T.G.'s Photography Blog

  This red-tailed hawk stands on the ground and takes break from eating the squirrel it just caught.    Yesterday, I turned a corner in my neighborhood and spotted a red-tailed hawk tearing at and eating a squirrel it had just caught. It was on the ground about eight feet from the road. I quickly stopped a short distance from it and snapped off a few shots before it plucked the squirrel in its claws and flew away to enjoy the catch in private. Photograph taken on March 9, 2023, at Syracuse, New York.

On a sunny day, a nonbreeding adult ring-billed gull flies over the southern end of Onondaga Lake.  The most populous bird at Onondaga Lake has to be the ring-billed gull, commonly just referred to as a seagull.  The birds are commonly be found on coastal beaches, near inland lakes, dumps, and parking lots. While these birds can be found along the coasts they are primarily found living inland. Ring-billed gulls swooping down and trying to pluck fish from Onondaga Lake. Top photograph taken on November 9, 2022, at Syracuse, New York. Bottom photo taken on November 3, 2022, at Syracuse, New York.

  Looking straight down at the snow-covered trees.  With a fresh coating of snow on the forest near my house , I sent the drone up to capture some photographs. This view is looking straight down at the snow-covered trees from about 200 feet above the ground. The trees are all around 100 feet tall.  Photograph taken on December 12, 2022, near Syracuse, New York.

  A bald eagle is on the lookout while eating a fish at Murphy's Island.   Murphy's Island at Syracuse, New York, has become a winter-feeding ground for bald eagles in recent years. The Island is on the southeastern corner of Onondaga Lake and this part of the lake doesn't freeze over in the winter because of a nearby wastewater treatment plant. Due to the lake not freezing over by Murphy's Island bald eagles, as well as other birds, can fish the lake's waters. The bald eagle tears at the fish's remains while perched in the tree at Murphy's Island.   Murphy's Island is not an actual island. At least not that I can tell from satellite imagery of it. The "island" is surrounded by Onondaga Lake, Onondaga Creek, another creek (name is unknown), and CSX's railroad tracks . The island sits across the tracks from Destiny USA Mall. Murphy's Island can be accessed by a newly opened trail extension to the Onondaga Creekwalk trail.  While still in...

A late-summer sunset reflects off the Seneca River at Liverpool, NY. This photograph is looking west across the Seneca River at Liverpool, New York . I captured this sunset last month a little over a week before the official end of summer. The sunset struck me as a sign that summer was almost over, and sure enough the temperature changed on a dime here in Central New York. One day I had the air conditioner running, and the next I had the heat on in case the house got too cold at night. 

A flooded field along the Seneca River reflects the sky above at Savannah, NY. Back in March 2022, I was at Savannah, New York, photographing trains on CSX's Rochester Subdivision . This field, which sits along the western side of the Seneca River , was flooded by the river. The clouds were moving in from the west as another round of storms were coming. Photograph taken on March 19, 2022, at Savannah, New York.

  The last time I captured a view looking over the forest in my neighborhood, the trees were bare, the ground covered in snow, and more snow was falling. This week with spring in full bloom and the sky filled with some great-looking clouds, I sent the drone up again to capture the view. Looking northward toward the Seneca River at an above-ground-level altitude of 225 feet. Ash Trees and the Emerald Bore   A lot of the trees in this forest are ash trees. Many of them are infected by the Emerald Ash Bore (EAB) and are either dead or dying. According to the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), the EAB, a type of beetle, is an invasive insect that most likely arrived in wood packing materials from Asia approximately thirty years ago. The EAB, as its name implies, bores holes throughout the tree, resulting in the tree's death. When the ash trees become infected by the EAB, an increased presence of woodpeckers occurs. The beetles are a food source for woodpeckers. The ...

 The American Robin has become much more visible over the last month now that the spring thaw is well underway. I've seen many flitting about from tree branch to tree branch in the forest behind my house . As well as scurrying around on the lawn foraging for food. While, I haven't been able to capture a photograph of one yet near my home, I did manage to capture some photographs of a robin while over in Kirkville, New York, earlier this week. American Robin While I was in Kirkville, New York, photographing trains , I happened upon this robin perched in a nearby tree eating what looks to be a small flower or flower bud from a sumac seed head (thanks, to Jim, for his comment below identifying the sumac seed). Cornell University's All About Birds website states that in the fall and winter robins eat a lot of fruit and seeds. In the warmer months the robins forage for worms in the ground. An American Robin perched in a tree at Kirkville, NY. According to the All About Birds we...

