Not Lepidoptera (Birds) - 3

[eccles]

With four pages to navigate through in "Birds 2", I thought I'd start a third thread.
A flock of redwings have taken up temporary residence in the local open space. This individual was a little less easily spooked than others in the flock.
The shot is sharp enough but I can't seem to pull out the feather detail on a websize picture. It's there at 100% but it's structure is very fine. I guess it's because the bird is adapted to a cool climate and has very fine downy feathers for insulation.
Taken with Sony A700 + 500mm AF reflex.

[Shirley Roulston]

I like your Redwing Eccles, downy feathers or not its very nice, we've had no snow here and the fields have lots of Redwings but I've noticed that the grass is burnt with the frost so getting a good photo is near impossible and the Brambling has gone.
Shirley

[KeynvorLogosenn]

Hi,
this happened when I went down to Cornwall for my holiday in the summer, and I thought it was really unusual. I thought once a bird had left the nest, that was it. But here we have a younger sparrow still taking food from what a presume was it's mother.

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Please excuse the bad picture quality, I was being used as a climbing frame at that moment!!

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And here is the younger one by itself.

Have you seen this happen before?
Thanks

[xmilehigh]

Hi,

Got this Heron shot at a local lake today.



Sigma 50-500 at full Zoom + Sigma 1.4 EX DG Teleconverter ( re sized for web) : Monopod + shoulder brace used.


Cheers

[eccles]

Nice pic, Jerry.
Regarding the sparrow, it is being fed by a male. I'm not sure that the youngster isn't a female as they look very similar, in which case the male feeding the female is a bonding process.

[Denise]

Nice pic, Jerry.
Regarding the sparrow, it is being fed by a male. I'm not sure that the youngster isn't a female as they look very similar, in which case the male feeding the female is a bonding process.

Nope, that's a juvenile sparrow there. Can you see the remnants of the yellow gape? (the bits at the corners of the bill) but they do look very similar.
But correct, male feeding the youngster. Sparrows, like many other species, continue to feed the young after fledging. Wrens and Robins are particularly good with their newly fledged youngsters.

Denise

[KeynvorLogosenn]

Thanks,
I had always thought that once they had left the nest that was it.There you go, learn something new everyday
KL

[eccles]

Rook portrait:
Rooks are usually a bit leery of close approach by people but this one, snapped yesterday at Chew Valley Lake in Somerset, was probably used to hanging around for hand outs. They have rather ugly faces but the plumage makes up for it.
500mm AF Reflex on Sony A700: 1/250 f8 iso 800, hand held on retracted monopod.

[FISHiEE]

Nice pic eccles

Chew Valley... has some monster pike in there I keep reading!

[Shirley Roulston]

I bet that beak could do a bit of damage, not like these two beauties.

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Shirley

[eccles]

Thanks, Fishiee. I hadn't heard about any giant pikes but CVL is a well known birding hot spot.

You get some nice birds at your feeder Shirley. I get hardly any on mine and have to go further afield to find them. Have you ever thought of setting up a twig of some sort just above the feeder? Birds will alight on this before flying down to the feeder, and if you train your camera on this spot you will get more natural looking shots.

[Shirley Roulston]

I remember you said that once before and I keep meaning to do it and I keep forgetting. Tomorrow I will do it. Definatly

[FISHiEE]

eccles - I believe Chew is probably the most productive pike fishing location in the british isles for the past few years... most weeks there are 30lb+ fish caught there. Shame it's not a bit closer to me!

[Shirley Roulston]

Could anyone with a good photoshop make the wings on this Siskin more sharper, I've tried all day. I took the photo frm about 5ft and there is only the one photo.
Shirley

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[eccles]

I don't think you can do much with that Shirley. The only advice I can suggest is for taking such shots in future.
Your autofocus has locked on the feeder and the bird is misfocussed. The other reason for the blurring is that your shutterspeed was only 1/60 second which is too slow to freeze birds' wings. To get the shutter speed up you can:

1) increase the iso setting on your camera. This will cause the shot to be noisy, i.e. have a grainy appearance, with more noise the higher you set the iso, so it's a balancing act of freezing the action against sensor noise. Only you can decide that with experimentation to see what you can get away with.

2) Use flash. Try shooting your garden birds with flash as an experiment. If there's insufficent range to light the subject, again you can increase the iso, or shoot aperture priority with the lens set at full aperture, or a combination of both. Some birds might be startled by a flash at first but they will get used to it very quickly and learn to ignore it.

3) Wait until the sun shines when there will be more light.

[FISHiEE]

As Eccles says I don't think there is too much more you can do to this unfortunately. The focus is probably good, but at that shutter speed you will have details blurred through movement throughout the whole of the body when the siskin is flapping it's wings like that...

[Shirley Roulston]

Thanks for the advice, I'm getting closer to them and they are getting used to me, that shot was a bit of a chance shot but I'll get better with the lens and the adjustments like the iso, that shot would have been fantastic if it had been clear, never mind. To-day we have fog which is not good for photos but outside I heard a Woodpecker tapping in the distance. Have you noticed how the birds are now starting to sing, spring is on its way.
Shirley

[twitcher]

Quick walk today,Raven,Tree Sparrow, Redwing. canon 300mm with 1.4 converter
Shaun

[FISHiEE]

Spring may be on the way but we had 2 inches of snow last night still!

[Shirley Roulston]

Robin on branch placed by food iso 200.

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Shirley