A whole bunch of birds - 7/4/19

This next trip out really kicked things off for the bird collection. I saw a ton of birds at a local nature center. I had been to this one before, but I was taking pictures of the water fountains and other scenery. This time I was out for wildlife, and wildlife I did see.

The first night I went out after work, and although there was plenty of wildlife there was far more people out that night walking. So the birds stayed up in the trees for the most part. I couldn’t get that close, but here’s a heavily cropped in photo of a Northern Mockingbird.

Canon 7D w/Tamron 150-600mm @600 - 1/800 Sec - F8.0 - ISO 500

I did manage to get a fantastic sunset shot that night.

Canon 5D Mark II w/28-135mm @90 - 1/2500 Sec - F6.3 - ISO 400

I headed back out the following Saturday, early in the morning before the sun had come up. Although it was a little while before there was enough light for me to start getting some good pictures. But once there was enough light there was plenty to take pictures of. Starting with this Eastern Song Sparrow.

Canon 7D w/Tamron 150-600mm @428 - 1/10 Sec - ISO 400

Afterwords there was a bit of commotion in the grass, several birds with flying around. Fighting it looked like, so I stalked slowly towards and set up the tripod where I could just see over the hill where they were. They were actually playing, and were infant Eastern Bluebirds.

The only clear picture I got was when they all paused. Because it was still so dark I couldn’t raise the shutter speed.

Canon 7D w/Tamron 150-600mm @600 - 1/125 Sec - F8.0 - ISO 1000

Canon 7D w/Tamron 150-600mm @600 - 1/125 Sec - F8.0 - ISO 1000

There were large patches of bushes and growth. A bit above waist high but thick enough I wasn’t going into them. Thankfully it was just the right height for me to set up the tripod and wait without bending over and hurting my back. A flash of yellow caught my eye, and I snapped to try and get a picture. I missed it, but managed to follow the American Goldfinch a little ways and get a shot then. I was still really far away and had to crop in a good bit. But it’s better than no picture.

Canon 7D w/Tamron 150-600mm @600 - 1/250 Sec - F8.0 - ISO 2000

The next thing I would spot would be some fluffy little guys, which I believe the first is an Eastern House Wren.

The second I’m not 100% sure about. It’s harder to identify them head on, so many of the markings come from the wings and colorings.

Canon 7D w/Tamron 150-600mm @600 - 1/200 Sec - F8.0 - ISO 640

Canon 7D w/Tamron 150-600mm @600 - 1/125 Sec - F8.0 - ISO 1000

The next one I managed to get a shot of was significantly larger. And very difficult to identify. I believe it to be the Long Billed Thrasher. Although the bill isn’t quite as long as what the book shows. The coloring isn’t quite right either. I’ve attempting to identify it multiple times, it just doesn’t quite match anything. I think it’s a thrasher because of the yellow eye and the beak.

I don’t think it’s a mocking bird, as that’s our next subject.

Canon 7D w/Tamron 150-600mm @600 - 1/80 Sec - F8.0 - ISO 400

Canon 7D w/Tamron 150-600mm @428 - 1/200 Sec - F8.0 - ISO 400

Canon 7D w/Tamron 150-600mm @309 - 1/250 Sec - F8.0 - ISO 400

Then we have a more adult Eastern Bluebird. The color on these is just magnificent.

Canon 7D w/Tamron 150-600mm @600 - 1/500 Sec - F8.0 - ISO 640

Another Eastern Song Sparrow

Canon 7D w/Tamron 150-600mm @600 - 1/160 Sec - F8.0 - ISO 320

Now these next two are ones I was already familiar with, Tree Sparrows. They were making use of the house, and as you’ll see. They had their own bathroom area designated.

Canon 7D w/Tamron 150-600mm @600 - 1/800 Sec - F8.0 - ISO 400

Canon 7D w/Tamron 150-600mm @309 - 1/2000 Sec - F8.0 - ISO 640

Too bad the sign didn’t say “no pooping.”

This next one is a great shot I think. I don’t exactly know what kind of bird, since by this point the sun was much harsher out and getting the color was harder to do with the angle. But this little guy was hopping around the branches and when he landed like this between two of them I managed to get a clear shot.

Canon 7D w/Tamron 150-600mm @600 - 1/1000 Sec - F8.0 - ISO 400

Walking around some more I spotted a pair of Rock Pigeons in a parking lot by a truck.

Canon 7D w/Tamron 150-600mm @350 - 1/200 Sec - F8.0 - ISO 400

And I saw a Robin out there as well before I decided I was hungry and it was time to go. But there was one last bird that I spotted as I walked to the car.

Canon 7D w/Tamron 150-600mm @600 - 1/400 Sec - F8.0 - ISO 400

Canon 7D w/Tamron 150-600mm @450 - 1/640 Sec - F8.0 - ISO 160

The European Starling. The coloring on this was like nothing I’d seen before. Very gloss and flashy. It was on it’s own at the very tops of trees making a call that was different enough to stand out to my untrained ear. It was far enough away that I did have to crop the photo a bit, but luckily close enough to get some of those details. I am excited to see another someday and that the next picture would turn out even better.

Back to back - 6/29/19

I was still hunting for new places to go, spreading out further and further. Which is how we wound up going through Friday traffic rush hour up towards a greenway by the Mall of GA. Not my smartest move on the timing. But the end result was a lot of fun, a nice peaceful walk on a greenway without too many people.

The pictures I had seen online showed a water fall, well sort of.

Turns out it was a retaining wall where the water poured off the wall in a single sheet. That’s what it did when there had been heavy rain recently. On this day that wasn’t quite the case. I still got some cool shots of where the water was falling. Got to play around with long exposure again. And go on a nice nature walk with the girlfriend.

We found the “waterfall” and went down to it. There was kind of a trail you could walk/jump your way down. And I started climbing on the rocks to try different angles of the flowing water.

Canon 5D Mark II w/28-135mm @28 - 1/20 Sec - F16 - ISO 400

Canon 5D Mark II w/28-135mm @30 - 0.8 Sec - F22 - ISO 100

Canon 5D Mark II w/28-135mm @30 - 2.5 Sec - F22 - ISO 100

The last one I like a lot. There was an open section of the wall for the pond to drain off and it created an actual waterfall that looks pretty cool with a long exposure.

The other thing I got a shot of was when we were heading back to the car.

Canon 7D w/Tamron 150-600mm @600 - 1/500 Sec - F6.3 - ISO 3200

After seeing this I would learn about how Northern Mockingbirds flash their wings to attract a mate.

Besides that one bird that was the only wildlife I took a picture of on the trail. Which isn’t too surprising as I came to find out. The trail did go directly underneath a major highway. Lots of traffic.

So even though we were out somewhat late that Friday night, I woke up early and went back out the following morning. I believe this was another attempt to find a spot with access to Lake Lanier without having to pay for parking. Which was not successful. I drove from park to park after that until I found something, somewhere. I honestly don’t think I could find it again if I had to. I would just pull up parks on google and go from one to the next trying to find one with less baseball fields and playgrounds, and more nature.

Eventually I did find a very nice place, wish I could remember where it was. It had huge open fields, and a walking trail that went pretty far back into the woods.

I started out at a wooden platform watching the birds come from the treeline to down in the grass. They were too far for me to get any good images but it was good practice tracking birds in flight. However as the morning went on more people started showing up for picnics and whatnot. So I went further down into the woods where I came upon the trail. Which actually resulted in a lot more wildlife, as it was a few miles and no one was walking back through that.

Canon 7D w/Tamron 150-600mm @600 - 1/800 Sec - F6.3 - ISO 2500

I had never seen a bird colored like this before, spots on the belly. I was very excited to get home and research it to find out what I had spotted.

Turns out it was just a juvenile Robin, they lose the spots as they grow and get more feathers.

Canon 7D w/Tamron 150-600mm @600 - 1/800 Sec - F6.3 - ISO 2000

Canon 7D w/Tamron 150-600mm @600 - 1/1000 Sec - F6.3 - ISO 2500

I also finally got a shot of what I expected to see earlier on, the state bird. I assumed the most common in the state, but it was a few months before I had seen one. The Brown Thrasher.

Besides that little bird adventure the rest of the walk was fairly peaceful. I turned the corner in the trail and came across a deer, which I managed to get the camera ready in time for a butt shot.

Canon 7D w/Tamron 150-600mm @600 - 1/800 Sec - F6.3 - ISO 2500

And then the trail eventually opened up to another large open field, where I sat in the shade for a bit. Because by that point it was getting hot out. Thankfully I usually bring a water bottle in my bag. Even though I push them, I know my limits. But in the wide open space I did manage to see, possibly a vulture riding the thermals up above. I couldn’t get a good clear shot, surprise shooting directly up towards the biggest light source doesn’t equal good photos.

Still, great day. Good nature. Gotta see if I can comb back through my google history and find this place again.

Canon 7D w/Tamron 150-600mm @600 - 1/800 Sec - F6.3 - ISO 160

Another body purchase - 6/25 and 6/27/19

I wanted more.

More reach when it came to shooting wildlife. I had gotten a bigger lens, the teleconverter that didn’t exactly do what I wanted. It was time for another body, and this time I wanted the crop factor. I had the full frame covered already with the 5D.

