Birds – Page 6 – Circadianreflections Blog

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…

P52 34/52 Rufous Hummingbird-Female

August 22, 2015August 22, 2015Posted in birding, Birds, Birds in the Wild, Hummingbirds, Project 52, Rufous HummingbirdsTagged Birding, Birds, Project 52, Rufous Hummingbirds13 Comments

This is my first photograph and sighting of a Rufous Hummingbird! I’m still so excited about seeing this little Hummer. So, I’ve posted this image instead of a macro for this week’s Project 52 image.

Instead of carrying my long lens I decided to take my Lumix FZ200 to use if any wildlife or birds came along. I’m sort of getting the hang of this Bridge Camera. I just need to use it more. I’m planning to take it on He-Man’s Birthday Cruise which is just around the corner! It will be easier packing, carrying it around, and I won’t need a tripod.

Panasonic Lumix FZ200 @ 108mm = 648mm in 35mm format | f5| 1/1600s| ISO 160| Manual Priority| Pattern Metering|Lexar Professional Digital Film|CS6

More to come…

This and That

June 7, 2015June 7, 2015Posted in Bachmann Trains, Backyard Birding, Birds, Birds of North America, Home Improvement, Macro Photography, Remodel, Toys, TrainsTagged Bachmann Trains, Birds, Birds of North America, Home Improvement, Macro photography, This and That, Trains7 Comments

The Feeder is busy again with House Finches. The females look like they’re molting, but the males are dazzling with their vibrant red heads.

The Black-capped Chick-a-dee makes daily appearances too, but I’ve not got a decent image of it so far this season.

The Mockingbird has a mate and they’ve been busy bullying anything they can. I caught one with a nice, fat bee last week. Since it didn’t eat it straight-away I’m guessing it went back to the nest with this meal.

A new visitor to my yard this year is a Black Phoebe. Isn’t he handsome?

The female Anna’s Hummingbird prefers the Lantana to the feeder this year so I try to catch her there when I’m out back. She’s lovely when the sun hits her back.

Here’s a macro image I created sometime ago that never made it to my Project 52. I used to set up this engine and a several cars around the Christmas Tree when my kids were little. It’s been buried in the garage for years, but I rediscovered it while cleaning out the garage. It’s a Bachmann Union Pacific Diesel Engine. Now that we have a little one (#1 Grandson) I’ll have to start setting it up again.

Speaking of the garage, that reminds me it’s been sometime since I talked about our remodel. It’s coming along very well. They’re right on schedule.

April 29th: Ground-breaking day. It was fun. We had a little digger in the front yard digging out the place for the foundation. #1 Grandson loved that! This is how the front of the house looked before the digger arrived-the foundation’s been planned out-

The digger

It's official. We have Ground-breaking! — It’s official. We have Ground-breaking!

A lot has happened between then and early June- The foundation was poured, the framing went up, and June 2nd this is how the house looked at the end of the day.

Adding a bedroom, and a small sitting/office area in the Master Bedroom.

Next week our new front door, and front windows will be installed, the plywood for the roof will be put on, and the following week they plan on breaking through the walls to the house so we need to move to other rooms while the work is being done.

There’s a lot of changes in the Master Bedroom, and bathroom that I’ll share in an upcoming post.

I’m feeling better. I hiked up the steep hill yesterday. It was tough! Probably more than I should have done since I’m still coughing and having sinus issues. What was I thinking? 🙂 Other than that it’s been a quite week-end.

I hope you all are having a great week-end!

Nikon Df| AF-S Nikkor 300mm f/4| Lensbaby Composer Pro| Hoodman STEEL Ultra High Speed Digital Film| Hand-held

More to come…

The Poser

January 4, 2015Posted in Bird Photography, birding, Birds in the Wild, Goldfinch Male, Santa Clara CountyTagged Bird Photography, Birding, Birds, Birds in the Wild, Goldfinch, Santa Clara County5 Comments

Last Friday, while sweeping the patio, and doing some general tidying up in the backyard I switched the seeds in the bird feeder because the mix I had in it wasn’t attracting any birds. I refilled the feeder with black sunflower seeds, and yesterday quite a few House Finches returned, and there was one Goldfinch Male that landed on the perch, but was quickly chased away by the male House Finches. I grabbed my camera hoping he’d make another appearance, but sadly he did not. That visit prompted me to revisit some images I took in early May 2014 of several Goldfinches.

