November 30, 2013: Cattle Egret On The Move...and a 'floatel' and FRC action!

365 Project, Day 127

Here is my day 127 submission to my 365Project:

All was pretty quiet this afternoon when I spotted a white bird flying towards us through my binos. Spotting that guy so far in advance gave me enough time to grab my camera, check the settings were right for photographing a bird in flight and then snap off some shots as it flew past us headed in the opposite direction...and I was pretty happy I got some nice shots out of the brief sighting :)

Fun fact of the day:
Cattle egrets are pretty smart! They have been observed along the side of runways waiting for airplanes to pass and blow insects out of the grass. They will also follow farm equipment to catch insects disturbed as the equipment passes.

Learn more about Cattle Egrets at this Whatbird.com webpage.

Here are some more photos from today:

This vessel just arrived in the survey area recently...I'm not sure what exactly they're doing (possibly bringing supplies?) but one of the clients today referred to it as a 'floatel' (floating hotel) which I found quite amusing...it does look like it's built mostly as accomodation

The weather has been variable lately with periods of sun and blue skies and then these periods of deep grey overcast which make for some dramatic views

Cattle egret (Bubulcus ibis)

Cattle egret (Bubulcus ibis)

Cattle egret (Bubulcus ibis)

Cattle egret (Bubulcus ibis)

Cattle egret (Bubulcus ibis)

Another shot of the 'floatel'  

This afternoon there was a quick transfer using the FRC (Fast Rescue Craft). One of the officers, the party chief and the bosun zipped over in the FRC to our chase boat to pick up some supplies and I snapped some photos of them in action...and they did a great job getting the job done in a safe and timely manner :)

Now that's teamwork...helping fellow crew move safely around the vessel

Our Bosun post boat ride...he loves to have his photo taken :)

November 29, 2013: Moth Thoughts

365 Project, Day 126

Here is my day 126 submission to my 365Project:

"Bee to the blossom, moth to the flame; each to his passion; what's in a name?"

-Helen Hunt Jackson

As I've been scanning the seas with my binos for whales, dolphins, turtles and birds I've noticed many of these large, dark moths flying past us. This one landed on the heli-deck near me today and I quickly snapped it's photo. I do wander what they're thinking flying this far offshore...

Fun fact of the day:

Moths come in all sorts of forms and colours and are known to mimic variety of other animals including wasps, tarantulas and praying mantis. Some even mimic bird droppings!

Read more interesting moth facts at this LiveScience webpage.

Looks like the cattle egrets are on migration right now...we had quite a few groups fly past us today including this group of 5 that were a bit far but I was able to photograph using my 20-200 mm lens with my 2x teleconverter.

Cattle Egrets (Bubulcus ibis)

Cattle Egrets (Bubulcus ibis)

November 28, 2013: Kuito Green Flash

365 Project, Day 125

Here is my day 125 submission to my 365Project:

It was another lovely sunny and warm day today. I was on the sunset watch this evening and when I saw the sun setting next to Kuito FPSO. I thought it looked interesting having the the large natural gas flare flame and the large ball of sun in the same photo (see photos following). While I was photographing the sun, as a large ball of fire, setting with Kuito FPSO I realized we had good conditions to see the green flash...and I managed to get this photo of it just as the sun dropped below the horizon. 

You can just make out the green edging on the last bit of the sun as it drops below the horizon to the right of Kuito FPSO

Fun fact of the day:

There are several kinds of green flashes and almost every kind is a by-product of a mirage. All of the common forms are magnified images of the green rim produced by light dispersion on the bulk of the atmosphere (source). 

To read more about the green flash check out this San Diego State University webpage.

Sunset with Kuito just before the green flash

And more shots of another lovely offshore sunset:

November 27, 2013: Samco Amazon and BBLT

365 Project, Day 124

Here is my day 124 submission to my 365Project:

There was a tanker working in the area today; the Samco Amazon was filling up off the Kuito Calm Bouy and Kuito FPSO. You can see it's stern here with BBLT in the background. We've had to move our operations while the tanker was filling for 36 hours. 

If you look closely you can see a small brown object in the water under BBLT (the rig)...this is actually a small, wooden motor vessel full of local fishermen. We've seen a few of these boats around recently...it's quite the contrast seeing these small scale, artesanal fishermen 40 miles offshore doing their hand line fishing around these massive offshore structures!

Fact of the day:
The Benguela, Belize, Lobito and Tomboco oil fields form the BBLT development which lies offshore Angola in an area called the Congo Basin. 

Read more about BBLT at this Offshore Technology webpage.  

November 26, 2013: Sunset Ship Silhouette

365 Project, Day 123

Here is my day 123 submission to my 365Project:

We had perfect weather today for observations...and while I did spot some dolphins traveling and leaping in roughly the same direction we were heading this morning they did not come any closer than 5 km so, unfortunately, no photos. 

Oh well, hopefully sometime soon we'll get a nice sighting that is close enough for me to get some good shots! With the great weather we had a gorgeous sunset this evening which, surprisingly, we haven't had so many of on this job with the mainly grey, overcast days. When they do happen...I still love the offshore sunsets!

Here's my sunset photo of the day. I did some cropping and added the border but for some reason, and this is the first time I've had this problem, the edits look funny on here even though the photo looks fine when viewed from the original file.  After some time it has grown on me anyways, so here you go:

Fun fact of the day:
As the sun is setting it is getting lower and lower on the horizon and it's light must pass through more of the atmosphere to reach us. This creates a prism effect as the light has to pass through thousands of miles of the atmosphere when the sun dips below the horizon. As this happens the bluer wavelengths of light get scattered leaving the reddest wavelengths to be detected by your eye. This is scattering of the blue, green and violet wavelengths is what creates the beautiful reds and oranges of the sunset.

Read more about the physics of Sunsets at this Scienceblogs.com webpage.

Here are some more shots from the day:

BBLT on a beautiful, sunny calm day

BBLT on a beautiful, sunny calm day

Another gorgeous offshore sunset

November 25, 2013: A Gorgeous Little Guy

365 Project, Day 122

Here is my day 122 submission to my 365Project:

Just before my lunch break today I had a little visitor to the heli-deck...a little Arctic tern (Sterna paradisaea) came flying straight over to us and settle down for a rest. This is the second time since I joined the ship a couple of weeks ago that a tern has joined me on the heli-deck (see my blogpost from November 14). Once again, I was absolutely thrilled to have an opportunity to observe and photograph such a gorgeous little bird. 

Of course, I took a lot of photos...you never know when you're going to get that one shot that has that special something. I chose this photo as my photo of the day because I loved that the little guy was struggling to keep balance as the ship rolled in the swell and you can see here that he nearly ended up doing a face plant. So sweet!

Fun fact of the day:

The Arctic tern, like other seabirds, are generally long-lived with the oldest known individual living 34 years. 

Read more about the Arctic tern and research tracking their long migration (the longest recorded of any animal!) at The Arctic Tern Migration Project webpage.

If you look at it's belly it appears something is going on with the feathers there...I don't think this is normal?

If you look at it's belly it appears something is going on with the feathers there...I don't think this is normal?

I slowly crept on my belly, with my camera and 140-400 mm lens, across the heli-deck to get these photos. I wanted to be at the same level of the little guy..and really enjoyed the results.  

If you look at it's belly it appears something is going on with the feathers there...I don't think this is normal?

If you look at it's belly it appears something is going on with the feathers there...I don't think this is normal?