy Radnor Lake, another spot I visit frequently is the Discovery Center in Murfreesboro (much closer to home!). There’s a playground there so the kids love it, and there are always Ducks, Herons, Birds, Dragonflies, Flowers….. All sorts of things for a photographer to shoot.

In this post, I’ll feature the Night Herons. All the shots were taken this summer:

Back Yard Fun – Humming Birds

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I have so many pictures that I don’t really know what to do with! I’m going to try to make a few more posts here for some of my “Random” shots. This is one series I’ll be posting over the next couple of weeks – Back Yard Fun. Because there are so many, I’ll break it up into groups

This first group is Humming Birds. We are lucky enough to have several humming birds this year (I’ve counted as many as 4 at one time). They’re pretty easy to get close to. I usually just pull out a chair and sit and wait. They always show up soon!

Here are a few:

This Week at the Lake – 21/52

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A very short week for me – I was traveling for work during most of the week. Unfortunately I was only able to visit Radnor Lake for 30-40 minutes on Friday.

I tried some different processing on the shot above, including adding textures. I think it turned out alright but I’m hoping for a much better week next week!

Here are some others I got:
This guy seemed to want his picture taken

A macro lens would be fun to use with these guys! There are tons of them at Radnor

My obsession with shallow DOF continues! I’ve also been converting more to black and white lately

Probably my favorite from this week – I like the simplicity and the light on the leaves.

So that’s all I managed in the short time I was there.

Thanks for looking!

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This Week at the Lake – 20/52

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A little something different for my main post for Week 20. The first black and white photo that I’ve chosen to lead off with. I really liked the light and shadows in this – and of course I love that shallow depth of focus (dof). It may not be as popular as some of my others but it really clicked with me for some reason, probably one I will print.

Here are the other shots from Monday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday:

Monday

Help needed in identifying this bird! Please tell me if you know!
EDIT – Thanks to Matt Hansen for the ID! This is a Yellow Billed Cuckoo

For this one, I was really trying to get a “Deer in the Woods” look, not just a portrait. I think it turned out alright, something I will continue trying to get

Wednesday

Thanks to the nice couple on the bridge who helped my identify this as a Green Heron

Thursday

Friday

Wow, lots of photos this week!
Thanks for looking!

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This Week at the Lake – 16/52

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A similar shot to start this week off as last week – but I really liked it!

My week at the lake started on Tuesday, I set the alarm clock for 4:45 am so I could make it before work. The problem I face with that is that it’s too dark to really get any wildlife photos. I was able to get the sun coming down Otter Creek Rd:

And then I tried to get a shot of the mist/fog rising on the lake with the sunrise:

Also that morning I met big time Ashville, NC wedding photographer Corey McNabb. He was on his way back from a wedding in Memphis and stopped to get some bird photos at Radnor. We looked for the owls but were not able to find them that morning. Check out his site, he’s got some great photos.

Next I went Thursday morning. Thursday was a great day to watch the owls but again, it was so dark because it was early I couldn’t get any good shots. I saw 3 younger owls and one adult. I watched one of the younger owls pretend to hunt in the creek bed, picking up sticks and tossing them aside, fun to watch!
Here is one decent shot of a younger owl:

Thursday is also when I got the top post, with the sun rising just over camera right.
Also got this bird photo that morning:

Since the owls were so active in the morning, I went back at lunch hoping to still see them. I only saw one then but he was too far away.
I’m not sure what type of bird this is but he was very cooperative, posing for me while I was looking for the owls:

I also spotted this doe and fawn:

On the way back to the car, I got this: