Birds in the Wild – Page 14 – Circadianreflections Blog

Monochrome Madness 2 34/52 Birds

November 25, 2015November 25, 2015Posted in birding, Birds in the Wild, Birds of North America, Black and White Photography, Monochrome Madness2, Nature, Nature Photography, Pacific Flyway, PhotographyTagged Birding, Birds in the Wild, Birds of North America, Black and White Photography, Black-necked Stilts, Long-billed Dowagers, Monochrome Madness 2, Monochrome Madness2, Nature15 Comments

This week’s Monochrome Madness 2 I selected an image from a recent day I spent birding in the Pacific Flyway. The Pacific Flyway is a section of CA. that is part of the Winter migration path used by birds fleeing the cold months in the Winter.

These are Black-necked Stilts, and Long billed Dowagers foraging for food.

MM2 34 of 52 Black Necked Stilts and Long Billed Dowagers

I was trying out the Tamron 150-600mm super telephoto lens this week-end for the extra reach which was nice to have, but I won’t be saying much about the lens because I wasn’t able to use it as much as I had hoped. We had rain come in which kept me indoors the following day instead of out photographing birds. I won’t complain too much since we need all the rain we can get. 🙂

I’m really behind reading blog posts, but am catching up ever so slowly.

Too see all this week’s posts in Leanne Cole’s Monochrome Madness 2 click here

Nikon D700| Tamron 150-600mm| Hoodman Digital Film| CS6 & Silver Efex Pro

More to come…

Monochrome Madness 2 29/52 Peek-a-Boo!

October 20, 2015Posted in birding, Birds in the Wild, Birds of North America, Black and White Photography, Monochrome Madness2, Nikon Gear, Yellow-rumped WarblerTagged Birding, Birds, Birds in the Wild, Birds of North America, Black and White Photography, Monochrome Madness2, Nikon Gear, Yellow-rumped Warbler18 Comments

A shy Yellow-rumped Warbler that was so adorable! Taken while out birding last Saturday morning.

I think my old 300mm f4 is having auto-focus issues again. It has quit auto-focusing a few times lately, so I switched to my D700 camera to test the lens verses camera since my D300s is also long in the tooth I need to go through the process of elimination to be sure it’s the lens and not the camera. While shooting last Saturday my lens stopped auto-focusing, and suddenly my camera settings switched from f5.6 to f22! I turned the camera off and on again and all was well the rest of the morning. That’s a pretty good indication that it’s my lens. It’s pretty old now and was sent in to Nikon in January for auto-focus issues. I’m afraid it may be ready to go back for repairs again. Sadly, it’s not under warranty anymore. Sigh. Reality check! It may be time for a new lens.

My D300s’ flash doesn’t pop up anymore either, and it’s getting near 60,000 shutter clicks. I think it’s rated for 100K. My poor gear. I treat it really well, but use it a lot. I may have to retire my D300s too. That makes me a little sad. They’ve been such good company, and a huge part of my life for many years. Time to start saving big time for their replacements! 🙂

To see the other images posted for this week’s Monochrome Madness2 visit Leanne Cole’s site here.

Nikon 700| AF-S Nikkor 300mm f/4| SanDisk Pro Extreme Digital Film| CS6 & Silver Efex Pro| Tripod

More to come…

Lesser Goldfinch: Female

October 17, 2015October 19, 2015Posted in birding, Birds in the Wild, Birds of North America, Lesser Goldfinch, Santa Clara County BirdingTagged Birding, Birds in the Wild, Birds of North America, Lesser Goldfinch, Santa Clara County Birding, Winter Migration20 Comments

This morning I went back to the reserve where I went a couple of weeks ago; where I saw my first Yellow Warbler hoping to see it again only closer, and longer. I was seeing lots of Sparrows, and Yellow Rumped Warblers, the pair California Towhee’s were present, and so too was the Blue Jay, and a Northern Flicker flew in, but he kept his back to me only giving me side looks. Stuck up bird! 🙂

40 minutes after I arrived a yellow blur caught my eye and there it was! I quickly swung my rig around and fired off 3 rapid bursts. Then the bird was gone.

My first shot caught him landing and was so blurry it was unusable, the middle shot the bird was there, and the 3rd frame…no bird in it at all. I wouldn’t know for sure if I had a keeper image or not until I saw it on my computer. Though it did look promising in playback.

I didn’t see the Yellow Warbler again, and I stayed in the area until well after 9AM when it began to get busy with runners, dog walkers, and Saturday morning strollers.

He’s a beauty. I’ll be heading back over there again soon hoping to see him, and that Northern Flickr again.

