White-Throated Sparrow

Here is a image from yesterday of a white-throated sparrow taken at the nature center. My mom and I were just about to leave after a slow photography day ( plenty of birds but none close enough ) when we came upon a flock of white-throats making a lot of noise as they foraged through the leaves on the ground. They were very easy to approach, but were hard to get a good clear view of in the growth that they were in. They finally all took to a tree and went up and down the trunk looking for food and I was able to get a few shots. While the perch is not ideal, I was just plain happy to get a decent shot of one. Now that I know where to find them, maybe next time I will be able to get a better image with one on a good perch. For now, I hope that you enjoy this image.

Image Data:

1/1250 | f/5.6 | ISO 1000 | Fill Flash + Better Beamer

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Least Sandpiper

I got this image on Sunday at the reservoir. I was not having any luck with the sparrows, so I turned to the reliable least sandpipers! I love the water color and the pose on this one. Taken at last light. I had to shoot wide open and at 800 ISO which on the 40D does not look great, so I used Topaz DeNoise 5 to reduce the noise here, works wonders!

Hope you enjoy it.

Image Data:

1/250s. | f/5.6 | ISO 800

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Song Sparrow

Here is a image from last weekend of a song sparrow that I took at the reservoir. I know that it is a bit busy, but it is pretty hard to get these guys to come into the open on a clean perch in this specific location, so I was pretty happy to just get this shot! Hope you like it.

Image Data:

1/1600s. | f/8 | ISO 400

Thanks to Josh for correcting me on the ID, this is a song sparrow, not a savannah.

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Great Egret in Tree

Here is a image I took a few weeks ago at the nature center. I saw the great egret perched in this tree which was probably about 100 yards away from where I was on the boardwalk. Since I could not get closer, I thought I would go for a wider shot showing the surroundings of the bird. How does it look?

On a side note, I went to the reservoir yesterday and was glad to see more winter residences had arrived. There were some pintails, shovelers and wigeon that have joined the coots in the lake. The numbers of sparrows have increased. The least sandpipers are still around. I spent a good part of my time stalking a wilson's snipe, it came very close at one point then I lost it in the grass and never saw it again, nuts! Anyway, I had a good time just observing the new arrivals even if I did not get any good images.

Image Data:

1/1600s. | f/8 | ISO 400

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Least Sandpiper II

Here is another image of a least sandpiper that I took on the same day as my last post. I really like the colors in this one. I do not know if these guys are still hanging around the reservoir or not, I might go and check later this afternoon.

Hope you like this one!

Image Data:

1/800s. | f/8 | ISO 400

click image to view larger.

Least Sandpiper

Here is a image I got a couple of weeks ago of a least sandpiper. I arrived at the reservoir and was glad to see that about 10 least's were feeding in the shallow stream that flows into the lake. The light was wonderful, but the birds were not quite cooperating; they finally came within range of my lens as the sun was just about to disappear over the horizon and I got a few shots that I really like. This particular bird was standing on the edge of a small waterfall feeding. Of coarse I wish that the feet were visible here, but the light and mood in this image is just so nice that I am going to forget it here!

Image Data:

1/200s. | f/8 | ISO 400 | Flash + Better Beamer

click image to view larger size.