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ALLAN BOVEE - PHOTOGRAPHY
ADVENTURES IN NATURE PHOTOGRAPHY
JANUARY 2004
Sometimes there is little snow and I can wear my hiking boots which are the most comfortable. But with deep snow I have to wear my Sorrel pack boots which aren't good to hike many miles in so I shorten my walks.
One day I came across a tree that had
Not to far from this spot on another trail last Spring I found a nest of the
pileated woodpecker. Again wood chips were all around the base of a tall dead
tree and looking up I saw a five inch hole about forty feet up the trunk.
Looking down at me from inside the hole was a pileated
I do find pileated woodpeckers on my hikes but only rarely. Most of my sightings
are in the northwest part of the park. I hear the birds drumming on logs and
calling, sounds which mark the birds as pileateds . I also find barred owls back
there. I heard these birds a lot as darkness came on while photographing
bloodroot last Spring. (See my June 2003 entry). I have installed bird
houses hoping to attract a barred owl, they are known to use a large man-made
nest box occasionally to raise their young. Another marvelous bird I find back there is the winter wren. These birds have a spectacular song which I hear in the Upper Peninsula in the summer. But they spend the winter here despite the cold and shortage of insects to eat. I see the birds once in a while along the unfrozen creeks going through the park. They are quick and disappear fast but a rapid chase with my binoculars can yield a good view. The birds don't sing until the Spring but may give me a scolding note and then duck under a bridge or boardwalk. Most of the time I spend hiking there is just a silence and not a lot of animals to see. But it is always beautiful no matter what the weather or time of year. Date this page was edited: January 18, 2004.
FEBRUARY 2004 I am writing this in January, but don't know when I will publish it. I will be leaving for Florida soon, please stop by one of my art shows if you are in the area.
In the midst of a snowy, cold winter I think back about the time I went chasing great gray owls in the Upper Peninsula. I drove up to Sault Ste. Marie and got a room for a few days and it never stopped snowing the whole time I was there. There had been an invasion of great gray owls the year before on nearby Sugar Island but I had been unable to go. This year there were a few reports, not as many as the year before, but I decided to try anyway. These are boreal owls that during difficult winters may migrate south to northern Michigan to find food. The southern trek cycles repeat every so often but with no regularity. I didn't want to miss my chance.
I took the ferry over to Sugar Island and began to drive around. The island is
about twenty miles long and ten miles wide and has both houses and wild areas
and a county snowplow was continuously working to keep the road cleared. I drove
around the loop a couple of times until suddenly I spotted a great gray owl. The
bird was perched
I came back the next day and found the owl in the same vicinity. This time the
owl was seriously hunting. I got out of my vehicle and loaded up my camera gear
and decided to see if I could get a little closer. Walking was difficult because
the snow was up to my waist but I used my tripod like a walking staff and began
to approach the bird. I always approach a wild animal by walking at an angle
towards it, not directly at it which would frighten it. I also don't look at it,
I sort of pretend I am not interested. Birds and animals that are not hunted by
man will readily accept me and take me for a deer or cattle, that is, not a
serious threat to them. I got incredibly close to the great gray and could watch
it as it hunted. The owl would lean forward and stare intensely (and listen
intensively too) at the deep snow below. It would then lift back its head and
glance at me or off to the horizon and then return to stare at the snow with its
head bobbing. Then to my amazement, it would fly down into the snow and emerge
with a vole in its beak. It would then fly to a branch, swallow the rodent
whole, and then fly off about fifty feet to return to its hunting.
During my drive back home I found another large owl, the snowy owl, in a tree along the farm areas south of the Soo. I got some distance photos but this owl was going to wait out the weather and didn't want to go hunting with me at all.
Date this page was edited: January 20, 2004.
MARCH 2004
A beautiful park road runs through Myakka allowing you to drive under massive
live oaks with draping Spanish moss and through the upland prairie country. I
have been photographing at Myakka for years and it has some very special
memories. But staying in the park makes it even better. I like to get up early
and go out with my camera before anyone else is around. Then I go back to my
camp and prep meals for the day, workout, clean up the trailer, etc. In the
evening I go out again for photos.
