Daily Bird Pics (and conversation) #446

In starting a new thread, about the only images that I have are of Bald Eagles. Activity is slowly picking up until the approximate peak migration time frame around Thanksgiving week. So here are a few photos. Lots of juvenile Bald Eagles around but they are not nearly as photogenic.

We just came from the previous thread which has an awful lot of excellent photos. Here is the link in case you missed them.

http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/1278690/



This message was edited Oct 17, 2012 2:44 PM

Thanks for starting the new thread! Successfully, too, I see ;-)

Resin

Wonderful shots Linth!

Nice! Number three is super, even for you!

I agree with Dave, Linth, number three is a cracker.

You must look forward to seeing these majestic birds every year. Super pics, every one. Just this one shot to upload of TWO male Painted Buntings yesterday. Taken under dark skies.

Great way to start a new thread Linth! Fabulous series.

Wow, Linth, I'm so glad the eagles are back! I'm with the others, that third photo is to die for! Thanks for starting the new thread with a group of gorgeous photos.

Lily, your flicker in that last thread is a pretty one and probably a yellow-shafted northern flicker which is normally found in your area. My intergrade flickers are all different. They may have the black malar and red crescent of your flicker, but their tails are red compared to your yellow ones, hence they become a hybrid or intergraded. It's really interesting to see all the differences in colors with these birds.

GP, love those buntings!

Here's a fox sparrow, a hermit thrush, an acorn woodpecker stocking its granery with acorns, and a nuttall's woodpecker.


This message was edited Oct 18, 2012 10:11 PM

Wow Linth! Great shot, especially the third one.

Thanks Duc on the additional info. on the Northern Flickers, I need to learn more about them. How I'd like to see those Acorn Wps. They're such hard-workers! How do they defend or safeguard their winter stocks from Squirrels and Chipmonds?

Linth, Thanks much for solving that mystery on the Great Egret. I should have figured out that it was converted to B&W. Those eagle shots are quite a treat to see. I agree about #3 being exceptional. We have a few eagle nests down in my area of Texas, but not very many, so when we see them, it is a big deal.

GP, Beautiful shot of those Painted Buntings! I love that they match your bird bath! LOL.

Duc, Fantastic shots! The one of the Acorn WP with his stash is a wonderful behavior capture. I'm pretty sure you could sell that shot to a nature type magazine. Appreciate the info on the Flickers. I see some every once in a while around here, so I will pay more attention next time.

Patti

The Painted Buntings are incredibly beautiful, GP.

Great shots, as always, duc. Love the Woodpeckers. What a shot of those storage holes.

Here's a Pacific Heron that's made itself at home at the local lake over the past few months. I've never seen one of these birds before and this one is on its own. Really distant shots. Even to get these, I had to tread very, very cautiously through the grasses, listening for the odd tiger snake, which love long grass in wetland areas. It looks like its got a suture line down its neck.

Next, a couple of Sacred Ibis then a Pink-eared Duck with three ducklings.

From this afternoon, a Red-tailed Black Cockatoo. Edited to remove the "male" from the description. I'm not sure that it is as the males don't have the spangled feathers.

This message was edited Oct 21, 2012 7:56 AM

Nice shots all. And Margaret, treading about in that snake infested area--you are nuttier than a fruitcake!! I hope at least you were wearing your snake proof thongs! LOL

Love those water fowls Margaret, especially the Pink-eared Duck with her 3 little ones and the Black Cockatoo. GP, some how I missed those gorgeous Buntings. I wish to see one some day.

Margaret, Fantastic captures! That heron is beautiful! So glad you got to see it and share some photos! The pink-eared duck with ducklings is adorable. Hard to pick a favorite, but I think the Cockatoo in flight gets my vote. Beautiful bird and beautiful photo!

GG, I'm not just cracking up. I'm ROFLMAO. I'm hoping you mean "flip-flops?" LOL. Thong has a whole new meaning these days. And, anyone slogging around in the marsh in a thong... well, let's just say the mental picture is too much.



This message was edited Oct 20, 2012 4:05 PM

I caught this Great Egret with his/her catch. I took a whole series of images, but missed the final event. Let's just say it ended well for the Egret, not so well for his lunch. I was actually starting to feel sorry for that little rodent.

NOT FOR the SQUEAMISH!


This message was edited Oct 20, 2012 4:05 PM

This message was edited Oct 20, 2012 4:06 PM

Patti, what we call flip flops, are thongs in Australia. LOL

Whew. That's a good thing. Lol

Ha ha ha. I thought the same thing when I read what you had written about the thongs, GG. I know that you refer to them as flip-flops and that "thong" means something different - except over here where thong can mean one of two items of apparel.

My fall birds have arrived along with some winter ones, 1.Black-cap Chickadee,2.Northern Flicker,3.Nuthatch. I was just looking outside the door and there the Northern Flicker was eating the suet cake on the tree.

So no matter WHAT kind of thong you are talking about, I think Snake-proof is a good thing!

Pffft.

Beautiful photos everyone! I hate to say this, but I have never seen a Bald Eagle outside of a zoo, which I am truly sad about! Even when my husband & I went to the West Coast we did not see any!!! hahahahaha. Thank you for this thread, I am new to bird watching yet am quickly making it a hobby!!

Welcome Cindy. I bet you have Eagles in your area and don't even know. In fact, Audubon Dallas might be able to tell you where nesting pairs are. This forum ( http://www.audubondallas.org/forum/showthread.php?t=2331 ) talks about them close to you.

