Birders' Nest

[Elgarian Redux]

Here's Mrs Pheasant, giving me the cold shoulder.

Earlier in the year, once the youngsters were able to get out and about, Mr and Mrs Pheasant used to parade them, 6 or 7 of them, all in a line back and forth along the field at the bottom of our garden. Proud as peacocks - sorry!  pheasants - they were. They knew we were watching.

[Elgarian Redux]

Thank you. He was posing!

I wish I had a comparable image to show you, but must be content with a story.

A few weeks ago I called at a little pool near the west Lancashire coast to look at some nesting terns, and saw them easily enough. But then, walking just a few metres away from me, in the mud, just begging to be photographed, was an Avocet. Now look, you just don't get avocets in Lancashire. You just don't. Or rather, you didn't. You do now. I'd never seen an avocet before.  Of course I had no camera with me ...

So I walked back to the car and glanced across to the other side of the road. There, with no need of binoculars for a good view, was a Little Egret. But you don't get little egrets in West Lancashire. You just don't. Well, you do now. I'd never seen a little egret before either. And I still had no camera.

I suppose there are places where these are common, everyday waders? But here?

[Elgarian Redux]

I look at birds (and wildlife in general) a good bit. Today's excursion featured Cedar Waxwings.

Never mind goldfinches. Aren't Cedar Waxwings from Mars also?

[Iota]

Great pics, @owlice! Particularly this one which I find completely enchanting.



Lovely reading through the last two pages of this thread. 

[owlice]

Great picture. I see them (Roter Milan in German) frequently here on walks but hardly ever so close and clear. Usually only soaring above and when one is perching or flying by closely, it's always too fast for me, even if I had a device ready for taking a foto.
I am also not good enough at ID, I am pretty sure when they are  up in the air because of the reddish hue and the characteristically forked tail but close they look more light brown than "red" and there are several other local birds that look somewhat similar.

Thank you. And yes! I too usually see them in flight, and yes, they are definitely "pretty sure" to ID as they fly. They are so beautiful!

I usually have a camera with me when I'm out wildlifeing; I take photos so I can ID the bird (or whatever) later, to remember that I've seen it, or both. I use iNaturalist (inaturalist.org) to help with identifying what I've seen. I take a lot of very bad photos, but every once in a while, a bird will pose nicely, as this Red Kite did; this Black-winged Kite also posed nicely, which really thrilled me.



I think kites look very elegant, and some of them even have a "smoky eye" thing going on, as though they are wearing makeup! 

[owlice]

Hmmm... don't know why the photo appeared twice, and I don't know how to fix it, alas!

[owlice]

Here's Mrs Pheasant, giving me the cold shoulder.

Gorgeous bird; every feather a small miracle of its own! I'm often astonished at the beauty of individual feathers, and then to have them all together on one bird -- WOW!

Now look, you just don't get avocets in Lancashire. You just don't. Or rather, you didn't. You do now. I'd never seen an avocet before.  Of course I had no camera with me ...

So I walked back to the car and glanced across to the other side of the road. There, with no need of binoculars for a good view, was a Little Egret. But you don't get little egrets in West Lancashire. You just don't. Well, you do now. I'd never seen a little egret before either. And I still had no camera.

Dear Elgarian, the solution is that you must not leave the house, nor even your kitchen, without a camera!!

What fortunate sightings!!

[owlice]

Never mind goldfinches. Aren't Cedar Waxwings from Mars also?

It's as though they are painted, very carefully and very precisely. The terminal tail band is usually yellow, though occasionally it can be orange, not that I have any good pictures of an orange band, so I give you this instead:

[owlice]

Great pics, @owlice! Particularly this one which I find completely enchanting.

That's so kind; thank you!

[owlice]

Sparrow day of a couple of days ago turned out to be all Savannah in the camera all the time (~~~ sigh ~~~), though Song and Vesper were definitely heard. Not a single Vesper captured!

But in looking at photos from another recent outing, I was surprised (delighted!!) to find that the camera had captured a nest with peeps in it that I had not seen at all when taking the photo.

[Kalevala]

Sparrow day of a couple of days ago turned out to be all Savannah in the camera all the time (~~~ sigh ~~~), though Song and Vesper were definitely heard. Not a single Vesper captured!

But in looking at photos from another recent outing, I was surprised (delighted!!) to find that the camera had captured a nest with peeps in it that I had not seen at all when taking the photo.

What kind of camera do you use?

K

[Elgarian Redux]

It's as though they are painted, very carefully and very precisely. The terminal tail band is usually yellow, though occasionally it can be orange, not that I have any good pictures of an orange band, so I give you this instead:

And I'll accept it gratefully. Spectacular photo, and possibly weirder than a goldfinch.

[Elgarian Redux]

Thank you. And yes! I too usually see them in flight, and yes, they are definitely "pretty sure" to ID as they fly. They are so beautiful!