We've had snow almost continuously on the ground here in the Syracuse area since just after New Year's. The snow has melted off a bit at times, but new snow always seems to fall. The day before I took this photograph a significant amount of the snow on the ground had melted off so that one could actually see the grass in places. However, that was short lived, and more snow fell overnight and the next morning.  Looking north over the forest behind my house. With a break in the snowfall and some sunshine breaking through the clouds, I set up my drone to practice using it some more and capture the forest behind my house again. As I was sending the drone up, the sky clouded up again and snow started falling. I quickly snapped a few shots and brought the drone back down to the ground. The river seen through the trees on the left side is the Seneca River. Photograph taken on February 18, 2022, near Syracuse, New York.

On Saturday, parts of the Western and Central New York regions had a snow squall blow through. The squall came through from the west to the east and only lasted about ten to fifteen minutes. It brought white-out conditions and wind gusts up to 40MPH. It hit the Syracuse area just before 10AM EST. Typical snow falling at the start of the snow squall. The snow squall started out with what I would call typical snow fall for the area. However, within minutes of the snow starting to fall the squall brought white-out conditions. The tree line of the forest is fifty feet from my vantage point. According to the National Weather Service, a snow squall is an intense snowstorm with high wind gusts that is much shorter in duration than a blizzard. They are often accompanied by a sudden drop in temperature which can cause the snow to freeze, leading to dangerous driving conditions. The snow and winds were so intense during this snow squall that the visibility of the forest behind my house, which ...

Being curious as to what the view was like looking over the top of the forest near my house , I sent my drone up into the air to capture the view.  A view from about 100 feet above the ground looking over the top of the forest. This view is due north from about 100 feet/30 meters above the ground. The tree  lying on the ground , near the bottom right of the photograph, is about 70-80 feet tall. In the middle-left of the photograph, through the trees is the Seneca River. The river is about 800 feet away from the camera. At the time the photograph was taken the river was mostly frozen over. Image details:  Captured in DNG format, using a DJI Mini 2. Edited in Adobe Camera Raw and Photoshop. Drone altitude, 420 feet/128 meters above sea level. Photograph taken on February 8, 2022, near Syracuse, New York.

Back in September of last year, my family took a day trip up to Oswego, New York, to see Fort Ontario. Oswego, New York, is situated on the southeastern side of Lake Ontario, about forty miles north of Syracuse, New York. The star-shaped fort sits on a bluff offering great views of Lake Ontario.  Looking north at the US flag and Lake Ontario from the top of the rampart. According to the State of New York's Parks Department the fort is the fourth fort to stand on the site and was built in the 1840s. It was occupied by the United States Army from the time it was built until after World War II. During the war, the fort served as the only refugee camp in the United States for victims of the Nazi Holocaust. A section of Fort Ontario's stone outer defensive wall. Fort Ontario's outer defensive wall is constructed of stone blocks and as mentioned earlier, forms a five-point star. Behind the stone walls are the earthen ramparts, with an earthen parapet atop. When up on the rampart...

 With a forest behind my house, I see quite a bit of wildlife from time to time . In addition to the wildlife there are a couple of cats in the neighborhood that like to sit at the edge of my backyard and the forest, and hunt for food. Earlier this month I looked out my kitchen window and saw one of the two regular cats sitting on a tree stump watching the forest, presumably for lunch. A cat sitting on a tree stump at the edge of the forest. Photograph taken on January 13, 2022, near Syracuse, New York.

 Earlier this month the area got some lake effect snow, off of Lake Ontario to the north of us. The snow came down fast, and by the time it stopped there was four to five inches of snow on the ground. This photograph was taken early, during the first wave of snow fall, and was the view from my kitchen window. When the first wave of snow fall slowed, I headed out to catch Amtrak's Lake Shore Limited in the snow . By the time I got to the location where I photographed it, the snow had picked up again. Photograph taken on January 7, 2022, at Syracuse, New York.

One day last month I was sitting in my dining room helping one of my kids with schoolwork, when I happened to hear what sounded like a woodpecker pecking. I glanced out the window of the dining room and saw a pileated woodpecker couple perched on opposite sides of an ash tree at the edge of the forest behind my house.  A male (left) and female (right) pileated woodpecker pair, perched on a dying ash tree. According to Cornell University's All About Birds website , pileated woodpecker pairs stay together year-round, and are territorial, except for in the winter. During the winter they will share their territory with other woodpeckers. I've seen these two flying around at the edge of my forest but didn't realize that I was most likely seeing the same two birds each time. A female pileated woodpecker pecking on a dying ash tree. The male and female pileated woodpeckers are similar in size. The easiest way to differentiate between a male and female pileated woodpecker is the re...

