Just Some Common Winter Birds

My nearby park had a Winter Hike event going on this morning which spoiled my plans to get some larger prey.

So I decided to get some common birds as they congregated near feeding stations. I lasted 2 1/2 hours standing in one spot so that the birds could get accustomed to me being there. I couldn't take it any more and finally went home - it took about the same length of time for me to finally warm up.

And the last of them. Sorry, everyone, common I know - it's all I got for now.

Oh, that last one (Brown Thrasher?) just flew in out of the blue. Never seen it before. Came in solo, ate its fill, then left. Came back one other time about an hour later.

Thanks for looking.

Sweet images here, but not all are common birds :wink:

The first is a wintering american tree sparrow and the other two sparrow images are fox sparrows.

More nice images!

Yes that's a brown thrasher and the redbellied image is great! You got hit tongue!!!!

Loupey those are ten times better than the images in my Audubon field guide! That R/B with its tongue out is AWESOME!

Stunning Captures as usual Loupey :)

Thanks, guys, for looking and thanks, Paul, for the ID.

I did pay particular attention to sparrows this time as I generally ignore them. There were two other species there (House and White-Throated). I could not get a good shot of the beautiful W-T's as they stayed on the ground more than in the branches and were always obscured by foreground.

My target bird - Golden Crowned Kinglet - has not made a showing during my last three visits. I saw one about a week and a half ago.

Loupey, I am always blown away by your images. And now I know that brown thrashers (which used to completely trash our window feeder), have whiskers!

Common birds...Uncommonly beautiful images! As usual you rule Loupey.

Wonderful images Loupey, what lens did you use.

wow those are really great!

Thanks, OBie, OT, Cassie1, and Erik, for looking!

Cassie1, these are all with my favorite lens for both my macro and tele work - the Canon EF 300mm f/4L IS. These are all with the 2x teleconverter. Subject to camera distance is between 10' to 15'. Thanks for asking and welcome to PR!

I did get some more today during an actual blizzard for here (10" of snow in about 12 hours with sleet coating my gear).

I'll try to post some new images later tonight :)

Those are great images! The brown thrasher would be a first for me too.

Thanks, Quetzal!

OK, so here are a few more from earlier today. Really tough shooting conditions - first snow, then sleet - LOTS of both. I'm worried that some moisture might have worked its way into my 300mm.

The Brown Thrasher made its appearance today. Same one I think - still only one in the area. But this time, it landed right in front of me on exactly the branch I would have selected if I could. Things just work out sometimes :)

The last shot of the thrasher is actually from the evening before. I followed it directly into the thickest bush in the area. It stayed on exactly the opposite side as I tried moving an inch this way an inch that way to try to get a clear shot of its face. It seemed in every position there would be one branch straight across his eye. Imagine him over there, me over here about 6' away with my lens jammed into the bush. Quality is poor as it was shot at around 5:30pm at ISO 800.

I guess he's getting used to me :p

Work being very busy i have'nt had the time to really do anything with camera or get onto here as much as i like, and i checked through this morning and came across your thread Loupey,so sorry this is a bit late coming, the keyboard on the laptop now needs attention, as my jaw hit it so hard the letters pinged everywhere!!

Stunning isnt really enough, the pictures themselves are better than ever and to see birds that i have'nt actually seen before tops it,i would love some of these common birds to you, hopping around on our trees, i cant pic a favourite, all exceptional.

Can i ask did you use a tripod? sounds not, as you state you were going through bushes etc, but with a 2x used even with the 300mm they are exceptionally sharp, if you didnt, boy! youve a steady hand loupey. Brilliant.

Bev - thank you very much and as far as the tripod question, no - quite the opposite. My preference is to use the monopod but I had misplaced/lost it two months ago (it was camo wrapped :p ) and I've been too stubborn to buy a new one. So everything since then has been hand-held. So shooting from a standing stance for hours on end in the cold doesn't make for steady hands.

