One little sparrow

Civchic · Mar 30, 2014

NOT a successful weekend for bird photos. I took a few hours "mental health" vacation time on Friday afternoon to go hiking. It was much colder and windier than expected up at Rattlesnake Point (edge of the Niagara Escarpment, I was hoping for turkey vultures riding the thermals), and the sun never came out. Grr. Then I headed down to the Red Hill Creek trail in Hamilton, and saw nothing but gulls flying super fast in the wind, and one little sparrow hiding in the reeds.

Today I took the kids hiking at Beamer (also cliff edge - it's hawk migration time) hoping to get a shot of some birds of prey). We saw 5 turkey vultures and 2 red-tailed hawks, but my marksmanship was terrible. I have a few small silhouettes of raptors against a blue sky. Ha! But it's warming up now, and hopefully next weekend will be better.

WesternGuy · Mar 30, 2014

Not a bad shot. I might have cropped it a little closer, but that is probably just me. Also, the sparrow is a little fuzzy around the edges - can't tell if that is a focus problem or maybe the wind that you mention was move things around a bit.

WesternGuy

Civchic · Mar 30, 2014

Yes, I was struggling to get him in good focus. He's sitting on the reeds in the wind, I'm getting buffeted by the wind, AND every time I thought I finally had him, a reed would sway in front of his face or something. But I was determined to get SOMETHING that day. LOL.

The shot is a bit too noisy (poor light too, ISO is high) to crop much further.

It was a "learning" day. Haha.