I had been looking into the 7D for a while, and what I really wanted was the mark II. But that was twice as expensive. It was a balancing act between what I could afford to spend on this hobby and what I knew one day I would be upgrading to anyway. But on the 21st of June I got enough of the “It’s my birthday and fuck it it’s just money” vibes.

So an order was placed on Amazon, (where I’ve bought all my used gear, talked about in previous posts) for one Canon 7D for $270.

I also picked up two 32GB flash cards, one for the 7D and one for the 5D. And one last thing to tie it up with a ribbon was a clip from Peak Design.

I do like this clip, although it probably wasn’t designed for what I was using it for. A few days later I purchased a battery grip for the 7D, after it arrived and I found out the one for the 5D Mark II wouldn’t fit.

So now my carrying capacity included the 7D with a grip and the Tamron 150-600. Which I wore on my hip by having the Peak Design clip attached to a tactical belt I’ve had since I was a kid and got it with a vest I played airsoft in.

I would also still carry the 5D and other lenses in a bag so I went out with almost everything. But on the night of the 24th, the weather was less than ideal. It was cool to sit in a parking lot while it started to storm and watch it roll in.

Canon 5D Mark II w/28-135mm @28 - 1/500 Sec - F3.5 - ISO 400

The following night was better weather wise. I packed up and headed to a local park, where the first thing I would come across was a butterfly.

Canon 7D w/Tamron 150-600mm @552 - 1/800 Sec - F6.3 - ISO 3200

Canon 7D w/Tamron 150-600mm @600 - 1/640 Sec - F6.3 - ISO 3200

I also wanted to play around with the 50mm I rarely used. Even though it had the largest aperture.

Canon 5D Mark II w/Yongnuo 50mm (very cropped) - 1/100 Sec - F1.8 - ISO 100

After that I walked around the park for a few hours taking pictures of this or that. I did see a hawk come in onto a nearby tree branch at one point. However at that point I was wandering through the trail in the woods, so not a lot of light. And the sun was behind the hawk at this point.

Canon 7D w/Tamron 150-600mm @600 - 1/100 Sec - F6.3 - ISO 3200

A lot of the images were beyond blurry, I honestly don’t remember if I was shooting handheld or not. I do know I would bring my tripod, set up the camera on it and then just extend the legs and walk around with it more or less like a monopod. So it’s possible that’s what helped me get this one clear shot. Since I was shooting well below the shutter/length - 1/1 recommendation. And keep in mind it would be a while before I found out about that and included the crop factor of the new body.

The only other thing I saw that night was a group of deer, one grown and two young. Slowly making their way through the woods. They came fairly close to me, within 20 feet or so. Very used to seeing people in the park. But by that point the sun had basically set and none of the images I took came out at all.

Two nights later I would go out again, to a different park this time. I hadn’t been to this park before, so I was immersed in the landscape of the place. And the water spouts they had going.

Canon 5D Mark II w/28-135mm @28 - 1/3200 Sec - F5 - ISO 400

Shooting them side by side is one thing. But what if I wanted them both in focus while facing the spouts from the front?

One way would be to close the f stop as much as it would go. But if you do that, you’ll either get a very dark photo with a fast shutter speed like I wanted to freeze the water. Or you have to lower said shutter speed and you don’t get those clearly defined water droplets. So you set the camera up on the tripod and you take a bunch of pictures without moving it. Changing the focus point from the front fountain to the back fountain. Then merge them together.

The last image I’ll show you is one towards the end of the day, as the sun was setting and I was looking at the water flowing over some rocks. I wanted to play around with longer exposure as I had done previously with waterfalls.

Canon 5D Mark II w/28-135mm @60 - 1.3 Sec - F16 - ISO 100

Long exposure. Big F stop number to get as much in focus and not let too much light in while the sensor is hanging out during that long exposure. Low ISO because again, light isn’t an issue.

I’ll also mention that this trip and shortly after this picture is where I learned about making sure that where you set up the tripod is secure. I was walking around a little pond that had probably hundreds of seemly invisible frogs up on the shore. As you get close they all would jump in the water. But I could never actually see them, they must have been the same color as the dirt.

This would go on for a few minutes as I made my way around the pond. Until I heard the big splash. The frogs I had barely seen, more visible once they got in the water, were tiny. This sound was big, like real big. I quickly grabbed the long lens and 7D and just kind of left the 5D and tripod where I could quickly set it up. But I wasn’t checking to make sure it was secure, I really should have laid it down.

Instead it fell, off the grass onto the gravel walking trail. Thankfully it wasn’t lens first, it twisted when it fell and landed on its side. I did have the remote trigger still set up, so it crushed the plug. I remember this because looking at my Amazon order history, right after I got the new camera I also purchased a replacement cable for the remote trigger.

I also never saw whatever made the big splash.