Bluebird thread #12

2d those are great shots. What type of camera and lense do you use? And are the shots from tripod or handheld?

Thanks

Dave, reviewing the three, floating without the frame is my preference. How do you DO that?

Hi Meth: If you are referring to the last shot, it was taken with a Canon 40D and a 400mm f/4 lens. I have two 40D's and a 1D Mark III, so many of the pics farther back were taken with the Mark III with a 300mm f/2.8, which is my favorite setup. And they are all hand held. I very rarely use a tripod.

Margaret, I bought a bunch of Photoshop actions a few years ago from Shutterfreak.com. Lots of cute stuff in the package, like jigsaw puzzels, frames of different sizes, including popouts. This floating action was among them. I never got around to looking at them until now so I had to go back to them for updates.

Anyway, I do think it makes the pictures pop a little. Here is one from several months ago.

This message was edited Sep 4, 2008 3:48 PM

That's fabulous! Thanks for the info.

The fledglings, now 52 days old, are also starting their moult. For some reason, the female is significantly ahead of her brothers.

Here is a better view of her.

Poor Mama, looking pretty rough.

Fantastic photos, Dave. I love the female fledge. The floating frames really set them off.

Wonderful pics Dave! They (fledges) sure are growing up fast!

Time to check on our moulting progress.

First, I want to show a comparison of the three juveniles. Notice that the female and one of the males have already lost a significant amount of their baby fuzz, while the other male has hardly lost any. I have seen such disparity in past and I am sure he will catch up soon.
First the female:

Now one of the males:

And finally, the slow poke.

And here's Papa and Mama

Nice to see the different stages. Great pics!

Thanks Pelle. Here are a few random shots.

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I kinda like the fluff on them. :-)

Dave, they are beautiful, moulting or not. I love the last shot. Birds can be so cranky, can't they?

OHHHH - I love these shots. Just a couple of years ago I noticed bluebirds in my yard. I had not seen a bluebird for years, or maybe just had not noticed. I may be mistaken, but I believe their nest was in the neck of our bass boat. Regardless, I wouldn't allow the boat to be moved until I was sure it was safe for the birds!!!

Reminds me of when our huskies would shed their undercoats. I love to sit there and pluck it out...so relaxing!

Here's Friday's update. As you can see, we had a little rain. Amazingly, the one male is just starting his moult and the other two are far ahead of him.

This is the other male.

And this is the female, who is most advanced of the three.

Here are a couple of close ups.

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Thanks for the update Dave! Such cute kids!

Oh how I miss my Bluebirds. It was such a blessing to see them so up close and personal thru 2 broods. I haven't seen the male or any of the fledges in quite a while. He used to almost always be within hearing range., cause morning or evening when I would call "meal-worms" he would usually show up in 'His tree" and call to me ...I'd hear him while i was putting them in the dish. He must have been telling me to hurry up, cause as soon as I got a few feet away he would be at the dish. wonder why he suddenly stopped coming. Not mating season, so don't think he went searching for a lady. I sure hope that whatever got the female BB didn't get him too.
Dave, or anybody. Does it sound "usual" for one to suddenly leave the place that they've been feeding MW's like this??

Hi Birdie:

With birds it's hard to say that anything is unusual. We think of them as pets but after all, they are wild birds and they behave in many different ways. Many of them seem to have different personalities, which is most obvious in their aggressiveness and how much risk they will take. You see this in the birds that will fly down to the feeder while you are still there while others wait until they feel safe. And, there are many things, bad and good that we don't see, that impact on their personalities, and especially their fears, such as the existence of nearby preditors and other sources of food, water and shelter that are available to them. I have been fortunate in having my birds here every day (and usually five or six times a day, summer and winter) since 2004. But I have friends whose BBs disappear for weeks at a time, then suddenly reappear. They all feel as you do now.

It has always seemed strange to me that when nesting parents chase away juveniles from a previous brood, the young birds don't try to sneak back, remembering that there were mealworms here. I see dozens of BBs in the neighborhood and suspect some of them were hatched in my nestbox. I even had a couple that nested in an abandoned woodpecker hole in a tree right behind our property. I go down there to photograph them and they are within 200 feet of the feeder, but they don't come to it -- ever. But, when we have severe winter weather, such as when we have18 inches or so of snow, we suddenly see as many as two dozen blues flocked together and they all come to the feeder. As soon as the weather improves, however, we only see our last brood (usually the adults and the juveniles from the last nesting of the season).

I had an invasion of starlings this morning so I moved the mealworms into the feeder to keep them from eating all the worms. The young BBs are not used to that so they enter with caution.

Dave

That's a very good explanation of bluebird behavior, Dave, and I appreciate your wisdom on this. I've had the same experience as Birdie - they disappeared and did not come back after fledging, even with mealworms put out in the regular spot. I did hear them sometimes, but never saw them up close. There was a shrike hanging out close by - I could hear it. So I think they went elsewhere for safety, but I really worried about them. This was in July.

Then about three weeks ago, I saw the familiar flight pattern in the pine tree next door. Binocs confirmed they were bluebirds - two matures and maybe 2 immatures. They used our deck rails to hunt bugs at dusk for several evenings, and I was so excited! I put out the bowl with mealworms but they they never came near it. Then came hurricane Ike, and I worried like crazy. We had huge high winds, many trees down. That pine tree survived, and so did the blues - they returned to hunt from the deck rail a day later just like before, but as before won't touch the bowl with the mealworms.

I feel so much better now that they've "checked in." The other birds around here must have a magical way to protect themselves in severe and long storms (it took about 12 -13 hours for the high winds to come and go.) Hummers were waiting for their feeder with huge winds that morning. I promptly put out a plastic feeder and watched them hang on for dear life while they fed. Thankfully, as far as I can tell, all is well with the birds. I think I'll just have to trust their abilities more in years to come like you do. This was my first bluebird year, and I thank you for all your sharing of knowledge and pics!

Well, lots of things have come and gone since I last posted on this thread. I had to go back 4 pages to find it. All the fledglings pictured earlier now look just like the adults and they all visit the meal worm feeder five or six times each day. It was very overcast today but I still managed to get a few keepers. This one at ISO 2000.

But if I can get close enough I can still capture some detail.

One more

Here's a shot of the female.

But there's no substitute for good light. Here is a shot from last Monday, when the sun was shining.

Same shot, cropped so you can see the detail a bit better.

Here's the female.

Same shot, a little closer.

Still closer

Another close up