I usually have a camera with me when I'm out wildlifeing; I take photos so I can ID the bird (or whatever) later, to remember that I've seen it, or both. I use iNaturalist (inaturalist.org) to help with identifying what I've seen. I take a lot of very bad photos, but every once in a while, a bird will pose nicely, as this Red Kite did; this Black-winged Kite also posed nicely, which really thrilled me.



I think kites look very elegant, and some of them even have a "smoky eye" thing going on, as though they are wearing makeup! 

These are magnificent photos, but I'm running out of superlatives.

[Elgarian Redux]

Dear Elgarian, the solution is that you must not leave the house, nor even your kitchen, without a camera!!

I know this! I know this! I mean, it's not as if I have a heap of gear to carry around. I just have a little Panasonic thing that slips easily into my pocket. I will do better!

[Elgarian Redux]

It's as though they are painted, very carefully and very precisely. The terminal tail band is usually yellow, though occasionally it can be orange, not that I have any good pictures of an orange band, so I give you this instead:

I'm just looking long at this fellow. Do you suppose he leads a double life, partly as a waxwing, and partly as a highwayman?

[Elgarian Redux]

Oh Crikey. What a gorgeous little slice of life. And perfectly composed.

[owlice]

What kind of camera do you use?

K

Kalevala, I use what is commonly called a bridge camera, as I don't want to deal with changing/carrying around different lenses. The one I use most often is a Nikon Coolpix P900, which is no longer manufactured. I wanted something with a big zoom, and this camera offers that. It's almost perfect, and likely would be exactly perfect if I learned more about how to use it!

I also have its immediate successor, the P950 (which is still made), a purchase of necessity but I'll spare you that story.

Two additional successors have since been released, the P1000 (now apparently discontinued) and the P1100 (still made).

I love the P900. The P950 has some additional improvements (and "improvements"), but I prefer the 900. The 900 offers built-in GPS; every image is geotagged automatically by the camera. (That feature can be turned off.) I love this! I know exactly where and when each image was taken.

The P900 also fits comfortably in my hand, which is important given that I might have the camera in hand for 10 hours or more a day for multiple days if I'm somewhere just for wildlife.

One downside -- for others, not for me -- is the 900 does not shoot in RAW; it shoots only in JPEG. Its images are not going to be quite as fine as those from more expensive RAW-shooting cameras. I'm not a photographer, though, and take pics for fun only, so I'm okay with JPEG. I wouldn't know what to do with RAW images anyway, AND they take up a lot more room, too.

The P950 shoots in RAW and/or in JPEG, and like a lot of newer cameras, uses a phone app called SnapBridge for geotagging, so you have to always have a working phone with you and always ensure SnapBridge and the camera are synced/communicating to get geotagging. I hate this! It usually works, other people use it just fine, and I have used it, too, but ... I like having GPS on the camera itself.

The 950 is also just a little bit bigger and just a little bit heavier than the 900, and that causes me/my hand pain over time.

It does a better job with video, though, than the 900, as the focus adjusts while shooting video.

Both cameras like to (auto)focus on vegetation, though, rather than the tiny creature next to or in front of or behind that vegetation (maddening!!!), so on that score, they are even!

Wow, that's a long answer... sorry!!

[owlice]

These are magnificent photos, but I'm running out of superlatives.

I am delighted you like them! You surely know that I've been posting the best of what I've got, and not the average, yes? I have plenty of terrible pics, so many that I no longer subscribe to the Crap wildlife photography group -- I make my own, almost every day!

I've been spending a lot of my retirement just walking around looking at stuff and taking photos of some of it. Occasionally, things work out well. Other times, many times, I get things like this Northern Cardinal:

[Elgarian Redux]

I am delighted you like them! You surely know that I've been posting the best of what I've got, and not the average, yes? I have plenty of terrible pics, so many that I no longer subscribe to the Crap wildlife photography group -- I make my own, almost every day!

I've been spending a lot of my retirement just walking around looking at stuff and taking photos of some of it. Occasionally, things work out well. Other times, many times, I get things like this:

Yes, but imagine what was in Beethoven's waste paper basket.

Somebody said, somewhere, that artists mustn't be judged by their worst work, or even by some weird estimate of average, but by their best work. That makes sense to me. So I continue to boggle at your photos, and congratulate.

A footnote to the little egret story. One of my daughters lives not far from the marshy area where I saw the egret and the avocet, and drives past it almost every day. When I told her what I'd seen, she looked puzzled. 'I see 'em every day,' she said. 'I never mentioned it because I thought they were common!'

Well, I mean, y'know ...

[owlice]

Oh Crikey. What a gorgeous little slice of life. And perfectly composed.

Thank you; you are too generous! They are Eastern Kingbirds; I should have included the ID in the post. (Oh my... and in my previous, which I will fix now.)