Starting Bluebird thread Number 3

No Rose, they did raise a family of four after she ran off his former Mrs and killed her 6 day old nestlings. So the net effect was that I had only two successful nestings last year. She has stayed, well actually, she has followed Papa around throughout the winter and they seem totally bonded.

Very interesting Dave...I hope Papa's personality returns...thanks for the info.

Hard to figure his personality, or his courting technique.

Here is a shot from this morning. She was perched on the nestbox and he flies right into her. And if you look closely, he has a blade of grass in his beak. Maybe he wanted to be sure she would get the hint.

Here's the next shot. Grass still in his beak.

Here is another from this morning.

Hmmm... a little like a bluebird soap opera? I'm fascinated!

One more

Mmmm

Dave,

Would you consider posting a picture of your bluebird house in context of your yard/plant surroundings? I want to put up my first bluebird house in the next couple of weeks and have been reading various suggestions on where to place the bluebird house. I understand the height requirements and that I will need to place mine on a post as I do not have a fence.

I live on a 2/3 oddly shaped lot with natural woods on portions of the lot but I am at a loss as to the best position for the house. I believe I have several possible locations, however I have read varying opinions as to which direction the house is to face. For example, if I am to follow one recommendation I read, to have the house face southeast, away from the wood line, and still on my property, I would be placing the house in my front yard, which is the north side of the house and cold with the winter winds! :-) I can place the house away from the wood line in other portions, but the house would not face south but rather southwest or west for example.

To say I am confused, is an understatement. I want to choose just the right place so the birds are happy and safe. Most pictures depict the houses in fields and on pasture fence posts. The bluebird trails I enjoyed as a child had houses placed in simular "country" locations.

Seeing pictures of your bluebird house in the context of the surroundings would give me a visual idea of a very successful location right here in Fredericksburg and could help others that may be confused! :-)

I thank you for considering this request. When I get home from work this evening, I plan to visit the site you recommending in an earlier post.

Thanks for the wonderful pictures and inspiration! :-)



This message was edited Feb 28, 2008 4:14 AM

cwspy

I have my nestbox turned away from the prevailing weather. That means it faces almost due south. It is placed where I can monitor it from the breakfast nook. I live in the Leeland Station subdivision in Stafford County and have a rather small lot, but I am adjacent to common space which gives the birds more room. Since you live in the Fredericksburg area, why don't you send me a D-mail and maybe we can have you over for a cup of coffee and you can see it for yourself. I am not an expert as a bluebird host but I may know enough to get you started.

I would be getting that box up soon, though. I expect the birds to begin nest building as soon as this current cold snap passes.

Mrs. Ed: I will do that, maybe in conjunction with the day by day progress thread I still plan to start once the birds start.housekeeping.

Dave

oooo, very good. It will be like being there! My Mom's bluebirds arrived last week and she is thrilled. Not to hijack, but she has two houses that face east. On the back side is a field and the front side is lawn and then a creek. They seem to love it. I have suggested a worm feeder on her deck like you!

Dave,

The Bluebird photos are wonderful! Love seeing all the pics and comments with each one! Thanks for sharing!

Marilyn

Dave - Do you shoot in RAW? And your photoshopping out all the distracting background makes for such a clean picture. I am drooling over your photos!!

No I do not shoot in raw. I generally shoot several hundred images at a time, and it takes so long for a 10MB file to load from the camera to the computer that I prefer to shoot in large jpeg. I guess I am simply too impatient.

I usually crop my pictures 100 percent to bring the subject in closer and maybe I might sharpen some of them a little, but other than that I do not edit them. Rarely if ever do I use Photoshop. The plain background effect is created because the camera is so close to the bird and the depth of field of the telephoto lens is so shallow that whatever is more than 20 feet or so behind the bird is blurred beyond recognition. On rare occasion I may clone something distracting like bird droppings from the foreground, but no picture that I have posted on this forum has ever had the background removed in Photoshop. The lens takes care of that.

In this picture of a male fledgling, for example, you see two shades of green. The sun is shining on the grass on the lower left. The right side is in the shade, so it is darker. The lighter area above and to the bird's left is a house about 200 feet beyond the bird, also in the shade.

