Eastern Kingbird

I have yet to get a decent shot of an Eastern Kingbird. So when I saw a handsome male yesterday after work, I tried to stalk it.

It flew away as usual :(

But I followed it back to its brood of 3 fledglings that he had holed up in a small cottonwood sapling. I was able to get within 35' of the family and waited for some shots. The mom and dad were very good parents and very good hunters, bringing food every few minutes.

The weather was crappy and the wind was gusting so high ISO's and contrasty lighting was unavoidable. Lighting changed second by second as the patchy clouds were moving fast so I hope these don't look too bad. But I did stop by again tonight and I think I got better shots (haven't gone through them yet). Will post them tomorrow if they look any better - although the weather was even worse today.

Absolutely a great series of images I like them all. Great Job.

Frank

Wow, wonderful photos !! The second one somehow reminds me of a choir :)

Simply outstanding!

If i can reach in the future just the 10% of your talent, I will be more than happy, this is a real good work my friend

Best Regards
Falconermx

These are all great Loupey. They lighting doesn't look very contrasty to me at all.

Frank - thanks for the kind reply!

AgingEyes - yeah, it does look like that :p

CaraRose - thanks!

Falconermx - thank you so much! But keep in mind that I started shooting birds only after joining this site and became inspired by the good folks here. The more you participate and challenge yourself, the better you will become :thumbsup:

mjs1973 - The PP on these look a muddled to me here. I'll have to pick a few to redo to see if I can improve on them. Thanks for looking!

As I mentioned earlier, I found this family again last night. They were in a different area about 80' from where I found them before.

I will keep going back to this location as long as they remain. I still don't feel I have THE shot. The potential is there but the elements haven't come together (mostly the lighting) to create the mood and action I'm envisioning. Hopefully I won't run out of time.

A few from last night:

My, those babies are demanding!

Wonderful series. Love the second one in the first set with the three open mouths. - TF

Simply AWESOME. Every one.

That flycatcher sure is catching a lot of insects!

These are great! You should come by where I work... my Eastern Kingbirds are not shy at all. Infact, they follow me and seem to pose as I walk around. :p I'm about to post a few pictures.
Your talent + my posing birds would = unbeatable shots of these guys! LOL
(have not seen any babies yet)

These are all great shots but there again it's what we expect from you, Jeff

Thanks for look and commenting, everyone.

Bad news is that I searched for two hours Thursday night and it appears that the family has moved on.

Haha, the first shot of the second series look kind of funny to me. It's like the parent is scared or something :)

I HATE YOU! Those are some awesome images and I can't feature them.. GRRRRR

Why can't you feature them? Because he's a moderator? How does one get one of their photos featured anyway?

Me and Loupey choose an image and we do not include ourselves or other mods in the choice.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by SARtech

How does one get one of their photos featured anyway?

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A few Jeffersons and a couple Benjamins wouldn't hurt. It wouldn't help, but it wouldn't hurt either :p


I'm KIDDING of course.

As with just about every N&W shoot, there are long periods of inactivity punctuated by brief periods of hyper-activity.

Here are some miscellaneous shots during those off-peak times.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Loupey

A few Jeffersons and a couple Benjamins wouldn't hurt. It wouldn't help, but it wouldn't hurt either :p


I'm KIDDING of course.

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NEED MY PAYPAL? I am not kidding :D

Why do baby birds always stay feather-touching-feather close to each other? I mean, look at the last two photos...

I'll take a guess at that question. Maybe its because that is how they are used to being/feeling from being crowded in the nest before "branching out" so it makes them feel more secure. (when they are not thinking about being FED!)

Amazing series of shots Loupey.
:)

The last one in the newest set is just precious.