Birds on Business..

Business meetings at our East Coast offices are on the agenda; flew Copenhagen-Newark and landed Thursday evening Sept 27 at 6:00PM, picked up my rental car and headed for... where else? Jamaica Bay. I knew it was too late to do any serious photography but it has been too long since I was there.
I was in luck and ran into this odd little fellow in the fading light by the main entrance and office. A first encounter for me; the American woodcock. He was very cooperative, keeping an eye on me the whole time as I attached the 2x extender to my Canon 500/4IS lens; 1000mm, f/9, 1/20sec, I did not expect to get anything usable. But the woodcock stood very still and let me creep a bit closer taking 21 shots before he wandered off into the underbrush.
A short look around and it was time to head for the Holiday Inn Express in Mt. Arlington.  Tomorrow was a full day at Telelogic, before heading for our office in Andover, MA and more meetings next week. Hopefully between Friday and Monday there would be a few hours over for photography.

Made it out to Jones Beach Saturday morning at 7AM, there is always something to photograph...

Especially during the fall when the raptor migration starts. This merlin had just killed a phoebe and landed in a tree. Using my rental car as a hide I was able to approach and photograph for 12 minutes with my 500/4 with 2X extender, until a couple of photographers on foot tried to approach. Good bye merlin... We've all tried it; you can get extremely close to a bird in your car or any other hide. But as soon as you are on two legs the bird sees you as a predator. So, either crawl on your belly, roll on the ground  or get in your car, but don't bother walking...

Sunday morning back at Jamaica Bay, lying in the mud, not much action, but the light was good.

My bird photography started when I bought the Canon 100-400 to use with my Canon 300D when I was out travelling. I soon discovered that bird photography was a good pastime when I was jet-lagged and woke up three hours before anyone else. Just me and the birds...

For a few more images of birds I have photographed while traveling see:
http://www.pbase.com/kingfisher/birds_on_business

to be honest most of them were not taken on business trips, but I did have my Blackberry along, and answered an e-mail or two, so technically...