Birding and Bird Photography

Heck ya i get frustrated with those warblers...you pull up your camera and by that time they moved.

Theres some birds around, nothing like the crazy numbers we had in early april, nut the majority of the migrators have moved up north, but there are a few stragglers hangin around.
We get am amazing hawk migration in Sept so im looking forward to that as well as the fall migration

Theres also some reports of 9 woodstorks about 15 mins from the house so i may try to go spot those thos weekend

 

Kevin sounds like your graduating and maybe getting ready to start working on your postgrad? Congrats and good luck!

Mark we have a huge raptor migration here starting in mid September also. Lake Superior is the worlds largest freshwater lake and raptors don't like to cross large bodies of water if they can help it. On the Western side down by Duluth hawks are concentrated as they fly South from as far North as the Arctic and some days you can see thousands of them. The location has been called Hawk Ridge starting back from when the Indians inhabited the area. From mid Sept. to the end of Oct. is the peak, and I am usually camping and ruff grouse hunting in the arrowhead to the North of there those 6 weeks. This year I am thinking will have to go down to Hawk Ridge and check it out. Good luck with the Wood Storks!

Few weeks ago watched a Robin spend 4 days building a nest in the blue spruce in my front yard. The base kept falling out and several times I thought give it up girl, not going to work. She kept at it and once the base was established it only took a few hours to finish it. She has been sitting on it since then and her perseverance has paid off.


Baby Robin Reaching

Talking about territory bird behavior, this morning I was sitting on the deck with the camera trying to catch hummers feeding at the feeders and flowers. One landed on the feeder and I saw it snap its beak at what looked like an insect that went by. Had a feeling it was going to fly after it and it did, talk about fast. Snapped a shot with my finger still on the AF button but it couldn't keep up so it wasn't in perfect focus. Was really surprised when I looked at the picture that it wasn't an insect but another hummer, it happened that fast.


humer attack

 

Thats awesome Mike..theres appreantly a hawk watch platform at a park here that they say is pretty good...im going to have to try it this yr

MT, im super jealous of the yellowhead shot, i havent been able to get that close to a male, only a female.

Well i found my targets for the weekend...got a wood stork, black terns, and a frigatebird. The stork shot is a little blurry, he was about 100 yards away. And i added the scissortail, the kindbird, and seaturtle just for kicks. I took those yesterday as well.

 

Mike, Yeah I just finished my classes and finals and everything. I have graduation on Sunday morning. It's crazy!!!
Awesome hummingbird fight shot! Even with the slight out-of-focus, that's an amazing capture!
Nice Sandhill Crane, Lisa! I didn't know that they got that brown color. So weird!
Aw maaaan Mark, I'm so jealous of your scissor-tail! I've seen one once before, there's one that keeps coming back to San Diego during the Spring migration. Such an amazing bird!
Now that I'm done with classes hopefully I can get out some more I still have to move back home, but after next Wednesday I'll have a week before heading to Ecuador to do some San Diego birding and off-roading and maybe camping and climbing.
I'm still debating on taking my T2i...I wouldn't take the 400mm, I have a 70-300 that isn't quite as nice but still has decent reach. Any thoughts?
Good birds!

 

70-300 and a teleconvertor maybe?

 

Hey kevin, ya those scissortails are pretty cool birds. Still trying to get a good flying shot.
Man i think if i were to go out of the country, id take lesser expensive of the two...even though the 300 doesnt have as much reach. Id hate to have a nice 400 get messed up.

 

Oh I'm definitely not taking the 400. I'm debating between taking the T2i with my 70-300 or just my point and shoot.

 

That's a good idea, I'll have to check around for a teleconverter.

 

Yeah buddy!!

 

MTgirl great shots and I haven't ever even heard of a yellow headed backbird until recently. I shot "something" in the National Wildlife refugee a couple of weeks ago and keep running accross pictures of them trying to identify it.

PS: I think that poor flamingo needs some more shrimp to eat

Mark I too am jealous of those scissortails. On another forum people from Texas post lots of pictures of them, think they are trying to make the rest of us jealous and it is working LOL.

On another note you have offered to help point people in the right direction to find birds that are willing to come down there. Couple of nights ago on PBS Nature show they played the American Bald Eagle - The Upper Mississippi River Valley. And it really hit me that I live in the heart of the BE wintering population only Alaska has more Bald Eagles. During the summer there are still lots of them around but they become territorial and spread out, the dense growth makes it harder to take pictures too. Come winter if anyone wants to shoot BE's I would be more than glad to help them. And with luck a Golden Eagle although they are very rare yet, I still have to see one in the wild. Just be warned that twenties below zero F temps are not uncommon, but I feel it is worth it. Most of the time it is only teens below or warmer.

My exact thought too. I have a 1.4tc that I use with my 300 and have used it on my 60-250 F/4 and it works very well. Actually I have 2 1.4 tc's but stacking them I loose AF.

Good luck!!

 

Wow i didnt realize the. Scissortail wasnt as common up north

Yes Mike, anyone is welcome to come to south tx. I recommend early to mid april, which seems to be the "birdiest". It would be perfect, because then you could go home just in time for the start of when yall start seeing birds migrate through.

 

Babies have hatched

 

They line the inside with spider web