Birding and Bird Photography

Huh, never heard of there being an "only right foot" rule. I know they pull one foot up to prevent heat loss through that foot, but I don't know if there's a reason for a preference.
and that's a great Red-winged Blackbird photo! Nice job getting the black to not be overwhelmingly dark.

 

Odd days left foot even days right

 

Yesterday after I got out of my truck, a squirrel was sitting on a limb making noises in a tree behind where I parked, so I started making the same noises back. Then out of nowhere a Peregrine Falcon flew in and perched in the tree right next to the one with the squirrel. It was pretty cool. Unfortunately didn't have a camera on me but heres a pic of one, I know it's not the same don't judge me.

 

Nice!! I love it when they just swoop in randomly and you get such a beautiful treat of a view. Raptors just look so majestic. Awesome photo, too! Makin' a dirty pass

haha! Yeah, Ben you must only be going out on odd days

 

To clarify I didn't take that pic.
It was cool to see it swoop in like that, it stayed for probably 10-15 seconds, then flew to the next tree over, I walked over to try and get a better look and it took off. But it is a treat to see the birds of prey like that, at least around here. And they do have a majestic honoree look and way about them.

 

Hey Ben, is that first one a black crown night heron? It was hard to tell with his head being tucked but that was the first instinct.
I have yet to see a euro wigeon. There are occasional sightings but it is very rare they make it down this far south.
I love that contrast of the grey sandhill against the cattail/grassy like background, looks sweet.

 

I pulled off the side of the road this past tuesday to see what all i could take pics of and was mostly shore birds with a few waterfowl.
Sorry to be off the birding topic but..
I have some practically new allweather floormats that came out of my 2012 TRD doublecab. I had them bout a month then put some husky floor liners in. I plan to put them on the 2nd gen marketplace but i figured id give u guys the first stab at em. Was thinkin $70 shipped was a fair price. PM me if anyone is intrested.

Alright back to birding...

 

Just had a pair of Pileated Woodpeckers at my suet block stump and I had no camera on me , damn

 

Wow Ben you really hit the jackpot on your trip! Great pictures as always too.

Mark I have never seen some of those birds before, beautiful!

I shot one this week that I have not posted before, not many to pick from around here right now White breasted nuthatch.



Got my 1.4x teleconverter earlier this week. Liked it so much that I ordered another to stack which came today. Only had a few minutes to play with the stacked tc's, not sure how well it will work. I do know it takes a LOT of sun to do anything with them which I didn't have and it shut me down. But the 300mm f4 turned into a 420mm f5.6 is a whole new lens. Hopefully I can get out this weekend and shoot some.

 

Thanks guys
My 300mm turning into 420mm sounds tempting, but i think i may just have to hold out and get that 150-600mm when it comes out for Nikon. I figure if im gonna go bigger, might as well go all out.

 

Hey Ben, looks like those bluebills are attracted to your truck, they cant resist a tacoma lol

 

Nice shots and great birds, everyone! Lots of birds that I love seeing or really want to see (Reddish Egret, Common Loon, Pileated Woodpecker, to name my favorites of the past few posts)

On my way back from a bit of fieldwork this morning I stopped by that pond that I've visited a few times in Woodland. It never fails to impress me with the bird life, and today was no exception! Even though it was raining I managed to get two new species for my year count: Great-tailed Grackle and American Avocet. There was one female Common Merganser hangin' around and she stayed close to the viewing platform, so I got some good shots of her. Then the domestic duck that I've seen a few times followed me around as I moved from one platform to another. I think he (or she? not sure how to sex a domestic duck...) was expecting free food... Sorry to disappoint, bud! Only my camera, binocs, and me. The Cinnamon Teals were fun to shoot! There were two or three pairs out there today.
Total species list: Mallard, Bufflehead, Canada Goose, Black-necked Stilt, American Coot, White-crowned Sparrow, Great-tailed Grackle, Cinnamon Teal, American Avocet, Common Merganser, Domestic Duck, and Ring-necked Pheasant. Not too bad for about 20 minutes of birding!

Oh, and Ben, I took your advice about staying above 1/400 shutter speed and I think it helped a lot! I kept it at 1/400 because it was cloudy and rainy so I didn't want to push the ISO too high, but it was definitely better than going lower, which is what I probably would've done before you mentioned that. Thanks!

Photos:






Cinnamon Teal photobombed the great-tailed grackle






Oh yeah, and it was raining...

 

Thanks! And for sure, man! Though most of what I've posted has been up in Davis/Sacramento area. I'll be here for the next three months and then I'll be in San Diego when I'm not in Ecuador for the next year-ish.

 

Some great shots despite the wet weather!

 

Finally had a day off work to take out the camera yesterday. It was crappy cloudy weather but then cleared up. Left the house at sunrise and didnt finish till sunset. Had a good day with 87 species total. Even had a rabbit, some nutrias, a gator, and an escapee guinea hen haha. Got to mark 3 species off the unseen list. Sorry if i wnt a little overboard with the pics, as a took quite a few.

 

Yes there are indeed

 

Man you guys have some good photogin skills. Nice pics

 

Daaaang, awesome day and fantastic photographs! I really like that green-winged teal pair photo.
Now I really wanna get down to texas! Lots of birds I've never even heard of, and an 87 species day sounds crazy! My year list is up to 103, but your DAY lists make it seem small!

Today after class two buddies and I heard a cooper's hawk in a Eucalyptus grove on campus, so we went and looked. There was a pair in there and we watched them for a while. The hummingbirds were going crazy over them, they were so pissed. Then we found out why a little later...there was one hawk hopping through some branches and a hummingbird scolding it like there was no tomorrow. We were just idly watching this interaction when suddenly the hawk hopped down along a branch, grabbed something, and flew off to another branch. I went and looked where it grabbed the thing and there was a hummingbird nest there...we just watched the hawk grab a chick! Very sad for the hummingbirds.
I gotta go back there with my camera sometime to see what else is going on there. Maybe the hawks are hanging out there and I can get some good shots of them. They were very tolerant of us, we were probably within 25 feet of them at times.

 

Dood. Nature doing it's thing. It's chilling and exciting to see. I've seen egrets eating voles, eagles grabbing fish, and the wildest thing-the harrier grabbing a rabbit-even though it was dropped, it was still really cool to see.

 

I watched a Stellar Jay pull baby tree swallows out of one of my birdhouses a couple yesrs ago

I was like WTF