Nikon D700| AF-S Nikkor 300mm f/4| SanDisk Extreme Pro Digital Film| CS6

More to come…

Addendum: It’s been brought to my attention that this isn’t a Yellow Warbler after all; it’s a Lesser Goldfinch Female. Thank you https://myrsbytes.wordpress.com/ !

I’ll keep trying to capture that Yellow Warbler, but I’m glad I saw and was able to make an image of this little beauty especially since she didn’t hang around long!

Yellow Warbler

September 27, 2015September 27, 2015Posted in birding, Birds, Birds in the Wild, Birds of North America, Santa Clara County, Warblers, Yellow WarblersTagged Birds in the Wild, Birds of North America, Migrating Birds, Santa Clara County, Yellow Warbler13 Comments

A new Bird added to my “life list”! This little bird was far away and high up in an Eucalyptus tree so, this is a deep crop and not as crisp as I want it to be. I hope to get out here again and get another crack at it for a closer look and better image.

Nikon Df| Nikkor 300mm f4| Hoodman STEEL Ultra High Speed Digital Film| Tripod| CS6

More to come…

Monochrome Madness 2 20/52 Osprey

July 21, 2015July 21, 2015Posted in Birds in the Wild, Birds of Northern America, Birds of Prey, California, Monochrome Madness2, OspreyTagged Birds in the Wild, Birds of Prey, Black and White Photography, Monochrome Madness2, Osprey5 Comments

This image I made back in May while out looking for Dancing Grebes. This Osprey is looking at its nest where its mate and chicks were.

To see the other images that were submitted this week click over to Leanne Cole’s Monochrome Madness 2 page here!

Nikon D300s| AF-S Nikkor 300mm f4 + Tamron 1.4x TC = 420mm| Tripod| Hoodman STEEL Ultra High Speed Digital Film| CS6Silver Efex Pro 2

Clark’s Grebes Golden Hour Courtship Dance

May 27, 2015May 27, 2015Posted in Birds in the Wild, Birds of North America, Clark's Grebes, Clear Lake CA, Courtship Dance, Mating Rituals of BirdsTagged Birding, Birds in the Wild, Birds of North America, Clark's Grebes, Clear Lake CA, Courtship Dance, Courtship Dance in Golden Hour, Eyes of the Wild Boat Tours, Mating Rituals of Birds13 Comments

Daylight starts pretty early this time of year so we met our Boat Captain at 5:45am to get in as much morning light as possible. Soon we were sailing far out into the lake to find the Grebes. It wasn’t long before Faith our Captain spotted a large group and headed for them.

Twilight turned to Dawn then Golden Hour. We were very lucky to have been able to see this set of Clark’s Grebes dancing across the water with their breast mostly exposed to us during Golden hour. The warmth and color wasn’t like this for long.
Gosh, they were beautiful! This pair had a rather long run too.

Most the morning the Grebes danced away from us. Though Faith gave the Grebes plenty of space and room to dance our way they didn’t.
This was the very first dance we saw that morning. It turned out to be my favorite image. It happened so fast that I nearly missed it. Thankfully, Faith’s skill at spotting pairs that might dance, and her fast reflexes to get the boat in the right position she was able to alert us in time to catch this run.

Nikon D300s| AF-S Nikkor 300mm + Tamron 1.4x TC| Hand-held| Hoodman STEEL High Speed Digital Film| CS6

More to come…

Monochrome Madness 2/12: Clark Grebes Courtship Dance

May 26, 2015May 26, 2015Posted in birding, Birds in the Wild, Black and White Photography, Clark's Grebes, Courtship Dance, Mating Dance, Monochrome Madness2Tagged Birding, Birds in the Wild, Black and White Photography, Clark's Grebes, Clear Lake CA, Courtship Dance, Eyes of the Wild Boat Tours, Mating Dance, Monochrome Madness2, Nature1 Comment

Over the week-end several friends and I went up to Lakeport, CA to view Western and Clark’s Grebes doing their annual Mating Rituals. Part of the ritual is the Courtship Dance. It’s absolutely amazing to watch. We went out on the lake with Eyes of the Wild Pontoon Boat Tours at 5:45am. We followed several large groups of Grebes and watched, and photographed their mating behavior.

The males and females come together talking then they get really low in the water face to face, and their voices/tones change then in an instant they’re up; dancing together across the water’s surface!

Sometimes they come together low in the water, talk a bit then change their minds about dancing, other times one will get up to dance and find he or she is all alone in the dance. 🙂

It was a fascinating, and entertaining morning on the lake.

To see all the other entries to Leanne Cole’s week 12 of Monochrome Madness 2 click here.

Nikon D300s| AF-S Nikkor 300mm + Tamron 1.4x TC| Hand-held| Hoodman STEEL High Speed Digital Film| CS6 & Silver Efex Pro 2

More to come…

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