The park is near Sarasota and is around the Myakka river, a river designated a wild and scenic river only one of two such rivers in Florida. The river winds south eventually going into the Gulf of Mexico around Northport. There are miles of hiking trails taking one through many different habitats from prairies to swamps with the associated wildlife. Plentiful in the park are alligators and armadillos, I actually caught an armadillo but I left the numerous alligators alone. One morning I watched three otters cross the park road in front of my van. Another morning I slowed to watch a bobcat hunched down in the middle of the road stalking a gray squirrel in a shrub on the shoulder.
The river widens into Upper Myakka lake and then narrows back to a river at
a weir on the south end. This area has been my best photography over the years.
For one thing there is a resident limpkin that shows up occasionally. In all of
Florida I have only seen one other limpkin and that was in the Everglades and it
was walking away from me. Here the limpkin will come as close as you desire and
I
Everywhere in the park in winter are the vultures, the black and turkey vultures. Again, I have gotten my best work on these species here. All day long the numerous palm warblers and blue-gray gnatcatchers sing around the campsite while at night barred owls and limpkins call. It makes for a very nice place to stay between the art shows. As my photos come back, I will post them on my website. Date this page was edited: March 16, 2004.
APRIL 2004 Please see my new ART SHOW SCHEDULE, it is nearly complete and now I've added links, when available, to the art shows I am doing.
At the first lagoon I found a yellow-crowned night-heron feeding on sand crabs that were emerging in the receding tide. It must be remembered in taking photos to not include the reflections of the huge high-rise buildings that are behind you, make sure you angle them out of the photograph.
Continuing a mile or so along the lagoon is numerous pools with all kinds of
usually uncommon birds. This is the only place in Florida where I regularly
photograph American oystercatchers and whimbrels.
The flowing streams and eddies you must wade across are deceiving. I am used to
crossing small creeks and rivers in Michigan where the current pulls on your
legs and it is hard to keep your balance, but here the current coming in is the
Atlantic Ocean spilling in with the tide and it can be tremendous. I watched a
snowy egret fishing along one of these tide estuaries and it was fascinating.
This egret can be told from the great egret by its smaller size and yellow feet.
The bird was standing by the rushing current where the water level quickly
dropped off to over the bird's head. The snowy would reach out one of its feet
and sort of patter on the water surface. This apparently attracted fish for the
bird would leap out into the Leaving the lagoon area and continuing my drive, takes me to Lover's Key. Here are some relatively low nesting platforms with breeding osprey and a good place for other birds like pelicans and herons. I've also gotten some good sunsets at the state park. Continuing out, I end up at Bonita Springs and go back to camp from there. Date this page was edited: April 19, 2004.
MAY 2004 Please see my recently published photos at my Published Photos page. Two of my popular prints at art shows are photos of a red-eyed vireo and of a blue-gray gnatcatcher. People ask me where did I find these birds and how did I go about photographing them. They are amazed when I tell them that these species are two of the most common birds to be found in southeast Michigan. When I take a walk of a mile or so in the woods around my area in the late Spring or Summer, I may hear or see these two species ten or fifteen times. Because the two species don't come to bird feeders or visit our backyards, they require a little more effort to see and hear them. Figuring two birds per territory, these birds are more common than blue jays or robins, birds that most people consider to be very common.
