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Northern Mockingbird has Arrived!

The Northern mockingbird has arrived! I suspect he's already been here 3 or 4 days, but today is the first time I heard or saw one, so I'm calling it today: 5/8/2011.

Because I wasn't quick enough these were the best pictures I could get, at around 200 yards:

Typically, they don't spend much time on my property. When they are here and see me, they get as far away from me as they can. Consequently, I have never gotten a good mockingbird picture.

This summer is going to be different -- I'm going to find out what they like and provide it for them.

F-Stop and Depth of Field

I've always known that in photography, the aperture affects the field depth.  A small f-stop means the aperture is larger, and a large f-stop means the aperture is smaller.  A large f-stop, therefore, necessitates reduced exposure time.  With a small f-stop, the shutter has to stay open longer for a proper exposure.

I like things to be simple. Especially when I'm taking pictures, I don't like to think about aperture size, f-stops, etc. My thinking has been that I could set the control on my camera to "Tv" (Shutter priority), choose my speed, and let the camera intelligence make all the decisions for me.  I believed, because a higher f-stop lets in less light, that depth of field was governed by how long the film was exposed by light. Although incorrect, that line of reasoning usually worked pretty well for me, because most of my pictures are taken with a zoom lens.  Then I took this picture (speed 1/160, f. 5.6):

With my reasoning, it would make sense that at 1/160 the depth of field would be greater. Instead, note how the bird 'pops' out of the background!  That made me curious, so I decided to explore this further. I had also taken this (speed 1/160, f. 8.0):

I realized my reasoning must be faulty. So I researched it on the internet (thanks, Internet!). I discovered that it's the angle of light hitting the film that affects depth of field the most. When using a zoom lens, the light's angle is smaller the more the subject is magnified. So the depth of field is already going to be shorter than it would be if you were using a shorter lens. The aperture size also affects the angle of light hitting the film. The larger the aperture (and smaller the f-stop), the wider the angle of light allowed to hit the film. The smaller the aperture (larger f-stop), the shorter the light angle.  So shutter speed has absolutely nothing to do with it!

My equipment is the best I can afford. But it's not good enough to take the pictures I want to take in every situation. I need to make up for that by being better at using the equipment. So I will be spending some time in the next couple of weeks exploring the f-stop. 

To help me remember what the f-stop is, I "borrowed" a diagram from Wikipedia.*

 

The smaller the hole the higher the f-stop number. The higher that number, the tighter the angle. The tighter the angle, the shorter the depth of field. 

One could think of the f-stop as the "Angle Tightness Indicator." The higher the number, the tighter the light angle. When you want a short depth of field, you need a high angle tightness.

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* Wikipedia image came from Wikimedia Commons. It is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation Licence. The picture can be found here.

Barn Swallow Arrival!

I first saw a Barn swallow today. I'm going to put their arrival at sometime yesterday, 5/6/2011.

Dovirsety

Around my house, I have frequently seen 3 species of doves: Eurasian collared, White-winged and Mourning. The most common here is the Eurasian collared dove:

According to the experts, this dove is larger than either the White-winged or Mourning doves, but they all look the same size to me.

This species comes from Europe and Asia presumably, and has covered most of the continent after being introduced to Florida in the 1970s. I'd prefer indigenous species like the Mourning dove, but if they can survive here without my help and aren't wiped out by the many raptors around here, then maybe they belong. I am a little concerned about the native species -- interbreeding and competition can't be a good thing.

Right now, there are about 30 doves living around my house. Most of them are Eurasian collareds, but there is a small percentage of the other two species in the mix. I'll take some pictures of the others when the opportunity presents itself. There's a cycle -- the flock grows to around 50 birds, the hawks move in and kill off 90% of them, then the flock grows to around 50 birds again.

I have a friend in California who works as a butcher. He said these birds are delicious, told me how to clean the carcass for consumption and suggested I eat them.  Although I'm not opposed to hunting. I'd rather just shoot them with my camera. I have to admit though -- I do wonder sometimes how they would look and smell, roasting in my oven.

Screwing up a Perfectly Good Picture

I looked out the patio window a little while ago, and saw a crow taking a bath. I've never been all that excited about crows.  They're everywhere, they're loud, they all look the same. But a well-groomed crow is not without appeal. I bet the chicks dig him (at least his do).

