Day 302 - Sunday Morning Birds

Quick post today, but not without mentioning that the nuthatch images have very minimal post-processing, besides cropping (my 250 mm lens just isn't enough to help me fill my frame with these tiny birds), and a wee bit of sharpening.

However, the Chickadee shot was a different story - I shot the image through a double-glass window, and I had to clean up the image quite a bit in post.

Day 289 - Squirrel in the Tree

One lone squirrel hiding under its tail as the rain poured down!  I have posted something similar last summer, but this sight never fails to amuse.



And this one was from a couple of days ago - this squirrel was running around hoarding food for himself from the pile of loaves someone had thrown out for the birds and these little guys.

Day 236 - Relearning the Alphabet: The Letter "W"

"W" for Warbler (catching up)

A few shots of a Yellow-Rumped Warbler taken in Fremont, California.  I think this is an adult female eastern, but if you think otherwise, please drop me a line.

I have had quite a bit of trouble with my camera and realized that a good camera paired with my 250 mm lens could have gotten me a long way.  However, that wasn't meant to be so I had to crop these photos really tight to see the tiny bird.

Day 182 - Breakfast time!

I spent a good half hour photographing sparrows and pigeons at the bird feeder this morning.  Obviously, at the cost of my breakfast.  But it was fun.  I shot these images through the window, but despite the dirt and spider webs on it, I got pretty clear shots. 

I initially started to shoot from a long distance, not wanting to spook the birds.  My balcony is west facing, and therefore doesn't receive much morning light.  Therefore, I had pretty poor light to work with.  On top of that, the brighter background wasn't helping me at all, despite high ISO and slower shutter speed.  So, although I was worried that the flash might bother the birds, I still went ahead and used it - the birds didn't even move a hair!  That was nice!  

Then I got bolder, and sneaked through the kitchen and planted myself within 2 or 3 feet of the window.  The shots got better.  And the Fall colours in the park in front of my balcony really created a great background for the shots.   

I had a great time doing this.  I will now have to find out what winter birds I might get and prepare to feed them as well.  But I'm worrying about the background when the leaves are gone. :(

Day 138 - The day of the squirrel

I heard rustling overhead and found this guy foraging for nuts, or whatever else that it was after.  I didn't know who was more surprised to see the other - out of the blue (or should I say green!).

Day 111 - Pigeon

This lone pigeon landed right in front of me, begging me to take a photo while he strutted around.

Day 110 - Scorching!

One of the days during the heat wave.  The effect wasn't exactly what I was hoping for.  I wanted the image a little bit hazy to depict the haze of the heat, but I couldn't spend enough time on this as the gull decided to take off after I'd fired my second shot. :-(

Day 103 - Forster's Tern

This was the first time I saw one of these.  The tern was fishing and flying around for a bit before I realized it wasn't another seagull.  When I finally prepared to take some shots, it decided to take itself elsewhere.

These cute little ducklings are most probably Gadwalls.  It's difficult to tell by the females if they are Gadwalls or Mallards.  The mother was a few feet away from these duckies, but I wasn't able to figure out the id.

Day 96 - By the river

Day 95 - The Baltimore Oriole

Saw this guy foraging for insects just outside my bedroom window.  As I've mentioned in my earlier posts, these little guys are extremely restive and aren't the perching kinds.  They just flit from one branch to the other without slowing down - very tricky to catch without a super telephoto lens either.  This is the best one I got through the glass window.  I blew out a couple others that could have been better handled.

Day 87 - More birds

Two men and their dog gone fishing on the St. Lawrence River.

I spotted two more birds this evening - the common grackle and a couple of cedar waxwings.  I saw a couple of yellow warblers, but it was already too dark and they were too high up for me to snap them.  Oh, well!

This is most likely a lincoln's sparrow, but I'm not completely certain.  

The beautiful colours of the common grackle, captured in the glow of the setting sun.

The cedar waxwing - it very difficult to snap this one as he was hiding behind leaves.  Took a while to get shots clear of branches.  This is the best one I could get.