I can't remember for sure, but I think this was coming in for a landing on a trip to Houston. The sky was on fire so got a cell phone shot out the winder.
I can't remember for sure, but I think this was coming in for a landing on a trip to Houston. The sky was on fire so got a cell phone shot out the winder.
Two eclipses, two different cameras and two different styles, 7 years apart. Neither shot is better than the other in my opinion although I like the diffraction spikes in the earlier shot. The 2009 shot was stopped down to f14 on my Nikon D750 at 1/180 of a second with my ISO at 2000. I took that shot at 70mm on my 70-200. I took some close up shots as well. In any case, you get a lot of spikes with the shutter blades on the older cameras creating edges where light leaks to create the starburst. On the modern Z9, it is an electronic shutter so you don't get those spikes as much anymore as there are no elements between the lens and the chip. This is the case even though I am at a similar f -stop at f11 at 1/1000 of a second at ISO 8000. Even with the much faster ISO, the modern Z9 is a much cleaner file. This time out I shot some at 70mm but this one was with my 100-400mm with a 2x converter so at 800mm in this case. I ran both through a denoise filter to clean the file of some unwanted noise.
So, there you have it. Two eclipses at the same location. Both successful and lots of fun with friends and family.
I am sure that hunters know this but until I started birding 4 years ago, I had no clue that ducks roosted, visited and flew up into trees. Just never occurred to me that they did that. So, I still think it is an incongruous sight to see a large duck, like this Black-bellied Whistling Duck to be up in a tree singing. Yet, here he is singing away. Whistling more like it as they have a strange song.
Took the side roads heading to the Houston airport yesterday and was lucky to catch a Scissor-tailed Flycatcher sitting on the side of the road with its mate. Beautiful bird with an insanely long tail. From the range maps, this is a bird that doesn't get much north of Kansas or Oklahoma, although I bet there are some sightings as far north as southern Illinois on occasion. Anyway, it is a lifer for me, number 313 on the lifer scale. Beautiful bird. I guess the long tail helps catching insects in mid-air as the bird is able to make sharp twists and turns as it flys.
Sometime in early March, the Snow Geese gather in central Illinois for a week or so feeding and resting before continuing their trip to their breeding grounds in Canada. I was able to find their feeding spot and enjoy the show. The adults are white and the juveniles with dark plumage in the shot.
I got an email from the DuPage Birding Club that the Snow Geese were gathering for their annual flight to their breeding grounds in Canada from points south. The email gave an approximately location and by Sunday morning, I was there to see them in tremendous numbers and this is after the morning take-off where I saw thousands fly overhead from about 6:30 to about 7:30 am. Quite amazing. A picture doesn't do it justice.
Got up early last month to do some birding in central Florida and this was the scene before wandering around to find some local birds.
Beautiful weather in NYC last week and the crowds came out to enjoy the weather. Street performers also came out in droves to get their share of sunshine and potential dollars. This guy in Central Park had some character and style. Always a nice time walking NYC in great weather.
I always think New York City looks amazing in the right light. This is from Washington Square Park (I think) on the way to visit the Strand, an amazing book store and a must visit for me when I am in New York. Unfortunately, I also like to visit Central Park and those two locations are very, very far from each other. The rest of my visit, I pay the price with pain in my legs and hips. Oh well. It happens.
You never know what a random Saturday will bring to the feeder. Mostly, it is the same birds over and over. At the thistle feeder, you get mostly American Goldfinch's, House Finches and on the ground below, Dark-eyed Juncos. Today, out of nowhere, 12 Pine Sisken's show up. Never seen them in the backyard before and actually, they are a lifer for me, as I never got a chance to see one yet in the wild. So, a two-for. A new backyard bird and a new bird!!! Not bad for a Saturday morning. They are a pretty bird, heavily streaked with yellow across the wing bars, similar to an American Goldfinch. With the 14 new lifers that I got in January and February in two trips to Florida, the Pine Siskin makes 311 birds (I think) and 35 backyard birds. Not a bad start to the year!!!
Got to do a couple of days R&R in Florida and joined in the Space Coast Birding Festival. Lots of fun and new birds to add to the life list. Still working through about 4,000 shots!!! This is a boat trip I took to Pelican Island, a federally protected refuge for birds. This is just one portion of the island, which has weirdly sorted itself out into groups of roosting birds, each species pretty much staking out parts of the island and returning to that some locations, night after night, year after year. This pic has a couple of brown pelicans in front (along with a wood stork with its back to us) and a brown pelican flying over, white pelicans stacked in their typically location and more brown pelicans in the trees. So, just pelicans and the one stork in this shot but other parts of the island just to the left of this shot you have white ibis, egrets, many more storks and a variety of gulls. Interesting area and a wonderful trip.