Tuesday, March 23, 2010
Florida Pictures Soon!
I had a great time in Florida, but I have lots of pictures to sort through and edit and convert. However, I'm on Spring Break, so I should have a post ready soon.
Wednesday, March 17, 2010
Woodcock/Owl Prowl
No usable pictures from this trip, since it was cold and grey, but I did see a Great Horned Owl on its nest, heard a Barred Owl, and saw and heard several Woodcocks, although it was extremely dark, and they were little more than moving shapes. They called quite often, however. I also saw and heard the Barred Owl at the bridge again this evening, and got a dark, blurry, unrecognizable cell phone picture of its back. I'm heading to Florida tomorrow, so I hope to have an exciting post full of great birds when I get back!
Wednesday, March 10, 2010
Forest Park Forever Beginner Bird Walk
Not too many species seen, but it was nice out finally, and there were many more people than usual.
Wood Ducks, male and female. It's hard to believe they're native; they're so exotic looking.
Canada Goose, common, but I thought it was a nice picture. Other species of note were a red-headed woodpecker, great blue heron, and cooper's hawk.
Song Sparrow. There were lots of these around, along with at least one American Tree Sparrow. This is more a testament to Canon's great cameras than about the bird walk. My dial had slipped, and I was shooting on the wrong mod at 1/640. They picture was way too light. However, I shoot in raw, and was able to correct that. The birds are too far away for it to be a graet shot, but I thought the comparison was interesting.
Undoctored photo.
Corrected photo. Thank you Canon, and thanks for reading!
Wood Ducks, male and female. It's hard to believe they're native; they're so exotic looking.
Canada Goose, common, but I thought it was a nice picture. Other species of note were a red-headed woodpecker, great blue heron, and cooper's hawk.
Song Sparrow. There were lots of these around, along with at least one American Tree Sparrow. This is more a testament to Canon's great cameras than about the bird walk. My dial had slipped, and I was shooting on the wrong mod at 1/640. They picture was way too light. However, I shoot in raw, and was able to correct that. The birds are too far away for it to be a graet shot, but I thought the comparison was interesting.
Undoctored photo.
Corrected photo. Thank you Canon, and thanks for reading!
Saturday, March 6, 2010
Barred Owl
Today my Grandfather and I biked down to the drainage creek in our neighborhood, and there were some birds moving around, so I went back to my house to get my binoculars. When I got back to the creek, we suddenly hear a Barred Owl calling its who cooks for you call from right over our heads, and another responding from upstream. It eventually poked its head out from a tree that had lost its top, and apparently had a hollow in the top. It then flew upstream, and started doing its jackal-laughing call. (That's how I would describe it.) They nested in a tree extending over our yard one year, but then our neighbors had to cut the tree down, so it is nice to see them again. I'll have a post up later about the Forest Park Forever Beginning Bird Walk I went on today.
Monday, March 1, 2010
Riverlands Migratory Bird Sanctuary
I headed out to Riverlands this weekend, since it was around 40 degrees. Not at Riverlands. There was a cold wind that that illustrated the fact: It's always colder at RMBS. However, there were some great birds, including a kestrel with a meal, horned larks, Bald Eagles, American White Pelicans, unidentifiable ducks (mergansers of a sort and some possible goldeneyes), geese(greater white-fronted and canada) and gulls.
Gulls. I'm going to say the smaller ones are ring-billed and the larger ones are herring. If you want to disagree, you're probably right.
I think this is a Ring-Billed Gull.
I thought it was interesting that so many birds could be found close to an industrial area.
This one looks sort of like its winking.
Bald Eagles are one of the big draws for this area. As you can see, there are several on the ice in the background.
An adult one.
You can't really tell, but this is a big flock of pelicans.
Greater White-Fronted Geese.
Kestrel with snack. Good Birding!
Gulls. I'm going to say the smaller ones are ring-billed and the larger ones are herring. If you want to disagree, you're probably right.
I think this is a Ring-Billed Gull.
I thought it was interesting that so many birds could be found close to an industrial area.
This one looks sort of like its winking.
Bald Eagles are one of the big draws for this area. As you can see, there are several on the ice in the background.
An adult one.
You can't really tell, but this is a big flock of pelicans.
Greater White-Fronted Geese.
Kestrel with snack. Good Birding!
Sunday, February 21, 2010
New Camera!
I'll have some pictures from Michigan up, but I don't have them right now, so I'll talk instead about my new camera. It is a Canon Rebel XSi/450D. 3.5 frames per second, 12.2 megapixels, and overall a great step up from my Powershot S2 IS. I got a two-lens kit, with the ef-s 18-55 and the ef-s 55-250. The 55-250 is the one I use for birding, and for the price, it is excellent. I am perfectly happy with the image quality and autofocus speed, the only problem is that it is a little short. However, it came with some nice editing software, and I can crop to get some really nice images.
This is a white-throated sparrow, taken in my backyard.
This is a chickadee, also from my backyard.
This junco is in a funny pose, I thought.
This eagle, from Forest Park, is dropping the catfish/bullhead it was eating.
I was happy to get a couple of decent flight shots. Ring-Billed Gull.
White-Throated Sparrow. I like to see the green, since it reminds me of spring.
A Northern Flicker from Tower Grove Park.
Finally, I would like to recommend Birdforum to you birders reading this. I joined in June, mainly to ask camera questions, but now I enjoy just browsing the forums and gallery. One of the best features is the Bird Identification Q&A section, where you can get answers to your ID questions as soon as you post them. There are almost 90,000 users from all over the world, and it is a great community! Good Birding!
This is a white-throated sparrow, taken in my backyard.
This is a chickadee, also from my backyard.
This junco is in a funny pose, I thought.
This eagle, from Forest Park, is dropping the catfish/bullhead it was eating.
I was happy to get a couple of decent flight shots. Ring-Billed Gull.
White-Throated Sparrow. I like to see the green, since it reminds me of spring.
A Northern Flicker from Tower Grove Park.
Finally, I would like to recommend Birdforum to you birders reading this. I joined in June, mainly to ask camera questions, but now I enjoy just browsing the forums and gallery. One of the best features is the Bird Identification Q&A section, where you can get answers to your ID questions as soon as you post them. There are almost 90,000 users from all over the world, and it is a great community! Good Birding!
Saturday, February 20, 2010
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