Northern Mockingbird

This shot was taken with my E-M5 and my old Canon EF-400 f/5.6L lens. The photographer that bought my old lens let me borrow it for a short while to do some testing with it. My keeper rate was VERY low, unfortunately. It was very difficult to see if the birds were in focus or not. More often than not they were out of focus. You can click on the image to view a larger version of it.

American Crow

We had quite a surprise when we looked out the window and saw three American Crows feeding at the feeder. We're used to seeing smaller birds and these things looked huge! This was the only shot I got of them before they flew off. I hope they'll come back so I can try and shoot them again.

Exposure was 1/250th at f/5.6, ISO 320, 150mm focal length. Shot with the Olympus 40-150 zoom lens. You an click on the image to view a larger version of it.

Get on the Good Foot!

You can click on the image to view a larger version

Technically I should just delete this photo because it's out of focus and all but when I saw it I immediately thought about the James Brown Song Get On the Good Foot. Listen to this song James Brown - Get on the Good Foot and if it doesn't put a smile on your face then something is wrong with you :).

Note to Self: Always Have Camera With You!

See that nice big black Black Vulture in the photo below. Yeah neither can I :). That's why I added the little caption so you could see it better. Last night while Donna and I were walking around the neighborhood we happened upon several Black and Turkey Vultures in a section of the neighborhood where they haven't started any construction yet. If I had a camera, even a pocket point and shoot I would have been able to get a better picture. I was pretty amazed at how close we were able to get before this one started giving us the evil eye. Donna took the picture below using her cellphone. So learn from my mistake -- always have a camera with you!

Black Vulture
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Picture of the Week (POTW) #9

Picture of the week for the period 8 - 14 August 2010. It's not everyday that you see three birds all feeding from the same feeder at the same time -- at least around here this isn't something that I see happening very often. Not too long ago I moved the sunflower seed feeder so that it extends above the fence. This has proven to be a smart move. Now that the birds have discovered it it's not uncommon to see doves lined up along the fence waiting their turn to get some of the seeds and this pair of House Finches are regular visitors to our back yard. It's pretty cool to watch the birds feeding from it. I took the picture below using Donna's Rebel T2i and EF-400 lens. The camera/lens were mounted on the Induro CT314 tripod and I was using the ballhead and GHBA Gimbal Head. Exposure was 1/30th (which I find somewhat surprising given the bright side lighting) at f/5.6, ISO 100. At the top left is a male House Finch (Carpodacus mexicanus), on the bottom is a female House Finch and standing on the fence post is a Mourning Dove (Zenaida macroura).

Three on a Tree
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Fish -- It's What's for Dinner Featuring John the Heron

John the Heron* fishing for his dinner. This was taken Saturday afternoon while Donna and I were headed out to take some pictures at one of the parks on the Navy base where I work. As we were driving into the park we spotted John and I pulled over and managed to get this shot before he gobbled it down. This is why it's important to have your camera turned on and ready to go when you leave home. If I had to take the time to get the camera out of the bag, turn it on, remove the lens cap, extend the lens hood, etc I would have missed the shot. This was taken with my 7D and EF 400 lens. Exposure was 1/2000th at f/5.6 ISO 400.


Something else I learned is to NOT leave your GPS logger sitting on the hood of the vehicle you're driving. I had set it on the hood so that it would get satellite lock before we left the house and I forgot to put it in the truck when we left. When I remembered it we drove home and looked for it. Sadly it's gone so I'll have to order another one. If you're curious the GPS data logger I use is this one: AGL3080: Amod AGL3080 GPS Data Logger.


*I picked up calling Heron's John after reading Weekend Birds II Blog Post by Brent Pennington. Be sure to check out Brent's other work. He's one hell of a photographer and always has something interesting to say in his posts.

The Wink

One of the few times I've seen a Mourning Dove sitting on something other than the ground. This one seemed to be quite curious and spent several minutes moving along the fence checking things out. I shot this with my Canon 7D and EF 400 lens. Exposure was 1/80th at 5.6, ISO 400. Camera/lens where mounted on Induro CT314 tripod and GHBA Head.

Juvenile Eastern Bluebird

This juvenile Eastern Bluebird is part of the family that is using the birdhouse in our backyard. There's a 4th member of the family but it's pretty rare that you see all 4 of them together. This shot was taken with Donna's Rebel T2i and my Canon EF 400 lens. Exposure was 1/1000th at f/5.6, ISO 1600. I'm not sure why the ISO was cranked up so high unless I had the camera set for auto ISO which is most likely the case. I have been experimenting with different ISO settings and metering modes to see what produces the best results for me.

Splish Splash I was Taking a Bath

This female House Finch (Carpodacus mexicanus) was taking a bath in the bird bath last weekend. It was quite an event to watch. She'd flop around in the water for a little while, fly off and then come back and do it all over again. She looked like she was having a fun time doing it. These photos were taken with Donna's Rebel T2i and my EF 400 lens. Exposure for both photos was 1/500th at f/5.6 and ISO 200. Camera was mounted on my Induro CT314 Tripod.

A Pair of House Finches

In addition to the Eastern Bluebirds that are nesting in our backyard this pair of House Finches (Carpodacus mexicanus) are regular visitors to our backyard as well. The female, shown below, was shot using Donna's Rebel T2i (I've been shooting it a lot lately) and my EF 400 f/5.6L lens. Exposure was 1/180th at f/5.6, ISO 400. She really enjoys splashing around in the bird bath and feeding on sunflower seeds.

