Last Sunday we had again a flock of Cedar Waxwings around here. They were joined by a large number of American Robins. Both species seem to enjoy the heated bird baths for sipping some water between their meals in the red cedars around here. I wasn’t home for the last couple days and don’t know yet if the cold weather has forced them out of the area. We don't have snow on the ground yet but a few snow flurries made clear that winter isn't far away...
A few days ago I mentioned that we had some visitors at the bird bath. Like every fall the American Robins flock together in larger numbers and are joined by some Cedar Waxwings.
The waxwings are some of the prettiest birds we see here occasionally. Their main target at this time are obviously the juniper berries on the Red Cedars (which is not a true cedar but a juniper), that grow here between the rocks and on the steep valley slopes.
Finally I got a shot of the female Yellow-rumped Warbler that we have seen several times lately.
I’m not really actual with my blog at the moment. I was down in Houston, Texas for a business trip this week, with no really opportunity to shoot anything interesting, except for some clouds during take-off. So, here are a couple images still from last weekend.
We had some pretty cold nights last week and the water in the bird bath was frozen solid in the morning. I changed that quickly because birds are drawn to the water. If you like to start with some bird photography, go and buy a bird bath. This is a tip I learned from other photographers and I just know it works.
We have a second one on the other side of the house that can be heated and this will serve our feathered friends even during the coldest days here in Iowa. An old dead cedar tree, erected right beside the bird bath in the front yard, is very often used by the birds as a perch before they actually go down to the water bowl.
Why do I show these two particular photos? The first one is a female Yellow-rumped Warbler. I have seen them for the first time this spring when they migrated north. If you use the search field in the side bar on the left and search for “Yellow-rumped Warbler” you can find my previous posts about this magnificent bird. The picture today tells the story that they are obviously on their way back to the South where they will spend the winter. But why the picture of the American Robin, a bird that is abundant not just here in Eastern Iowa? It is the light, awesome soft natural light from the sun, peeking out from behind the clouds, that made me push the shutter release button…
As deeper I'm diving into wildlife photography as more I'm excited about any new species I see for the first time and even more if I can make a decent image of a new critter. Does it mean I can forget about all those animals that are here every day and that I have photographed many times already? Of course not! I have lots of pictures of American Robins on my hard drive. Not very difficult for the most part because they are present everywhere where grass and trees are growing here in the Midwest. I'm a strong believer that there is always room for improvement for every photographer and it doesn't really matter what bird is in front of the lens if the light is just right or a story can be told.
I was at Mud Lake this evening at the Mississippi River again and beside looking for the owlet (didn't see it today) I tried to focus on warblers and other birds that are not so common here. Well, I saw some Yellow Warblers but they were very busy chasing each other (love is in the air :-) ) and I had no chance even to make an unsharp photo. :-) While standing with my tripod in the flooded grass, getting wet feet, this American Robin landed just in front of me. The sun put a spotlight onto the bird. I don't know where the nest was but the robin was waiting with a worm in its beak and it is most likely that its young ones were waiting to be fed. To me this image tells the story better than I can and that's why I don't hesitate to make the click, even if just an "ordinary" bird is in front of the lens.
The avid reader of my blog may ask why I post a picture today that is way below my usual quality standards, except for the light, which I think is good. As you can see the photo has an awful distracting background, branches hanging all over the place, and the bird is placed almost dead center. Well, there wasn't actually a plan to post an image today but here is why you have to put up with this.
My Sigma 50-500 / 4.5-6.3 APO EX DG HSM lens came back from a necessary repair job today and I wanted to test it while there was still a little bit light outside. In order to test the focus accuracy of the lens I shot about 200 pictures, mostly static stuff (our satellite dish in the yard is a perfect subject for test shots ;-) ).
Back in the house I suddenly saw a flock of American Robins foraging in our woods. They literally turned every leaf on the ground upside down. This confirms an observation we made several times already during the last few years, the robins don't migrate very far south in the winter. It is cold here but most of the snow has melted over the weekend. Obviously this is enough for the American Robin to move back into the area here. However, it felt a little like spring already and I enjoyed watching them.
As I mentioned the light quality wasn't bad and I set up the tripod in my "bedroom blind" and made some more test shots with the birds as the subject. For the sake of comparison I used the center AF sensor of the D300s only. And this is why the bird sits almost dead center in the frame. I cropped the image slightly on the left and bottom side to make it a little more pleasing. The photo was made at 500 mm, 1/125 sec, f8, -0.5EV, and ISO 800. I usually don't use such a high ISO setting for my wildlife photography but pushing the limits, while making test shots, is a good way to find out where the limits really are in order to be prepared for a future "ones in a lifetime" click. Stay tuned for better stuff to come ;-)...
I have a ball watching the birds that hang around here in the timber and our front and back yard in big numbers at the moment. There is a big flock of American Robins that was here every day this week and the birds enjoyed bathing and drinking at the bird bath. With them was an "ear-full" of Cedar Waxwings. We had very warm weather today (T-shirt time in November!) but this is changing while I'm writing this and I wonder if the birds will move further south if the temperature will drop in the next few hours. Today I tried to keep the white bird bath out of the frame and finally got the shots that I really wanted to make. I hope you enjoy. Have a wonderful rest of your weekend!
