Just Sitting

Eastern Kingbird

Yesterday I revisited Tamarac Park in Lakeville and after walking around, I noticed in the dead tree, high up there were some birds.  Near the tree was a pension table, so I decided to sit down and see what birds were up in the tree.  There were Cedar Waxwings and after they left a tree swallow landed and started preening.  A truck pulled into the parking lot, and a nice gentleman came up and asked if he could get some advice on his photography.  Of course, I said I would be happy to.  So he went back to his truck and brought his camera and lens up and sat down next to me.  The hardest part was he had a Canon camera and lens.  Why this was hard is I do not know all the bells and whistles on using a Canon camera.  Talking about settings, that is easy because the settings for the exposure triangle are the same no matter what camera you are using.  He wanted to know a little bit about manual exposure, so we talked about how I do it.  He learned out how to set manual settings on his camera and then learned how to use the histogram to help them refine the picture.  As we were talking, I found out he is only shooting JPEG, but he wants to learn how to shoot in raw and then process the pictures in Lightroom.  Looking at his camera LCD screen, He had good looking pictures.  He is off to a trip to Canada next week, and when he returns.  We will plan to get together so he can learn how to use Lightroom.  Meanwhile, birds were flying by and in between talking, I was able to photograph the birds in flight.  I must say my Nikon D 500 and Nikon 200-500 lens grabbed focus quickly, enabling me to capture the shots.  All this occurred while sitting on a bench, enjoying good company and a beautiful sunny day with lots of activity and bird songs all around us.

Tree Swallow Preening

Brown-headed Cowbird

Great Blue Heron

When I reviewed my pictures on the computer, I got a surprise, the pictures showed many small insects flying around the birds that were perched at the very top of the tree.

Cedar Waxwing

Nikon D500

On April 21 Nikon released the D500, and I received my copy on April 22.  I already had downloaded from Nikon both of the camera manuals and did an initial read.  The D500 camera dials are similar to the D300 and the D 810, but as usual with a new camera, there are modifications, which will take a little time to be comfortable

Some of the items that I like is that it is easier to change the ISO settings, lens fine tune is simple and does not require extra equipment, the continuous frame rate is up to 10 frames per second, and the buffer has increased to 200 frames.

I mounted my Nikon 200-400 mm F/5 6 lens onto the camera and tried the lens fine tune and found that the lens did not need any calibration.  I took this combination out photographing yesterday and today and am very pleased with the results.

I am shooting manual and using auto ISO.  Today discovered a large flock of wild turkeys displaying along Horseneck Road in Westport.  One of the photos that I took was that ISO 9000 and the noise was not that disturbing.

Wild Turkeys Displaying

I have tried a few photographs today, utilizing the 1.3 X crop factor which according to the EXIF I have data doubled my focal length of the lens.  The results were pleasing.

Tree Swallow

White-breasted Nuthatch

American Robin Bringing Mud Back to the Nest That It Is Building¶

Unless something changes the D500 and the 200-500 lens will be my wildlife shooting combination.  This combination is very handholdable and much lighter than my 500 mm F/4 lens.

Double-crested Cormorants

Pairs of Greater Scaup

Swallows and More.

Barn Swallow

Last Friday morning, three of us visited Great Meadows National Wildlife Refuge.  The first thing we observed was a Tom Turkey displaying for a hen.  We then continue down to the morning blind, where we met Shawn Carey, who was set up to photograph, hopefully, the swallows landing on some perches.  There were a number of birds flitting by and Canada geese coming in to land.  I was able to get Canada geese landing and a female red-winged blackbird in a tree singing.

Canada Goose Landing

Red-winged Blackbird Singing

However, for the time that we were there with Shawn, no swallows landed on his perches.  At a swallow box near the blind, a female Tree Swallow (Tachycineta bicolor) was bringing in material to build the nest inside the box.  It was fun watching her as she struggled to get large pieces of material through a small hole.  In the meantime, the male tree swallow sat on top of the box and watched.

Tree swallow Building a Nest

Tree swallow Building a Nest

Up above and a little further away, barn swallows (Hirundo rustica) kept landing on a bare branch and by continuing to watch and with some luck.  I captured some pictures of the barn swallows in flight taking off from the branch.

Barn Swallow in Flight

Barn Swallow in Flight

Shawn left, but we continue to stay and finally a tree swallow and barn swallows landed on his perch, giving us some decent photographs.

Tree Swallow Singing

Tree Swallow Singing

Barn Swallows

As I have said in the past nature photography needs patience, no matter how long that it may take.

A Morning at Daniel Webster Massachusetts Audubon Sanctuary

Yellow Warbler with Inchworm

As I mentioned in my last blog, I went out photographing and traveled down to Daniel Webster Massachusetts Audubon Sanctuary.  When we left the house, there was cloudy and a little windy and, when we arrived at the sanctuary, it was drizzling, windy, and the temperatures were in the low 40s.  During the morning intermittently it cleared up on an off.  The main problem most of the time was the birds would just flying back and forth and not landing anywhere for decent photos.  We were set up in the morning blind.  However, by waiting long enough a few birds did honor us by coming in and letting us take their picture.

Yellow warblers were flitting back and forth and landing in the bushes capturing inchworm caterpillars.

Yellow Warbler with Inchworm

Tree swallows were flitting back and forth in one landed in front of us, and was preening.

Tree Swallow Preening

A Spotted Sandpiper made its appearance flying from rock to rock.

Spotted Sandpiper

Spotted Sandpiper in Flight

Normally, the logs a loaded with painted turtles sunning themselves, but today only one made its appearance.

Painted Turtle Climbing the Log

Walking back to the car, a male bobolink was on the top of the grasses seeing in its boisterous song.  I took this picture at eye level with the bobolink.

Bobolink Singing

Although there was not a lot of different photo opportunities, we made the best of what was there.  Other people joined us and the blind and we had good discussions about birding, photography, equipment's, so all in all, it was a good morning