Category Archives: Bird Photography

More Backyard Birds

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I spent a couple hours in my backyard blind again today. The birds were cooperative and I am slowly learning how to capture better bird photos. It’s not easy because birds are quick! I am more accustomed to photographing elk, which move a lot more slowly!

Today I learned an important lesson: don’t set up the camera too close to the birds. The problem wasn’t being too close that I scared the birds, after all, I was in a blind. The problem was that I was inside the minimum focusing distance of my zoom lens! I re-situated my blind this morning to get better angles on my perches, but I actually set up too close to the action. After some frustrating results early in the evening, I moved the blind back about six feet and then photographs became much more clear!

I continue to learn and am intrigued with the challenge of bird photography. I hope to be back out in my blind again tomorrow!

First Attempt at Backyard Bird Photography

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My kids think I’m nuts. I have white pvc pipe wired to the hand railing on our back deck with stick perches stuck through holes in the plastic. Not the most attractive accessories for humans, I suppose, but the birds in our backyard love them!

I tried my first serious attempt of photographing the backyard birds on our property. These photos will probably get as much support as the perches on my deck, but they show the meager beginnings of what might be possible. Equipped with camera and lens mounted to my tripod and all inside a camo blind, I sat and photographed birds and a squirrel for over 1 1/2 hours. It was a blast!

I learned a few important lessons on this first outing and I will definitely make some readjustments before my next backyard shoot, but I have to say that I was thrilled to be able to have so much action just a few short steps out my back door! I photographed at least 8 different species of birds plus the squirrel. I saw more birds who just didn’t quite cooperative or were a little camera-shy. Over all, it was a great experience and I am sure to be back there again very soon!

I am fortunate to live in the Poconos of northeast Pennsylvania, so the wildlife is abundant where I live. I live on a road named “Yellowstone” which isn’t bad either! All-in-all, I am very happy to be able to engage in wildlife photography right in my backyard. I tend to think most people can actually do this no matter where they live. A bird feeder and some perches are all it takes. Give it a try yourself!

Great Blue Heron on the Prowl

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The Great Blue Heron is fun to watch and even more fun to photograph. This January I saw several of these birds fishing for their dinner. Just watching them on the prowl made me glad I wasn’t a little fish!

First, they move cautiously through the water and then they strain their long neck to see where the fish are swimming. Then, with the jerk of their head, they thrust their beak into the water and after the little fish. Once in a while, if the focus and light is right, you get an amazing photograph. I am still working on this but I am getting closer. In fact, I still have quite a number of photographs to go through still, but here are two that tease me of what is possible!

Bird Identification 001

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I am on the ground floor when it comes to bird identification. For me it’s not even 101; it’s bird id 001!

This photograph is not a great one, but it captured a bird I had never photographed before. I think it might be a type of kingfisher, but I am not sure. So I need your help. Can you identify this bird?

The photo was taken in Chincoteague, Virginia on the second week of January. I saw a lot of mallards, great blue herons, great egrets, a whole more. One day I just happened across this bird sitting on a perch. So I quickly stopped my truck, grabbed my camera and snapped a few photos. This was the best one of the batch. It is not a great photo but I hope it is good enough for one of you to help me identify it.

Thanks in advance for your help!

 

Dinner Time!

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Last month I was in Chincoteague, Virginia for some bird photography. I just love this place! There are lots of different species here and there are plenty of places to photograph them. I was a little rusty out of the gate the first morning and missed some nice birds. Patience and persistence paid off, however, and before long I found myself back in the swing of wildlife photography. I spent two days at Chincoteague and then spent part of a day in Assateague, hoping to get some wild pony photos. I did, but I was also surprised to see this lone Blue Heron fishing not far from the road. This was surprising to me because usually I see few birds at Assateague. This guy didn’t seem to mind me watching him trying to catch dinner.

It was mostly quiet–no cars, just a whole lot of wind! Still, this bird didn’t mind. With a hungry belly to feed it kept watching, waiting, stalking, and attacking the small fish in the vicinity. It was amazing to watch. The more time I spent observing and photographing this bird, the more I could anticipate when it would thrust its beak into the water after a fish. This watchful preparation helped enormously. Then with the jerk of its neck and a splash of water, the beak penetrated the water to snag some dinner. Amazing to watch and wonderful to photograph!

“Working the subject,” (which isn’t a phrase I actually like to use because how can this be work?) I saw more and more detail with each fish caught. Sometimes the little fish was caught well and it was a simple task for the bird to flip the fish from its beak into its throat. Other times, however, it was not a simple task. The fish was flopping dramatically and the bird had to figure a careful way not to lose this delicious bite. Catching the fish was only part of the process. Eating it could be a completely different matter.

