Wildlife from 2004, part 2.

15. Red Bellied Woodpecker on dead tree.

16. Cardinal on fence.

17. Snake in the grass, a Cottonmouth.

18. Kildeer faking critical injury to lure me away.

19. Mission accomplished. Full recovery.

20. Momma Mourning Dove.

21. Momma's baby, just out of the nest. What is this stuff?

22. I forgot what this is. Maybe a Grackle.

22. A scribbler.

more excellent shots Trois. Love the Red-bellied Woodpecker. one of my favorites.

24. Old creepy. He waits about 150 yards away for us to leave, then eats all our goldfish.

oh how can you call such a beautiful bird old creepy lol. J/K Yep they can wipe out all your fish in a day. Have you tried putting some kind of wire mesh over the pod or is it to big?? and not deep enought to escape its long beak??

Thank you DonnaB.

25.

Goldfinch, winter plumage.

We called him old creepy because he would sneek up to a small tree, stand up straight, peek around to see if we noticed. If not, the move to next tree. Some of these trees were no more than 2 or 3 inches in diameter, so he stuck out on both sides. We no longer have goldfish to protect. Old Creepy and the Green Backed Heron cleaned them all out. Old creepy started sleeping in the tree over the goldfish pond and he played pelican a few times, just dived in at daylight.

Great Blue Heron preening.

This message was edited Jan 8, 2005 10:16 PM

27. Baby Bull Frog on a Lily pad.

trois, your photos are just so great. I was given this new Nikon Cool Pix 4800 for Christmas, and thought that with the 10 power I would be able to get good photos of birds, but no way can I figure out what to do to get nice photos like yours. Yours are so sharp and colorful. Haven't had any sun to speak of since I started usin the CoolPx, but i should be able to take better than what i do. Have had to take nearly all the pix I've taken through double glass windows. I've used it quite a bit, because this afternoon I had to recharge the batteries. Ha Donna

28. Bluejay sunning on the feeder box.

Several of my bird pictures are taken through double glass. This will almost always decrease the contrast. Try increasing the contrast on some and see. I always use the stabilizer also, and I don't show the bad pictures. The inside of the house should be very dark if possible or glare will cause problems.

Also, several of the photos were taken with 10x optical and 2x digital, total of 20x. Birds are small and frequently I am unable to get close enough Keep practicing!

I avoid taking pictures in sunlight as much as possible. Shadows are very hard to deal with.

I hope this helps.

I use a 2 megapixel camera, kind of old.

trois

trois, nice selection of photos. I particularly like the Red-Bellied Woodpecker by the hole in the tree and especially the Blue Jay sunning himself, or herself. Do you have or have you seen a lot of Cottonmouth or Water Moccasin snakes ? A non-poisonous snake is one thing but a posionous one ---- it has to go. My daughter, who is now 21, is scared to death of snakes. She won't even go in our pool. I have learned to not tell her if I see one, usually a harmless black snake. I occasionally catch them, put them in a large trashcan and relocate them several miles away. But, others take their place.

Another thing to remember, Donna, is that when shooting through double glass, always shoot at a considerable angle. This will avoid mirror like very close reflections that make pictures look unsharp.

trois

another tip. If you take a pic of an animal in a cage if the animal is far enough back that you can put your camera right up to the cage it will blurr out and not be seen in the pics as the ones I took in the rehab thread. They were all in cages.

Cottonmouths are what we have the most of as it seems they have eaten all the others. Most of them anyway.


Thanks for the tip, Donna.

trois

thanks for help people. Sun is shining now for first time in several days.

trois, that Bluejay sunning itself, is just fantastic. Donna

Thanks, Donna.

Terrific shots Trois. My favorite is the bay bullfrog. so cute :-)

Thanks, Julie.