
Black-capped Chickadee on Branch

I have continued to do some photography around my condominium complex and have set up on my back porch perches, so that I could photograph birds coming to eat the sunflower seeds. I have utilized ideas from Alan Murphy, who I wrote about in October about his two excellent e-books on attracting and photographing birds http://photobee1.blogspot.com/2012/10/new-ebook-on-attacting-bird-for.html.

The first things that we did, was attach a small feeding tray to the railing and fill it every day with sunflower seed. The birds have gotten used to coming for the food, along with squirrels and a chipmunk. The chickadees even tolerate us when was sitting on the porch. The next thing we did, is attached branches to the railing for the birds to land on. I utilized Gorilla Tape, rather than regular duct tape, to attach the branches, since the gorilla tape is tougher than ordinary duck tape. I have my camera with my 500 mm lens on a tripod set up in my dining room with the curtains held around the the lens. Because the distance to the perches, is at the lowest focusing distance of the lens, I added a short extension tube to give me closer focusing distance.Also, distance to the trees in the background is far enough so that when I am shooting at F/4, or lower my background is a nice green blur.

The next part of the project is instead of using the curtains the hide camera and me, I am going to make a camouflage curtain to make it easier for me to see the birds and keep them from seeing me. After that I am going to get a tree trunk and place it in a Christmas tree stand, drill holes on the back side and fill it with peanut butter to attract woodpeckers and nuthatches.

It's nice sitting comfortably in a chair, watching all the activity, photographing the birds and mammals, and having a drink of whatever you like right at hand.