Posts in Category: birds
Fluffed Goldfinch
American Goldfinch
We may still have 3 feet of snow in the yard, but the Goldfinches are coming into summer color, so spring must be creeping up on Southern Maine. This Goldfinch was at the feeder, and then popped up to a branch overhead. It is “fluffed” or “puffed”…with its breast feathers standing out from the body. Birds fluff for several reasons. On particularly cold mornings you will see them perched and fluffed before the sun comes up or just after. The additional air trapped in the fluffed feathers acts as insulation to keep them warm through the night. They might also fluff in the first sun of the day…sitting directly in sun…in which case the spread features allow the sun to get in closer to their bodes and warm them faster. Occasionally on a particularly hot day they might fluff for exactly the opposite reasons. Finally, they fluff to allow the sun in were it can kill feather mites when they reach troublesome levels, as they might after a long cold Maine winter. It was not particularly cold when this images was taken, so I suspect the mite cause for this bird.
The image was cropped slightly for composition, but it shows the incredible detail possible at 2000mm equivalent field of view with the new Nikon P900 superzoom bridge camera…at least in good light. You should view it a full screen. 1/500th @ ISO 220 @ f6.5. Processed in Topaz Denoise (it did not really need it, but Topaz is a new toy today) and Lightroom on my Surface Pro 3 tablet.
Loon in murky light
Common Loon. Back Creek, Kennebunk ME
It never fails that my first few days with a camera are in murky, dark, damp weather. It does not help that is the dregs of winter here in Southern Maine either. This Common Loon was at the mouth of Back Creek where it enters the Mousam River behind the dunes. Despite the flat light, the reach of the 2000mm equivalent zoom on the new Nikon brings the bird in well.
Nikon P900 at 2000mm equivalent field of view. 1/500th @ ISO 180 @ f6.5. Processed in Lightroom on my Surface Pro 3 tablet.
Bohemian Waxwing
Bohemian Waxwing, Roger’s Pond, Kennebunk ME
I am testing a new camera…the Nikon P900 with an 83x zoom reaching 2000mm equivalent, and up to 4000mm with Nikon’s Dynamic Fine Zoom feature. After shooting some “feather birds” I bought for the purpose of testing (models), I decided to go to Roger’s Pond where the Robins have been active all winter to see if I could find some real birds 🙂 There was a flock of what I assumed were Cedar Waxwings in the very tops of the trees by the Mousam River and, though they were at the limits of even a 2000mm equivalent lens, I took some images. When I got home and started processing, I quickly suspected that the flock had not been entirely Cedars…at least half were Bohemian Waxwings…a much rarer visitor some winters to Southern Maine…so rare that I have only seen them once before in Kennebunk in 20 years (though they are reported somewhere in the state, mostly north of here, most winters). Surprise! I have many shots, but this one shows all the field-marks very well…including the yellow wingtips.
And the camera? This shot is at 2400mm equivalent, hand-held, and cropped from 16mp to 8mp for scale. While it is not the best shot in the world (I would have had to be much closer to the bird for a truly great shot), it captures the bird well, and would have simply been impossible to get at that distance with any other camera. I am impressed. I love the Sony HX400V I have been shooting with for more than a year, but the Nikon reaches further, focuses faster, and has all the “creature comforts” (in-camera HDR, Wifi, GPS, and sweep panorama) that I have come to enjoy on the Sony. 1/500th @ ISO 180 @ f6.5. Processed and cropped in Lightroom on my Surface Pro 3 tablet.
Close Quarters
Ring-billed Gull, A beach in KennebunkÂ
The other day I went down to the beach to see if there were any birds…I had seen an immature Bald Eagle soaring over the house on my way out and hoped to see the adults along the river. There was noting much to see at the beach. High tide. A few Golden Eyes in the river. And someone had been feeding the gulls. I spent a few moments playing with flight shots as the gulls came in to the bread still in the road. (There are lots of better things to feed gulls than bread…bits of cut up fruits and vegetables work well, and are certainly better for the birds.) The gulls were cooperative of course, and so close this shot was taken at just over 500mm equivalent field of view.
Sony HX400V in Sports Mode. 1/2000th @ ISO 160 @ f5.6. Processed and cropped for composition in Lightroom on my Surface Pro 3 tablet.
Flight Check
Breeding plumage Brown Pelican, La Jolla CA
The sun is shining in Southern Maine this morning, but it is only 18 degrees out, and we still have 3 feet of compacted snow in our yard…so you will forgive me if I drop back a few weeks to early March and Southern California for this pelican flexing wings shot. Warm memories on a cold day!
Sony HX400V at about 400mm equivalent field of view. 1/640th @ ISO 80 @ f6.3. Processed in Lightroom on my Surface Pro 3 tablet.
