Another Bluebird thread

Here are two in the same tree

And they both decide to fly...at the same time. Not a very good picture but I am always on the look out for something unusual.

This one is coming at you. Well, sorta. Very hard to catch them as they fly toward the camera.

A young male, waiting his turn.

Same bird, hunkered down as another bird flew just over his head.

Nothing special today. This female looks like she is eating this seed but actually, she is coughing it up.

Here you see the seed laying on the railing next to this bird.

Another male waiting

I have frequently mentioned that I have mockingbirds that try to get into the wire feeder and bully the bluebirds by sitting on the feeder to keep the smaller birds from getting in either. Here are few from two days ago of a very frustrated northern mockingbird.

This message was edited Dec 25, 2009 2:35 AM

He has been reduced to scaring the blues, hoping they will drop a worm where he can reach it.

Here he comes flying toward a bluebird, then nearly loses his balance.

That's it for tonight. Merry Christmas everyone!

Here is the female on the holly branch with slight modification.

Great photos, as always, Dave. Love the Christmas card. Merry Christmas.

Very nice card Dave! The Mocking Bird trying to get into the wire feeder had me laughing. Merry Christmas!

What beautiful photos Dave. Unusual to see blue birds in the snow, although I know some are still here. They really stand out. The female in the holly is the most beautiful photo I've ever seen. Happy New Year to you all.

Hi OP. Nice to see you posting again. Thanks for the encouraging comment.

Hope your school year is going well and that you and yours have a healthy, Happy New Year!

Dave

Dave, your mocker shots are as beautiful as your BBs. I especially loved that one of him taking off after the BB.
What a beautiful Christmas greeting too-Happy New Year and I'll be anxious to see more of your beautiful photos.

Thanks Duc,, Happy New Year to you and your family.

Cold again this morning.

Waiting

Waitng for breakfast

At the top of the pear tree

Similar shot (but not the exact same one as above). Cropped slightly and lightened.

One more. The bright sunshine presents a real challenge.

Straight out of the camera.

And for this I apologize. I was at the upstairs window, trying to get a shot of this male as he tried to get the fruit of the Bradford Pear tree. It was very early this morning and still too dark so the camera read the shadows too bluish.

I love the shots in the pear tree!

I love them too! Looks to me like you don't have any problems with the bright light. Great photos!!

Here is one from this morning. Still very cold but the sky is bright.

Great job Dave. I noticed you were using an ISO of 1600 in that last shot. I just have to wait for the sun to shine so I can try it.

Duc, most of the day's activity ocurrs at breakfast. Usually before the sun is actually shining. It is usually a feeding frenzy and so much movement is going on and I hate to miss an opportunity so I start with an ISO setting where I get a shutter speed suficient to stop the wings (ideally 1/000 sec or better). Then as the sun rises, and the shuuter speed goes way up, I find it easier to spin the aperture knob to shut down the aperture, thus lowering the shutter speed to where I want it (1/2000 or so).

In the case of the picture above I was using a 1DMark III with the 400mm lens and shooting wide open which is f/4.0. Even though it was about 9:30, it was still cloudy and trying to snow. I would have liked to have had a faster shutter in case he were to jump but I do with what I have to and sometimes I get lucky.

By 12:30 the clouds had thinned out. This one was taken with my other Mark III and the new 600mm lens. With the added light and again shooting wide open (F/4.0), I was able to lower the ISO to 1000 and still got a reasonably fast shutter speed.

That is gorgeous Dave!

Hard to believe that's an ISO of 1000. That would be so grainy from my camera.

Thanks Dave. Your photo is beautiful. I did try using the ISO 1000 and higher yesterday, but haven't downloaded them yet. You've been very helpful.

The light was pretty good today and I got a few pictures. Figured I would put some of them here rather than monopolize the Daily thread.

As you can see, the warmer only keeps some of the water warm.

A nice shot of one of the males.

Hera are a few taken early this morning. Temperature was in the low teens and the birds were obviously cold.

Another

Another shot in the bird bath.

Every day it is the same routine: When I first come out to feed them in the morning they are all hungry to the point of near panic. A feeding freenzy ensues for about five minutes. During this time everybody crowds in and it doesn't matter if I am three feet from them. I am sure they would eat out of my hand if I held still. Then, when they have eaten a little, they leave, one by one. About 15 minutes later they start coming back, two or three at a time and then they once again observe their pecking order: First Papa, then Mama, then the five from the first clutch and last of all, the three survivors from the last nesting last year. And I must have one outsider because it seems everybody seems to chase this one male.

In this shot you can see him brace as another bird approaches from the right.