A-Birding I Will Go......

480sparky · Feb 16, 2014

[h=2]A-Birding I Will Go...... [/h]
(This thread dedicated to sm4him) :hug::
(don't expect much!)

So this morning I thought I check out a bird blind at a local park. Being winter, I fully expected it to have empty, desolate feeders. I pulled off the road to see no human-made tracks.

As I made my way back to the blind, the only tracks I saw were wildlife. Lots of deer and even more small critters. Oh well, I thought, at least I'll see if the seating that's in the blind will work or if I need to bring my own seating arrangements.

As I approached the blind, my ears were filled with the cacophony of bird songs. I arrived to find the feeders somewhat full, and birds everywhere!

So I decided to give the gimbal head a trial run, cold as it was and I didn't dress all that warm. Good thing I always bring it!

I set it all up, and waited for the birds to return. I managed to take these before the low temps got the best of me:

At this point, I was cold, so I packed up and headed back to the truck. But on my way out of the park, the elk were out. So I couldn't pass up a chance for a shot.

EOV · Feb 16, 2014

Wow the elusive Iowegian elk!

Glad you had success when it wasn't expected.

LarryLomona · Feb 16, 2014

What bird it the last one,not in the birdbooks

pjaye · Feb 16, 2014

These are fantastic shots!

Nibbio · Feb 17, 2014

Amazing shots

sm4him · Feb 17, 2014

Aww, how sweet and awesome is that?? :hug:: right back atcha! I'm still jealous of the gimbal though.

And yeah--as long as they keep seed in those feeders, you can bet there will be plenty of birds around! Last Thursday (during our Snowpocalypse&#8230

I sat watching my feeders for a while and counted a total of 20 different species, including the Cooper's Hawk that came and sat for a bit, hoping to reduce the numbers in my yard by at least one bird.

I love the two of the nuthatch in flight; those are terrific! If you captured those on a TRIPOD, I may have to revisit my insistence on handholding. I'm sure if I'd break down and buy something like that gimbal head, I'd like using a tripod better.

LOVE the elk, too! Not much chance of a picture like that around here, unless I go up to the Cataloochee area; that's the only spot that elk have been successfully re-introduced around here.

480sparky · Feb 17, 2014

sm4him said:
.........I love the two of the nuthatch in flight; those are terrific! If you captured those on a TRIPOD, I may have to revisit my insistence on handholding. I'm sure if I'd break down and buy something like that gimbal head, I'd like using a tripod better...........

Them were really easy... the bird would always fly in from a single direction, then fly back out the same way. So it was just a matter of aiming and focusing the camera where the little bugger is going to be and wait for it to take off. Continuous High mode here. Wasn't even looking through the VF.