My Week, Still hoping to outlast winter

Sunday

Another early Sunday morning of hoping for a change in the weather pattern soon, and it looks as if that may happen by the end of the week. If the weather next weekend is half as nice as the forecast is saying right now, I’ll be going somewhere other than around here both Saturday and Sunday!

However, there are four more days of the cold and clouds to get past first, as it will be twenty degrees colder than average for most of this week. There’s more snow in the forecast, but not much. If the forecast holds true, almost all the snow on the ground should be gone by the end of the week. I know that I said that last week, and we made a lot of progress, but there was a lot of snow to melt.

Since we went over nine feet of snow for the season, we’ve had very little since then, and the season total right now is 113 inches (287 cm). It looks as if we’re going to have to settle for second place in the records for snowiest winters on record. Oh darn! 😉 And this morning, it’s 21 degrees colder than it was at this time yesterday, and I wouldn’t call yesterday balmy by any stretch of the imagination!

My new 300 mm prime telephoto lens should be arriving tomorrow or Tuesday, and I’m getting fired up about getting out there and seeing what this new lens can do.

It will be good to have a light weight, more compact alternative to the Beast (Sigma 150-500 mm lens) so that I can carry and use some of my other equipment, particularly, the Tokina 100 mm macro lens. But don’t worry, you’ll still be seeing plenty of photos shot with the Beast. I have already made plans to carry the Beast with the Tamron 1.4 extender behind it when the birds that live in open fields arrive this spring, so I can get better close-ups of those species.

But on a daily basis, or for longer hikes, the new lens will be the one that I carry most often. If I carry it, I can also carry my tripod, the second camera body, and the Tokina macro lens with no problems, and I can’t wait to see how well that the macro lens does with flowers!

Now, I’ll have to get serious about finding a good way to carry everything. When I was up at Whitefish Point last fall, several of the birders there used wagons like kids have, to carry all their gear out to the birding areas. That’s a viable solution, but I still think that something with even large wheels would be better. But, before I get too carried away, I have to save up for my vacation coming in May.

I can’t tell you how much I’m looking forward to that vacation, two weeks off, and there are few places on Earth as pretty as Michigan in May. I plan on doing some trout fishing, and some birding, but most of all, I’m looking forward to being out in the middle of nowhere with no one around!

Well, even though it’s still frigid outside, I’m going to eat breakfast, then spend as much time as I can outside today. There’s glorious sunshine right now, even if it’s cold, but the clouds are forecast to roll in soon, so I’d better get going.

Well, I’m not sure that starting so early was a good idea or not. It was cold to start with, but about the time that I got to the far end of the park, the wind was picking up, turning the day into another bitterly cold one. It looked a lot more inviting that what it felt.

I brought the L series lens on the wildlife body, and the Tokina macro lens on the other body, along with my tripod, planning on shooting a few of the lichens that are emerging from under the snow. But, it’s hard to take a good photo when you’re fighting frostbite.

British soldier lichen

As much as anything, I also wanted to show all of you better photos of my new way cool tripod in action.

Manfrotto 055CXPRO3 tripod set-up

Being able to swing the center post to horizontal to reach over an object is what led me to purchase the model that I did. Well, that and the fact that it is carbon fiber and very light.

I tried a number of set-ups, here’s the only other photo worth sharing.

British soldier lichen

I’m sorry for so many photos of the British soldier lichen, but for me, it works best if I stick to one subject as I try to learn what I’m doing. However, between the harsh light and the cold, I didn’t learn very much today, other than to always check the background so that I don’t end up with a post growing out of my camera.

Manfrotto 055CXPRO3 tripod set-up

I am a push over for trick gadgetry, and I was afraid that it was the case with the tripod that I chose, but it turns out that this is one time when the trick gadgetry works as well or better than what I had thought that it would. The tripod is surprisingly steady as long as I don’t extend the “boom” out too far. You do have to use some common sense, I would never attempt to mount the Beast to the tripod with the center post flipped to horizontal, but for a typical body and macro lens, it works like a charm with a little caution.

Knot in a cedar fence rail

I had planned to shoot more photos of different subjects, but my fingers couldn’t take the cold any longer.

So, here’s the rest of the photos taken with the 70-200 mm lens. Just as I stepped out of the door of my apartment, this gull did a nice fly by.

Ring-billed gull in flight

In the woods next to the apartment complex, I spotted this female cardinal singing. Cardinals are one of the few species of birds where the females sing, not as much as the males do, but the females do sing, and this is the first time that I have gotten one “on film”, albeit a rather poor photo.

Female northern cardinal singing

This male house finch was close to full volume today, he must be getting serious.

Male house finch singing

This isn’t Fred, but another fox squirrel that was trying to keep its toes warm.

Fox squirrel staying warm

You’ll have to take my word for it because Juncos whistle through closed beaks, but this guy was singing his fool head off the entire time I was shooting the macro photos, and I finally had to photograph him.

Dark-eyed junco singing

And finally, a poor photo of a Cooper’s hawk in flight.

Cooper’s hawk in flight

I’ve thought about going out again like I did last Sunday, but I decided against it. Like I told myself while I was looking for other lichens to shoot this morning, there’ll be other days better suited this, no reason to suffer frostbite today.

Monday

Another cold, mostly cloudy day, with occasional snow flurries floating past my window to remind me that it’s still going to feel like January outside today. Just three more days of this crap left to endure, and then we should see the weather pattern shift. The forecast is for rain on Thursday and Friday, with warmer weather from then on as far as the forecasts go out.

I may be the only one who wants to see the rain later this week, hopefully it will wash away the scum left on everything from the winter, and maybe begin to green things up around here. I sure hope so!

