THINGS THAT FLY

Osprey

The Green River, Wyoming 

September, 2022 

If I never took another photo after capturing this one, I would have died with a smile. This photo placed in the 2024 Audubon Photography Awards Top 100, and is my proudest moment in photography, birding, and life. Please read my story that is listed in the Audubon awards: 

I woke up in a cool and dark bunkhouse and pulled on my boots. The sun was just rising over the Wind River Range foothills as I headed out to watch a cattle drive with my fellow Lehigh University students. I had never left the East Coast before, and I had no idea how the trip would change my life. During lunch near a small lake, my professor and I took our cameras to the water’s edge. He spotted two Bald Eagles and movement on the ridgeline behind them caught my eye. In a flurry of activity, I snapped two shots. I had not seen the bird in enough detail to identify it and wasn’t even sure the images were in focus. That night, I went through my photos: cattle, scenic views, eagles—and an Osprey. The image is more than just a lucky shot. It symbolizes my first adventure away from home, taking flight, and finding my wings. 

Tree Swallow

Bombay Hook National Wildlife Refuge, Delaware

June, 2023

I remember this day fondly as my first visit to Bombay Hook. Dad wanted to show me the boardwalk trail that stretched over the bay. We were looking for wading birds and inspecting the mud crabs underneath the board walk. I watched a swallow flit into the tree edge and I was hoping to find it perched on a branch, but as a I got closer, I couldn’t seem to see it anywhere in the foliage. Dad was looking as well, and it was baffling that we saw where it flew to but couldn’t find it. I was about to give up, and turned to look back down the trail. My gaze brushed over a tree snag right off of the boardwalk, and I spotted the swallow sitting in a tree hole, about 10 feet above my head. I held my breath and slapped my dad’s arm trying to whisper that it was in the tree, but I don’t remember him understanding what I said. I snapped off a few photos and he asked “What? What? What?” Eventually I realized how unbothered the swallow was watching us and I gave my dad better direction so he could photograph the little guy too. This is still one of our favorite memories and we talk about our photos from this moment a lot.

Greater Yellowlegs

Bombay Hook National Wildlife Refuge, Delaware

June, 2023

I find shorebirds difficult to identify since I’m not around them so much, so there is a chance this is the lesser yellowlegs. A beautiful personality and so fun to watch, this bird was picking through the mud flats looking for fish larvae and other accessible tidbits. This shot was lucky – the bird was pretty far away and the trail I was on was heavily wooded and the sedges were thick. I was grateful for the challenge but also the beautiful framing and color the foliage gave me. If you notice the green haze around the image, that’s from foliage close to my camera that is out of focus because of a short depth of field. I love how intimate this photo is, just quietly observing some evening foraging.

American Kestrel 

Trexler Nature Preserve 

April, 2024 

Some of my most favorite shots are what I like to think of as accidents. Although, I know this isn’t really true. Good photography is planning, waiting, and being in the right spot at the right time. This was one of those days. I wanted to take an easy birding stroll and hiked a few miles at Trexler to the top of the North Range. There are often kestrels perched in dead trees at the top of the range and they will take off and soar over the meadows looking for small critters to snag. I knew where to find them, and as expected, this kestrel was making its rounds over the brush. I had really hoped it would fly overhead, so I spent a few shots practicing my focus from far away. Eventually it took off into the valley and I spent a few more hours at Trexler annoyed that I hadn’t gotten any “front cover shots” as I like to think of them, but as it turned out, my “practice” shot became a new favorite when I looked at my photos from the day. 

Sandpiper Medley 

Bombay Hook National Wildlife Refuge 

June, 2023 

Who doesn’t love a medley? Most of these birds are semipalmated sandpipers from what I can tell. There were several dunlins in the area as well, so it’s possible there’s a mix in this grouping. Sandpiper medley! This was from another beautiful visit to Bombay Hook in migration season. There’s an overlook tower that normally my dad and I do not frequent since our best vantage points of birds are often from their eye level, and at the shore, that is often shorebirds wading in the water. But we wanted to take a look at the flooded flats and what may have been hanging out there. In an effort to try and identify this grouping I snapped this photo, which although originally meant to be functional, is one of my most favorite compositional pieces. 

Great Blue Heron 

Trexler Nature Preserve 

October, 2024 

There are often egrets and herons sitting in the Jordan Creek in the early morning hours at Trexler, and if you step quietly along the creek edge, you can see them before they take off. On this day, I was on a mission to photograph some herons on film (Portra 800 with a Minolta X-570, my dad’s rig from the 1980s). I had a shot in mind for the cover of a book design I was developing for my graphic design class. I took my digital camera with me in the hopes to get really high-res shots too if I got lucky. So there I am, at about seven o’clock in the morning, trying not to crunch too many leaves underfoot, while juggling two cameras and also keeping my hands and face warm. It was such a beautiful and quiet morning, knowing that I would soon have to drive back to busy Bethlehem and get to class. I began walking down stream hoping to spot the egrets and started scouting out one fallen tree I know they like to frequent. I hadn’t spotted their white bodies atop the log and kept moving closer in case they were along the edge. Closer, closer, still nothing. I thought maybe I would go sit under the tree and hope they came by. As I made way next to the tree, a large wing stretched slowly out over the branches of the down tree. No way, I thought. There sat an adult great blue heron about 30 feet in front of me. What luck! It seemed unbothered by me, too. I spent some time carefully focusing through the Minolta and got the shot for my book cover. Then, it was time to play with the Sony. A breeze came through the valley and ruffled its feathers. Snap, snap, snap. I was stoked! 

