Beautiful Flying Objects: Canon 40d

Showing posts with label Canon 40d. Show all posts

Thursday, September 3, 2009

Kayaking the Springweather Reservoir

September 2nd. Fall was in the air this morning but as the day progressed it turned into a classic mid 70's September day. We were greeted by 15 + Clouded Sulphur butterflies flying about the boat launch area . As it turned out deciding to kayak the Springweather Resevior in Weatherfield. VT turned out to be a great choice of how to spend this beautiful day. We kayaked up the Black River from the boat launch to just before where the Stoughton Pond run-off joins the Black River. It was hard work-period! We did, however, get to see a Green Heron feeding along the river's edge and every time we got close, it would fly ahead always staying in front of us. Then out of nowhere a juvenile Cooper's Hawk hit the Green Heron mid flight and the two of them ended up in the water. Lots of noise. The hawk let go and winged its way back to a dry perch as did the heron. Lost sight of the Coopers and the Green Heron was now in hiding so we drifted down river back to the main body of water. The lake behind the dam has many places to explore and look at the wildlife that calls Springweather Reservoir home. The view of Ascutney mountain from out on the water is a Vermont classic and Springweather has a half dozen different places to enjoy the great views while paddling around .

Here's a photo from my friend's camera of Ascutney Mt from up in the Black River area.

The birding is impressive whether you're kayaking or just walking one of the many trails that surround Springweather. Here's a list of birds seen there over the years and it's not up-to-date.

This day we saw a pair of Snowy Egret , two Greater Yellowlegs,

a Spotted Sandpiper and the Green Heron.

There are always Great Blue Herons, Bald Eagles and a whole host of other critters that live around water that you may see.

Springweather Reservoir can be tough to paddle if the water is low, but that's not a problem so far this year. If you're up for a day of adventure you just might find it at the Springweather Reservoir, Weatherfield Vt.

Enjoy!

Peter Manship

Sunday, May 10, 2009

Scissor-tailed Flycatcher in Arlington, VT

After Barbara Powers' and Roy Pilcher's posts on VTbird, I thought that I would take a shot at trying to finding the Scissor-tailed Flycatcher. I left early this morning and got there about 6:45 am and Nancy A. Brown and Brendan Collins were already there looking for the bird. They said that they hadn't seen it so I headed south along Miller's Pond looking with no luck. As I returned and parked the car, Nancy was waving to me. My heart raced; they had found the Scissor-tailed Flycatcher! I was able to grab a few photos before the bird started to work its way south. Everyone moved down Old Depot Rd as the bird did. I must say that it was quite a sight seeing that long tail waving in the wind (no photos) and like Branden said, it was last seen heading north out of sight. Hopefully, the bird will be relocated so others may see it too!

Here are some photos from today :

I would like to thank Barbara Powers who found the bird yesterday and got the word out quickly to VTbird so that Vermont birders could try for this very special visitor to Vermont.

This last image is just to show the salmon pink color under the wings.

Good Birding

Peter

Tuesday, May 5, 2009

Dead Creek Today 5-5-09

I went birding at Dead Creek hopping to find the Upland Sandpiper that was listed on VTbird this morning. I found several first season/year birds today, but no Upland Sandpiper. No new warblers today but nice looks at the ones I did find - Yellow Warbler, Yellow-rumped Warbler and the surprise of the day, an American Pipit.

Great views of a Savannah Sparrow.

Saw two sandpipers fly out over the water that got away too quickly to ID. Later I spotted a Solitary Sandpiper working the water's edge.

Then I heard what sounded like two birds fighting. When I located the birds, I couldn't believe my eyes! In a thicket was a bird holding onto a House Sparrow by the back of the head! The helpless bird just hung there phishing. This ended when a truck passed and the birds flushed. I did get these two images, but have no idea what the top bird was.

My birding trip ended as the rain started, so I headed home happy with two new birds for my VT year list which now stands at 142 without an Upland Sandpiper. Oh well, next time!