I’m now tracking two packages, one with the 300 mm prime lens, the other with 4 large prints (11 X 14) that I ordered. I very seldom have prints made from any of my photos, but the company that I use when I do sent me a an Email with a huge discount to try to lure more of my business their way. So I’m getting the 4 prints for $5.50, and most of that is shipping, handling, and taxes. I chose three landscapes from last fall’s trip to Michigan’s UP, and the horned grebe that I shot using the Beast with the Tamron extender behind it as a test to see how well my photos do when blown up.

Oh, and that reminds me, the package with the 300 mm lens also contains the gadget that will allow me to use the fine focusing rail that my brother sent me more easily. I could fool around and mount it to my tripod now, but I’m not one to fool around with those kinds of things. The reason that I mention it is because I see that it will be a handy thing to use especially when I have the camera pointed downward when the center post of my tripod is in the horizontal position.

In that position, the only vertical adjustment that I have is by extending and retracting the legs of the tripod, which entails fooling around. The fine focusing rail mounted to the tripod will give me six inches or so of vertical adjustment, which should be enough in most cases. I’m pretty good at estimating how far to extend the tripod legs for a set-up, but adding the focusing rail will make everything easier.

That will be more important when the flowers begin to appear around here. To get close to the ground with the tripod that I have, I have to splay the legs wide with the center post swung to horizontal to get the camera close enough to low growing flowers. With the center post vertical, it would hit the ground before the camera was low enough. So, the ability to adjust height using the focusing rail will be even more important for those set-ups.

And, one more thing before my walk, don’t be surprised if you see another photo or two of the British soldier lichens before this week is over with, as I test out my new lens’ close focusing capabilities. 😉

Time to get going!

To take my mind off from the cold while I was walking, I debated whether I should start out testing the new lens with or without the Tamron extender behind it. I plan on using the extender 99% of the time with that lens, so in some respects, it makes sense to start out testing it with the extender.

On the other hand, it would be good to “benchmark” how well that the lens performs on its own first, then add the extender to see how much, if any, image quality suffers.

I have decided to start out without the extender. I lead a very boring life which gives me way too much time on my hands to ponder such things. 😉 Actually, there is a reason to put some thought into this, my brother and I are going to review lenses for each other. I purchased and will test the 300 mm prime lens, he’s going to purchase and test a 10-22 mm lens.  Then we can swap photos and let each other know how well the lenses fit our needs.

It was very much like a January day today, scattered sun and snow, although the snow was limited to a few flakes at a time. Officially, we don’t have any snow left on the ground, which is strange, since there’s so much left everywhere I want to go. What’s really remarkable is how quickly the snow is melting despite the cold, almost all the snow melt has been from the sun. Anyplace that is in the shade most of the time still has huge piles and snowdrifts left.

Anyway, enough of the snow is gone so that I can get around much better, so I thought that today would be a good day to get back in practice of “going in after” the birds. What I mean by that is that I get right in the branches of the tree that a bird is in. You’ll see from my photos that I’m a bit rusty. Other than the second photo coming up, of a female mallard, I was in the branches of the same trees that the birds were in, with me shooting through the branches to get these shots.

Male northern cardinal

Female mallard

Male northern cardinal

Male northern cardinal

Cedar waxwing

Cedar waxwing

I seldom see female house finches in the open, so I was delighted to see this one where I could get a clear photo of her.

Female house finch

I was even more delighted when her mate joined her!

A pair of house finches

But trying to catch both birds looking the right way so as to not get shadows on their faces is twice as hard as getting one bird facing correctly.

A pair of house finches

Black-capped chickadee

White-breasted nuthatch

Well, that’s about it for today, it’s time for me to get cleaned up and visit my mom.

Tuesday

Yup, it’s still January, the calendars are wrong. It’s as cold as January, and we received some snow last night, so when I look out the window, I’d swear that it’s January.

I’m going to change-up my regular routine today, because my new lens should be delivered some time around noon today. It is a signature required package, so I want to be here when UPS tries to deliver it. It depends on the driver and the package, sometimes if you’re not home, the driver will leave packages at the apartment office, but not always. I missed the driver when they tried to deliver the tripod I recently purchased, and had to go pick it up.

If the lens is delivered early enough, I’ll do my full walk with the new lens, if it’s too late by the time it arrives, I’ll drive down to the park to try to get a few photos with it today if there’s time. Maybe the weather will have improved by then as well.

I’m going to add UPS to the list of companies that I’d rather not do business with if at all possible. On the website for tracking the package, they had this come on for their “My Choice” service, you can sign up for free, and they will provide you with a more definite delivery time. Yeah, right. I signed up, even though they were asking for a lot more personal information than I thought that such a service would require, ignoring the suggestions that I become a “Premium” member for just $40 per year, and when I was all done signing up, I had the same delivery time, some time before the end of business today.

So now UPS has already begun sending me Emails which I would prefer not to receive, they have all that personal information about me, and I got nothing for it. If I could back out of the service, I would, but it wouldn’t do any good, they wouldn’t purge my records out of their database even if I did cancel the service, which is really no service at all. It’s just another shady way for them to collect information on people, which they will probably sell to another shady company. I should have known better.

Oh well, I’m going to eat breakfast, then catch up on my reading while I wait for my new lens.

One more thing while I have the time, there’s just today and tomorrow left as far as the extremely cold for March weather, things begin to turn around on Thursday. The weekend is still looking fantastic, so I’ll be going places both days. Sunday is forecast to be our warmest day in over four months, it may even hit 60 F (15.5 C) for the first time since November. It will feel like summer has arrived!

My new lens arrived, and when I looked out the window, it was snowing so hard that I could just make out the garage across the parking lot. I took a couple of photos indoors to test the close focusing ability of the lens, it passed, with flying colors! However, I’m not going to post those photos, the subject was a bud on my indoor plant.

The snow let up during my play time, but I didn’t have time before work to go to the park, so I shot ducks across the street from me in the apartment complex.

