DAILY BIRD PICS Vol. 357

A pair of Pintails.

Great start Nanny! Your female Pileated WP is a beauty! You are so lucky they come to your feeders!

From the previous thread, I must comment on Grasmussen's owl shots! They are wonderful! Congrats on the new camera!

Reddirtretiree... I love that first photo you posted! Sooo cute!

Lily... I especially like your heron and waxwings!

Hack... that is TERRIBLE to hear about your feeders being stolen! I am glad you came up with a creative alternative! I really like your Red-bellied WP.

Elphaba... your RWBB and Creeper are my faves!

Reddirtretiree again... I love the Stilt! Such beautiful birds!

Burn... Cute Hairy, but the comp on the doves is wonderful!

Dellrose... I like your grebe and coots!

Hubby and I finally got the balcony cleaned up, and added another feeder. I also got the perches up that I wanted to try out. I'll give it a day or so, and I think I'll be able to get some good pics of our little friends!

I only have one image from this weekend. Went for a drive to look for hawks. Only found one Red-shouldered Hawk. He was pretty far away.



This message was edited Nov 21, 2010 9:10 PM

Hi syndicate, try going into "manual mode" Play around with different settings, higher shutter speeds, different f-stops, and ISO settings.

Be sure the focus point is center point only if shooting 1 bird at a time.

Read your manual to be sure you understand what each of these things (such as shutter speed,ISO etc.) change as far as amount of light etc.


If your shooting birds through a window the photos will not come out as crisp.



This message was edited Nov 21, 2010 9:25 PM

Nice start, nanny. Love the Pileated. Here is the male Painted Bunting hiding in the bushes.

Indigo Bunting and female Painted Bunting.

And the Hummer.

Great pics everyone!

Congrats on the new birds Rose!

Red, I love the Northern Pintail they are such a handsome duck.

Sweet Buntings GP!

Nice ones burn!

Good to see the Red-shouldered VA!

Wow...this thread took off in no time!! Way too many comment on...but easy to say I love all the great pics posted!!

Hack, that is just so lousy.....I just wonder why the heck someone would steal your feeders. I do really like your solution tho...I could use a couple of those!

I missed getting a shot of a Flicker the other day when it went around the tree to the otherside. That is until I noticed it's shadow on the tree next to it!

Shadow Flicker!

Thanks for the advice...pics are being taken with me standing outside the patio door and the feeder is in the center of the lawn.

synbicate1, listen to pelle's advice. I saw that your Rebel was shooting a shutter speeds of 1/80 and 1/60 and 400. I think that is kinda slow. I'd try to get faster shutter speeds. Get closer is possible. I have 1.4 converter that still lets my automation work (if the sun if good).

If the sun is good, I try to get above 1/1000 and ISOs around 400, but that's just me. I use A-priority mostly and crank it to get the fastest shutter speeds.

Look at that Pied-billed Grebe that dellrose photographed. It was nice and was at 1/800 and 400.

Just my $.02
Hack

Thanks guys for your sympathies for my feeders. I did look all around and found nothing. I could understand loosing one to a furry critter, but 8?

I'm still puzzled as to who is so hard-pressed that you'd steal bird feeders. Oh, well.

Hack

Nice shots everyone!!
Hack, glad you went out and grabbed some new feeder's!! I can't believe someone would steal bird feeder's of all things and all of them too boot, not right!

This Mourning Dove was just hunkered down on the ground enjoying the morning sunshine.

A pair of Mallards. So beautiful, yet so common we sometimes ignore their beauty.

Oh I'm behind again! Rats. Well good job everyone.

Red, I can't believe how close you are getting to those ducks!

Welcome back Rose!

Pelle, love the shadow flicker!

It is sad in this world that you can't even enjoy feeding the birds. I am amazed that we have not had that problem, except for the umbrella. Our one feeder, the newest one is in front, right next to the cottonwood tree, and the suet feeder is a little closer to the house. The ledge is fastened to the tree so it would take some effort to get that off, and you would probably tear it up trying to get it. I would have to agree, I can see some furry creature stealing one but not 8! It just does not seem possible, as my hubby and I agree, it had to be a two legged creature. Its pretty pathetic that you can't even make one, you have to spoil someone else's fun. I hope the birds poop on them!!!

Some people just do things to be stupid. And some are just thieves. Like my in-laws have a woman across the street who would steal anything that was left out, included planted flowers!

It is a shame! Last year, during one of the three blizzards we had in this area, someone stole the rear wiper off our SUV! Really?????

Rose, I'm so glad you've shared your pic. of the Pied-billed Grebe. I captured a pic. the other day, but it didn't turn out very clear. Red, your various ducks make me so envious, other than the common Mallards, I don't get to see neither the Cinnamn Teal, nor the Pintails. Lovely pics.! Wild Rose your pics. of the raptors are awesome! Love those Hawks and Owls you've recently posted. GP, I can't help but ooohhh and awwwww over your Painted Buntings (which I've yet seen one in person before).

