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Swans truly are the most majestic of waterfowl.
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Nov 7, 2011 22:54
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 Birdie by hookshot88, on Flickr There's nothing really good about the composition or anything of this shot, I just find it funny:  Squack! by hookshot88, on Flickr
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Nov 11, 2011 19:21
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HookShot posted:
This is fantastic. I love how the detail in the railing mirrors the pattern of feather tips on the starling. I keep blocking out the left edge of the picture- not sure if I would like this better as a square crop or not, to get rid of the dark archway in the top left corner.
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Nov 11, 2011 20:03
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BetterLekNextTime posted:This is fantastic. I love how the detail in the railing mirrors the pattern of feather tips on the starling. I keep blocking out the left edge of the picture- not sure if I would like this better as a square crop or not, to get rid of the dark archway in the top left corner. Thanks  You're right, I think I might try a square crop and see how it goes getting rid of that archway. I didn't notice it before but now I can't stop looking at it!
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Nov 11, 2011 22:11
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I'm kind of torn- my eye moves really strongly in a triangle from the bird's face, left to the archway, down to the birds feet along the railing, and back up the face. Really dynamic, but at the same time, I don't spend enough time on the bird, and too much time on the background which maybe shouldn't be competing as much. Here's my attempt to salvage a bad pic of a little bird on a gloomy day through a dirty window... 
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Nov 12, 2011 00:07
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Cross-posting from the Snapshot-a-Day thread, have this black vulture: IMG_2491 by ctcyr, on Flickr
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Nov 13, 2011 05:37
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 PA237619 by HelloWorldEp1, on Flickr  PA237432 by HelloWorldEp1, on Flickr  PA237552 by HelloWorldEp1, on Flickr  PA237530 by HelloWorldEp1, on Flickr  P9307141 by HelloWorldEp1, on Flickr
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Nov 13, 2011 14:36
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Common Gallinule eating a live dragonfly it just caught. Taking a bath. I think this is a male blue winged teal.  A very shy American Kestrel. This is the first time I have ever seen one. He/She hardly let me approach before they flew off.  A crow eating what appears to be chicken left over from a picnic.  Another crow in flight. 
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Nov 13, 2011 23:31
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Eagles: not nearly as majestic when wet. Also, it was really, really cold and raining and hard to take photos.  Wet Eagle by hookshot88, on Flickr  Wet Baby Eagle by hookshot88, on Flickr  Baby Eagle Flying by hookshot88, on Flickr  Eagle by hookshot88, on Flickr
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Nov 14, 2011 01:37
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I did slightly better at sunset when it wasn't raining and freezing out, but I still wish I had a 70-200 for sharper photos. Baby Eagle by hookshot88, on Flickr  Baby Eagle by hookshot88, on Flickr
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Nov 18, 2011 22:08
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A little baby waxeye in the backyard
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Nov 19, 2011 00:17
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Some backyard birds on a mostly dreary weekend...  
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Nov 21, 2011 03:40
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I present to you guys, the Kea, one of New Zealand's native mountain parrots. They like people, cars, and tearing the rubber from car window wipers and window frames for chewing on. Kea2 by trambopaline, on Flickr  Kea3 by trambopaline, on Flickr They are pretty tame birds.  Kea1 by trambopaline, on Flickr
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Nov 27, 2011 07:06
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If any of you live in the northern states you may want to keep an eye out for Snowy Owls. They live in the arctic tundra most of the year, but get pushed down south during the winter. This year has the makings of a banner year and a lot of owls are making their way farther south than usual. They aren't used to tree'd climates so they're most comfortable sitting on flat objects like ground or the tops of flat buildings during the day which makes photographing them easier than most owls, assuming you can get close. There have been several in the Seattle area already, I even heard reports of one hunting seagulls on the top of a local Target store this evening. I was able to view four different ones in a wetlands north of Seattle yesterday. They were over a quarter mile away so I don't have any good photos, but it was awesome just to see them through binoculars and other people's spotting scopes. There are some efforts to catalog sitings, imprecisely, here and here. If you can figure out where your local bird watching community posts reports (mine is an archaic mailing mailing list) you might be able to get more recent reports.
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Nov 28, 2011 06:09
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Being the southern edge of the Arctic Tundra, we routinely get Snowy Owls around here (Central Saskatchewan). As you said, they tend to avoid trees. They seem to like the tops of poles, which makes them incredibly easy to find - wooden powerline poles line most secondary highways in this province, and the roads are straight and flat. On a winter day with nice clear blue skies (pretty common) you can just stop at the intersection of two highways and look down the looooong lines of powerline poles, looking for white things on top. Getting a good photo, on the other hand, is a bit trickier - they seem to think any car that stops and a person gets out means somebody with a gun is going to shoot at them; this is an attitude that probably isn't entirely in error, unfortunately.  Edit: I put up a couple of shots of one that apparently didn't hear about human asstards from last winter, on page 14 of this thread. I spotted him from a couple of km away, they really stand out when in full winter plumage. ExecuDork fucked around with this message at 06:32 on Nov 28, 2011 |
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Nov 28, 2011 06:27
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Many lists are run by local Audubon societies, so that is one place to look. You can also try looking around birdingonthe.net for list archives or rare bird alerts. One more place is eBird- a citizen science site. Here's a map of recent sightings. It doesn't look as complete as the links in BoE's post.
