Macro Monday

Macro Monday

Macro Monday

Macro Monday

Killdeer at Sherburne NWR

Last week, my father and I took a drive up to Sherburne NWR and had a pretty successful day. At one point as we were driving around the auto tour we pulled off into a viewing area that had a small platform overlooking a pool. As we got out of the car we could hear a Killdeer calling very near to us but honestly didn't think that much of it at the time. So we spent some time on the viewing platform and when we had our fill of cormorants and ducks we headed back to the car. The Killdeer started screaming and we could tell that it was close. It sounded like it was just across the road but we could not find it. All of a sudden my father saw the bird, practically under his foot. It was so close we were actually looking right past it! We immediately backed off and the bird took a few steps to the right and sat down. I started to take some photographs only to realize that this bird was actually sitting on an egg. She had made her nest (for all practical purposes) right in the middle of the parking area! Anyway, we backed away to the car, which was only about 20 feet from the nest, and left the bird alone. Here are the shots that came out of that brief encounter with the Killdeer.

If you look closely in this photo you can see the egg under the bird. Click on the photo to see a larger version of the photo at my Flickr site.

Macro Monday

Macro Monday

Macro Monday

Dickcissel

The first bird we saw at Randolph was the Dickcissel, yet another life bird for all three of us. They were all over and are very chatty birds. They pretty much sang the entire time we were there. I think I was most pleased with these shots from the day.

Bobolink

We had never seen a Bobolink before and although we had heard they were there, we didn't spot this one until right before we left. We were just saying that it was time to go and my Father spotted a bird farther out in the field so he went to check it out and low and behold it was a Bobolink.

Grasshopper Sparrow

Here's the Grasshopper Sparrow from the other day. There call is actually quite distinctive. My mother compared it to a locust which I had to agree with.



Again, if this looks like the wrong ID please let me know! :)

Savannah Sparrow

Hello All,

Last weekend I went down to the Randolph Industrial Park with my mother and father we saw quite a few new birds for all of us. My expectation was that this was going to be a park in the sense that it would have trails, or a playground, or something generally associated with a park. However, this is basically an undeveloped area with roads that will eventually lead to commercial buildings. It's looks like an undeveloped neighborhood at present so when we got there we had a little trouble locating it due to our somewhat mis-guided preconception of where we were heading. Upon our arrival we were greeted with birds within minutes of stopping the car. We saw Savannah Sparrows, Grasshopper Sparrows, Dickcissel, and Bobolinks, all of which were life birds for the 3 of us. I would say that one of my biggest weaknesses with bird ID's has got to be sparrows so if my ID's look suspicious, please let me know. I'll post photos of the above mentioned birds over the coming days. Let's start with the Savannah Sparrow!

Carlos Avery Continued

I did find a life bird while I was at Carlos Avery on Friday. When I saw it, I knew that it was not a bird I had seen before. I didn't have my field guide but I made a good guess at what it was and was able to confirm it when I got home and looked it up. I was pretty excited to see a new bird. Since I've been birding for a while now, seeing a new bird is pretty exiting since it just doesn't happen that often to me. Anyway, here are my shots of this somewhat shy Black-billed Cuckoo!

It's worth looking at the larger version of this photo to see the red in the birds eye. It's quite brilliant. (Click on the photo to see a larger version on my Flickr page.)

Carlos Avery

Hey All,

I was able to get out for a short evening at Carlos Avery last Friday night and I had a really nice time. I saw quite a few birds and did a bit of shooting as well. This Green Heron was a really cooperative bird so I took quite a few shots and here are the ones I liked best.

Green Heron:

Chestnut-sided Warbler

As promised here are the shots of the Chestnut-sided Warbler!

Blue-headed Vireo

Hey All,

I know that you thought I had forgotten about you, and honestly there is a bit a of truth to that. Life brings its ups and downs and I have had my fair share of both over the last months which has been quite distracting. I haven't been out to bird pretty much at all this spring but I did see a few birds yesterday while sitting in my parents back yard. No promises on consistent posts but I'm hopeful that I'll be getting out and taking more photos over the next month or so. Anyway, I wanted to share these photos since they turned out pretty good and the Blue-headed Vireo is a life bird for me. I hope all of you are healthy and happy!

Craig





Tomorrow I'll post a few photos of the Chestnut-sided Warbler from yesterday as well.

Macro Monday

Can you guess what this one is?

Macro Monday

Macro Monday

..and More Back Yard Birds

We've been fortunate to have a good supply of woodpeckers in our yard over the last few years including regular visits from Pileated and even a visit from the Red-headed Woodpecker. The Downy Woodpecker is also a regular at our suet feeder and deserves some recognition for being a part of our birding lives.

Downy Woodpecker:

More Back Yard Birds

Interestingly enough, I realized the other day that I really didn't have a decent shot of a Black-capped Chickadee. These birds are always in our yard and at the feeders. They are dependable that way and I appreciate that. :)

Black-capped Chickadee:

Back Yard Birds

It was such a nice day out today compared to the recent weather we have had I decided to just sit in the backyard and take a few shots of the birds in my yard and on my feeders. I had the "usuals" that visit my feeders which are Downy's, Chickadees, and Nuthatches. I was kind of hoping to see the Pileated since I could hear him not to far away but he decided not to show today so I'll have try again another day.

White-breasted Nuthatch:

Macro Monday

Sitting and Landing Swans

I still find it hard to believe that the cold water and ice doesn't bother the birds. They seemed quite content even though we were all freezing!

Macro Monday

I've been working more on my macro photography so I thought I would start doing a Macro Monday shot. Here's the first one! :)

White Sea Shell:

Flight of the Swans

Here's one more flight shot:

Swans in Flight

There were a lot of opportunities to shoot pictures of the swans in flight, and I was somewhat successful. Swans make for good practice on shooting birds in flight mainly because they are big enough to make focusing on them easy and are slow enough that you can keep up with them as the pass in front of you. I think birds in flight is going to be an area of focus for me this year, although, given the opportunity to photograph a sitting bird I'm pretty sure I'll take the photo. :)

Swans in the Mist

Due to the cold, there was a bit of mist/steam coming off of the water which made for a very pretty seen, but it also made for a bit of trouble when taking shots. Sometimes the mist was thick enough where it somewhat obscured the birds. Either way it was still pretty cool to see.

Sleepy Swans

Did I mention that it was about 0 degrees when we went and that there was a pretty good breeze which made it quite chilly to be holding my camera? My first battery didn't last very long, so it was nice to have a second battery which was a gift from my wife for Christmas.

Monticello Swans

Hey All,

I hope that the holidays treated you all well and that you've had a chance to spend time with family and friends. I certainly did!
I started out the new year of birding (the first birding I've done in a while as many of you know) by going up to Monticello, MN to see the Trumpeter Swans with my parents. It's quite a spectacle, with a phenomenal amount of birds, mainly Mallards, Canada Geese, and of course Trumpeter Swans. We also saw a some Common Goldeneye, although they were at quite a distance.
Here are a couple shots of the swans to start with. I'll be posting a few more over the coming days.