Birds 2015

[the_hefay]

Thanks Sury and JB. Trust me, I know I'm not the observer. Most of the time I don't see them until they move first. I know they are there, but I've never snuck up on one. Once after watching the owls, I went back into the house and walked over to a window facing them. By the time I located one of the owls, he was already staring at me.

[the_hefay]

I finally found the nest. I may have been wrong about these being adolescents. If so the two owls I've been watching are most likely the adults with their young still in the nest. That seems to be closer to the timeline I'm used to seeing around here. The exciting thing is that from the other side of the tree, I should be able to get some clear shots of the owlets, if there are any, once they are big enough to venture from the nest. This was taken with the Panasonic FZ200 at full zoom hand held, so it's not the sharpest shot. But it's definitely better than no shot.

[ValeryD]

nice shot!

[sury]

Love the composition, Jeff.

Sury

[the_hefay]

Thanks Valery and Sury. I was holding flipped down the LCD and was holding the camera as high as I could to get as much of the owl's head as possible. Steady shot is a pretty neat technology.

[Birma]

Lovely picture, Jeff. I like how you have the owl peeping out from its nest. All of your pictures show how well camouflaged the owl is in the tree.

[the_hefay]

Thanks Andy. Definitely hard to see them sometimes.

[Ossie]

A couple of images taken in the New Forest National Park, in Hampshire earlier this week

A77 + Sigma 50-500. Both images hand held at around 450mm. PP in LR5 and PSE13.

NUTHATCH.jpg

(374.36 KiB) Not downloaded yet

COAL TIT.jpg

(453.88 KiB) Not downloaded yet

Ossie

[sury]

I love the angle of the bird in the first one. Nice details on the second one.

Sury

[sury]

From a recent day trip to Santa Cruz, California.

[Birma]

Coo!

Love the detail in the bird's head, and that background is fabulous!

[ValeryD]

It was a rainy day.

Owl 3 by Valery_RW, on Flickr

[RareTA]

Just got home from South Dakota. This is the only Bald Eagle photo I have done. It was taken with my 400mm Tamron lens from a long way away. We came across some Plains Bison and even Texas longhorn cattle.

More to come,

[aster]

Hi Sury,

Looks like one of the big pigeons that frequently visits the antenna close to my room window here. : ) Only my guest doesn't quite perch as nicely, a busy character it is.
Nice details and the deep green blurry background works well in bringing the bird's detail out.

Thanks for sharing.


Hi Valery,

Good to see one of the many moods of the owls' as rain prevails. Neat expression on the face.

Thanks for sharing.


Nice try with the eagle, RareTA.

Apparently it was difficult to synchronize the camera and the bird's flight. There's a little bit of either camera shake or some other motion problem.

Good luck with your next bird-in-flight shots. That lens probably is difficult to focus with from such a distance.

Thanks for sharing,

Yidiz

[RareTA]

Thank you. You are right though. It was very windy out there and I had to shoot across the lake at full zoom. Honestly I'm surprised any of the photos came out at all as I had my wife crouched down holding onto the tripod and I had one hand on the Gimlal head and one hand on the remote. We must have looked pretty silly.