Announcing the 2020 Hooptie Deux/Roseate Spoonbill Boat 3 1/2 DAY IPT

This image was created on January 17 2020 by good friend and multiple IPT veteran Luis Grunauer along the shore at Oceana, CA. He used the hand held Canon EF 800mm f/5.6L IS USM lens and the Canon EOS-1D X Mark II DSLR Camera Premium Kit with 64GB Card and Reader. ISO 800: 1/2000 sec. at f/5.6 in Manual mode on a sunny but slightly hazy morning. Image courtesy of and copyright 2020: Luis Grunauer/Silvia’s Jovial Photography. Brant braking coming in for a landing

What’s Up

On the morning of Friday 17 JAN, multiple IPT veterans Luis Gunauer and Ed Dow and I packed up Ed’s 4WD truck and headed to the beach at Oceana/Pismo where driving is permitted. We started with some foggy pink ocean scenics and stopped several times for some un-cooperative Whimbrels as we headed south. After a u-turn, we did the same. I spotted a large dark bird on the shore a good distance up the beach, headed for it, and was rewarded by a beautiful and somewhat out-of-habitat Pacific Brant. The bird turned out to be silly tame and we worked it for more than an hour in nice light. It was flashed several times by huge trucks each carrying perhaps twenty 4-wheel ATVs to be rented out to the dune-buggy-riding public. Luis came up with the shot of the day when he nailed the small handsome goose braking to land with his hand held Canon 800mm f/5.6L IS lens and the EOS-1DX Mark II.

As I type we are headed for the Rancho Guadaloupe Dunes Preserve hoping to find some photographable birds along the beach and near the mouth of the Santa Maria River. Time will tell.

Do consider joining me on the spoonbill boat for some great photography of Florida’s most sought after avian subject, ten tons of flight photography, and lots more.

Gitzo GT3530 LSV Tripod

Sold in one hour

Multiple IPT veteran and good friend Monte Brown is offering a used Gitzo GT3530 LSV Tripod in very good condition for the practically giving-it-away-for-free price of $200.00. The sale includes insured ground shipping via major courier to lower-48 US addresses only. Your item will not ship until your check clears unless other arrangements are made.

Please contact Monte via e-mail.

I used and depended on the Gitzo GT3530 LSV Tripod for many years. artie

From left to right clockwise back to the center: Brown Pelican, Roseate Spoonbill downstroke, Brown Pelican sunrise silhouette, Double-crested Cormorant pre-dawn blur, Roseate Spoonbill flapping after bath, Brown Pelican taking flight, Roseate Spoonbill taking flight, Reddish Egret white morph breeding plumage in flight, and Reddish Egret dark morph breeding plumage in flight. All images on this card were created by me on the Hooptie Deux at Alafia Banks on the 2018 trip. You can click on each card to enjoy a larger version.

We will be leaving the dock very early for the morning sessions (weather permitting) in hopes of photographing pre-dawn fly-outs and blast-offs. All sessions are planned for the Alafia Banks Roseate Spoonbill Rookery. We might consider other options in the unlikely event of horrific weather. There will be lots of opportunities for flight photography of several species including and especially Roseate Spoonbill. Also likely for flight photography are nesting Brown Pelican, both morphs of Reddish Egret, Great Blue Heron, Great Egret, White and Glossy Ibises, and Double-crested Cormorant. We should have some good chances with birds carrying nesting material. This IPT includes all boat and guide fees, in the field instruction, chest waders (feel free to bring your own of course to assure a perfect fit), and three working lunches on Saturday, Sunday, and Monday. For the most part, we will be standing in mid-calf to knee-high water behind our tripods. We help you get in and out of the boat with your gear. This is likely not the best trip for folks with mobility or balance problems. Note however that some folks opt to stay on the boat to photograph. They usually have lots of chances for flight photography of spoonbills and other species but are almost always pretty far away from the spoonbills that land.

All images on this card were created by me on the Hooptie Deux at Alafia Banks

The Timing and Tides are Perfect!

I recently saw a similar trip advertised two months too late for breeding plumaged spoonbills … The 2020 Hooptie Deux/Roseate Spoonbill Boat 3 1/2 DAY IPT represents an incredible opportunity to photograph Florida’s most wanted species. I do hope that you can join us. There will be a meet and greet at 7:00pm sharp on the evening of WED 18 MAR, 2020. All of the images on the cards were made on the Hooptie Deux from late-February through March, prime time for the spoonies in mega-breeding plumage. Many folks have written expressing interest so please do not tarry.

Please e-mail to hold your spot. Then you may either secure your spot by calling Jim or Jennifer at the office at 863-692-0906 and leaving the $500 deposit on a credit card or sending your check for payment in full to us as follows with the check made out to:

BIRDS AS ART and sent here via US mail:

BIRDS AS ART
PO BOX 7245
Indian Lake Estates, FL 33855

If you call to leave your deposit, you will be asked to mail your check for the balance.

Everybody Loves Spoonbills!

Roseate Spoonbill is one of if not the most sought after avian photographic subjects in Florida. They are generally hard to find and somewhat difficult to approach. They are relatively easy to find at Alafia Banks—heck, you can’t miss seeing them, but even there they can on some days be somewhat difficult to approach. On some days we may be able to get ridiculously close to them. The huge incentive to get out to Alafia Banks in mid-February is the chance to photograph this species at the height of its spectacular breeding plumage…. with long telephoto lenses. A 500 or 600 with a 1.4X TC is perfect for this trip.

Mornings to Alafia Banks for spoonbills and Brown Pelicans (with lots of flight photography often with the birds likely carrying nesting material), Double-crested Cormorants, ibises (both Glossy and White) in breeding plumage. Some of the White Ibises may be sporting their spectacular, distended, red, naked (un-feathered) throat pouches—typically larger in the females. In addition, we may get to photograph egrets including Great and Reddish, both in full breeding plumage, shorebirds, and more. There will be lots of flight photography opportunities. Afternoon trips will most likely be back to Alafia Banks for the spoonbills with an option to visit a more sheltered inland rookery location for a variety of nesting birds. In the event of horrific weather, artie will either take the group to Fort DeSoto or will conduct an extensive image review/Photoshop session. This IPT includes lunches on the full days with small group image sharing and review and some over-the-shoulder Photoshop instruction.