Category Archives: Photography

Images in Fog – Bass Lake

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Fog creates a mystic environment for photographers. While the clarity is somewhat blurred, it adds a bit of mystery to the images. Normally a clear lake on a sunny day, Bass Lake in North Carolina is shrouded in fog creating an eerie image.

A Hazy Day at Bass Lake

Prothonotary Warbler

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This Prothonotary warbler looks like a bit of spring sunlight with its golden-yellow head and breast set off by blue-gray wings. “Prothonotary” refers to clerks in the Roman Catholic Church, whose robes were bright yellow. To a Prothonotary Warbler, a great breeding habitat features dead snags and trees full of holes, always near water—whether rivers, swamps, or bottomland forests. The Audubon Center at Beidler Forest, South Carolina is home to numerous Prothonotary warblers.

Prothonotary Warbler
Looking Up

Audubon Center at Beidler Forest

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The National Audubon Society’s Francis Beidler Forest in Four Holes Swamp contains within its 18,000+ acres, the largest remaining stand of virgin Bald Cypress/Tupelo Gum swamp forest left anywhere in the world. One thousand year-old trees and native wildlife abound in this pristine sanctuary that has been untouched for millennia. 

On our camera club field trip, we were underwhelmed by the number of birds and wildlife that we saw, but viewing the swamp from the boardwalk was worthwhile.

Audubon Center

A cypress knee is a distinctive structure forming above the roots of a cypress tree. Their function is unknown, but they are generally seen on trees growing in swamps. Some current hypotheses state that they might help to aerate the tree’s roots, create a barrier to catch sediment and reduce erosion, assist in anchoring the tree in the soft and muddy soil, or any combination thereof.

Cypress Knees

Bewick’s Swan

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The Bewick’s Swan is a sub-species of the native Tundra Swan seen in North America.  The Bewick’s swan is much smaller and has a shorter and straighter neck than the whooper and mute swan. The yellow shape on its beak is like a blob of butter, while a whooper swan’s seems like a wedge of cheese.

Here is Bewick’s Swan on abstract water ripples at Swan Lake Iris Gardens, Sumter, SC

Swan on Abstract Water Ripples