Male mallard

Ring-billed gull in flight

Ring-billed gull in flight cropped

Female mallard

Male mallard in flight

Female mallard in flight

Female mallard in flight

All I can say is WOW! I thought that my other lenses were sharp, but other than the Tokina macro lens, none of my lenses are close to being as sharp as the 300 mm prime!

I was surprise to see a pair of hooded mergansers here, I had to crop these photos quite a bit, but they’re still good.

Hooded mergansers

Hooded mergansers

Hooded mergansers

Other first impressions of the new lens, it comes with a great padded case, better than most you see on the market. The lens hood is built-in, and the lens also comes with the tripod mount, something which Canon often charges an arm and a leg for. The lens in no light-weight, that’s for sure, until I compare it to the Beast, then the new lens seems much lighter, a whole lot lighter. 😉

I used IS mode 2 for most of the photos today, that’s for action shots, and it worked extremely well, better than I had hoped. I may very well carry the lens set to that IS mode for birds in flight, and switch to full IS if I have the time to do so when photographing perched birds. We’ll see, a 15 minute test isn’t enough.

But, for all my doubts and agonizing over the purchase of this lens seems really silly now. It is so much better than what I had expected it to be. Tomorrow, I’ll give it a full work out.

Wednesday

I’d like to have been already on my way out the door to test my new lens, but I have to wait for it to warm up first, so I’ll get the weather report out of the way first. It’s sunny but very cold outside, it got down close to zero Fahrenheit last night once again. We were one degree short of setting a new record for the lowest temperature for this date, again.

The good news is that temperatures are predicted to begin climbing over the next two to three days, the bad news is that the warm up will bring with it clouds and rain. Well, that’s mixed news, I’ll be happy to see the rain wash away the last signs of this long winter, but I have a new lens to play with, and I’d rather have sunshine.

The really bad news is that the new forecast for Saturday isn’t nearly as nice as it has been all week, but at least it will be warmer. So, I think that I’ll still go walking someplace other than here, but closer to home than I had been planning on, maybe Aman or Palmer Park.

Okay, back to my new prime telephoto lens. I said that it was sharper than any of my other lenses, and it is, but it is more than just sharper, it is better in every way. The color rendition, color saturation, contrast, everything is better than my zoom lenses, which is the way things are supposed to be.

Being lighter and more compact than the Beast (Sigma 150-500 mm lens), it was much easier for me to get the photos of the mallards in flight, a whole lot easier. Shooting birds in flight with the Beast was like trying to hit a moving target with a rifle, it can be done, but you have to swing with your target for some distance to match the target’s speed.

With the 300 mm prime, it was like using a shotgun and jump shooting upland birds, something that I used to be very good at. I just threw the camera up to my eye, got a focus lock, and shot, so much quicker than what I can do with the Beast. So, you may see many more bird in flight photos here again.

One more thing, about the Canon 60 D body. As sharp and as good as some of the recent photos that I have been getting are, I thought that I may have been approaching the limits as far as quality of photo that the 60 D can produce, I was wrong. Since I can see a huge improvement in the quality of the photos that I shot yesterday with the new lens, I have not yet reached the limits of photo quality of the 60 D body.

I hate to brag, but last spring when I wrote the post about buying camera gear on a budget, I was dead on when I stated that the camera body that one chooses is less important than using quality lenses. I’m going to have fun seeing just how good of photo that I can get with my gear, as there’s still room for improvement.

That reminds me, of the photos that I shot yesterday, I had one clinker, an out of focus mallard in flight. There were some where the exposure was off, but since I was adjusting the exposure to learn the new lens, that was to be expected. But, there was just that one bad photo as far as what the lens and camera produced, and that was probably my fault as well.

Well, enough rambling, almost. I would like to take just the new lens today, and wait before I try it with the Tamron extender behind it, but since the weather will be so bad until this weekend, I had better try the two of them together today. If it were warmer, I switch back and forth, but it’s too cold for that today. Time to get going!

I’m back, and if I said that I wasn’t a bit disappointed in today’s photos, I’d be lying.

I could tell when I stepped outside that the day was not going to be a good one for photography, and it got worse for a while. Just like a couple of weeks ago at Aman Park, I could tell right off the bat that my photos wouldn’t be very good because of something atmospheric. I was hoping that it was due to my eyes not being able to adjust quickly enough to the rapidly changing level of light, but that wasn’t the case. There were many small cumulus clouds that would block the sunlight for a while as if it was a cloudy day, then the sun would peek between the clouds and hit the fresh snow from yesterday, and nearly blind me, then, it would go back to cloudy again.

I did take the new lens with the Tamron extender today, and that was probably a mistake given whatever was causing the lighting to be so weird today for most of my walk.

Most of the few photos of birds did not come out as sharp as I would have liked, they’re not horrible, but they’re nothing to write home about either, so I deleted most of them. Here are the exceptions.

Blue jay “singing”

American Robins eating sumac

American Robin eating sumac

Even if the photos aren’t as sharp as a tack, they are okay, and I did catch the robin flipping the sumac in the air before swallowing it. So, the new lens and the extender are a viable combination for birding.

I wonder, I said in a post a while back that I’d bet that the Canon extender would work better with the 70-200 mm lens than what the Tamron one does. With the Tokina 100 mm lens, and with the Beast, the Tamron extender does a fine job, I can hardly see any difference in photo quality when using it. But, when I use it with the 70-200 mm lens, photo quality drops off quite a bit. But, one day with bad light does not make for a good test day.

I did much better on close-ups! I found a few subjects to test the new lens’ close focusing abilities.

Lichens

Pattern in ice left from an oak leaf

That was shot handheld using auto-focus, and it’s pretty good if you ask me.

I brought my tripod with me, and when I got to the park, I did another test of the new lens on close-ups of the British soldier lichens.

