Male Eastern Bluebird
It’s exciting to report that our pair of Eastern Bluebirds at the edge of the woods behind the house is working on a second brood. The first one in June contained 4 eggs and I saw three of the juveniles in the backyard on June 28th. I read in the book ”Bluebirds!” by Steve Grooms & Dick Peterson that about 65% of the eggs hatch. With other words, counting three fledgelings after they left the nest seems too be a success.
Shortly after the first brood I had cleaned out the nest box but a few days later one of the male House Wrens had filled it with small twigs and sticks to claim it for himself. I cleaned out again and and a couple days later the female bluebird had built another nest from grass and other soft material. About a week ago I checked the nest again and four eggs were laid. This morning another check revealed that five eggs are in the nest box and none had hatched yet. Looking inside takes only a few seconds and I only do it when both parents are not present.
Female Eastern Bluebird
This was a good reason this afternoon to sit in a camping chair away from the box and watch the bluebirds tending their nest. It was quite warm again today and the female retuned to the nest every 15-20 minutes and spent about 1-2 minutes in the nest box. The male bluebird guards the place from nearby trees and sometimes comes to the roof of the box. The incubation of the second brood takes about 13 days and I’m sure we are not far away from having the babies cracking the egg shells.
Nikon Z6 III, Nikon NIKKOR Z 600 f/6.3 VR S, Nikon Z Teleconverter TC-1.4x Induro GIT 404XL tripod, Induro GHB2 gimbal head, Westscott FJ80 II speed light, @ 840mm (1260 mm equivalent in DX mode), 1/125s, f/9, ISO1600
It was a great opportunity to work with the ”Small Bird Rig” again (see my blog post from June 8th for details on this new setup). The Westcott FJ80II speed light was set to manual mode (range 5) and this very subtle hint of flash reveals the colors beautifully in this ambient light situation with the sun muted by the canopy of the trees.
I have been asked by a photography friend a little while ago about the sharpness of the Z 600 f/6.3 lens combined with the Z 1.4 teleconverter. Well, here is a photo I created today with this combo and also shot in DX mode, means with a smaller part of the sensor. This makes it an equivalent with a focal length of 1260 mm. The photo was shot at 1/125s from a tripod and is not cropped. The low resolution image here in the blog may not reveal every detail but comparing the original RAW files with each other I can’t see any decrease in sharpness by using the teleconverter. This was not always the case with older equipment I used to own.