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neckbeard posted:Awesome pics all around, those birds are just so sleek looking. Any story behind the blood on the tail feathers?
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Aug 18, 2013 02:28
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Awwww  Fantastic gannet shots. It's a shame you couldn't get close to the puffins, but I love seeing them anyway. The baby kites at Arcata Marsh have fledged, and are out learning how to hunt for voles (and steal voles from each other). Their favorite hunting grounds happened to be mostly between my setup and the setting sun today, but I'll be back to get more with better light if the good weather holds.   A huge tussle broke out between a harrier and a juvenile kite that had just caught a vole. I'm rendering the footage of it out now, but it mostly took place directly in front of the sun so most of it is unusable for any serious project due to blowouts and a blinded, confused cameraman. 
Moon Potato fucked around with this message at 05:54 on Aug 18, 2013 |
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Aug 18, 2013 05:36
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Those Gannet photos are great. I love the pattern on their face. Well I'm not much of a photographer so I don't have a lot to add as far as sharing stunning awesome photos, but I am a bird-nerd and am currently researching grassland songbirds for my Master's thesis. I also like to sneak in a little bit of birding on the side. Here's some photos I took in the last couple of months (Southeast KS, USA) Olive-sided Flycatcher. I spotted this bird today and it turns out to be a new record for the county.  Common Poorwill. This is a female on eggs. Common Poorwills are not uncommon for my area, but this is the first time one has been documented breeding in the county. So, I got two new bird records this year!  A related fellow - Common Nighthawk. They're so odd looking.  And they let you get quite close.  Summer Tanager  Juvenile Loggerhead Shrike, my favorite bird.  My study bird - Dickcissel  They're usually pretty skittish but these are dumb juveniles   Here's my favorite pic from this summer. Incubating Dickcissel female. 
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Aug 19, 2013 04:43
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Here's the harrier-kite battle. They kept flying in front of the sun and blinding me, so the camerawork is kind of poo poo, but hopefully I'll be able to capture another fight from a different angle and use the portions of this that were in focus and framed well. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xdq64DhhMF4
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Aug 19, 2013 06:53
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I didn't get really close to puffins, but I did get some pretty good action shots showing the tough life they have: Processing these types of shots is a pain in the rear end though so I'm just posting this one for now. razz posted:but I am a bird-nerd and am currently researching grassland songbirds for my Master's thesis quote:A related fellow - Common Nighthawk. They're so odd looking. Moon Potato posted:Here's the harrier-kite battle. They kept flying in front of the sun and blinding me, so the camerawork is kind of poo poo, but hopefully I'll be able to capture another fight from a different angle and use the portions of this that were in focus and framed well.
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Aug 19, 2013 15:56
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Got some heron shots this weekend untitled-172.jpg by MrNickOlson, on Flickr  untitled-185.jpg by MrNickOlson, on Flickr  untitled-192.jpg by MrNickOlson, on Flickr
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Aug 19, 2013 16:52
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InternetJunky posted:All great shots, but I'm jealous over this one especially. I saw my first nighthawk this year but he was quite high in the sky. I've been looking for them on the ground/trees ever since without luck. They are a unique looking bird for sure. Where are you at? They're getting ready for migration right now, and they gather in huge flocks around dusk. I've seen easily 100+ in a flock before. I have noticed them starting to gather but I think it's still a couple weeks before they really start to group up. I see them every day, usually many in a day. I can't drive a mile down a country road here without seeing one (or 4 or 5). They're really interesting - you can almost see it in that picture, but they have a pectinate toenail - basically one toenail on each foot has a comb on it. It's REALLY super weird up close. Apparently they use it to scrape bugs off their face They are also very under-studied despite being really abundant and having one of the longest migrations of any bird - some nest above the arctic circle and migrate down to central South America. quote:Wow, I'd love to hear more about what you're researching if you don't mind. Sure! I study grassland songbirds on native tallgrass prairie in the Kansas Flint Hills. It's the largest intact tallgrass prairie remaining in North America and very important for grassland-breeding birds (and other grassland species besides birds obviously). Most of Kansas is privately owned and the Flint Hills are pretty much used exclusively for raising cattle. Ranchers use fire to manage their prairies. I'm looking at the impacts that fire and grazing have on grassland bird demography - namely, how different levels of fire and grazing impact grassland songbird abundance, species richness (how many species are in a given area) and nest success. My focal species is the Dickcissel but I'm also interested in Eastern Meadowlarks, Grasshopper Sparrows, and Henslow's Sparrows. So I have 9 pastures in my study, and I do bird surveys from early May-mid July, then the rest of the summer we search for nests. We find about 200 nests per year. I am still monitoring 2 nests and when they're done, the project will be over and I'll write my thesis! Oh, and if you want to know some "duh" results - when the cows eat all the grass, there are less birds there, and also the quality of the nesting habitat decreases for a lot of species . Really what I'm doing is comparing traditional management practices (burn everything, stock with hella cattle) with a new-ish technique called patch-burn grazing: don't burn the whole pasture and leave some grass for the wildlife. It benefits wildlife AND landowners because they get kickbacks from the government to patch-burn. But, it's harder to implement so lots of landowners are hesitant to do it.So, it's basically a conservation study. Trying to figure out how we can help declining grassland bird species (they are ALL declining) while keeping the needs of ranchers/landowners in mind.