Dave

This message was edited Mar 2, 2008 2:07 AM

Sometimes you don't have to do much of anything to the picture. Here is one taken with the Canon 40D and the 300mm at f/2.8, just as it came out of the camera. Full frame. No crop, no sharpening, no nothin'. I took more than 175 when I took this one and I looked at them tonight for the first time. . Very little difference in most of them. He shifted about on the perch a little, maybe moved his head, looked left, looked right. Most of them appear to be about as good as this one. I'll never use them but its hard for me to delete them.

Here's one more from that group. Again, this is straight out of the caamera. Usually when the male looks straight at the camera he looks "mad," but not always. Here he seems more curious as to the camera's clicking sound.

Dave

hmm… here's another idea to patent. Let's add bird recordings to the camera software so it will chirp the bird song when you are focusing. HA. Look over here, birdy!!!

Ideas??? I got a million of 'em!!! It's a wonder I'm not a millionaire.

Love that idea, Mrs_Ed.

Dave,

That Bluebird fledging is so adorable and sweet! Just precious!

The last two pics of the Bluebirds are beautiful!

Marilyn

Here is one from a few minutes ago. I thought for a while she was going to start building her nest today, but it seems she's still not quite ready. Anyway, I moved a tripod down near the nestbox and mounted a camera that I can control from a distance with a wireless remote. Before long Papa decided to check it out..

That's pretty funny, Dave!

That is funny Dave!

Ha, JINX Pelle!

What a hoot Dave! LOL!

I guess a saw a photo over on your site when I followed the link given above. You had two identical photos side by side and the background had been removed from the second. I was wondering how you did that, since I have an old version of Photoshop Elements and never did get into understanding layers. I figured that's how you did it. I do understand the background blur effect you're talking about with the depth of field. I have a 100-400mm lens (Canon), but only one camera - a 30D. I laughed at the BB on the camera, and hope you didn't have to do any cloning. LOL! I'd love to have that problem.

Amazing photos!! I'll keep watching as long as you keep posting!

Thank you ceejay. I didn't mean to talk down to you.

You are apparently referring to the Easter picture where I removed a distracting background. Yes, there I did use Photoshop but I used the eraser tool and just repainted the background. I had forgotten about that one. I'm not very good with photoshop.

I need to remember my pbase site. It is only there because the forum where I used to post would not allow me to upload directly from my computer so I would upload to Pbase and then direct link them to the forum. Since I have been over here I have neglected to add any new pictures to the Pbase site.

I'll see if I can find the picture I'm talking about so others here will not feel left out. Is this it?

ERASER tool! Wow Dave.

As someone who works with photoshop for a living, let me tell you, Well done! Such patience!

Well, thank you but really it was pretty primitive. Here is one I did for New Years. Mostly I used the cloning tool

Dave

LOL, very cute!

Dave..I must tell you AGAIN how much I enjoy seeing all your pics and how much I am learning. I haven't enuf wits about me to ask an intelligent question, but am learning so much from your answers to others. Thanks so much!

I didn't feel put down, Dave. I'm definitely in learning mode, and you have so much to learn from. I do know the eraser tool (and cloning tool), and that must have taken some time to get it so perfect. So besides talent you also have a great deal of patience!! I usually give up and chuck the whole project. I gotta (and wanna) learn layers!

Dave,

More great and neat photos from you! Keep 'em coming! ;-)

Marilyn

I have bluebirds!!! Just one couple (one awesome couple!), but I haven't seen them in my neighborhood for 10 years!! They are building their nest and I took tons of photos, but my lens is only a 400mm lens and they were just too far away for a good shot. I didn't want to scare them off by going outside, so I opted to clean my window and shoot through it instead. LOL!

Thats great ceejay!!! Congratulations!!

Order up those mealworms ceejay!!

I have a ton of them in the downstairs fridge. The bluebirds haven't found them yet, but the brown-headed nuthatches, Carolina wrens, and chickadees have! I know the chickadees are nesting (in another house), and I highly suspect the others are too - from the number of mealworms they are taking! Don'tcha just love spring?!

Congratulations CJ...I know that little bubble in the tummy feeling when you see them for the first time. I don't think you can scare them away..DH drove the BIG tractor within a few feet of them a million times yesterday and the guy across the street banged on his feed tank for a million hours and they still came back. I am looking forward to seeing your pics of them!

Here's a closeup of Papa on the nestbox. Apparently he's been in to some kind of hair. Doesn't look like feathers to me. Don't know if you can see it on your monitor. He was trying every way possible to get it off -- without much success.

Dave

Perched on one foot, he tries to scratch out the irritant with his other foot.