Great Cormorant 

Lehigh River, Pennsylvania 

August, 2022 

The Lehigh River seems to follow me through life; I grew up in the northern part of the river and then found myself in Bethlehem for school, just a bit south. This photo was taken the summer after I graduated high school. I was in the in-between and was just realizing how much of myself I leave in a place. I spent one morning along the river hoping to find some birds of prey hunting, but instead, I was met with this buffoon of a bird. Cormorants are so silly, they look like cartoon characters, they bob around in the water, and swim forever underwater, brilliant! I wasn’t expecting to find one on the Lehigh, it seemed so out of place and I had never spotted one there before. I was on the opposite side of the river but an island in between the bird and I meant it actually had the higher ground, putting me essentially at eye level with it. This makes for a neat composition with the river out of focus at the bottom of the frame and the bird perfectly eye level to me. Shortly after this photo, the cormorant turned around, poked its neck forward, tail feathers back, and shot out a beautiful poo. 

Great Egret 

John Heinz National Wildlife Refuge, Pennsylvania 

July, 2024 

The John Heinz National Wildlife Refuge is a hidden gem in Philadelphia with its park borders bumping up to the Philadelphia International Airport. Who would have ever known? There’s a beautiful reservoir in the heart of the refuge and it attracts dozens of herons and egrets. I really enjoy this photo because of those beautiful reflections over the water. It feels like a kaleidoscope, or maybe, double vision. 

Barn Swallow 

John Heinz National Wildlife Refuge, Pennsylvania 

July, 2024 

This refuge boasts a beautiful boardwalk over its central reservoir. There’s hundreds of swallows flying overhead which is truly a spiritual experience. I cried the first time I got to experience that. Underneath the boardwalk, barn swallows build their homes into beams and supports. They exclusively use man-made structures to help support their nests. Big leafy water loving plants spread across the reservoir and the swallows often perch on their broad leaves and preen themselves. This beauty was doing just that. I held my breath and refused to make a sound as it sat less than ten feet away from me preening each feather. 

Barn Swallow, Vogue 

John Heinz National Wildlife Refuge, Pennsylvania 

July, 2024 

I had such a unique experience getting to photograph barn swallows from a short distance (and also not in flight, a rarity). This one reminds me of portraiture you would find on the cover of Vogue or another editorial fashion magazine. It’s as if I asked the bird to pose and look at the camera over its shoulder. Watching birds when they are just a few feet away from you is so special. It’s a rare opportunity to observe their mannerisms, movements, and personality. 

Semipalmated Sandpiper 

Mauch Chunk Lake, Pennsylvania 

August, 2024 

Dad and I found ourselves with a new hobby this summer – mushroom photography. The secret is dark trails, water, and a portable light to illuminate their undersides. Mauch Chunk creek is a goldmine for fungi in the summer, so we spent hours hunting for colonies. We took our lunch break along the lakeshore of Mauch Chunk, letting our untanned feet finally get some sun on the rocks. I was stretched out on a boulder, without shoes, and far away from my camera, when Dad spotted this sandpiper swooping out over the water’s edge. I stumbled back to my camera bag and realized I had left my long lens at home because I was only expecting to photograph mushrooms. I grabbed the best lens I had and got comfortable on the stone beach waiting for the bird to swoop back over to my end of the shoreline. They have a pattern – pick, pick, pick, up the shore, swoop over the water and to the end of the shoreline, repeat. Surely, it swooped and landed in front of Dad and we both began furiously firing our cameras away. It picked its way up the shore in front of my outstretched – and still unsocked – feet just barely within reach. Turns out, I never needed my long lens, my short portrait lens was enough. To this day we are amazed at how comfortable this bird was with us. 

Belted Kingfisher 

Trexler Nature Preserve, Pennsylvania 

June, 2022 

This image is one of the first photos I ever took on the camera I bought myself before coming to college. I had been shooting for years sharing gear with my dad, but finally had enough saved to buy my own. I took it to my favorite place, Trexler, and spent a few hours on a rock shelf in the creek. I began to watch this kingfisher and its hunting patterns. There was a perch it liked on the opposite side of the creek from me, it would sit for five minutes, then fly upstream and out of view. Then, five minutes later, it returned to a tree branch on my side of the creek, watch the water for five minutes, then fly down stream out of view. When it returned, it started the cycle all over again on the opposite side of the creek from me. I must have watched this bird for nearly an hour before nailing down its pattern and I got confident enough to approach one of its perches. I waded to the tree and made myself comfortable in the water about fifty feet from the kingfisher’s perch. Sure enough, just a few minutes later, he came rattling up the Jordan and landed on this perch. What a moment in time, just me, the creek water flowing over my legs, and this beautiful bird hunting for its breakfast. 

Red-headed Woodpecker 

Trexler Nature Preserve, Pennsylvania 

June, 2022 

Red-headed woodpeckers have proven challenging to find and photograph. One summer, my dad began to narrow in on a potential nesting site of a woodpecker pair at Trexler. We went together one afternoon in the blistering sun and hiked up to this dead tree snag in the North Range and started looking for possible tree holes. We waited long enough to see one come home with food for its young inside their hollow. Dad and I made ourselves comfortable in some thorn bushes (it sucked). We watched as the male and female took turns dashing out to forage for insects and larvae to bring home. I remember having so much fun in the baking sun and pokey bushes because we finally spotted the red-headed woodpeckers! But never since – I have yet to see another and this pair’s tree is now fallen.