Ed Forum birdwatching 2008

bruto said:
I got some pictures back today. Not great wildlife shots, but the Great Egret is a definite. All white bird, black legs, no crest, right size, right place.
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. . . and Cornell have video of an Ivory-biled Woodpecker . . . . :p

(sorry, couldn't help myself, coming down after joining in in one of the b*gf**t threads)
 
I just saw your link in another thread, Kotatsu. Birdwatching is a (decidedly amateur) hobby here in my home!

A few birds we've seen recently (sorry, no Latin names, I'd need my birdbook for that, and it's at home):
-Eastern Bluebird (way cool, I've only seen one other and that was actually back in upstate NY)
- Scissortailed Flycatcher (THE most awesome bird ever)
- Turkey Buzzards - doing their job of cleaning up roadkill
- Great-tailed Grackles - their mating rituals are noisy and fun to watch!
- seagulls
- a flock of Great Cormorants (we live near a huge lake, so we see a lot of gulls and other diving birds)
- black-capped Chickadee
- blue jays
-Crows

These were all seen within the last week or so (late part of February 2008)
 
EHocking said:
. . . and Cornell have video of an Ivory-biled Woodpecker . . . . :p

(sorry, couldn't help myself, coming down after joining in in one of the b*gf**t threads)
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and my pictures are about as good as those, I surmise. a 42-75 mm Yashica zoom falls a wee bit short of National Geographic quality, but here's a crop of a nasty low-res scan of a great egret. No Creekfreak enhancements needed to show that it's at least an avian creature of sort of egret-esque appearance. I tired sneaking up closer to the bird, but he wisely flew away. I have a picture of him flying away, too, but it doesn't add much information. egret.jpg
 
bruto said:
and my pictures are about as good as those, I surmise. a 42-75 mm Yashica zoom falls a wee bit short of National Geographic quality, but here's a crop of a nasty low-res scan of a great egret. No Creekfreak enhancements needed to show that it's at least an avian creature of sort of egret-esque appearance. I tired sneaking up closer to the bird, but he wisely flew away. I have a picture of him flying away, too, but it doesn't add much information. View attachment 10278
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Sometimes my 100-300mm zoom falls short for bird photography, even WITH the 2x teleconverter:jaw-dropp.
That's the challenge of it, I guess.

I was wondering if anyone might be interested in a JREF Birdwatching Photo Gallery at the proposed web site, to complement our lists?
Now there's a challenge.

Forum member photos of the species that we list.
I'm not thinking that a photo is necessary to contribute to the list, but rather, members attempting to shoot photos of the species that we do list. Oh - and the photo ALSO has to have been taken in 2008. No going back through your old photos (damn, that's some of my Moroccan species shot...)

Hmmm. May be I can take that email traffic on (ie DON'T post to this thread)

Anyone interested?
 
[waves hand enthusiastically]

I've been trying to photograph my sightings since I joined the thread. The birds are doing their bit quite nicely, for the most part, and posing for me often, but I'm the world's crappiest photographer unfortunately. Hopefully I'll pick up some tips on that too, as the thread progresses :)

Anyway, yesterday's sighting was a biggie, in terms of physical size at least, if not in terms of spectacularness (sorry, I forgot the real word).

North Central Victoria, Australia

Emu Dromaius novaehollandiae

And it's "ee-myu" not "ee-moo" :)


Cheers,

Dave
 
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I took this picture with a very basic digital camera. I'm no photographer, but I'm inspired to invest in a decent SLR.

I'm just glad I got to capture this incredible encounter with a juvenile, male Red Shouldered Hawk. They're very common here and I'm often startled by one calmly sitting on the fence, watching me. They're not easily startled, and he let me stick the camera right in his face and click away.

Eyas2-1.jpg
 
Forum bird List Photo Gallery

RedIbis said:
I took this picture with a very basic digital camera. I'm no photographer, but I'm inspired to invest in a decent SLR.

I'm just glad I got to capture this incredible encounter with a juvenile, male Red Shouldered Hawk. They're very common here and I'm often startled by one calmly sitting on the fence, watching me. They're not easily startled, and he let me stick the camera right in his face and click away.

http://i86.photobucket.com/albums/k90/jrubins101/Eyas2-1.jpg
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Thanks for the shot, just the sort of thing I was thinking about.

I thought about a couple of options for the photo gallery and have decided that:
  1. All photos submitted to me by email will be posted to the gallery.
    (although, if we have 50 shots of a Mallard, please don't post any more! In this case variety rather than volume is the name of the game)
  2. No "selection" process or judging of "quality" will be done by me.
    This is not a competition - those without large lensed SLRs or digiscopes are not at a disadvantage.
    I leave it to the Forum members to send their best or favourite shots.
  3. DO NOT post them to this thread.
    I'm not having a go at anyone who has (including me), just want to forestall this thread being inundated with photos.
  4. PM me for an email address to send photos to
  5. Photos must have been taken BY the FORUM MEMBER
  6. Photos must have been taken IN 2008.
  7. Photos may be cropped and colour/contrast etc enhanced.
    I leave it to members honesty in not adding to the content using PhotoShop or similar.
  8. Format: 800 x 600 pixels. JPEG. 96dpi max
    (75% save option on some editors)
I've got a White Stork from Morocco to start with and am just trying to decide on a web page format. RedIbis, Akhenaten, bruto, I'd like to try to get a start on the webpage over the weekend, so if you have any contributions, PM me for the email addy.
 