The basic exif info:

1st 10 images: 300mm + 2xTC, ISO 400, f/11, 1/180s or 1/250s
Brown Thrasher on snow branch: 300mm + 2xTC, ISO 400, f/11, 1/60s
Brown Thrasher thru bush: 300mm alone, ISO 800, f/5.6, 1/125s

As you can see, I'll do anything to keep from shooting wide open - these are all stopped down 1 stop. Of course all manual exposure, manual focus.

May finally be "grounded" today. Kids are off from school again, two of the surrounding counties are in a Level 3 winter warning (no driving allowed), I closed down my main business yesterday and today, and it's Valentine's Day. Still will have to get an hour or two someplace, sometime!

Here is the resolution crop of the shot at 1/60s:

Thanks Loupey for feedback on this, it proves clear crisp pictures can be obtained with TC's and without tripod/monopods, and you have always impressed me the way you handle manual mode, this may seem a strange thing to say, but i keep trying with my bird flight shots in manual, but before i get the focus right the subject has gone,especially on an oppertune shot, its frustrating and im sure im doing something wrong, but its a challenge. So if youve got any tips on it please im all ears!

Sounds like the weather is very harsh over there, and that again is so frustrating when you want to go out with the camera, especially bird photography, but its been like that here for a while now, although not harsh, just wet and very muddy.

Oh hubby has just come home with a big bunch of flowers, hmmm, macr shots i think tonight! Lol.

loupey:

I really like the sparrow with it's back turned to us...the not-quite OOF tree trunk really makes it. I don't know what exactly it is that I find appealing, maybe the camoflauge. Maybe I'm just so used to seeing bird shots on a plain OOF backdrop that one with a little more context is nice. In any case, nice shots.

That thrasher shot is awesome Loupey!

Bev - I can MF on any stationary subject, but in-flight is still a challenge :p I've had 3 or 4 chances now to get hawks flying towards me - by the time my focusing catches up, they're too close and I don't have the entire bird in the frame :mad: I think I need to take the 2x off for in-flight stuff.

The last chance was with a Sharp-Shinned or Coopers Hawk. It swooped in and attacked a cardinal not 15' to my left (and missed). But on its way, I got an out of focus shot of it holding his head up and looking at me. If only I got that one :mad2:

Erik: thanks for the comments! At the time, I kept willing the bird to come down and turn its body. There is only one White-Throated sparrow that I've seen in the area and it is very wary. This was the closest approach and, fortunately, the most he's ever been out in the open. I had to lean my body to place his head area against a contrasting part of the background. He turned his head just long enough for me to get two shots off before he took off.

Copy: thanks for the compliment. I had set a goal earlier to get this shot with a cardinal. But I think I like it better with the Thrasher as it is not as common.

It's a shame with all this snow that only one image actually shows snow in it.

So I tried a new spot this morning. Found (American Tree?) sparrows in a field eating seeds right off the stalks. Very fun to watch as they stretched, hopped, and jumped to get to the seeds. I got three different lighting angles (back, side, and front - more or less) within a span of 8 minutes.

All with the 300mm+2x, ISO 400, f/11, handheld. Some full-frame, some cropped slightly. Shutter speeds: 1/750s (3rd image), 1/2000s (2nd image) and 1/1000s for the remaining three. Manual mode.

Bev, even 1/1000s and 1/1500s was not fast enough during the most energetic jumping sequences :)

Now thats some fast little bird for those shutter speeds, images 2 & 4 are great, the colours are really rich especially against the snow, your tree sparrows are somewhat more pretty than ours.

Thank you for welcoming me to PR Loupey.Great images again.That little tree sparrow looks a lot of fun to photograph. As Bev said, the colours are lovely against the snow. Image 3 looks like he or she is resting. Image 4 just a quick snack. Image 5 get ready to dive. Brilliant.

Thanks Bev and Cassie1 (and you're welcome :) )

Went back to the first spot this morning. This time of the year has got to be near ideal for shooting these small birds. No leaves to obstruct the view, hungry fellas, and a beautiful glow from the snow on the ground.

More great shot's Loupey! Now that you have shared some shooting info with us, would you mind sharing a little on how you do your post processing? I'm sure it would be greatly appreciated by everyone here.