Birds 2015

[the_hefay]

Only about 3 days old I think. I've been keeping an eye on this nest, which is easy to do seeing that it's in my yard, and I was just able to see this little guy 2 days ago. This picture was taken today using the Tamron 60-300 and as you can see, the eyes aren't even open yet. Both the parents are still hanging around and flying in and out the nest regularly.

[the_hefay]

Here's a screen shot from some video. One of the parents landed in the nest while I was videoing.

[Birma]

A marvellous glimpse at nature Well done The_Hefay!

[sury]

Nice shots, Jeff. One thing you may want to try is stacking your video frames using some (free) astro stacking software for (possibly) better images. Registax, autostakert are a couple that come to mind.

Sury

[ValeryD]

Very good shots Jeff!

[the_hefay]

Thanks all.

Sury, I'm not sure how the stacking would work. Every frame was different because the adult was moving quite a bit and even the owlet was slowly turning toward the parent. The adult was moving enough that there were only 4 or 5 frames in which its head was in the frame and not blurry.

[Pitter]

From the look of the adult I wouldn't want tp try to pet the chick. Nice series.

[aster]

Hi Jeff;

You must have shot a good documentary of the owl family on video. The owlet looks very vulnerable with that fluffy plumage, barely has much to keep warm against the elements ...

Thanks for sharing,

Yildiz

[the_hefay]

The adults are never too far away. Usually I can see both of them somewhere in the yard even if there is no adult at the nest. I wish I had a picture of what I and my setup looked like. I had my tripod on top of my pickup cab. It was as extended as possible without the legs being spread to wide for the roof. I had to carefully stand on the edge of the cab to properly focus the lens. Fortunately I'm not that heavy of a person. Then I stepped down into the box and used a wireless remote for shutter actuation. When one of the adults started getting restless, I started the movie and ducked way down in the box and didn't move. When the adult was convinced the threat had passed, it flew into the nest to check on the owlet. At that point, I wished I had a remote control tripod to change the angle and remote control zoom to zoom out a little and get some more action of the adult. As it was, I'm pretty pleased with my results. And there's plenty of time to figure out some different setups for other video and photos.

[sury]

Nice shots, Jeff. One thing you may want to try is stacking your video frames using some (free) astro stacking software for (possibly) better images. Registax, autostakert are a couple that come to mind.

Sury

I stand corrected. I assumed you may have a bunch of video frames that could be stacked. Never mind.

Sury

[Pitter]

By the way is that a Great Horned Owl? Be sure and keep the Crows away! They are owlettes' worst enemy.

[Pitter]

Andean Motmot this morning.

[sury]

Beautiful creature, Pitter.

Sury

[the_hefay]

By the way is that a Great Horned Owl? Be sure and keep the Crows away! They are owlettes' worst enemy.

Yes it's a Great Horned Owl. We don't have many crows around here, but we do have ravens and I've seen them rob nests before.

Nice picture of the Motmot.

[RareTA]

Andean Motmot this morning.

Wow what a wonderful photo! GREAT Job.