British soldier lichens, handheld, auto-focus, not cropped

British soldier lichens, handheld, auto-focus, cropped

British soldier lichens, using tripod, manual focus, cropped

This part of the testing went extremely well as you can see! The new lens auto-focuses accurately all the way down to its limits, unlike the 70-200 mm lens which I have to manually focus at less than about six feet.

These photos are also very sharp, which tells me that I have to hold off judging how well the new lens works with the Tamron extender until I get a day with better lighting to truly see how well that combination works.

Here’s another reason to withhold judgement.

Male mallard

As I was getting close to home, I noticed that the light was getting better. I was going to check the duck pond anyway to see if the hooded mergansers were still there, they weren’t, but I did shoot a few photos of the mallards to further test the new lens with the extender. As you can see, there’s nothing wrong with that photo!

So, I’ll keep playing, as it is, the new lens and extender together make a great alternative to the Beast, my arms aren’t tired today as they would be if I had taken the Beast. 😉

Thursday

It’s a gloomy grey day, with a little rain from time to time. It’s not a day that one would normally look forward to for testing a new lens, but days like today are one of the reasons for my purchase of the 300 mm prime. I wouldn’t take the Beast out in weather like this, since it isn’t weather sealed at all.

I’ve calmed down a little over the results of my two days with the new lens, from the extreme high that I was on after seeing how great the photos from the first day were, to being disappointed in yesterday’s photos while using the extender with the new lens.

The first day, I had excellent conditions and subjects, so of course the photos were great. That set me up to be disappointed when I used the lens and extender together in less than ideal conditions.

Yesterday was the real world, tough conditions, and other than the mallards, birds that didn’t want their photos taken. The photos I shot were about the same level of quality that I would have expected from the Beast under the conditions they were taken under. I wanted better, but then again, the Beast is no slouch, so if the new lens with the extender can match what the Beast does, that’s not all bad.

The new 300 mm prime does a much better job on close-ups, with or without the extender, so it fills that void very nicely. It is also so much easier to carry than the Beast, so I won’t mind carrying it and other gear with me at the same time, which was my main reason for making the purchase in the first place.

Besides, I have not yet begun to fine tune my camera body for the new lens with the extender either. One day’s photos are not enough to truly judge how good of photos that I’ll be able to get from it once I get the camera adjusted to it.

There’s one more advantage to the new lens, on days like today, I can remove the extender and use the new lens alone under rotten conditions. When conditions are good, I can use the extender, so it’s almost like having two lenses rather than just one. Time to test that theory out.

I’m back, and if I posted the photos from today in a stand alone post, I would title it “What you can learn from bad photos”.

When I stepped out of the door of my apartment, I noticed two things, one, the rain that had been falling was mixing with snow and sleet. Two, there were a pair of geese right outside my window.

Snow covered Canada goose

Canada goose digging

In the first photo, I missed getting the focus on the goose’s face, but I love how well the photo shows the snow-covered feathers of the goose. The second photo shows how well the new lens does, even in bad conditions. Neither of those photos were cropped at all.

Here’s another un-cropped photo.

Eastern chipmunk

And, the cropped version.

Eastern chipmunk

It’s a little “soft” but not bad.

And finally, as far as photos, this mourning dove.

Mourning dove

In many ways, that last photo is the most impressive one of the few that I have shot with the new lens so far, even though it is a ho-hum photo.

Why do I say that?

There’s no chromatic aberration to be seen in that photo, despite the horrible weather when I shot it, it’s sharp, and the you can see the dove’s colors. When I first saw the photos of the dove, I almost deleted them, but then I remembered the barred owl photos that I shot with my old Nikon gear, now those were bad photos! The out of focus branches were tinged in purple or green from chromatic aberration, sensor noise was terrible, and you could barely make out that the owl was an owl. The weather today was almost exactly like it was when I shot the owl, mixed rain and snow, wind, and no light, but what a difference in image quality. The new lens proved its worth as a walking around lens with that photo alone.

What really stands out to me when I look at the photos from the new lens is how clear and life-like the photos look. Even my best photos from any of my other lenses look like photos, but when I view the photos from the new lens full size on my computer, it looks like real life.

Friday

It’s another gloomy, rainy morning, but it beats snow hands down! The good news is that the precipitation is coming to an end, and there may even be a little sunshine later today.

I’ll have to see how much snow that we’ve lost before I make a firm decision on where to go this weekend. There were still many areas where the snow was too deep to get around in last night as I was looking at the countryside while driving for work. Sunday, the weather is forecast to be sunny with highs in the fifties, but if I were to try walking through the four-foot high snow drifts left in many places, I wouldn’t enjoy it.

The large prints that I ordered are scheduled to be delivered today, it will be interesting to see how they turned out.

So far, the new 300 mm prime lens has performed better than what I had expected for the two days that I used it without the Tamron extender. The jury is still out as far as how well it will perform with the extender, I hope to be able to check that out better today, if it does brighten up a little. But, I’ll save the rest of my thoughts about the new lens until later, right now, it’s time for breakfast and a walk.

I’m back, and I have decided that the 300 mm prime lens was a wise purchase, even if it doesn’t perform well if I use it with the extender, although I still hope that it does. Anyway, I go out on a dark dreary day like today, and capture the following images, all with just that one lens.

Male mallards in flight

I thought that I would end up deleting that photo, I intended it just for practicing flying bird shots, but then I saw how well it turned out despite my not having adjusted the exposure. I’m going to have to learn that I may be able to get just about any shot with the new lens, so I had better start putting more effort into even my practice photos.

Male northern cardinal

Seeing multiple species of lichens together on a tree prompted this next one.

Lichens

Lichens cropped

Those were shot handheld using auto-focus, and I think that they are very good photos. If I had brought the tripod and stopped the lens down a little, they would have been even better.

Fred the friendly fox squirrel stopped by to see what I was photographing.