Then there were those times when my camera and the eating bird seemed to sync together. I somehow managed to click the shutter release at just the right moment and everything was just perfect. The heron got its dinner and my camera captured the phenomenal moment! Isn’t it just great when everything comes together at dinner time?

More Seagulls – The Ring-Billed Gull

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This is interesting. I took a ton of photos this week and a bunch of the seagulls. I’ve been doing some research since my blog post yesterday to find out exactly which species of seagulls I photographed. The research is almost as exciting as photographing them!

I discovered through my research that these gulls are the Ring-Billed Gull. They are perhaps the most common gull seen today. They do migrate and actually spend a lot of time inland. In fact, some never even see the ocean. They are also sometimes referred to as “fast food gulls” because they can often be found scavenging at fast food restaurants. They are also sometimes referred to flying garbage men because they often eat garbage left behind by humans. They are mostly scavengers but also eat fish and other small aquatic animals.

Their primary identification mark is the black ring near the front of their bill, hence their name: Ring-Billed Gull.

Females produce between 2 to 4 eggs that are laid on a hollow on the ground sometimes filled with grass or debris. Both the male and the female take turns sitting on the eggs to incubate them. Eggs hatch anywhere within 21 – 28 days.

So, yeah, I learned a lot more than I figured I would about these gulls all because I captured these photographs. Fascinating!

Seagulls

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Tuesday was a day of adventure. It started out at Merkle Wildlife Sanctuary and ended at Sandy Beach State Park. Birds from osprey to seagulls were the subjects in front of my camera and I had a blast!

Seagulls are common birds that elicit thoughts of the beach and the ocean. They are often seen by everyone visiting the beach and yet are fascinating to observe. While our daughter, Lydia, was swimming in the bay, I spent some time with gulls. They were not very happy to have me chasing them around, so I just casually moved down the beach hoping to get closer to some gulls as I went. This strategy worked much better and before long I was composing seagull photos and clicking the shutter release. This was great photography to me because the subjects were all around. All I had to do was be cautious about the backgrounds and shoot away. This is relatively easy wildlife photography!

How many of you go to the beach? How many of you have photographs of seagulls?

As the evening wore on, I found myself trying harder to get quality photos of the gulls. My wife shook her head and actually laughed at me when I got down on my stomach to take some low-level shots of two gulls. Hey, I was taught that eye-level to the subject is the goal, so I didn’t think this was so outrageous! Actually, I do prefer low-angle shots. For example, when I shoot a baseball game I almost always wear knee pads and kneel along the first-base or third-base side of the field. This low-angle perspective helps focus attention on the player, which is exactly what I want to focus on.

The gulls at Sandy Point State Park made beautiful subjects; don’t you think?

Ospreys

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My time spent at Merkle Wildlife Sanctuary in Maryland was well worth the time and effort. I had a blast, saw and photographed a lot, and will try to get back there again. It was very hot but wildlife sights and sounds were abundant!

My research on Ospreys taught me that most of their diet is fish. In fact, about 99% of their diet is fish. The parents fish by flying high in the air to spot a likely meal and then dive bomb the water to snatch the prey with their long talons. They will then turn the fish head first so they are more aerodynamic when they fly back to the nest. An average of three eggs are laid each year and both the female and the male are involved in keeping the eggs warm until they are hatched. The nest I photographed the most this week contained two juveniles and they looked hungry most of the time!

I was able to capture some decent photographs of this Osprey family and some of the flying action of the mother on her flights to find fish. In the last photograph you can see the mother and her two hungry young chicks.

Birding

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I readily admit that I am not much of a birder. Until a few years ago I photographed mammals and large mammals at that. This began to change about three years ago when I first visited Chincoteague National Wildlife Refuge. I began to photograph the big birds and enjoyed this location very much.

I slowly learned how to identify the bigger birds and even picked up a “Pocket Naturalist Guide” to help me in this endeavor. I learned the subtle differences between the Great Egret and the Snowy Egret. Slowly but surely I was learning more and more about birds.

This week I returned to Chincoteague. The trip began like many previous ones–photographing a few Great Blue Herons, a Great Egret, and several ducks. I even learned to distinguish the differences between the Mallard and the Northern Shoveler.

Then something unusual and exciting happened–I spotted an unusual and interesting bird that I had never seen before. It behaved in an unusual manner as it pointed its head to the sky and moved in a strange gyration that resembled the weeds blowing in the wind. I took a few photos and it was gone.

Later in the day I happened upon this bird again. Two men approached me and asked what I had seen. I tried to describe this particular bird and then showed them an image of it from my camera’s LCD screen. They excited and enthusiastically informed me that I had spotted an American Bittern! We found this bird again and took some more photographs.

I still am not much of a birder. I know, for example, that without the help of these two nice men I would have had a hard time identifying this bird. I might still not known what I had seen. But I am learning and growing to like birds more and more.

Here are a few images of the American Bittern I saw this week.