This one pictured above looked at me then puffed himself all up, and gave me the best pose of the morning. I think he’s as handsome as he does. 🙂

I sure hope that Goldfinch comes back and brings some friends with him.

Nikon D300s| AF-S Nikkor 300mm f4| AF-S Nikkor 14eII TC| Tripod

More to come…

Life in the Garden-Chestnut-backed Chickadee

September 21, 2014Posted in Backyard Birding, birding, Birds, Life in the GardenTagged Backyard Birding, Birding, Birds, Birds in the Wild, Chestnut-backed Chickadee, Life in the Garden, Nature Photography2 Comments

Shortly after the mornings began getting chillier here in No. California a pair of Chestnut-backed Chickadees showed up at my feeder. They make sorties for about 30 minutes or so in the mornings then I don’t see them again until the following morning. Since their arrival I’ve been trying to get a good image of them from my window, but I’ve not liked anything I’ve taken as they were too soft, or blurry, too noisey, or something so, I ended up deleting them all. I was quite frustrated I can tell you!

Thursday afternoon I was in the backyard with #1 Grandson who was busy getting into everything he shouldn’t…not being content with his climbing fort, toys, or sandbox as some toddlers are wont to be when a Chestnut-backed Chickadee perched itself on a tippy top branch of my Camellia bush!
Fortunately, I took my camera out with me just in case the Hummingbirds were brave enough to continue feeding with us in the yard. This is the best image of the Chestnut-backed Chickadee I’ve been able to make to date! I hope I’m ready the next time it makes an appearance.

Nikon D700| AF-S Nikkor 300mm f/4| Nikkor 14eII Teleconverter| Lexar Professional Digital Film

UPDATE on the RUFF- A post by a birder on the birding forum reported seeing the Ruff in its favorite corner of the salt pond today. It had been flushed by the Harrier a couple of times. The Ruff is wounded on the wing, but it can fly without any apparent problems, and is eating. Happy news indeed!

More to come…

Catch of the Day!

September 13, 2014September 13, 2014Posted in Birds, California, San Jose California Nature Photographer, Shorebirds, WildlifeTagged Birding, Birds, Birds in the Wild, California, Carmel by the Sea, Seagulls6 Comments

The fish this Seagull caught was so big it kept slipping out of the Gull’s mouth onto the sand. It was still alive and flopping about too. Several times the waves came up threatening to pull the fish back to sea, but that Gull would grab a fin and pull it back to the dry sand and try to eat it over and over. Finally he managed to swallow it.

Carmel by the Sea- Nikon D700| AF-S Nikkor 300mm f4| AF-S Nikkor 14eII Teleconverter

P52 36/52 Guarding his Territory!

September 2, 2014Posted in Birds, California, Fine Art, Nature, Project 52-2014, WildlifeTagged Anna's Hummingbirds, Backyard Birding, Birds, Humminbirds, Nature, Project 52, San Jose California Nature Photographer4 Comments

I set up a little blind in my backyard hoping I’d be able to make a decent image of the Hummingbirds that come to the feeder. I used the cover of the sandbox as a blind by bracing it against my Camilla bush, then I set up my tripod, camera, and comfy seat behind it then waited.

It took about a half hour and a few over my head buzzes before the Hummingbirds felt safe enough to stop at the Feeder for a drink.
After lunch I moved the sandbox cover to the edge of the lawn for a different angle bracing the cover on the Patio Cover’s post. I heard the Hummingbird chitting away in the Flowering Plum beside me so turned to see if I could see him and there he was sitting on a branch watching the feeder.
There’s been another male coming by and this one chases him off whenever he comes around. He sat there for long enough for me to photograph him for several minutes.
He was in the shade of many branches overhead so, while the image is sharp there is more noise than I’d like. I tried Auto ISO during this shoot to see how it would do, mainly to see if I would be able to concentrate more on shooting than having to change my ISO setting frequently to adjust for the light changes. I was also shooting a Butterfly that would occasionally come by to sip on the Lantana Bush which was in much better light than the feeder, and the tree. Auto ISO worked very well for me in these conditions.

I used Adobe’s Camera Raw noise reduction a little bit to help remove some of the noise.

Here’s another image of an Anna’s Hummingbird at the Feeder. He’s just about to take off after drinking some nectar.

That sandbox cover worked a treat as a blind.

Nikon D300s| AF-S Nikkor 300mm f4 + Nikon 14eII Teleconverter

More to come

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