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Nov 28, 2011 07:26
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ExecuDork posted:Getting a good photo, on the other hand, is a bit trickier - they seem to think any car that stops and a person gets out means somebody with a gun is going to shoot at them
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Nov 28, 2011 17:38
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InternetJunky posted:I wish this was still true, but the unfortunate fact is that a lot of photographers have been baiting the snowys now with mice bought from a pet store in an effort to capture that iconic image of a snowy owl about to snatch its lunch from the snow. They are starting to see cars and humans as a gravy train and I know of at least one that was killed by a car last year probably as a result (and the discussion that followed regarding the ethics of what the photographers were doing was pretty heated as there's a good number of people who don't see anything wrong with it). That's interesting and a bit sad, although I can understand why people would be motivated to try for a photo of a Snowy Owl hunting. I've actually been really tempted to try a similar thing with Bald Eagles using perch as bait.
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Nov 29, 2011 21:09
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Nov 30, 2011 08:54
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Gulls and Pelicans in California. Partially crossposted from SAD. Pelican Pair by Concerned Reader, on Flickr  Pelican by Concerned Reader, on Flickr  Preening by Concerned Reader, on Flickr  A Gull Swoops In by Concerned Reader, on Flickr  Pelican Flight by Concerned Reader, on Flickr Also a crow:  Crow by Concerned Reader, on Flickr
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Nov 30, 2011 21:57
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Dec 4, 2011 01:54
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Shot this on the Canary Islands two weeks ago  Untitled on Flickr
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Dec 4, 2011 15:12
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Cormorant caught a fish! Cormorant playing with his food by Graniteman, on Flickr Noooooo!  Cormorant playing with his food by Graniteman, on Flickr Mallard that I'm pretty happy with  Mallard in flight by Graniteman, on Flickr Lucky shot with these two in matching poses, plus the fish for interest.  20111126-IMG_6812.jpg by Graniteman, on Flickr Graniteman fucked around with this message at 07:39 on Dec 5, 2011 |
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Dec 5, 2011 07:36
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Dec 5, 2011 07:49
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Crossposting from SAD Duck by hookshot88, on Flickr  Ducks by hookshot88, on Flickr  Duck by hookshot88, on Flickr  Ducks by hookshot88, on Flickr  Ducks by hookshot88, on Flickr  Duck by hookshot88, on Flickr HookShot fucked around with this message at 20:35 on Dec 7, 2011 |
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Dec 7, 2011 20:32
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HookShot posted:Crossposting from SAD quote:
I'd imagine it is tough to take a bad photo of alert hooded mergs, but this is really nice. I never paid much attention to the white streaks on the back, but they really come out with the pattern in the water. quote:
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Dec 7, 2011 21:02
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Thanks for the kind words!
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Dec 7, 2011 23:26
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Winter has put a damper on any chance I have of capturing much more than backyard birds so I've gone through and tried to salvage some old shots. 
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Dec 8, 2011 04:02
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InternetJunky posted:Winter has put a damper on any chance I have of capturing much more than backyard birds so I've gone through and tried to salvage some old shots. goddamn....
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Dec 8, 2011 05:16
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InternetJunky posted:Winter has put a damper on any chance I have of capturing much more than backyard birds so I've gone through and tried to salvage some old shots. Awesome shot, man! I saw your other shot in the PP thread, looks great as well! They have me excited as I'm in Alabama for the winter and apparently not too far from my house is a state park with quite a few eagles that show up through late dec til feb. Gotta try and get out there when they open up that area and see what I can get.
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Dec 8, 2011 05:42
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InternetJunky posted:Winter has put a damper on any chance I have of capturing much more than backyard birds so I've gone through and tried to salvage some old shots. This rules. Another crosspost from SAD.  Peacock by hookshot88, on Flickr  Peacock by hookshot88, on Flickr  Peacocks by hookshot88, on Flickr  Peacock by hookshot88, on Flickr  Peacock by hookshot88, on Flickr  Peacock by hookshot88, on Flickr
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Dec 8, 2011 20:09
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Those are fantastic, HookShot! I really like 2, 3 and 6. Such vibrant colors. Peacocks are so cool.
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Dec 8, 2011 22:01
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Thanks, peacocks are really awesome. I got so super excited when I spotted them wandering in the park. Someone was feeding them some bread at one point and they really have a go at the seagulls who try and take their food, it's pretty awesome to see.
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Dec 9, 2011 00:04
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The snowy owls show up as far south as Kansas - there have been some sightings here within the last few weeks. http://ksbirds.org/gallery/SnowyOwl_2011.htm
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Dec 12, 2011 02:50
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Ugh, was a passenger in a car going down a country road and out of the corner of my eye I saw a gorgeous (and quite huge) red-tailed hawk just sitting on a sign next to the road. We turned around but I only had my 50mm lens so we creeped up slowly and at the last second he got spooked and took off. Here's a heavily cropped departing shot.  What could have been..
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Dec 14, 2011 06:50
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 Pheasants by trambopaline, on Flickr Pheasants in a metropolitan city running about wild? Only in New Zealand.
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Dec 14, 2011 07:27
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Trambopaline posted:
No weirder than this (nice pic by the way- pheasants are pretty gorgeous birds).  Spent all weekend birding for some Audubon Christmas Bird Counts. Hauled my camera around but didn't get much chance to get any photos, and of those, not many good photos. These were some of the better ones...    
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Dec 19, 2011 22:19
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PREYING MANTITS posted:
But I never see them through my viewfinder, they gently caress right off as soon as I lift the camera.
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Dec 20, 2011 04:48
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Someone really should change the thread title to Shooting Birds Because They're Assholes Because really, birds are assholes.
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Dec 20, 2011 04:58
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Either that or "Welcome to Crop-land"
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Dec 20, 2011 06:36
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