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RedIbis said:
I'm just glad I got to capture this incredible encounter with a juvenile, male Red Shouldered Hawk. They're very common here and I'm often startled by one calmly sitting on the fence, watching me. They're not easily startled, and he let me stick the camera right in his face and click away.
Click to expand...

They're so handsome, they're probably accustomed to paparazzi.
 
EHocking said:
Thanks for the shot, just the sort of thing I was thinking about.

I thought about a couple of options for the photo gallery and have decided that:
  1. All photos submitted to me by email will be posted to the gallery.
    (although, if we have 50 shots of a Mallard, please don't post any more! In this case variety rather than volume is the name of the game)
  2. No "selection" process or judging of "quality" will be done by me.
    This is not a competition - those without large lensed SLRs or digiscopes are not at a disadvantage.
    I leave it to the Forum members to send their best or favourite shots.
  3. DO NOT post them to this thread.
    I'm not having a go at anyone who has (including me), just want to forestall this thread being inundated with photos.
  4. PM me for an email address to send photos to
  5. Photos must have been taken BY the FORUM MEMBER
  6. Photos must have been taken IN 2008.
  7. Photos may be cropped and colour/contrast etc enhanced.
    I leave it to members honesty in not adding to the content using PhotoShop or similar.
  8. Format: 800 x 600 pixels. JPEG. 96dpi max
    (75% save option on some editors)
I've got a White Stork from Morocco to start with and am just trying to decide on a web page format. RedIbis, Akhenaten, bruto, I'd like to try to get a start on the webpage over the weekend, so if you have any contributions, PM me for the email addy.
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Sounds great. I'll contact you for the email. I can literally walk across the street to a wetlands mitigation area and have at least five different species of wading birds. I will only send you new or very recent pics. Thanks for the website set up.
 
Nursefoxfire said:
I just saw your link in another thread, Kotatsu. Birdwatching is a (decidedly amateur) hobby here in my home!

A few birds we've seen recently (sorry, no Latin names, I'd need my birdbook for that, and it's at home):
-Eastern Bluebird (way cool, I've only seen one other and that was actually back in upstate NY)
- Scissortailed Flycatcher (THE most awesome bird ever)
- Turkey Buzzards - doing their job of cleaning up roadkill
- Great-tailed Grackles - their mating rituals are noisy and fun to watch!
- seagulls
- a flock of Great Cormorants (we live near a huge lake, so we see a lot of gulls and other diving birds)
- black-capped Chickadee
- blue jays
-Crows

These were all seen within the last week or so (late part of February 2008)
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Sorry, this was all in Dallas, TX.
 
One more to add. I am still trying to identify a few others (some kind of cuckoo, a dove, and a comorant), but not having much luck so far. Those were the only ones I got a good look at, so could note identifying features.

Black-tailed Gull - Larus crassirostris
 
Not a new one on the list, but a few minutes ago a bald eagle was sitting perched on a tree in my back field. Too far away for a really good photograph, but I took a crack at it anyway, even though I had to shoot through glass. It's about 20 degrees F. outside, and we had an ice storm last night. Not fit out there for man or beast. Unfortunately (for the eagle and the observers at least) no luckless little critters scampered by while the eagle was there, and he flew off down the valley, perhaps hoping for a fish. We sometimes see an eagle, perhaps that one, perched on a tree down the road, where the local little river floods.

I'm shooting film, so no results yet. If it's recognizable enough, I'll show it off. I know it's nothing new, but it's hard not to get excited by a bald eagle.
 
bruto said:
shooting film, so no results yet. If it's recognizable enough, I'll show it off. I know it's nothing new, but it's hard not to get excited by a bald eagle.
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Please feel free to share when you have something.

I've updated the web pages (link in my signature) and added a gallery page. I've added a few common birds hastily shot this evening, but they're all looking a little lonely at the moment.

One more species to add to the list:

I have to admit I thought it was too early for Nightingale, but after scanning all my UK books to convince myself I wasn't mistaken, I also checked for www sightings. Apparently March sightings, though not common, have occurred in the UK, so I'm now very confident in adding to the list.
I also spent about 20 minutes circling the tree eliminating all the other possibilities (Robin, Blackbird, Song and Mistle Thrushes), and will be going back tomorrow night, 'cos I haven't seen that many in the UK.

Nightingale Luscinia megarhynchos, London UK today.
 
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