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Aug 19, 2013 17:14
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InternetJunky posted:This is just plain awesome. I had no idea a kite was so big. Really great job on this video! Thanks. This is just an outtake, though. I was set up to film egrets fishing in the other direction when all this happened, but now that I know where the choice hunting grounds of the juvenile kites are, I can set up properly for it and hopefully catch a fight in its entirety. The juveniles seem to have much longer tail/wing feathers than the adults, so they look a lot bigger than their body size merits.
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Aug 19, 2013 17:43
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Went out looking for shorebirds in Chatham, MA. Laughing Gull by EPICAC, on Flickr  Willet by EPICAC, on Flickr  Semipalmated Plover by Thomas Carlile, on Flickr
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Aug 19, 2013 18:32
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InternetJunky posted:Gannets! Awesome stuff, glad the trip was a success. You certainly had good weather for it (it's usually poo poo). For the 5 years or so I've been taking pictures, I've probably run into another photographer less than a dozen times (few birders though); this is a really great place to get out and enjoy being alone in the wilderness, as more than 5 people on a trail at any one time is a busy day. All those pics you see of 20+ people with their cameras taking shots of the same thing seems like insanity to me. I shot this from a ways off with the longest lens I had on me, a Nikon 60/2.8 macro lens, wide open. This is about 100% crop (maybe stronger) and looks great at decent sizes. Lens owns owns owns.  DSC_9437.jpg by scottch, on Flickr scottch fucked around with this message at 00:21 on Aug 20, 2013 |
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Aug 19, 2013 19:34
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Very pretty owl, there. I went back to the marsh today, but the juvenile kites were just hanging out near their nest, occasionally screeching at their parents for food. 
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Aug 20, 2013 06:26
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Some shots from the zoo in Indianapolis.      I have more, but I think six is enough for now. VendaGoat fucked around with this message at 17:09 on Aug 21, 2013 |
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Aug 21, 2013 17:03
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scottch posted:I shot this from a ways off with the longest lens I had on me, a Nikon 60/2.8 macro lens, wide open. This is about 100% crop (maybe stronger) and looks great at decent sizes. Lens owns owns owns. Very cool.
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Aug 21, 2013 17:03
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 Pelicans by g.hetzel, on Flickr  Hawk by g.hetzel, on Flickr  Yellowlegs by g.hetzel, on Flickr  Sandhill Cranes by g.hetzel, on Flickr
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Aug 22, 2013 06:32
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scottch posted:Awesome stuff, glad the trip was a success. You certainly had good weather for it (it's usually poo poo). For the 5 years or so I've been taking pictures, I've probably run into another photographer less than a dozen times (few birders though); this is a really great place to get out and enjoy being alone in the wilderness, as more than 5 people on a trail at any one time is a busy day. All those pics you see of 20+ people with their cameras taking shots of the same thing seems like insanity to me. Casu Marzu posted:
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Aug 22, 2013 19:24
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InternetJunky posted:Do you even have hawks over there? Oh yeah, the ones I see here are usually near higher cliffs, but I'm not sure there's a large number. Ospreys are common too, but growing up on the west coast it seemed like there were more birds of prey there. There's a pretty solid book on our native species, really need to get a copy.
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Aug 23, 2013 01:43
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Little wee fantail in the backyard fantail compilation by Raikyn, on Flickr
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Aug 26, 2013 07:06
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 geese by niteh, on Flickr  bird by niteh, on Flickr
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Aug 26, 2013 13:43
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A Northern Harrier did a flyover last night while I was out looking for shorebirds. EDIT: I'll just post a link to FredMiranda for a whole series of photos I took of gulls attacking puffins if anyone is interested rather than post them again here -- http://www.fredmiranda.com/forum/topic/1236442/0 Raikyn posted:Little wee fantail in the backyard Bottled Water posted:
InternetJunky fucked around with this message at 20:04 on Aug 26, 2013 |
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Aug 26, 2013 20:00
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InternetJunky posted:http://colquhoun.smugmug.com/Newfoundland/i-5FzsfrL/0/XL/AF1T0091_with_chick-XL.jpg  Also, nice harrier shot. At least in my experience, they really don't like to get close to people or stick around for photo ops, so a shot like that is not easy to get.
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Aug 26, 2013 22:54
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Moon Potato posted:
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Aug 26, 2013 23:18
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InternetJunky posted:A Northern Harrier did a flyover last night while I was out looking for shorebirds. Wow- great shots, although it makes me sad about those puffins! I was just going through some bird magazines and found an Audubon or Living Bird issue that had an article on how the puffins in southern Iceland hadn't bred successfully for about 10 years because warming ocean water brought predatory fish farther north that ate all the small fish the puffins feed to their young. They're only part-way through the cycle so they've got many more years of crappy breeding potential.