Fox squirrel

The red-winged blackbirds are back.

Male Red-winged blackbird

Male Red-winged blackbird

I thought that this was moss the last time I photographed it, but now I think that it is stonecrop or a similar plant.

Stonecrop?

It’s hard for me to believe that I shot all those photos with just one lens on a very poor day for photography. Everything from ducks in flight to medium size songbirds to near macros, I’m going to have a hard time leaving that lens behind when I go birding seriously.

As good as the new lens is, the Beast is still a better lens for birding because of its extra length and ability to auto-focus on birds partially hidden in the brush. Absolute image quality may not be as good with the Beast, but first, you have to get the photo before you can worry about quality. That’s the Beast’s strong suit, it always gets its bird!

But, what a great problem to have! Being torn between two excellent lenses, the 300 mm prime knocks my socks off with its image quality, the Beast still amazes me in its ability to auto-focus quickly and accurately on even partially obscured birds.

Saturday

In a complete reversal of my normal routine, I’m going to do my chores around home this morning, such as laundry, then go hiking this afternoon. It’s another dark gloomy day right now, but the forecast is for sun this afternoon. I sure hope that it pans out that way, as I really want to try the new lens with the extender in some good light.

Since the extender is so small, I’ve stuffed it into a pocket while walking the past two days, but the light was never good enough for me to try it. But that’s a very handy combination, the new lens is much lighter than the Beast, with or without the extender, and the extender is small enough to fit in a pocket when I’m not using it.

One of my chores this morning is to try to track down where the large prints that I ordered ended up. According to the tracking info, they were delivered yesterday, and they may very well may have been, but not to me. I’ll check with the office here, and I can drop off my rent check at the same time. If the prints aren’t in the office, then my only hope is that they were stuffed into the wrong mailbox by mistake.

I guess that I don’t have anything else to say this morning, unless I prattle on about the new lens, or the weather, so I’ll tend to my chores, and hope for better weather later.

I’m back after a very long day, it was a good news/bad news kind of day. The good news is that the sun finally came out, and I was able to test the new 300 mm prime lens with the extender behind it. I’ll get to that in a few, first, a few of the photos I shot with just the 300 mm lens before the sun came out for good.

Moss

Rushing water

Small lichens

Moss

I included this next one, because in a sure sign of spring, the young beech trees are beginning to drop last year’s leaves, although it doesn’t look like it here.

Beech leaves

And, the only bird that I was able to get close to for the first part of the day.

Black-capped chickadee

Black-capped chickadee

There was still a foot of snow on the ground in Aman Park, it was tough going at times. Even worse, the north end of the park was flooded, so I had to turn around and go all the way back the way I came. But, the sun finally came out, and it turned into a very nice day.

I sat down on one of the few logs not covered with snow to take a break, and install the Tamron extender behind the new lens. I shot this photo before adding the extender.

Unidentified fungal object

And this is the one that I shot with the extender.

Unidentified fungal object

I couldn’t tell for sure how sharp it was on the small screen of my camera, but it looked at least fair. I was hoping for birds, but they were all still taking their afternoon siesta, so I shot more mosses and lichens.

Lichens

Lichens

Lichens and fungi

I saw those as I was going through my photos from today after I got home, and was stunned to see how sharp they are!

While taking another break, another chickadee stopped by to say hi.

Black-capped chickadee

Black-capped chickadee

I shot about a dozen photos of the chickadee using the extender, and every one of them is that sharp. When I saw them on the computer, again, I was blown away.

Then, reality set in.

I had made it back to my Forester by then, on one hand, it was too nice of a day to leave, but on the other hand, I didn’t feel like battling the foot of slush on the trails either, so I picked a nice sunny spot to sit, and enjoyed the best weather we’ve had in quite a while. A flock of cedar waxwings were working their way towards me, when they got in range, I started shooting.

Cedar waxwing

Hardly anything to write home about. Luckily, I shot about thirty photos of the waxwings, and as I was sorting through them at home, I ran into a few like these.

Cedar waxwing

Cedar waxwing

Cedar waxwing

I also shot a few of a downy woodpecker, most of them came out well, but there were a few fuzzy ones as well.

But, I didn’t know that at the time.

After the waxwings moved off, I still didn’t want to come home, but just sitting there was a bit boring, despite the weather. So, I had a brainstorm, I’d stop at the park that I walk everyday, since the snow is gone there for the most part, and maybe I’d find some birds. I did.

American robin

American robin

The good news, the 300 mm prime lens with the extender can take photos that are even sharper than the Beast. The bad news, getting those photos is hit and miss. The number of misses goes up the farther the subject is away from me.

So, the good news is that I have a 420 mm macro lens when I use the new lens with the extender, the bad news is that it isn’t great for birding, yet.

I have figured out that the auto-focus of the new lens is extremely accurate up to about 20 to 25 feet, then the accuracy falls off dramatically.

Since it’s late, and this post is already too long, I’m going to end it here, then, I’ll pick back up tomorrow morning as I’m drinking my coffee.

That’s it for this one, thanks for stopping by!

March 29, 2014 | Categories: Birds, General, Hiking, My Week, Nature, Photography, Weather | Tags: Birds, Hiking, Nature, Nature photography, Photography, Photos | 9 Comments

My Week, Going, Going, Gone?

Sunday

I was up way too early for some one who works second shift, but that’s what happens when I go to bed so early on a Saturday night. Not only am I waiting for the temperature outside to climb above 10 F, but I’m waiting for the sun to come up as well. Hard to take bird photos in the dark. 😉

It promises to be a good day, very sunny, but very cold, twenty degrees below the average temperature for this time of year. We’re on the wrong track as far as temperatures. January averaged six degrees below average, February was nine degrees below average, and so far for March we’re ten degrees below average.