I thought this crow looked comical. So I grabbed my camera and took a few shots.  Here's the best one:

Even shot through a tinted window, it looked pretty good. After I applied a couple of touch-ups using Gimp, it was a picture I could almost be proud of. Except:

1. The stick in front of him ruins the whole picture. It's not something I noticed through the viewfinder, but it is very noticeable in the image.
2. The silver vertical bar behind him is a little distracting.

I can't do much about the first item. I put the sticks there for birds to perch on. If I remove the stick, maybe I can reproduce this shot without the stick, but that would defeat the stick's purpose: If a bird perches on that stick I can crop it so that the fiberglass pond isn't visible. It allows me to change the subject's context. So the stick stays.

I can do something about the vertical bar.  It's just a tree trunk with foil wrapped around it to discourage my goats from eating the tree. A couple of months ago, I discovered a goat stripping the bark off of that tree. He  stripped it all the way around the trunk, top to bottom, except for a 1/4" strip.  The aluminum foil made the goat lose interest.  I'm still not sure if the three is going to survive. For my pictures, all I have to do is paint the foil light brown, and the trunk would barely be noticeable. So that's what I'm going to do this weekend.

More Bird Photo Experimentation

I decided to make lemonade anyway.

I thought I would do some experimenting with shutter speeds in the snowstorm.  I don't know where birds go in a snowstorm, and I couldn't find any in the trees around my house. So I went with the next best thing: My granddaughter Kay-Lynne's punching bag. My daughter brought it over for temporary outside storage and it never left.

I should note that since I added a UV filter to my camera last week, I've been able to get good pictures at lower shutter speeds. Where previously 1/400 was the slowest I could go and still get consistently good close-ups, that number is now 1/320 (and maybe lower).

Here, the first picture was taken at 1/250.  You'll notice that the snowflakes traveled about 1/2 inch during this time.  

(I think that means the snowflakes were traveling at ~40 MPH but my math could be wrong. I also think, based on the angle of the white streaks left by the snowflakes, that the wind was ~20 MPH. So the bag was moving a little, just like a perched bird.)

The bag, which is moving slightly due to the fast wind, still looks fairly crisp.

The second picture, at 1/30, would still be a good picture if it was a bird, though it is blurred slightly. There are no snowflakes, just long white streaks on the "film."  The most telling part is the big 'E'.  It's darkened slightly compared to the picture above.

I would consider this a fairly good picture, though not nearly as good as the first picture. And since it's cloudy and overcast, 1/400 isn't really an option.

I really think that the UV filter I added has improved my picture taking.

I like capturing all of the bird details perfectly. But since this picture, I've started thinking more about composure:

The details aren't blurry, but they are softened. Not what I would normally wish for. But I'm very, very happy with this picture.  Most of the pictures I like would look good in a bird field manual. But sometimes it's really hard to get close enough for that kind of perfection, unless you have the $8,000.00 to spend on the right zoom lens. I don't know about you, but I don't have that kind of scratch.

This summer, I'll be doing a lot of experimenting. I'm still going to spend time trying to get closeups of birds I don't have good closeups of yet. But I'm also going to try to be creative at low shutter speeds.

Even if you can't afford state-of-the-art hardware, you can still take really nice pictures. It's just hard work. My solution is to spend a lot of time "lying in wait." My brother-in-law took an amazing wetlands sunset picture -- with the 2MP camera in his phone. It was poster quality, and my sister made a poster out of it.

Good digital cameras can be had for cheap these days. I bought Kay-Lynne a camera for her birthday this coming Wednesday (she never reads my blog, so my secret is safe). It's a really nice camera, with a modest zoom, for under $150. The trick is to improve the zoom level. With SLR, you just buy a zoom lens. But even without SLR, it's not too difficult, and it's far less expensive.  Here's one $40 example.

If you have fun taking bird pictures, I'd be interested in hearing from you. Especially if you've come up with creative solutions to getting close with a budget digital camera.

It just stopped snowing. Maybe today isn't a complete loss after all.

Snowing on the First Weekend in Spring?

I said that Thursday was the first day of spring, according to the Cassin's Kingbirds. Then I woke up this morning to an inch of snow on the ground. And it's still snowing. Yesterday, I unplugged the heater I use to keep the water pipes from busting. Today, I plugged it back in.

