Copyright © Deborah M. Zajac. All Rights Reserved.
Acorn Woodpecker-Male
Nikon D300s| AF-S Nikkor 300mm f4 lens at f/8| 1/1250s| ISO 500| Manual Priority| Matrix Metering| Hand-held
Tag: Birding
Northern Flicker-Male
Copyright © 2014 Deborah M. Zajac. All Rights Reserved.
I’m so excited-this is the best Male-Northern Flickr image I’ve made to date! It is also the closest I’ve ever been to a Northern Flicker.
My friend Rainey and I had been shooting wildflowers up in the mountains when we were descending we spotted him pecking at the road. He flew up to this perch and stayed just long enough to capture two frames. Both were a bit over exposed, and not as sharp as I would have liked as I was shooting on the fly from the passenger side of the car through the window. Thankfully Adobe Camera Raw, and a bit of sharpening in Photoshop saved the image.
I am not happy about cutting off his tail though. So, while I’m happy to have made this image there is a better one still to be made. The chase continues. 🙂
Nikon D300s| AF-S Nikkor 300mm @ f4| 1/200s| ISO 500| Manual Priority| Matrix Met| Hand-held| San Benito County, California, USA
Prairie Falcon
Copyright © 2014 Deborah M. Zajac. All Rights Reserved.
Saturday last I had the pleasure of Dali, and Rainey’s company for a few hours of birding.
We headed south about an hour from home hoping to spot Golden Eagles. We hadn’t gone too far down a country road when I spied a falcon on top of a telephone pole. I quickly pulled over and turned off the car so we could take photos without the vibration of the engine.
None of us was positive about the bird’s ID at the time, but we were excited because we knew it was a bird we hadn’t seen before. Here’s how it looked when I first saw it.
With both Rainey and I clicking away we spooked it and he planned to flee the scene.
Ready for Take Off!
Take off!
In Flight—
I was thrilled when I uploaded the images to find I had captured the whole sequence of flight on film. Upon closer look I thought this might have been a juvenile Kestrel, but Rainey confirmed it is a Prairie Falcon. A first for the 3 of us.
We also saw two Golden Eagles, which were flying away from us too fast to capture a photo. Later we saw a Bald Eagle sitting in a tree. Dali got the POD (Picture of the Day) as he got a good image of it. I wish I could show you, but at the time of this writing he hadn’t posted it yet. I was too slow to get the car parked, and out so, I missed the shot. When it got spooked and took flight another Bald Eagle took off with it. We hadn’t seen that one due to tree cover.
We saw this Loggerhead Shrike sitting on a wire. We hoped it would spot something good to eat and dive for it, alas it never did.
We also saw this pretty little Savannah Sparrow—X Marks the Spot:
Savannah Sparrow: Closer Look–
Other birds of note that we saw were: A Red-bellied Sapsucker, Yellow-billed Magpie; (see Rainey’s image here) White Crown Sparrows, Acorn Woodpeckers, and Red-tail Hawks.
It was good birding. I hope to get out there again this week-end. With luck I’ll see the Eagles again.
All photos were taken with a Nikon D300s and AF-S Nikkor 300mm f/4 lens
Bushtit
Bushtit, originally uploaded by CircadianReflections Photography.
Via Flickr:
Copyright © 2013 Deborah M Zajac. All Rights Reserved.
Testing the Nikkor 14E II Teleconverter that I purchased. It isn’t Auto-focusing on either the D700 or D300s with my AF-S 300mm f/4 lens. Once in awhile when manual focusing the AF would work, but not consistently like it should have. This was manually focused. It looks like this unit is a lemon. I’m sending it back for an exchange. I’m very disappointed.
I’m not good at manually focusing on birds. I don’t have many keepers from the hour and half I was out testing this TC today. In the meantime my Tamron TC will have to do.
Nikon D700| Nikkor 300mm f4 @ f5.6 w/Nikkor 14E II TC =420mm| 1/1000s| ISO 500| Manual Priority| Center Weighted| Monopod
Least Sandpiper
Copyright © 2013 Deborah M. Zajac. All Rights Reserved.
These little guys are so cute. I took this last week-end while up north in Lodi for the Sandhill Crane Festival.
Nikon D300s| Nikkor 80-400mm G| Hand-held
Bushtit
Copyright © 2013 Deborah M. Zajac. All Rights Reserved.
This is my first Bushtit capture. These little birds usually stay deep in the branches and are quite flitty. This morning while birding with Rainey and Dali we saw quite a few on two bushes so, I hung out hoping I’d be quick enough to capture a photo of one if it happened to venture out onto an exposed branch.
This was a great morning. Birds of note that we saw are a Merlin having breakfast, Thompson Warblers, Vireos, Hummingbirds, Ruddy Ducks, Acorn Woodpeckers, a few Cedar Waxwings, and the Mandarin Duck.
Note: This was shot at a very high ISO 1250 to stop action and blur so there is quite a bit of noise even after using a noise reduction tool. I’d rather have noise than a blurry photo. I delete the blurry ones.
Nikon D300s| Nikkor 300mm f/4
Sun salutation
Copyright © 2013 Deborah M. Zajac. All Rights Reserved.
Taken last week-end while looking for Cedar Waxwings. He was a delightful pause along the journey.
Nikon D300s| Nikkor 300mm f4 @ f5.6| 1/1000s| ISO 800| Manual Priority|
Circadianreflections Blog 
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