Thank you all for your kind comments. Photographing moving Bald Eagles can be a real challenge. When they decide to hit the water, you don't have a lot of time to get them in focus. I usually miss quite a number of what could be potentially good photos. And, for whatever reason, 75% of the time they hit the water with their tail facing my direction. And, then you have the lighting to deal with. I even pulled a muscle in my back while twisting and turning in trying to keep up with them. Obviously, the closer they are the more difficult to follow them, especially with a 500mm lens.

Margaret, that Sacred Ibis does look like it has sutures down its front-gorgeous photos all of them. That Red-tailed Cockatoo is so beautiful.

Patti, great job of sticking with the egret while it was playing with the rodent (poor little one).

Emptyeyes, cute photos of your birds too.

Cindy, welcome and keep looking.

Linth, more wows on those photos. The eagles looked like they were having a great time. I wish mine would stay close enough to get pictures like yours.

This bald eagle was more interested in the lake than me taking photos from my deck.
Here's a cute northern flicker enjoying the berries.
A red-tailed hawk passing by me.
And, a pair of California towhees.

A few shots from the past week. Not spectacular....but I tried!! lol

Red-breasted Nuthatch at the bird bath.
A Downy and Hairy Woodpecker at the big suet.
Titmouse at the feeder that Granny Grunt made for me.
Red-bellied Woodpecker.
And last is a male Cardinal.

Margaret, I really like the Pacific Heron. I don't recall ever seeing an image of one.

Duc, you need to hang some fish off of your deck .............. I also always like your woodpeckers, i.e. Acorn and Nutalls's. Neat birds !

Nice shot, Patti. I often wait patiently for that moment but they usually out-wait me.

I've attached several more Bald Eagle shots taken this past Sunday.

Nanny, wow, such a great variety of birds and that red-bellied with your metal bird is adorable. You sure provide a great assortment of food to your little ones.

Linth, these last pictures are all just exceptional. So clear and sharp. Please tell me you're using a tripod. Can you tell if there's something in the juvie's talons. It looks like maybe a piece of fish?

The yellow-rumped warblers are beginning to come to my second floor deck to look for the peanut butter log and I haven't put it out yet. They look all over like they know it should be there-so cute.

Yep, it's got a bit of fish - not as successful as the adult, though!

Resin

duc, yes, I am using a tripod - a Wimberley head on a Gitzo tripod. I couldn't ask for a better combination. I'm shooting at 36 megapixels so it is not very forgiving in camera shake. Even with a stable tripod one can still get some shutter vibration. I'm still trying to perfect the technique somewhat by putting one hand on the midpoint of the "camera/lens" to eliminate some of the vibration. You can lock up the mirror but I think that is only good for one photo at a time. I'm usually shooting a continuous flurry of photos. That being said, all of these photos were taken at 1/2500 sec., f/8 and auto ISO, at 500mm. I use auto-ISO because going from a sky shot to a water shot, lighting conditions change drastically. My exposure bias is set at -0.7. I prefer underexposing the image slightly. Of course, most importantly is how fast your lens will autofocus and continue to focus accurately on a moving subject.

Oh duc your shot of the Yellow-rumped is so good!

This is my best so far...and I have lots of them around!! lol

Thanks for the info Linth. I think I'm going to try and put a hand on the camera/lens too. Right now I just have a cheap tripod (hubbie gave me a choice of putting in wood floors or getting a new tripod-I chose the floors!) but later on I'm going to get the new tripod.

Nanny, your little butter butt is cute. Glad you're seeing lots of them, I've just seen 3 so far.

Here's a scrub jay and a white-crowned sparrow.

Wow so many great varieties of birds and wonderful shots! We saw our first Pine Siskin today!
I'll try to get some shots tomorrow.

Fabulous shots of the eagles in action Linth. Wow! Duc, I see the scrub jay but where is the w.c. sparrow? It's exciting to see birds during their migration. Though, I haven't seen many in my backyard just yet. I need to go up the mountain and watch more of the imigrants arrival. I saw lots of Northern Flickers in flight (no pix), heard many phoebes and Saw Kingfishers in flight.
Here are some Great Blue Herons and Great Egrets. I saw many cormorrants in flight but didn't get a good shot of one.

What a great start, Linth! those shots of the Eagle ready for a catch, and the ones with trying to keep his catch from the rivalry are fantastic. Thanks for the new thread.

Great thread everyone, love the shots and comments.

I had a few visitors this fall. The Waxwings were here this morning looking for fruits. They didn't stay very long, because the Robins had cleaned most of the fruits out. And yesterday I had a Red-breasted Nuthatch, at first glance, I thought I was seeing a Chickadees, and it didn't dawn on me that it was a Nuthatch. Only realized after a few time, he came around. Hopefully he'll show up again.
Here are a few of the ones I see.

Lovely shots, everyone.

Here's a couple of shots of a cooperative, but wind-blown White-faced Heron, then a young New Holland Honeyeater (blue eyes) and an adult in the Cape Honeysuckle.

Wow! Gorgeous shots, Margaret. My Cape Honeysuckle is blooming also. Rarely see any birds at it.

Thanks, GP. I was think of what other birds I've seen in the Cape Honeysuckle and can't think of any other than the New Hollands.

Linth, I was really pleased to see the Pacific Heron. I hadn't heard of it either until about 4 months ago when I bumped into a guy at the lake who was obviously bird watching and he pointed it out to me. I hope to be able to get some closer shots of it.