Yesterday, I went to Talin's Market to get some quail eggs. I was going to make some decoy nests for Brown-headed cowbirds. Today, I'm looking out the window at an almost horizontal sheet of falling snow. Temperature outside is 30 degrees Fahrenheit, and wind speed is 20 miles per hour.

Some people say "When life hands you lemon, make lemonade." You might expect me to close with a sentiment like that. But I just wish the sun would come out. I've waited months for spring. Now that it's arrived, I don't think it's too much to ask that it would just stop snowing.

Brown Headed Cowbird. They're here too. :(

I heard the call of a Brown-headed cowbird in a wooded area next to my house today, 4/30/2011. I didn't see it, but I know it's there.  I'm not particularly overjoyed about this, because these birds are a parasite on other species, the welfare bums of the bird world.  They aren't hard to look at, however, so I'll post some pictures of them this summer sometime.

Tomorrow I'll go to Talin market, pick up some quail eggs and make some nests in hopes I can get the cowbirds to replace those eggs instead of the eggs of the birds that live around my house.  I'll post pictures of everything I do, and will let you know if I am successful.

Black-Headed Grosbeaks Have Arrived!

The Black-headed Grosbeaks arrived today (or last night), 4/30/2011. I took some pictures this morning, but I was using a 2x extender at the time and there wasn't enough light so the pictures didn't come out too well.  That's ok -- here's  a picture I took a couple of years ago:

Black-headed grosbeaks are fruit-eaters except during the nesting season. During this time, they eat plenty of grasshoppers, too. But they love strawberry jam, and will spend a lot of time at your jam feeder if you put one up.  See previous posts in this blog for a few jam feeders I've made over the past two years.

Cassin's Kingbirds Have Arrived!

I walked outside and heard the unmistakable call of a Cassin's Kingbird this morning! Two were flying overhead. I saw two more in an oak tree. I ran in and shouted to my wife,

"Babe! What day is it today?"

"Saturday."

"Yes, but what day is it today?"

"I don't know."

"It's the day in 2011 that the Cassin's Kingbirds arrived! It's the first day of spring!"

"No, they've been here a couple of days."

"What? Why didn't you tell me?"

"I forgot."

"You forgot? How could you forget?"

After going back and forth like this for a couple of minutes, we established that their arrival (and the first day of spring) was Thursday, 4/28/2011.

I tried to get some pictures, but they were too far away. I'll go stealth tomorrow morning for a couple of hours when they're most active.

Yellow-Rumped Warbler Arrives!

Dendroica coronata (s. auduboni), the Yellow-Rumped warbler, has arrived! Sibley's says they eat flying insects mostly, and I believe that's true. Although I have a very healthy grasshopper population, I don't think I've ever seen a Yellow-Rumped warbler hunting them. I believe this bird inhabits a hunting niche between 3' and 20' off the ground. This keeps it from competing with the Ash-Throated flycatcher (which actually eats mostly grasshoppers around here) and the Cassin's kingbird, which eats grasshoppers and does a lot of hawking but in open fields.

This bird is easy to identify because its coloration (yellow splashes on high-contrast silver and white), and the way it flits about are both unique and very enjoyable to watch. As you can see in this picture, it's truly a gorgeous bird. Because of how it moves, it's much better "live" than in a still picture.  But that's probably true of any bird.

This is a male of the Audubon's subspecies. He may have arrived yesterday, 4/24/2011, but he might just as well have arrived this morning or a week ago. Every year they nest in the same place; just outside of my yard in a dense 40'x40' successional stand of mixed juniper, pinon and gambel oak, surrounded by a large open field. I can't be sure of the date, because I only see him when I sit down near the thicket for an hour or so, and today is the first time I've done that this year. According to the Natl Geographic text*, this bird arrives in late April. So if he arrived today he's right on schedule. I will check next year starting on 4/10 to get a more accurate arrival date, however.

This is a tough bird to photograph, at least for me. He's nervous and doesn't stay in one place for very long. In fact, he spends more time doing this than anything else:

But what makes it most difficult for me, is that I have to focus manually, because he likes to perch inside the confines of the thicket and that confuses the autofocus too often to make using it anything but a risky endeavor. He rarely hangs out at the edges except when in transit, and he never hangs out anywhere for long. This spring I resolve to set up a comfortable folding recliner, a gallon of ice tea, and sit out there until I get a good picture.