However, as much as I whine about the weather, it doesn’t seem to listen, or change, so I guess that I’m stuck bundling up when I do head out for my walk.

The good news is that the snow has been melting a little each day, even when temperatures have remained a little below freezing. The sun is that strong this time of year, and we’ve been having a few sunny days of late. We’re down to just seven inches at the official reporting station in Grand Rapids, although there are still many drifts that are two to three feet high in places.

The forecast for the week is cool, of course, but from looking at it this morning, there’s a good chance that what remains of the snow will be gone for the most part by the end of the week. Just in time for spring to officially arrive.

Once spring does get here, I’ll change the countdown to spring widget to countdown until I begin my vacation in May. I’m really looking forward to having two weeks off, even though I’m afraid that I’ll be starting my vacation a week too early to go camping. But, that’s still two months away, the weather patterns could change by then.

Even if It’s too cold to camp out the entire time, I’m sure that there will be stretches in there where I can get in several short trips, which wouldn’t be all that bad. Even if the entire two weeks are warm enough to camp, I’ll have to come home at least once to do laundry and replenish my food supply.

With some time to kill, I have finished my 150th post for the My Photo Life List project, I’m making steady progress on that, and with the spring migration just getting started, I should be able to add more species to the photos that I have already saved. I also hope to get better photos of some of the species that I have already posted.

That should be fairly easy, I hate to sound as if I’m bragging, but my skills as a photographer, helped along by good equipment, continue to improve. I look back at the photos that I shot of the sandhill crane in flight that I shot last week while it was raining lightly, then think back to what those photos would have looked like if they had been taken with my old camera, and all I can say is that there’s a wold of difference.

The sun is coming up, and I thought about doing a daybreak walk, but then I looked at the current conditions from the local weather station, and if they are correct, we’ve tied the record for the coldest temperature for the date at 5 F. Even if we didn’t tie the record, it’s still cold out there, at least for March.

I’ve thought about going someplace to hike today, but with the weather being much more like a pleasant winter day than early spring, I see no reason to go anywhere else but here. I think that instead of travelling somewhere that I’ll try taking all my camera gear for the first time this year. It will make a good trial run to see how well that I can carry it all at one time, since I’ve added to my kit over the winter. If it turns out to be too heavy or too awkward, I can turn around and come back home, shed some of it, then finish my walk.

Okay, so I was wrong, it didn’t feel like a pleasant winter day, it felt like a brutally cold winter day out there today! I had hoped that the bright sunshine would make it feel warmer than the actual air temperature.

The wind, which was forecast to be rather light is what made it feel so cold, I had my neck gaiter pulled up over my nose the entire time I was out there. Even with my gloved hands in my pockets, my fingers went numb. Oh by the way, for the meteorologist who forecast a light wind, a light wind does not roar through the treetops, nor cause the trees to creak and moan as they sway in the wind, you were wrong!

Needless to say, I brought back very few photos, and I’m not going to post any of them, at least not yet. I hope to get a better photo to kick this post off with than any from this morning.

There is some good news though. Before leaving this morning, I made some adjustments to the tripod case and the shoulder strap, and it stayed put while walking today. I took all my photo gear except for the Beast (Sigma 150-500 mm lens), as I had mentioned earlier, as a trial run. That’s probably why the wind came up so strong. 😉

Anyway, everything worked as it should today, as long as I leave one of the longer lenses home. While I carried the 70-200 mm L series lens and Tamron extender today, I could have just as easily carried the Beast. So, at least the trial run worked well. I still think that some sort of wheeled cart or wagon would be better than strapping twenty pounds of camera gear to myself, but it works well if I have to carry it.

Now then, I’ve just gotten done complaining about the cold, but I may go for a repeat later this afternoon after it has warmed up as much as it’s going to. I saw very few birds, I think that they were all frozen where they had perched for the night, and hopefully they’ll thaw out in the sun so I can get some photos worth posting for the day.

Well, I’m back after round two, but I wouldn’t call this round a hike, I wimped out and drove the mile and a half to the park. It was still cold, but the birds had thawed out since this morning!

Male downy woodpecker

I saw two first of the year species.

Song sparrow

Yellow-rumped warbler

Yellow-rumped warbler

But most of my photos are of the same few species that have been appearing here of late.

Blue jay

Dark-eyed junco

Dark-eyed junco singing

American robin

Female downy woodpecker

And, there are plenty more photos of those species still to go if I need them later this week. I think that I’ll save one series of photos that I shot for Thursday, the first day of spring, unless I get something better between then and now. And, I’ll save the rest just in case I have another slow day like this morning, when all I photographed was this holly…

Holly

…and this pine cone.

Pine cone

By the way, all the birds were shot using the Beast, the holly and the pine cone were taken with the L series lens.

This afternoon, I walked as much of the park as I could twice, but all the birds were in one small section of the park, the area most sheltered from the wind. So, I stood there freezing until the birds got used to my being there, and came out in the open a little more than usual.

Now it’s time for me to thaw out again.

Tuesday

Another sunny, but very cold start to the day, with the temperature very close to record cold. At least it doesn’t look as though the wind is as strong as yesterday.

I’ve been trying to find the good side of this cold, and one thing may be that some of the invasive species of insects will be killed of by this cold, such as the emerald ash borer. If that’s the case, then we’ll get a reprieve from the damage that they have been doing to our ash trees, at least temporarily. As long as any survive in North America, they will eventually return to Michigan. But anything that slows down any of the destructive invasive species will be welcome.

I spent some time this past weekend adding to my wish list of photo gear to purchase in the future. Most of the items are gizmos and gadgets to use with my macro set-up and tripod. Most are to make setting up for macro photos faster and easier, it’s amazing how a few bucks here and there add up quickly. However, I know me, and if it isn’t quick and easy, I’m not going to take the time to do it the right way, so I’ll be adding to my gizmo and gadget collection as I can.