I have found many nests of the red-eyed vireo over the years. Most are serendipitous but I have also learned a call the bird gives which is similar to the veery's "veer" which indicates you are near their nest. A thorough search then often leads to the beautiful creations they build for raising young. My photo of the adult offering its three young a green stink bug couldn't have been a better pose if I had asked the young to cooperate with me. Blue-gray gnatcatchers are always heard before they are seen. Their call is a high inquisitive-sounding "pwee?" and they continue to call allowing one to search for them with binoculars in the tree tops. Making a "psshh" sound with your lips often attracts them to come closer. Oddly, making a psshh sound does no good in Florida where they are not nesting or territorial in the Winter. The first blue-gray nest I found was about 40 feet off the ground. The nest is a work of art, it is cup shaped composition of plant down bound to the tree branch with spider webs and shingled with lichens. When I returned a few days later the nest was gone. I have read where the birds, upon discovery of their nest, will move it to another location by grabbing beakfulls of material. This I find hard to believe, more likely a predator like a squirrel ripped it apart searching for more eggs to eat. In the next couple of years I found several more nests but couldn't photograph them for one reason or another. Finally, I decided to go all out and make the blue-gray gnatcatcher my number one bird. I read all I could on the bird in the scientific journals at the University of Michigan. I spent every available moment in the woods looking for the bird's nests.
The next year I worked at Pontiac Lake Recreational Area. By now I was getting good at finding blue-gray gnatcatcher nests. The birds show excitement when around their nest area and the intensity and pitch of their calls change. Once I recognize this behavior it is just a matter of keeping the binoculars on the bird for eventually he or she will go to the nest. I found a total of nine blue-gray nests that year including a personal record of four nests in four hours one day. Most nests are twenty to forty feet in the trees but one was much lower in the fork of a flowering dogwood which I assumed would be taken first by predators. But as it turned out, one by one the nests were all plundered by predators except the one in the dogwood. Despite these losses the blue-grays will quickly rebuild a new nest and try again, eventually succeeding in raising their young. When the eggs hatched, I quickly moved blind and scaffolding in for photography.
Last winter in Florida I had blue-grays singing all day by my campsite where they spend the Winter. Just yesterday while hiking in Highland and taking a survey of the birds I concluded all the summer birds are back and most of the migrating birds that nest north of us are past. I probably saw twelve or so blue-gray gnatcatchers which all responded to my "psshhing" indicating they are on territory. I also spotted a few red-eyed vireos singing as well gleaning the new leaves in the trees for insects. I suggest a walk in the woods to visit the homes of these common Michigan birds. Date this page was edited: May 14, 2004 (Brother Tom's Birthday) JUNE 2004 "June, of all the months, the student of ornithology can least afford to lose. Most birds are nesting then, and in full song and plumage. And what is a bird without its song? Do we not wait for the stranger to speak? It seems to me that I do not know a bird till I have heard its voice; then I come nearer it at once, and it possesses a human interest to me." - John Burroughs - The Wake-Robin My friend John wrote those words a hundred years ago. It is so true that until a stranger speaks you have no idea who they are but once the ice is broken you immediately can relate to them. Bird song is nearly continuous now from before dawn until the late evening. This is definitely a month you do not want to lose. I wait all year for it. Birds let us know they are there with their songs which is fortunate because it would be impossible to see the birds in the thick foliage of summer. They inform me of what birds are where as I hike through the woods and what habitats are coming up since all birds hang out in certain areas. I hear many cerulean warblers singing in Highland and Pontiac State Areas and spend lots of time trying to find them. I consider it a good day just to see one and certainly would never be aware they were there if not for their song.
One of my biggest problems is finding a nest and then having
the nest predated by one of the numerous predators of birds. The list is long of
who eats birds eggs and young but in my area the main culprits are blue jays and
crows, chipmunks and squirrels, raccoons, opossums, mice, hawks, snakes, cats,
and on and on. Each year at this time I wonder if any birds will have a
successful nest at all it seems so difficult for them. But by August, I find
young birds everywhere and feel confident again. This year I found an unusual predator on bird nest. I had stopped for lunch at Highland in the mountain bike trail parking lot and heard the distress calls of some blue-gray gnatcatchers in the tree above my van. I got out and looked above to see a gnatcatcher nest about twenty feet up being torn apart by a cedar waxwing evidently to be used as material for her own nest. The cedar waxwing is the mildest mannered bird I have ever worked with and photographed many nests without a bird ever even scolding me. Yet this bird was destroying another birds nest probably with eggs already laid in it. I picked up some rocks and threw them at the waxwing which flew off. But, a couple of days later I returned to the area and found the nest destroyed with many large holes in it and abandoned by the gnatcatchers. (See some gnatcatcher nest photos in last months journal: MAY 2004).