Pete

Friday, April 10, 2009

Great Gray Owl in Durham NH

I went to Dame rd in Durham New Hampshire last Sunday the day after the Great gray Owl was found and like the thirty to forty other people looking for the owl no one was able to relocate it. The second try was magical,

following the posts to New Hampshire Bird List on the Internet about sighting of the Great Gray Owl and looking at the up coming weather Thursday was the day to go. Thursday morning I dropped my son off at school at 7:30 and head for Durham NH hopefully to find the GGO. Driving down Dame road I came on a group of bird watchers and when I asked if they had seen the owl, the forlorn look told me what I wanted to know. Standing by my parked car trying to decide what to do, when a woman came out of the woods and said that the owl has been found. She lead the 15 or so birders and photographers to where the bird was. As I positioned myself to get a clear line of sight I marvelled at how these rare bird sightings happen in the first place after all we were 4 miles down a paved road another 2 miles down a dirt road and here's the kicker . A quarter mile or so out in a thick Hemlock, Oak and White pine Forrest that in places you could have walked by the owl and not seen it at all because it's coloring blended in with the surrounding .

There on a small branch of a hemlock was the Great Gray Owl perch hunting and oblivious too all the on lookers, noise and camera chatter I was amazed by the whole experience. Twenty five minutes later the owl moved on to hunt somewhere else. I was happy to have seen it for so long and was sure I had gotten some nice images. Talking to one of the other birders there, he mentioned that the bird was right on time, that he had seen it move every 20 to 25 minutes or so and adding that he saw the owl get a snake a little earlier. Another person said that they were there all day yesterday and the owl had successful hunted 5 times that they knew of the day before and 3 times today including the snake. I would have loved to see the owl and the snake going at it, but they said the owl after killing it flew off to eat the snake in private .

On a different note I read this interesting post on NHBird list about the owl ear disc's posted by Bruce Boyer , here's the post and link to more info;

[ I was struck by the fact that the facial disks on this Great Gray Owl appeared asymmetrical in all photos posted here. I then checked Google Images, and found that, amazingly enough, all the images seemed to show that the owl's right disk reaches higher on the head. Knowing that facial disks are supposed to enhance hearing in owls, and that owls have the right and left ears placed at slightly different heights to allow detection of the elevation of a target, I looked further. Lo and behold, the Great Gray Owl is known for having some of the greatest vertical asymmetry in ear location among owls, and the right ear is indeed higher.http://www.sdbonline.org/fly/lewheldquirk/figlegq2.htm N.B.: Ear asymmetry occurs in a third of all owl species. In the great gray owl, the asymmetry is opposite (i.e., right ear higher), and the shift is seen not just in the skin but also in the skull [1612]. Bruce Boyer] Bruce added this a day later [ Pictures of Barred Owls posted on the Internet show marked asymmetry of facial disks also:http://rodgerdodger.files.wordpress.com/2008/07/barred-owl.jpg http://www.nbbd.com/photos/birds1/BarredOwl.jpegSo next time you're viewing an owl, check out the height of its "eyebrows." You are seeing external evidence of a very remarkable anatomic adaptation. Bruce Boyer ]

This next group of images show the owl perch hunting........

These last two images are my favorites from deep within the woods of NH with the Great Gray Owl........ nice day !!!

I hope you enjoy the images and find the info from Bruce to be informative!

Pete

P.S. someone asked about equipment and settings: Canon 40d EF 400 f/5.6 . Most of the images of the owl are as they came out of the camera using ACR to convert to Tiff.

Header image settings were ISO 400 1/160 F/6.3 Evaluative metering +3/4 stop , head held and this is about average for all the image that day. I take a test shoot and quickly check my setting by looking at the histogram, make any adjustments I need and then just make images after that. Unless something changes, then I do another test, adjust and shoot. Hope that's helpful!

Peter Manship

Friday, March 27, 2009

Birding has its Rewards

I was birding the other day and came across a Wood Duck. I watched as the Wood Duck mucked in the cattails at the far edge of the un-frozen swamp for sometime. I was hoping that it would move closer so I could get a good photo.

Wood Ducks are one of my favorites and I think the most difficult to get a good image of because of the contrast between of all the light and dark colors. I'm always excited when I find a woody and ever hopeful that this may be the time I get a signature image. But it wasn't going to be today because the woody was just staying back in the reeds, feeding. Oh well, the next time.

As I was walking back to my car, I noticed something moving out of the corner of my eye. A quick look through my binoculars and I could see that it was a Muskrat and it was heading my way.

Using my car as a blind I was able to watch and photograph the Muskrat as it foraged around on the open waters of the swamp looking for food, unaffected by my presence.

Watching this little guy go about his business without a care in the world was one of those magic moments that is a side benefit of birdwatching .