I may be adding one more big-ticket item, other than a long prime telephoto lens to be used as my walking around lens on longer hikes, and that is an EF-S 10-22 mm f/3.5-4.5 USM Lens. I love the 15-85 mm lens that I already have, but seldom use. So, why would I purchase an even wider lens? Well, the wider lens would allow me to get more creative in my photographic endeavors.

It’s all about perspective. Telephoto lenses compress a scene, making everything in the scene to appear to be closer together than what they are in reality. Wide angle lens do the opposite, they make things in a scene appear to be farther apart than what they really are. The super wide 10-22 mm lens would be fun to play with, but that’s a long, long way off.

My brother and I have been talking about that subject, and I’ll probably wait to see what his photos look like before I take the plunge on a lens like that. I think that once the weather around here warms up, I’ll do more playing with the 15-85 mm lens as well, to see if what I have in mind will work before deciding whether I want to try an even wider lens.

Well, it’s finally warming up a little outside, so it’s time for me to get moving.

Warming up a little was right, very little. It was another day of bone chilling wind chills, and the birds hadn’t thawed out yet while I was out there. In spite of the sunshine, I shot a total of two photos, both are junk. I was too slow on the shutter for a cardinal taking off  early on my walk, and on the way home, I missed a gull in flight because my “trigger” finger was so cold that it wouldn’t work correctly.

It’s a good thing that I saved these from yesterday. 😉

Blue jay

Blue jay

The first one I consider the be almost perfect, except the jay turned its head at the last second, so you can’t see his head. But the color and sharpness are close to perfect. In the second one, the jay is coiling up to leap into flight, so it isn’t quite as sharp as the first.

Song sparrow

Song sparrow

The Beast is an excellent birding lens!

Time to get cleaned up and visit my mom.

Tuesday

While walking yesterday, and a lot of the time since then, I’ve been thinking about my future camera gear purchases, and trying to prioritize them. For a while I had convinced myself that purchasing the 70-200 mm L series lens was a mistake, even though it is the lens that I’ve used the most this winter. I’ve been making do with that lens until I can afford the one that would be better for what I’ve been shooting.

But then, I remembered the times this past summer when I used it for what it is really intended to be used on, and buying it wasn’t a mistake. It will eventually become my least used lens, but there will be times when it will be the lens to use, landscape photography where the 15-85 mm lens is too short.

The thought had entered my mind that I could use the Tokina 100 mm lens, with or without the Tamron 1.4 extender in place of the L series lens for landscapes, and it would work very well as far as photo quality, but that set-up would require that I spend much more time on my set-ups, and a lot more fooling around. I’m not one to fool around, so that probably wouldn’t be a good idea.

The gadgets and gizmos for when I’m using my tripod for macro photography will be nice things to have, eventually. Until I use that set-up more, I’m not sure just how many of those things I’ll really need. I could afford those things now, but I think that it would be wiser to continue saving for a long prime telephoto to use as a walking around lens on longer hikes.

I won’t bore you with the rest of my thoughts along those lines, other than to say that as one is purchasing camera gear, it is a good idea to re-assess what you already have, and what you need the most.

Okay, as far as the weather today, it’s still sunny, and a lot less cold than what it has been the past two days. It may even make it above freezing while I’m walking today. I’ve even put the Beast back on the critter camera body in hopes of getting some photos today.

Oh, one more thing before I venture out. My “confused” light theory is hogwash! Still, there’s something atmospheric that affects photo quality, something that I’ve never read anything about so far. However, there has to be a reason why my photos a week ago Sunday came out so poorly, and my photos from this Sunday so well, when conditions were very similar overall. About the same amount of sunshine, temperatures, and wind, the exact same lens, camera body, and of course, photographer. The photos from my day in Aman Park were trash, yet the ones from this Sunday were some of the best that I have ever taken. Well, it’s something to think about today while I’m out.

I’m back after spending way too much time out there taking bad photos of birds. The weather is forecast to go downhill after just this one day of fantastic weather, so I tried to “stock up” on photos in case I have more days like yesterday. I tried too hard, and shot photos that I knew would be crap even as I shot them.

The weather was so nice, and we’ve lost so much snow, I took the back way out of the park for the first time in at least two months instead of going through the subdivision. Things are looking up at least a little. If only we could get three or four days in a row like this, rather than one great day, one warm but rainy day, then a week in the deep freeze.

Oh well, enough of that. Here’s a few photos from today, I’ll add a couple of more from today later this week when I have time to explain them.

Female downy woodpecker, not cropped

Female downy woodpecker, cropped

Male downy woodpecker

Female northern cardinal, no exposure comp.

Female northern cardinal, -1/3 EV

Black-capped chickadee

Time to get cleaned up for work.

Wednesday

Well, it’s a very gloomy day out there today, with a little light rain falling. Hey, at least it’s rain and not snow! The unsettled weather is going to stick around here for the next few days, before we plunge back into the deep freeze for the weekend, of course.

Other than ranting about the weather, or how much I’d like to be putting my new photography gear to use, I don’t have a lot to say, so I suppose that it’s time to get going.

I’m back, and as I expected from the weather conditions, I shot very few photos, and I saved two.

Dripping

Cedar waxwing in the rain

The first photo is one of those that I love, in spite of the boring subject matter. The second, of the waxwing, is to remind myself of the huge flock of waxwings that I saw today. I conservatively estimated 50 waxwings in the flock, but I think that there were many more than that. There were times that I could see 10 or more in the air at the same time as they searched for food.

And, the waxwings weren’t alone, there were dozens of robins and Juncos throughout the park, with lesser numbers of the common species such as blue jays, woodpeckers, and chickadees. I probably saw more birds in the park today than I have seen since early last fall, and more than I have seen anywhere other than Muskegon.