Back to the woods for me and some more searching. Date this page was edited: June 17, 2004.
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I have been hiking in Highland Recreational Area as much as I can. It is a good
winter activity no matter what the weather and there is always something to see
and learn about. With the leaves off the trees I can find raptor nests that I
wasn't aware of in Summer. Many trees have berries or seeds that I am unfamiliar
with and so I collect them to look up later at home. Other interesting trees I
take note of to come back next Spring and identify when their leaves emerge. But
the best benefit is just the fresh air and exercise and the ability to leave the
sealed up and stale air of home for awhile.
been ripped up by something. At first I
thought it had been cut up with a chain saw and moved out of the path by park
personnel. Wood chips were everywhere. But looking closer I could see it was the
work of a pileated woodpecker. The tree had broken in half about fifteen feet up
and was dead. Huge furrows four inches deep had been carved the length of the
standing trunk, unbelievably done by a bird. Pileated woodpeckers do this
activity mainly in the winter when insects are scarce. Inside this tree is
dormant carpenter ants and the woodpeckers come to feed on them to sustain
themselves throughout the winter. This requires their slashing into the trunk of
the tree to expose the hibernating insects. Unlike our flicker and red-headed
woodpeckers, the pileated remains in our area all winter. 
woodpecker obviously
incubating eggs. This was the first time I had ever seen a pileated in lower
Michigan. I've seen them in northern Michigan and Florida but an Oakland County
nest was a great find. But a week later the birds were gone, probably a raccoon
had crawled up the tree and eaten the eggs. 
I saw my first great gray owl when I was just beginning photography. I was
headed up into northern Ontario on a fly-in fishing trip and we were driving the
135 mile dirt road from Highway 11 to Armstrong where our float plane would take
us to our lake. As we drove down the center of the dirt road moving over to the
right side when we went up a hill, I spotted an owl perched on a highway sign
and shouted to stop as we drove past. These owls are known to be ridiculously
tame and our van hadn't spooked the bird at all. We turned around as I got out
my camera (a Honeywell Pentax with a Solignor 400mm lens) and I was able to snap
a couple of shots before the owl flew off. (The photo here is one of the ones I
took and has a date on it of June 1979 and was developed at a Fotomat store). I identified the bird from
a field guide when I returned home.
on a spruce with the snow falling all around. I stopped and got
out my camera and tripod and took some shots wondering how could I get closer.
Unbelievably the bird took off and started to fly directly towards me. It flew
right over my head and landed in a tree on the other side of the road. I turned
my gear around and was now forty feet from this magnificent predator. These are
the largest of the North American owls and have yellow eyes with a large
disc-like face that acts as a parabolic mike to pick up sounds of rodents in the
snow. I shot some more photos until the bird flew off. 
Each new
position would either yield another vole or the bird would fly off again in a
few minutes. I kept up with the owl despite the deep snow and after a dozen new
perches I began to think about getting lost. But I remembered I was leaving a
trail in the snow you could drive a car through as I
stumbled about. Oddly, we
ended up back at the first place and I could see my vehicle, we had traveled a
huge circle in the wilderness. 
I really enjoyed the photo session with the great gray owl but all the trekking
through the deep snow was exhausting. When I returned I ordered a pair of
snowshoes in case I encountered another hunting owl but since that year I
haven't heard a report of a great gray owl in northern Michigan. I guess I can
always display the snowshoes on a wall.
This year in Florida, I camped for the first time. The high priced motel bills
were getting me down, so I bought a new travel trailer and pulled it down I-75
for my four art shows there this year. The first RV park I stayed in for a week
was nice, but kind of seemed like a big parking lot with its 1200 RV sites. The
last week was better, with a river running through the RV park, but still lacked what I
pictured in camping. However, the middle two weeks I spent in Myakka State Park were wonderful.
