Late Fall 06 Bird ID Thread

[mjs1973]

I haven't posted a bird photo in a while. I took this the other day.

[paulnj]

This is a yellow rumped warbler

[mjs1973]

Thanks for the ID Paul. I'm really looking forward to goind after some birds this winter.

[paulnj]

gulls, finches, sparrows and hawks will be 99% of your birds

[mjs1973]

gulls, finches, sparrows and hawks will be 99% of your birds

Yeah, I'm not expecting a huge variety of birds, but there are a few winter residence that I'll be looking for. Mostly woodpeckers, hawks and owls. Of course my feeders will be full of sparrows, finches and squirrls too.

[paulnj]

Well if ontario gets a harsh winter..... saw-whet, n. hawkowl, great grey, snowy owls are very possible, but snowy and saw-whet are most likely along with long eared and short eared owls When winter kicks in (late december) I will help you locate owls

[mjs1973]

We had a few snowy's in the area last year, and some great grays the year before. I got a few nice shots of the GG, but nothing great of the snowy. I did see and hear a barred owl last weekend while out shooting deer. They are pretty common, but I don't have any good shots of one, yet.

[Copy_Kot]

So yesterday I went and bought the Sibley field guide I now have both the Sibley & Audubon field guides and I can't ID this bird! :mad2: At first I thought it was just a gold finch but looking at the wings I think it's a different bird. If it isn't a gold finch.... today was my first time seeing one

edit- A Snow Bunting???

[paulnj]

Snow bunting! Found with horned larks at times in winter in our area since they forage the same areas.

[tranter3004]

I think bird pictures like that are amazing to take! Nice photo... Dont get the wide range of birds that u get over there in the U.S but we get some good speices. There was a merlin in ma garden the other day took a sparrow i think! ashame i didnt have ma camera

[Loupey]

I think bird pictures like that are amazing to take! Nice photo... Dont get the wide range of birds that u get over there in the U.S but we get some good speices. There was a merlin in ma garden the other day took a sparrow i think! ashame i didnt have ma camera

Welcome to PR, tranter!

So what country do you call home? Love to see the species that you do have over there!

Thanks again

[paulnj]

Yeah please do post some images and a location too.

BTW... search through this forum for BIRD ID threads, most are many pages long and full of images

[Lava Lamp]

Haven't been around in a while and I see we have a "Sponsor." Wow. Big time. Here's one I don't usually see this close...

[cyberlord]

Weird, I've seen a Turkey Vulture on 2 different occasions IN_TOWN eating road kill and almost becoming road kill themselves.

This looks like a Black Vulture.

Tim

[paulnj]

That is indeed a black vulture though on one side the underwing feathers appear to be grey(lighting). The best way to ID them not in flight(for me) is the beak having a light tip. You TV's have a dark head too, so beware of IDing from head color

I got a young TV eating another young one once. I went to the left because it was facing right, but it turned around and ran under my truck. That's called survival of the fittest and I think that the parents must have abandoned them or been 1st time parents maybe. The parents were on the side of the road with a deer at the time and never looked up.

[mjs1973]

I set out this morning in search of some tundra swans. I wasn't dissapointed. There were also a few thousand canada geese at the pond along with some ducks. Most of the geese took off as the mornig went on, but the swans stuck around.

[paulnj]

Alright! Nice images there! I especially like the first taking flight image.

[mjs1973]

Thanks Paul. I was panning to get the shots of the swans taking flight, but I had too fast of a shutter speed to get a good blur in the BG. But with the faster SS I was able to freeze the splashes in the water.

[mjs1973]

Here's a couple from a few weeks ago. This is full frame with a 50mm.

[paulnj]

How did you get that close to a hooded merganser and what apears to be a female N.pintail? I can't get that close unless they are dead

[Copy_Kot]

Michael, the swan images are amazing! Would you mind sharing the camera settings that you used for the images?

[mjs1973]

Thanks Copy. All photos were taken with the original DRebel, and my Sigma 170-500mm @ 500mm with ISO 200 with +1 1/3 stops of exposure compensation. My Sigma lens doesn't read correctly on my DRebel, so I have to add + 2/3 to get a normal shot to expose correctly. With the poor lighting the day I shot these, I added a bit more to brighten them up. Here are the shutterspeeds and aperture settings.

1st image: SS 1/200, f/7.1

2nd image: SS 1/200 f/8

3rd image: SS 1/250 f/8

4th image: SS 1/250 f/8

5th image: SS 1/250 f/8

[mjs1973]

I was in STEALTH mode. Or maybe they were in TAME mode! This shot was taken right outside of the National Mississippi River Museum and Aquarium. This little pond is actually part of the exhibit, it just happens to be outside. I'm sure these birds are pretty use to visitors. I walked out on a dock to get this shot and they didn't seem to mind. This is the same pond that I took the muscrat shot in this thread.

[Copy_Kot]

Not too much going on today, it was too dark out

Just some house finches and some interesting useless trivia I found while looking up their Latin name: House finches that inhabit the Eastern U.S. are descendants of pets which were released sometime in the 1940's in New York City.

[Lava Lamp]

Look out the passenger side windo in traffic on the way to the mall today and saw this fella about 10 feet away. I had a 500mm mirror lens on and couldn't quite fit him all in...