Dear Hacks, I feel bad about the news that someone has stolen your feeders. I've a similiar story; stolen plants, yep not bird feeders, not SUV's wiper, but plants and Pumpkins. As it turned out, as some of us surmised; KIDS! As spranks, kids pulled up my fall plantings for our neighborhood's friendship garden. We came to learn, the kids were acting out because their family is falling apart! I learned that one of our neighboring couple was getting divorced, and the kids were acting out. It takes a whole village to raise kids. And the couple is up rooting them from their home! sigh! I replanted the plants and kept them in my prayer.

Here is my contribution for the day; Eastern Blue Birds;

Nanny, thanks for your fantastic new start-your pileated photos are just wonderful!

There's too many to comment on, but great job everyone.

Hack, I'm so sorry that someone had to stoop so low as to take all your feeders. Thank goodness you are crafty enough to be able to put together great new ones.

Lily, I'm also sorry about those kids and your plants. You have to feel bad for what they're going through, but it's still not fair that they take it out on you.

In between showers, I've been enjoying so many birds here. My House Finches seem to get better looking every day.

This pair were really sweet as the male tried to take the seed from the female.

I don't recall if I've posted this picture of my orange variant House Finch.

This Sharp-shinned Hawk is continuing to sit on a tree and groom itself before the crows chase it off.

Here's another one.

Man...those are awesome duc! (picking jaw off the floor...)

Last one is sooooooo cool!

This message was edited Nov 22, 2010 12:06 PM

OK Duc, that last one is INCREDIBLE! How did you get him to do that? Dang! That's just great.
Lily, you are so lucky to have those bluebirds.
Rose, I'm so glad that you're back. I'd missed your beautiful pictures.
Red, love that mallard shot.

I had my Halloween decorations stolen when I lived in California. I chain and lock them to the house and trees etc. now. So far, no one has tried to cut the chains. Someone also dug up one of my roses in the middle of the night one time when I lived in a different neighborhood. Pretty amazing the stupid things people will do.

Well, I had two kinglets and two brown creepers flying around at the same time. I haven't downloaded my lack of pictures yet b/c I'm sure they are horrible. Can't decide which bird is faster and more annoying to photograph!

Here's a blue jay peeking at me during his bath.

Kinda windy here in Ohio,the squirrels are getting the sunflower seeds we put out for them, as long as we put some feed out for them, they leave the feeder alone, although with each passing day, I am more convinced that they can't get into it, although like I said before they sure try. We are supposed to have more rain today and tonight, and then the really cold weather comes in. We are going to have a good week, tonight and tomorrow we are having Thanksgiving dinners at the places we go to, and then Thursday. I will be as stuffed as the Turkey. Have a Happy Thanksgiving Day and don;t get too stuffed.

Elphaba, that BlueJay is probably asking you for a bit of privacy. ;)

Duc, you did a great job on that hawk with it's tail fanned out. Love the finches shots too.

Lily , I would love to see a Bluebird, nice pic.

Beautiful ducks , Red.

Glad to see those bunting again GP.

Nanny, I do believe you saw a flicker. :)

WR, your hunt for some Hawk was rewarded, that's great. I usually don't find any.

Great shot of the Grebe and Coots Rose.

We got snow the last 2 days, and guess what? I saw my Redpolls this morning. Didn't get pictures of them, cause my Camera was not ready. This is the first year, I see them here this early in the season. They usually arrive around the 20th of Dec. Don't know if this mean a bad winter ahead?
The Starlings have found my place too today. This one has speared a peanut.

It's been about 3 to 4 weeks, that the Purple finches have moved on to the woods. But this one showed up alone this morning.

The Mourning Doves were very hungry.

The Black-capped Chickadees were consistently scared off the suets, by the Starlings.

The Blue Jay was counting, how many peanuts he could gorge up. ;)

Yay Redpolls. Boo Snow.

Hey Burn...you are now officially Brrrrrrr...at least until next spring! Those are some gorgeous shots although it looks really cold! I remember my first year of bird watching and all the Redpolls you had. I was such a novice I kept waiting for mine to arrive!! That was an irruptive year and I actually did have one show up but none since. From what I have heard this is also supposed to be an irruptive year so I am keeping my fingers crossed. I will enjoy seeing yours this winter!

This thread is moving along really fast and some great shots here!

Hey Mrs. Ed...here is an Eastern Meadowlark from this morning..it was high up in the dead tree singing up a storm.

This pair of female Red-bellied Woodpeckers sure are noisy when they show up chasing each other all over the place!

This female Downy is a regular visitor but I haven't seen the male for quite awhile.

This poor little Goldfinch has a deformed beak.

Lily_love - If I saw an Eastern Blue Bird, it would be a Lifer for me - I'm still looking.

ducbucln - My HOFINs are looking pretty, too. I'd sure like to see an orange variant, cool looking bird. AND your hawk is striking.

Elphaba - I love the powder blue color of your Blue Jay.

burn_2007 - all your birds look real pretty. I know Mrs_Ed said "boo snow", but to me (here in West Central Ga it is a treat - 'course we go a little crazy when we get any and act like a bunch of fools.

dellrose - your Meadowlark pic was a pleasure to see. I saw a male Downy today, but didn't move fast enough to snap a pic of it. AND I once had a male Cardinal with a deformed beak.

Hack