Daily Pics No. 149

We came from here:
http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/916444/#top

Chilly air moving in, the feeders getting busier.......
Stop in and post your daily shots of any birds, anywhere.
Share your "captures" with fellow bird watchers!

Deb

Very nice shot Deb! She is so sweet. Thanks for starting the new thread!

Linth, I love those 2 Eagle shots that ended the last Daily Pics thread!

You're most welcome!

And, I agree, the eagle shots were amazing!
Deb

Some great shots in the last thread. I haven't been out until Sunday as I've been home with a bad cold, but I took these at one of the feeders at Wallington Hall on a lovely autumn day.

Blue Tit

Great Tit

Chaffinch

Beautiful shots knip! They are all lovely birds!

Nice crystal clear photos, Deb and kniphofia.

An in-flight shot of a Great Blue Heron following his catch. He needs to be on the lookout for the eagles. They would rather steal a fish then catch one on their own.

Knip: Amazingly sharp shots! And such pretty birds, too.
Linth: Will the Eagles take the fish right out of the Heron's mouth?
Deb

It didn't take this Scrub Jay long to find the new feeder I put up this evening.

This Steller's Jay was close behind, but had trouble using it, so..............

it went to Frank the Frog for some pointers.

Came back and tried again......

and this time was successful.

Nice shots of the Jay's, adel.

Deb, an "experienced" Great Blue Heron will most likely drop the fish rather than try to defend against the Bald Eagle. The eagle will get the fish one way or another. There is really enough fish for everyone. But, I see the eagles, herons and cormorants catch more fish than the fishermen on the shoreline or in their boat.

Here is another flight shot at 700mm. It illustrates the difficulty in getting the right lighting. The head is too washed out, the body feathers show no detail and too dark and the white tail feathers are blah. All on a perfect sunny day. Anyone know if shooting in raw format might help this dilemma.

Hi Linth, Are you using the tc (teleconverter)?

Linth..I have heard of people doing what you want done in photoshop. I would mean working with layers separating the different parts of the photo that you would make adustments to so the adjustments would only be made to the parts that needed it but not to other parts. If you lightened it then the sky and upper head would be way too light so they would have to be erased in a copy. Then after all adjustments were made the layers could be compressed back into one photo. More work than I want to do. LOL I have done that before to get a good sky color, but only when I took a class in photshop.

A not great shot of a Downy Woodpecker...

But a cool shot of the back of a Cedar Wawing!!

pelle, yes, I was using a 1.4x teleconverter on the 500mm prime lens. I'm not really sold on a teleconverter, however. It seems counter productive to spend a lot of money on a prime lens and then sacrifice some image quality by adding a TC. Perhaps if I had a 21 megapixel camera like the Canon EOS-5D Mark II, I might be able to overcome some of the image loss, or maybe I wouldn't need it at all. I just play around with it or use it (the teleconverter) in special situations. It all depends what one is willing to accept in the way of image quality.

f_chisolm, thank you for the info. I have never tried the layering effect nor do I own Photoshop. I understand the process but I agree that it seems like a lot of work.

Thanks Deb for the new thread. already so many pictures posted. And all nice. Linth gorgeous shots of the eagles on the last thread.

A Black-capped Chickadee this afternoon.

Female Purple Finch

A Fox Sparrow, sorry about the blurred leaves.

Male Downy Woodpecker

Nice pics burn and nanny!

Red-bellied Woodpecker hiding up in the tree

Female House Finch

another of my favorites, Nanny. Lee

Female House Sparrow...our House Sparrow population has exploded here over the summer.

Nice series Nanny.

I have tons of house sparrows too. I hope it is not a sign of things to come

Song Sparrow

Merlin

Resin

Nice shot of the Fox Sp., Burn. Don't apologize for the leaves, it's the bird that counts. ;))
That pic of the Downy eating the suet almost convinces me to go ahead and put my suet out, too. We're having a cold snap right now but it probably won't last.

Love the Merlin Resin.

Resin, you are so know knowledgeable and am curious how you became so. Lee

_I_ want a merlin!

me, too, Mrs-ed. Lee

Wonderful shots everyone!

Yesterday I got the Great Spotted Woodpecker from my window although she was in the shadows, I upped the EV and shot on a lower speed. I got a second pic as she flew too! Doesn't she look happy with her peanut!

Today she was here again, at the same time as the Nuthatch but it was very dull.

Flying, you can just see her head through the wing.

Thanks for the new thread Debin...lovely pic of the Cardinal. Ours are still not eating at the feeders so I guess there is still plenty of natural food for them.

Excellent pics so far everyone and Wallaby that Great Spotted does look happy. Wish we had them here...they are beautiful!

We now have an invasion of Pine Siskins...they are all over the place! We have had approx. 2 dozen so far today!