Steller’s Jay
Steller’s Jay. Santa Fe Canyon Preserve
What with one thing and another, we have not had a bird in a while here at Pic for Today 🙂 When we visited Santa Fe Canyon Nature Conservancy Preserve earlier in the week, all the jays. and there were quite a few, were Pinion. We went back yesterday for a short hike after a day a the museums, and I was surprised to find that all the jays were Steller’s. It was a rainy day, and quite cold compared to earlier in the week, so I suppose that might have brought the Steller’s Jays down to lower elevation (and driven the Pinion Jays still lower). Steller’s Jay is a handsome bird, and even the damp cold day and dim light could not diminish it.
Sony HX400V at 2400mm (1200 optical plus 2x Clear Image Zoom). 1/320th @ ISO 80 @ f6.3. Processed in Lightroom on my Surface Pro 3 tablet.
Little Blue wing thing
Little Blue Heron, San Diego River Channel, CA
I photographed this Little Blue Heron on its rock at the edge of the San Diego River Channel in many different poses. It was just to good to pass up. Here it is just stretching a wing, for no apparent reason other than the stretch. There were a lot of Little Blues along the channel, but this is, in fact, the same bird that I posted eating the crab a few days ago. Like I say: too good to pass up.
Sony HX400V at 1200mm equivalent. 1/320th @ ISO 100 @ f6.3. Processed in Lightroom on my Surface Pro 3 tablet.
The Cycle of Nature…
Anza Borrego Desert State Park, CA
Late post today, as I took the red-eye from San Diego last night, and got home only an hour ago. I spent the day yesterday in and around Anza Borrego Desert State Park in California. My friend Bruce Aird and I stopped at the Visitor Center to get directions to the best wildflower displays and learned a bit of interesting natural history. When the rains fall at the right time, as they did this year, the desert fairly leaps into bloom. After only a few days, caterpillars appear, many different kinds, both butterfly and moth, and within a few days more the flowers are completely gone (eaten by the caterpillars). When the caterpillars come out, hundreds of Swainson’s Hawks arrive over Anza Borrego to gorge themselves on the caterpillars! We found large blooms of wildflowers, but locals say the earliest blooms are already gone. We did see lots of caterpillers among the plants, busy. And we saw 3 different kettles of Swainson’s Hawks…maybe 50 hawks in total, in just a few moments of looking. And the cycle goes on!
Sony HX400V. Processed in Lightroom and assembled in Phototastic on my Surface Pro 3 tablet.
Black Turnstone
Black Turnstone. South Shores Park, Mission Bay, San Diego CA
Black Turnstone is a Pacific Coast bird…we only have Ruddy Turnstone on the Atlantic shores (and they are on both coasts). And I know right where to find them in San Diego (though I am certain they can be found in many places in the area). They are always on the boat docks at South Shores Park on Mission Bay, next to the back entrance to Sea World. I popped over there on my way back from the San Diego River channel on Saturday morning just to photograph a few. 🙂 I like this shot because of the arrested motion and the subtle lighting on the head.
Sony HX400V at about 1100mm equivalent field of view. 1/320th @ ISO 160 @ f6.3. Processed in Lightroom on my Surface Pro 3 tablet.
Brunch! Happy Sunday.
Little Blue Heron. San Diego River NWR.
I gave myself a morning off from intensive birding yesterday…only going out for a few hours to the easy birding along the San Diego River above the Sports Arena bridge. I went to find Burrowing Owls reported there…or I thought reported there. It turns out I had my directions wrong. Still, the channel above the bridge was full of birds…especially Little Blue Herons…and there were even two white-phase Little Blues. The Little Blues were relatively close by anything but Florida standards and I enjoyed watching and photographing them. This one made a complete three course meal. It caught the crab and ate it, then it ate seaweed for a while, and then it stepped out into the water had a few delicate drinks.
Sony HX400V at 1200mm equivalent field of view. Shutter preferred. 1/320th @ ISO 100 @ f6.3. Processed and cropped slightly for scale in Lightroom on my Surface Pro 3 tablet.
Brunch, of course, is a particularly human take on this scene. The Little Blue Herons, like most birds, feeds continuously, from before sun-up until it is too dark to see. “Feeds”, though we use the word for what birds do, might give the wrong impression as well. It is not like birds sit down to a laden table and or a full trough and feed. “Hunts” might be more accurate. Sun-up to sun-down the Little Blue Heron hunts. Occasionally during the course of its day it finds something to eat and eats it. And then it right back to the hunt. And, of course, during nesting season, the adult herons hunt for their whole brood. And yet Jesus, when he spoke of God’s care for us, used birds as an example. If God provides for the birds of the birds of the air, then certainly we can have confidence in God’s provision for our lives. Don’t worry, he says, about what we will eat, but live with thanksgiving. Take a lesson from the Little Blue.