The top picture (blurry as it is) is the best picture I've ever taken of this bird, so I do feel encouraged.

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* The Natl Geographic reference text: National Geographic Complete Birds of North America. For quick reference it's not quite as handy or small as Sibley's. But it has more in-depth information and is a needed complement to the Sibley's guide in my opinion.

Greed: The Corvid Condition

I like to feed crows leftovers, because I know they're going to keep coming to visit my camera until the food is gone, no matter how much food I put out. Many bird species, but especially those in the corvid family, stash away food as insurance against future hunger.

This guy kept coming back until he had disposed of four slices of bread.  At first he took the bread and dunked it in water, I think so that it would go down faster. He ate his fill that way, which probably took fully half of the bread I put out. Once full, he started taking bread away to stash in a safe place, or maybe to feed his offspring.

My wife was telling me she took a fried chicken drumstick out of the fridge yesterday that had been there for awhile, and put it on the feeder platform shown in the pictures.  This crow took it out into our yard and spent the next hour or so stripping off the meat and carting it off. He then left the bone behind and one of our dogs found it.

Greed is not just a human condition. It's a behavior that ensures survival for animals. Next time someone says you're selfish, tell them it's a survival instinct.

Oh, and P.S: That feeder platform?  You're right -- it is a satellite dish.

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I am a little disappointed in these pictures. The field of view is too short, and his eye is a little out of focus as a result. But next time I put out food for crows I'll take another shot at it.

Brewer's Blackbird has Arrived!

Sometime yesterday afternoon (4/22/2011), the Brewer's blackbirds (and probably the Brown-Headed cowbirds) arrived.  I took this picture this morning. It's not a very good picture, but I'll take some more after they've had a couple of days to settle down.

So far there are just 3 or 4 blackbirds, and I haven't positively identified cowbirds at my house. But I heard the call of a cowbird about 10 miles from my house when driving home yesterday. So I know the babykillers are in the East Mountains too.

More on Ash-Throated Flycatcher

This Ash-Throated flycatcher has been hanging around the house waiting for his wife to show up. Chee! Chee! CheeChee! She (if it's the same pair) usually nests in a box on a fence in my yard. I hope she made it this time. He's been here for a couple of weeks already. Unless he is actually a she. I can't tell until I see both of them together.

These birds are master grasshopper hunters. I haven't watched them for a full 16-hour day. But if they hunt grasshoppers all day at the rate they do when I am watching them, they're capable, combined, of killing 200 grasshoppers a day. That's why not mowing your lawn can be so important.

Cassin's Kingbird, and Plagiarism

I've never seen anything published about the Cassin's kingbird's mating ritual. Not to say such data doesn't exist, just that I've never seen it. One day a couple of years ago, I added few lines about the wedding dances I have observed, to the Cassin's Kingbird entry on Wikipedia. 

I forgot I made the entry, until I was looking for some information on this bird recently. I found some text that looked familiar, on someone's site. Then another site, the exact text. Another place, the same text with minor changes. Then on Wikipedia, I saw the original entry. I hit the History tag and saw that my login had made the entry.

I realized that two things had happened:

1. People saw my entry and assumed it was gospel. The entry is true; Cassin's are one of my favorite birds and I was only reporting what I had observed. Even so, you know what they say happens when you assume something.
2. People stole my entry and put it on their own site, as their own. Without even putting it in their own words!  I guess this is ok. I want people to know about this bird. But it would have been nice to have been given credit. That's one good thing about Wikipedia -- your work is perpetually credited, as long as you post it there first. (The downside is that Wikipedia requires references. My posting may disappear from there, so I put it at the bottom of this entry so that it can be referenced by Wikipedia.)

One thing I have learned, in my sojourn as "not an ornithologist, naturalist or biologist,"  is that information about specific bird species is very rare, unless they're a well-studies species, like Robins or Penguins. Most people don't spend enough time watching a specific species to pick up the details that really should be studied.