The Moon and the Planet Saturn in the southern sky, above Syracuse, NY. This post continues my Moon and and tiny-spot planet series .  On Wednesday, November 10, 2021, at 7 PM, the Moon and the planet Saturn could were close to each other in the southern sky above Syracuse, NY . While the planet Saturn is a white dot in the photograph, it was still interesting to see it and the Moon together.  The Moon was in its Waxing Crescent Phase on this night, and at the time of the photograph, had an illumination of 44.3%. The distance of the Moon from Earth was 376,416 km, while Saturn was 1,507.06 million km from Earth.   Photograph taken on November 10, 2021, from Syracuse, New York.

The majority of the autumn colors have come and gone already this fall in Central New York. For quite a while the lawn has been littered with fallen leaves, and while out in the yard a few weeks back, I spotted this maple leaf laying on the front lawn. The sunlight was striking it from behind, and it made the leaf's red and orange colors really stand out among the green grass. A maple leaf laying on the grass. As the sun continued to descend in the late afternoon sky I found these red leaves, which had begun to wilt  but that were still hanging on. Here the sunlight was striking the leaves from the side and from behind. By using a focal length of 600mm the cool colors of the forest beyond made for a nice backdrop, with some extreme bokeh. The Oxford dictionary defines bokeh as, "the visual quality of the out-of-focus areas of a photographic image, especially as rendered by a particular lens." Red leaves wilting.  Photographs taken on November 6, 2021.

 Back on Sunday, November 7, 2021, the Moon was in its Waxing Crescent Phase. After taking a photograph of the Moon and the Planet Venus together , I captured a few photographs of just the Moon, to show more detail in its surface. The most prominent feature that is seen in the photograph is the Mare Crisium, a basin on the Moon's surface. Mare Crisium during the Waxing Crescent Moon The Mare Crisium is seen along the dark and light edge of the illuminated surface. At the time I took the photograph, around 6 PM EST, the Moon's illumination was 13.5%. With this level of illumination, the Mare Crisium had just become fully visible on the Moon's surface. According to NASA, the Mare Crisium is about 3.9 billion years old, and is 740 km (460 miles) wide. While the Mare Crisium looks to be rather flat in the photograph, NASA states that it is about 1.8 km (1.1 miles) below the Moon's lunar datum (the Moon's sea level). It also reaches to a height of 3.34 km (2.1 miles) ab...

This past Saturday I captured some photographs of the Waxing Crescent Moon and Venus in the sky above Syracuse, New York. The two objects were too far apart, in my opinion, to get both objects in the same photograph and still see some detail in the Moon's surface. However, the following evening, Sunday, November 7, 2021, Venus had moved closer to the Moon, and I was able to capture a photograph of both of them together that I liked. The Waxing Crescent Moon and the planet Venus in the night sky, above Syracuse, NY. Venus is currently on a path that will bring it nearer to Earth, until early January 2022. On Sunday evening when I took this photograph, Venus was about 89.5 million kilometers/55.6 million miles from Earth, about 1.1 million kilometers/700,000 miles closer than on Saturday evening. Venus' closest distance to Earth in January 2022, will be about 39.77 million kilometers/24.7 million miles. The Moon was in its Waxing Crescent Phase, which occurs after a New Moon. At...

With clear skies this past weekend, I was able to capture some photographs of the Waxing Crescent Moon and the planet Venus in the sky above Syracuse, New York.  Waxing Crescent Moon The Crescent Moon with an illumination of 6.5%, on November 6, 2021. On Saturday, November 6, 2021, according to NASA, approximately 6.5 percent of the Moon was illuminated during the hour in which I took the photograph of the Crescent Moon. The  Waxing Crescent Moon  is the phase occurring right after a New Moon. The illumination of the Moon grows to 49.9% during this phase. When I took the photograph, the Moon was in the southwestern sky, and its distance from Earth at the time was approximately 362,000 kilometers/225,000 miles.  Venus in the southern sky  Venus is the southern sky, on November 6, 2021. In addition to the Crescent Moon, the planet Venus could be seen in the southern sky on Saturday night. Venus was just under 90.7 million kilometers/56.3 million miles from Earth, ...