Below is the male House Finch. I really like his red coloring. This guy can eat sunflower seeds faster than anything I've ever seen. He's also very vocal so I always know when he's around. For some reason though he likes to try and drink out of the hummingbird feeder. He'll fly over to it and try to stick his beak into one of the tubes but he can't get anything out. This picture taken with my 7D and EF 400 lens. Exposure was 1/250th @ f/5.6, ISO 400.

Mr and Mrs Eastern Bluebird

Meet Mr and Mrs Eastern Bluebird. Mr is on the right and Mrs is on the left. These are the birds that are using the birdhouse in our backyard. This is one of the few times I've managed to get a shot of both of them together. He had just given her a small bug or something so she could feed one of their young that has hatched already.  What's interesting, to me anyway, is this shot was taken at 8:30 PM and I had the ISO cranked up to 3200 on the 7D. Sure there's some noise in it but Adobe LightRoom did a great job of cleaning the image up. This was taken with my Canon 7D and EF 400 f/5.6L lens 1/90th of a second. Camera and lens were mounted on a tripod -- no way could I shoot this handheld.

Picture of the Week (POTW) #3

Picture of the week for the period 27 Jun - 3 Jul 2010. I shot this Ruby-throated Hummingbird (Archilochus colubris) using Donna's Rebel T2i and Canon EF 400 f/5.6L lens. I'm not sure why it using the wires for our satellite dish as a perch but it landed on it numerous times that afternoon.

Ruby-throated Hummingbird.

Exposure was at f/5.6 for 1/500th second, ISO 1250.

Picking an image this week was once again a hard task. I deliberately excluded several shots of the nesting Eastern Bluebirds in a attempt to post something other than a bird but as you can see we failed at that task. After narrowing it down to two photos we started looking at them at 100% magnification and this one ended up being selected because it was much sharper than the other photo. Since we're going to put these into a book at the end of the first year we figured we'd better go with the sharper of the two pictures.

Learn From My Mistake

Learn From My Mistake
Originally uploaded by zackojones

This is what happens when you fail to check your equipment settings before going out to shoot birds in flight. Previously I had been using my camera in Single-Shot mode and you guessed it. I forgot to switch it back to AI Servo when we got out of the car. This would have been a killer shot IF I weren't an idiot :).

Red-headed Woodpecker

Red-headed Woodpecker
Originally uploaded by zackojones

Red-headed Woodpecker (Melanerpes erythrocephalus)
Taken with my Canon 7D and EF-400 f/5.6L Lens.
Another bird shot from this past weekend while Donna and I were out Geocaching. It's pretty amazing now that we're into birding we are constantly trying to spot and identify each bird call we here or bird that we see. We are planning on heading back to this state park again in the future as they have all kinds of birds there and we only saw a handful of different ones. Too bad it's a 2+ hour drive to get there though :(

Wood Stork

Wood Stork
Originally uploaded by zackojones

Wood Stork (Mycteria americana)

Over the long weekend Donna and I spent Saturday morning in the Dungannon Heritage Preserve which is home to the 2nd largest Wood Stork Rookery in the state of South Carolina. This was our second trip to the rookery and we wanted to see if any of the nesting Storks had any new additions to their nests.

Say, since storks delivery babies to humans who delivers babies to storks? Hopefully anyone reading this is old enough to remember the cartoons where storks would fly with a baby wrapped in a towel and then would deliver the baby to the expecting parents.

I'm happy to report that we did see some new baby Storks in the nests. We will be going back at the end of the month to check up on them again. The Storks will live the rookery some time in July and we want to see some of the new baby storks flying if possible.

This is most likely a mature male. He was sitting on a branch not far from where we were shooting and didn't seem to mind my presence at all as I moved into different positions to get the shot. This shot was taken with my Canon 7D and EF-400 f/5.6L lens 1/750 @ f/5.6, ISO 200.

On our way out we crossed paths with two feral pigs. This one stopped log enough for us to get a shot of it.

Feral Pig
Originally uploaded by zackojones

Black Vulture

Black Vulture
Originally uploaded by zackojones

Black Vulture (Coragyps atratus). Donna took this photo as we were about to get onto I-95 North. We had spent the day Geocaching in and around the Savannah, GA area and were heading home. We had seen some Black Vultures on the side of the road earlier but there was too much traffic for us to try and stop and get a shot. Fortunately traffic was light and she was able to get the shot using her Rebel T2i and Canon 70-200 f/4L lens.

Turkey Vulture

(Click image to see a larger version)
Taken in Red Bank Landing, South Carolina (Goose Creek), Canon EOS 7D and EF 400mm f/5.6L lens. Exposure was 1/500 @ f/8 ISO 100

Turkey Vulture (Catharties aura)

Yes they are terribly ugly birds when you see one up close but they are so awesome to watch when they soar overhead. I shot this particular Turkey Vulture on the base where I work. There's a park that has several ponds and nature trails for you to explore and I saw this guy circling overhead. When I saw him get a little closer I was able to get this shot.

I Wish I Could Fly

Taken with a Canon EOS 5D, EF 70-200mm f/4L USM lens @ 200mm, 1/750 @ f/5.6, ISO 100.

It must be one hell of a feeling to be able to fly through the air like this. This bird is a Ring-billed Gull (Larus delawarensis)