I miss my birds. Until a month ago, we lived on almost five acres outside of town, with huge Ponderosa pine trees and a two-acre field. My yard list numbered over 60 species. I could stand at the kitchen window and watch three species of hummingbird at the feeder hanging from the eaves, and enjoy the antics of the Bluejays, Steller’s Jays, and Scrub Jays as they competed with the magpies for peanuts left on our balcony railing.
Tag: bird
Bird Photography: Light
The word “photography” means “writing with light,” and the right lighting can make the difference between a ho-hum snapshot and an award-winning photograph. But what is the “right” lighting? And how do you take advantage of it?
In general, photographers think of light as coming from one of four directions—from the front, side, back, or overhead. Each of these has pros and cons, with widely varying results. Then there are different qualities of light, such as bright or soft. Different combinations of these conditions will greatly affect your results.
May Quiz: Answer
To refresh your memory, here is the photo from May’s Bird Quiz. The bird was seen in Colorado during the month of May. Don’t read any further if you want one last chance to identify this bird.
May’s Bird Quiz
Can you identify this bird? The photo was taken in Colorado during the month of May. The answer will appear next week.
For answers to last week’s “Do You Speak Twitcher?—The Sequel”, keep reading….
Bird Photography: Keep It Simple, Sweetie
You’re out birding and you see an adorable Mountain Chickadee, busily working over the scrub oak branch looking for a snack. Happily, you’ve got your camera, so you grab a few quick shots. But when you get home and enlarge them on your computer screen, you’re disappointed. The bird is cute, but it’s surrounded by brushy twigs and dead leaves.
As I scroll through photo after photo on my various Facebook photography sites, I’m struck by the stark disparity between the experienced photographers and the obvious beginners. There’s nothing wrong with being a beginner—we all had to start there—but there is a problem if you stay a beginner year after year.
April Quiz: Answer
To refresh your memory, here is the photo from April’s Bird Quiz. The bird was seen in Arizona during the month of April. Don’t read any further if you want one last chance to identify this bird.
April’s Bird Quiz
Can you identify this bird? The photo was taken in Arizona during the month of April. The answer will appear next week.
Auto-corrected Bird List
Today I have a special guest post from Heidi Eaton, naturalist, zookeeper, and all around very nice person. She’s married to “Bug Eric” of entomology fame. You may remember I recommended his insect blog a while back. Here’s her post. I’m sure you’ll laugh at least as much as I did!
I’ve often used my Samsung tablet to keep a bird list when Eric and I are traveling. We are often amused at the way the auto-correct tries to change the bird names. Some aren’t that funny, like it always wants heron, blackbird, and starling to be plural (I can kind of understand why, with blackbirds and starlings).
Bird Photography: Use your birding skills!
As birders, we have an advantage over other photographers wishing to photograph birds. We know our subjects. All those skills we’ve garnered in our years of stalking lifers and observing birdy behavior are about to pay off—big time!.
Finding birds is easier for us birders. We know where the hotspots are. (If in doubt, check out the field trip destinations from any birding club website.) For example, Colorado birders know that Mt. Evans and Guanella Pass are often productive places to search for ptarmigan, while Clark’s Nutcrackers and Gray Jays can almost always be found at the Rainbow Curve pull-out in Rocky Mountain National Park.
March Quiz: Answer
To refresh your memory, here are the photos from March’s Bird Quiz. The top photo was taken in Colorado during the month of February. The bottom photo was taken in Florida during the month of January. Don’t read any further if you want one last chance to identify these birds.
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Mountain Plover 