Mating rituals are a good (and fun) example.  Since I saw the Cassin's Kingbird pair dancing, I've noticed other mating rituals. Hummingbirds. Chickens. Even crows do it.  I think people, you especially, should devote a summer to taking pictures and making observations of a specific species. Take notes, and put your notes online. That helps the rest of us learn, and might benefit that species.

And if I borrow what you publish, I promise to attribute it properly.

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Cassin's Kingbird Mating Ritual: In early spring, presumably after having chosen (or shown up with) their mate, they launch into a peculiar dance. With excited high-pitched calls, they hover in unison, wings outstretched, over a favorite perch. This dance takes place several times a day over several days, over several separate sites in an area covering two or three acres (12,000 m²). The sites chosen for the dance appear to be the same sites used as hunting perches during the spring and summer.

Canyon Towhee on the Woodpile

The Canyon Towhee is a faithful friend. Nothing notable in the looks department, but packed with personality.

This female and her hubby remain here all year around. They think they own my wife's truck, and pitch a fit whenever they think I'm going to get close to it. They don't mind me being around, so long as I stay more than 30' away. This picture was taken at about 25', but she flew off when I tried to get closer.

The picture: I used the Tv setting, at 1/400. I stepped down to ISO 100 and set the automatic meter to compensate down by 1 F-Stop. I think it makes colors look much richer. A 1/80 shutter speed still looks crappy, though.

Want my advice? Don't waste your money on an IS lens for shooting birds. You still have to shoot at a high speed to get good shots, and image stabilization doesn't matter at 1/400.

More on Shutter Speed

I've been experimenting with the Tv setting on my camera, and it seems that anything less than 1/400 is too slow at distance. I'm not sure what the problem is, but here are some sample pictures I took of a Western Scrub jay.

The first one was shot at 1/400, and the second at 1/320. F7.1 was used on both pictures.

It seems that my problem is slight over-exposure at the slower speed. Although the Rebel's auto setting gets perfect shots under near-perfect conditions such as these, it has some annoying features if the light isn't perfect. Sometimes the flash is used when I don't need or want it. And when the flash is used, shutter speed is reduced. The Tv setting obviously isn't perfect, either. I wish they would make it easy for us to program the exposure intelligence for ourselves...

I don't like things to be really complicated, and a 95% solution would be perfect for me. But I'll keep experimenting with shutter speeds until I'm satisfied.

Putting DirecTV to Good Use

I live in the Southwest, and things may be different where you live. Then again, they may not. I believe the single most important thing you can do to attract birds is to provide them with a clean, reliable water source.

It doesn't have to cost a lot of money. You could buy a liner at Home Depot for $40-$100, dig a hole and make a pond that way. I actually purchased a liner recently, and hope to finally turn that big hole in my backyard into a pond. But for several years, my bird pond has been a large, 70s-era satellite dish. I use a 240 GPM pump for circulation, and attached a filter I made by stuffing some HVAC filter material into a V8 juice bottle. (A filter isn't necessary, though it improves water quality. The important thing is either a pump for circulation or frequent water changes.)

Today I created a bird bath that I think the robins are going to love. It's an old DirecTV dish. I removed the mounting bracket, set it on top of some bricks and used a rock to keep the hose in place.

You can see my pond (the 70's-era satellite dish) in the picture too. One dish on top of the other one. When I finish my "real" pond, I'm thinking I'll move into another spot in my yard and keep using it.

Since I added water to my yard 7-8 years ago, the number of birds I see has gone up at least 10-fold. In dry areas, the land's carrying capacity skyrockets when you add water.  It doesn't matter if birds can find plenty of food and shelter. Without water, you're not going to see many species. Even where there's a lot of water available in an area, much if it may be stagnant for a large part of the year. If birds find a source that tastes and smells clean, that's the source they're going to use. If they need to, birds will fly a few miles for water. Your backyard can see hundreds of regulars instead of just a few, depending on the water situation in your area.

A water source also provides the best place for birdwatching and photo opportunities.  Not all birds visit feeders, but all birds visit water.

Hummingbirds are Here!

Yesterday (4/16/11), I looked out the window just in time to see a hummingbird trying to drink something out of an empty feeder that has been hanging there since last fall.  I quickly grabbed it, cleaned it off, filled it with pastel-colored nectar and put it back. But the hummingbird never returned. I fear he moved on to a place nearby that had a full feeder.

I'll be ready when the next wave hits, though...