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Aug 26, 2013 23:24
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InternetJunky posted:What kind of goose is that? It's nice seeing a goose that's not a Canada Goose. I believe they're Cape Barren Geese.
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Aug 27, 2013 00:50
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ExecuDork posted:A boat would be a total waste of time - the pack ice is still land-fast (much like me, at the moment). The nearest belugas might be among the bays on the north shore of Somerset Island (about 50km away), but I think those bays are still ice-filled, too. Bears could be around, but my gun is with my boss at Alexandra Fjord, and there are lots of people who'd be pretty angry at my chunky remains were I to go out for bear regardless. The above post was one of my last uses of the internet before disappearing to the wilderness for two months; I'm back now and I have a mountain of photos to edit, now that I can sit inside a heated building with reliable power. Teaser preview: I saw and took (mediocre) photos of both bears and whales (Polar and Narwal, respectively) while I was at Alexandra Fjord, along with a decent cross-section of the available bird diversity. Literally 30 seconds after I got off the plane at Alexandra Fjord, two male Long Tailled Ducks (the Guide to Arctic Wildlife I have access to says the name "Oldsquaw" is racist) were chasing a female around and around and around in one of the little ponds a few metres from the cabins.  Duck Courtship in a Pond 3 by Execudork, on Flickr This is the weirdest shot I got of them - I think one of the males is upside-down under the female as she tries to fly away.  Duck Courtship in a Pond 10 by Execudork, on Flickr I see the rest of you have been keeping up the amazing quality around here. I only hope the exotic nature of my subjects (most of the birds I shot were either restricted to the Arctic or have distinct breeding plumage only when in the Arctic) can make up for my deficiencies. Seriously, I'm working my way through the last 2 months of photos on a slow satellite connection here and there's just so much awesome in this thread! Fake edit: Holy poo poo those gannets!
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Aug 27, 2013 01:40
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That's some crazy duck action. It's not a Great Horned Owl, but I finally got the shot I've been hoping for!  Ultimate Shot by Icybacon, on Flickr
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Aug 27, 2013 18:09
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whelp, goldmine the thread and start a new one.
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Aug 27, 2013 20:46
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The one time I've seen and photographed hummingbirds was on a holiday to St. Lucia. It's remarkable how dainty they are. What did surprise me was how tame they could be. One male in particular would let me get closer than the 1.6m minimum focusing distance of my 100-400 lens.
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Aug 27, 2013 21:09
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Mr. Despair posted:whelp, goldmine the thread and start a new one. So what are the ones we have defecating so far? Bald Eagle Great Horned Owl Hummingbird A trifecta of perfect poo poo.
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Aug 27, 2013 21:27
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I have a photo of a Little Owl doing a tub-girl impression which I said I share but forgot to post last time this topic came up.
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Aug 27, 2013 21:34
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Maker Of Shoes posted:So what are the ones we have defecating so far? Rough-legged hawk  Rufous hummingbird 
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Aug 27, 2013 22:57
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I want to play too!
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Aug 27, 2013 23:42
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This thread. 
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Aug 27, 2013 23:48
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I felt guilty that this fellow came over to see me and I had no bread in return for a photo   Bolam Lake - Swans by NoneMoreNegative, on Flickr
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Aug 28, 2013 05:25
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You should feel guilty! No bread means empty stomach, empty stomach means no picture of a swan making GBS threads  I remember when I got the shot of a bald eagle defecating - I had been standing in knee-deep snow (forgot the snowshows) for about half an hour waiting for it to do something, it's feathers started to ruffle and I was thinking 'hooray! it's about to take off! time for some action shots!' and I just started taking shots rapidly only to have it stay perched on the branch and squeeze out a poo poo... Anyone else have a similar feeling when that's happened?
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Aug 28, 2013 13:40
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neckbeard posted:You should feel guilty! No bread means empty stomach, empty stomach means no picture of a swan making GBS threads I didn't even realize I got my Great Horned poo poo shot until post but same thing. Started to ruffle it's feathers, twitch a little and I'm thinking "Yessssss take off shot mash shutter button!". He just stood there the entire time so I left.
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Aug 28, 2013 15:50
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You guys are great, posting a making GBS threads hummingbird because of the thread title. Jackson County, MI by Ghost Cactus, on Flickr
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Aug 28, 2013 16:15
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This is now my second favorite thread on SA. Have a pelican. 
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Aug 28, 2013 18:26
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Rather than another shot of something going out, here`s a sequence of something going in: vvv as requested 
InternetJunky fucked around with this message at 03:03 on Aug 29, 2013 |
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Aug 28, 2013 20:55
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Yeah, pretty sure you owe us version of that GIF in reverse now.
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Aug 28, 2013 23:17
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| # ? May 12, 2024 09:23 |
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Dang, somewhere I have some 250fps video of a sage-grouse pooping. Also, mating with a cowpie.
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Aug 29, 2013 03:52
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