06/09/12 Female House Sparrow

I spent 30 minutes in my blind this morning and the only thing that landed on my perch was this female house sparrow.  The male's don't seem to use the perch.  They fly directly to the hanging feeder.

06/02/12 Eastern Kingbird / Dickcissel

I'm four months out from my ACL surgery and my knee is feeling good.  I'm one month out from developing sciatica and it is now tolerable so I've started to run again.  I am trying to alternate running one day and walking the next.  Today was a walking day and I decided to go to the park and hike a trail. I saw this bird which I didn't recognize and snapped a couple shots.  I had some trouble identifying it but thanks to Facebook and my uncle, Charlie I now know it's an Eastern Kingbird. (Rockwood State Park, Morrison, IL)

This is a Dickcissel.  It flew away before I could try to get any closer.  I may try to bring my blind out there some time.

06/01/12 Female or Juvenile Cardinal?

I spent about an hour in the blind tonight and got this shot of a cardinal.  I'm not sure if this is a female or a juvenile.  I like the pose but unfortunately the eye is not tack sharp on this one. (My backyard, Morrison, IL)

Here is another case where I'm not sure if this is a female or a juvenile.  I'm 99% sure it is a house finch though.  I would say this is as close to portfolio worthy as I have come so far.  I just wish it was a prettier bird, like a cardinal or even a male house finch.  I would also be happier if the tail didn't intersect the perch which is why I giving myself a year to get ten images... so I can be that picky.

I normally prefer a natural perch but I thought the arch of the shepherd's hook made for a nice composition.

I was about to go inside when these two house finch's showed up.  It was pretty cool to see the male feeding the baby even though it happened right next to the duct tape mess.  I could try photo-shopping it out but I would be missing the baby's tail.  Another option would be cropping really tight but this was shot at 1/125 of a second and the overall sharpness isn't good enough to handle that tight of a crop.  I have already cropped down to about 60% of the original image.

05-28-12 House Finch on Perch

I was happy to get a shot of a house finch on my perch.  The head position isn't god enough to make it a portfolio candidate though.  Little birds never stop moving so it's tough to capture the perfect "pose". (My backyard, Morrison, IL)

    

Here's a cell phone photo of my set-up.  It's just a twig duct-taped to a light stand and placed over a hanging platform feeder.  The birds often stop on the perch to scout for predators before going down to the feeder.  I hide in the blind with my camera on a tripod and wait.

05-28-12 No photo but I saw a Yellow Throated Wood Warbler today.

A few years ago, I took an interest in photographing trains.  At first it was about taking the best shot I could at a given location but soon became more about trying to photograph as many different locomotives as I could.  I found myself choosing locations based on my ability to photograph every engine on the train from the side.  Now I don't think I could pick out ten shots that I thought were good enough to call a portfolio of train images.  That experience played a part in deciding to make this bird project about collecting ten great images instead of just photographing as many different species as possible.  

Today, I was walking on Lister Road and saw a new species of bird.  I was carrying my phone (aka pocket computer) so I pulled up the iBird app and punched in Illinois, Secondary Color: Black, Head Pattern: Masked.  The app returned seven birds that matched those descriptions and I easily identified the bird I saw as a Common Yellowthroat of the Wood Warbler family.  If I had been carrying my camera I could have gotten a snapshot of it, but in the end it would have been nothing more than a side shot of another locomotive.

05-27-12 Coots

This is a coot, they float on the water like a duck but when it's time to move to a new location they run across the top of the water.  (Lock and Dam 13, Fulton, IL)

I couldn't resist attaching the 2x converter to my 400mm lens even though the 2 f-stop loss means I am using an 800mm f11 and auto-focus doesn't work when your maximum aperture is f11. The results weren't too bad.  There are a lot of things that could have made this shot better but a coot standing on top of a turtle was worth posting. (Lock and Dam 13, Fulton, IL) 

I took this shot of a Killdeer from my car.  I wish I could have gotten down to ground level but if I had tried to step out of the car he would have flown off. (Lock and Dam 13, Fulton, IL)

I started the morning at Rockwood still trying for a portfolio quality shot of a red-winged blackbird.  It's tough to get a shot of a whole bird because the vegetation is getting so thick.  I think this is a juvenile red-winged BB.  The females are this same color but they're heads aren't quite so "fluffy" (Rockwood State Park, Morrison, IL)

05-19-20 Afternoon at Lock and Dam 14

I was in the Quad Cities so I decided to go home through LeClaire and stop at Lock and Dam 14.  When birds are in water it is best to get down as close to water level as possible.  I was able to do that but since the opposite shore line is so close, it brought a horizon line through the birds neck.  Having the horizon through the middle of the frame is not my preference. (Lock and Dam 14, LeClaire, IA)

This is a tree swallow.  Watching them swoop, dart and dive is almost like being at an air-show.  (Lock and Dam 14, LeClaire, IA)

 

Tree swallows are also a beautiful bird to see perched.  A barbed wire fence isn't the ideal perch but this will serve as my best tree swallow shot for now.  (Lock and Dam 14, LeClaire, IA)