Myakka is one of the few areas I have found in Florida to photograph the glossy
ibis. Everywhere else they seem too timid to be approached but by far my best
work with this bird has been at this park. Also my best tricolored heron work
has been done here with birds fishing in the early morning light.
have many photos of it catching prey and eating mussels and scolding
alligators. Other birds photographed at the weir include great blue herons,
great egrets, snowy egrets, and a common moorhen, a normally hard bird to get
near, but this one posed on rock in the river and did a classic wing stretch.
There is an area I go to in Florida every year for photography which can be very
good. It is called the Estero Lagoon and when Sanibel is slow I drive over
there. The road goes through the crowded Fort Meyers Beach area and you pass by
the high-rise motels and condominiums, most with no vacancies. The lagoon
is located behind all the hotels and the problem is to reach it without
trespassing on the heavily secured properties. I used to know of a secret lot
where I could park and walk back, but now that has been developed and I can't
use it anymore. What I do now is park at the Holiday Inn near the far side of
their lot so I don't interfere with their customers. Then I grab my camera and
big lens and tripod and sort of walk nonchalantly as possible by their pool,
smiling at everyone, and walk to the lagoon. I have special attire for
this adventure, a pair of worn out tennis shoes and cut off shorts and a large
brimmed hat. I have to wade through a lot of tidal pools and eddies as well as
kneel down in the sand to get a good perspective on the birds. Once past the
motel, the lagoon is immediately entered and photography often begins right
away. I wade through the lagoon looking for the shallowest part and after
crossing it the Gulf is ahead. All the people from all the motels and
condominiums are walking the beaches and the birds are used to them and hence
easily approached.
One day I photographed five
species of plovers; black-bellied, snowy, Wilson's, piping, and killdeer. Many
other shorebirds are here as well and fairly approachable. 
deeper water, grab a small minnow-like fish and
flap furiously back to shore without getting hardly wet. There, it would swallow
its prize and return to try again. It did this many times while I photographed
it from ten feet away. Whether its yellow feet acted as a fish lure or not
I am unsure, but the bird caught many fish while I watched. 
Red-eyed
vireos sing from the tops of the trees and do so incessantly all day giving the
bird the nickname "the preacher bird". Their nests are much closer to the ground
and it is thought that the males constant calling gives the female the security
to build her nest and lay and incubate the eggs. The nest always hangs between a
fork in a branch of a lower tree or shrub and consists of a weaved structure
with which she fastens birch bark to the outside. 
In
Highland Recreational Area I spotted a blue-gray gnatcatcher fluttering around a
spider web and figured the bird was eating spiders or trapped insects. But to my
amazement the bird flew up to a nearby tree and deposited the spider silk on a
horizontal branch. Could this be the start of a nest? I returned a week later to
find a completed nest with two eggs in the exact spot. I had witnessed the very
first step in building their complicated nest structure. So much for the theory
that the birds move their nests when discovered. The birds laid two more eggs
and after hatching I moved twenty feet of scaffolding and my blind for
photography, but unfortunately the night before I was to move in a predator
found the nest and devoured the young. Two other gnatcatcher nests I found that
year were taken by predators as well. 
On
the cool day I photographed, the female kept returning to the nest to brood her
three young while the very active male kept bringing insects for them to eat. I
didn't realize the male can be told by a slight dark line over the eye that is
lacking in the female. 
Most
of my nest searches begin with hearing a bird sing. Once I identify it I then
research it back home to find out where it nests and when. Then returning, I can
look for the species and be better informed in looking for its nest. Once the
eggs hatch and the birds begin to feed their young, I can slowly move my blind
in for photography. It would be impossible to photograph the bird any other
way. 
We
tend to give wild animals a morality which of course is a human characteristic
and has nothing to do with animal motives or behavior. The waxwing is seeking an
opportunity to get some nice nesting material it has discovered. A blue jay
devours the eggs or nestlings of bird's nest that it has discovered. The result
is the same, a destroyed nest. The birds renest and try again.