However, with the gloomy light, rain, and fog rolling off from the ,melting snow, it wasn’t a day for photography. That’s why I attempted so many shots that I knew would be bad yesterday, including this one, the first turkey vulture of the year.

Turkey vulture, the first seen in 2014

Back on Sunday morning when it was so cold that I had to worry about frostbite, I posted a photo of holly, but I wasn’t happy with it, so I did a better job of it yesterday.

Holly

Hmmm, they don’t look much different in the small size in my post, but trust me, this second one is head and shoulders better than the first.

Also from yesterday, this series of a female red-bellied woodpecker, ending in her rejecting a possible suitor.

Female red-bellied woodpecker

Female red-bellied woodpecker

Female red-bellied woodpecker

Female red-bellied woodpecker

Here comes the male, and maybe it’s me, but I can hear him saying “Hey babe, you’re cute!”.

Male red-bellied woodpecker chasing female

But she wanted nothing to do with him, despite his trying to sweet talk her.

Male red-bellied woodpecker chasing female

And here’s the male, looking quite dejected about being rejected.

Male red-bellied woodpecker looking rejected after being rebuffed

Well, that’s all for today. I still have a series of photos from Sunday that I’m saving for tomorrow if needed, since it’s the first day of spring. The weather may not be much better tomorrow, but it would be nice if it was.

Thursday

The first day of spring, or is it April Fools Day?

It snowed a little overnight, just enough to cover the few patches of bare ground that had appeared the past few days. It’s still gloomy out, but since the temperature is back below freezing, the fog from yesterday is gone.

It is looking like another weekend stuck here at home, the forecast for Saturday is for mixed precipitation, then “sharply colder” for Sunday.

I had been hoping that most of the snow would be gone by this weekend, but it won’t, there was too darned much of the stuff to begin with. I’ve been thinking about going to the ledges of Grand Ledge, as it is east of here, and they have received less snow in that direction, since they are farther from Lake Michigan. However, I drive that way each night for work, and as of last night, there’s still way too much snow left for me to go drift busting along the ledges. Maybe next weekend. I’m overdue for another trip to Muskegon as well.

I should be in a much better mood. For one thing, my knees are much better, even my right knee, which I thought that I had damaged permanently back in January. But, they are coming around, my left knee is close to 100% and the right one is still a bit tender if I stress it too much, but it continues to improve.

Also, it looks as if I take advantage of lower online pricing, and a $100 rebate from Canon, that I’ll be able to swing the purchase of the 300 mm L series prime lens that I would like to have as an alternative to the Beast for longer hikes by the end of the month. One of the big online retailers has that lens for $130 off the list price, and if I purchase before the end of March, there’s the rebate from Canon to knock another $100 off, saving me $230 total. That will be tough to swing, but it is also tough to pass up saving that much money. I’ll have to stop at the bank on my way to work this afternoon to set that purchase into motion.

Now, if the weather would only improve to the point where longer hikes were possible!

It’s looking a little brighter outside, so I guess that it’s time for me to get a move on.

Well, it’s now officially spring, so I went looking for a few signs that it’s coming, with limited success.

I’m going to go back to my purchasing the long prime telephoto lens that I have wanted since even before I purchased the Beast. I wasn’t getting fired up about making the purchase, mostly due to the crummy weather we’ve had around here which has shortened my walks so much.

However, now that I’m back, I am getting excited about the new lens. Why? It was too cold today to carry the Beast with the wind chill as low as it was today, but the 70-200 mm lens just isn’t long enough for birding, even with the Tamron extender behind it.

Male house finch

I had to make use of the constant manual focus capabilities of my Canon body and the L series lens to get that shot. The auto-focus would not lock on the finch.

That’s another reason that I’m looking forward to the new lens, even though it may not be needed yet. Using it now will give me the time I need to learn its foibles, and to dial in my camera body for it.

Here’s a sign of spring taken with the Beast the other day.

Male song sparrow singing

Male song sparrow singing

Male song sparrow singing

I had forgotten how long it took me to learn the Beast, and to get my camera body set-up to get photos of that quality with the Beast.

Every lens that I own has a few tricks that I’ve had to learn in order to get the most from the lens, I have no doubt that the new one will be the same. I may as well start learning those tricks early.

So, a little while later today, after the finch photo, I found that the snow that had been covering the British soldier lichens had melted.

British soldier lichen

While that photo doesn’t come close to matching the quality of one that I shot earlier this year with the Tokina macro lens, it’s a good photo. However, it would have been even better if I had used the tripod, but I didn’t have it with me today.

Once again, the lens that I’m going to purchase would have been just the ticket today. It focuses almost exactly as close as does the 70-200 mm lens, which would have gotten me “closer” to the lichens with the new lens’ extra length. Using the tripod, I could have stopped the lens down more for more depth of field. It hit me that I could carry that lens with the Tamron extender and my tripod, and come very close to what I can do with the Tokina macro lens.

So on cold or rainy days, I could get by with the new set-up, and not feel as if I were passing up shots because I wasn’t carrying all my gear with me as has been the case the past few months.

Now then, for a true but boring sign of spring.

Green leaf in the snow

I tried shooting a few birds in flight today, but didn’t get any photos that are really worth posting. I had good luck with one of the red-tailed hawks, but I’ve posted a lot of photos of them lately, so no need for more. That applies to the photos of geese headed north as well.

Which reminds me, I saw many flocks of birds of all sizes on their way north today, another sure sign of spring.

Oh, and a rather odd thing happened today on my way back home. A car pulled over next to me, and an attractive young woman told me that she always saw me walking with my camera, and handed me a gift card for a free cup of coffee at the local convenience store, now how nice was that? I’m sure that she’s affiliated with the store, but still, it was a nice gesture, and one of these cold days, I’ll stop in at the store, and get a coffee to warm up with.

Friday

Wow, I looked at the gift card that the young woman gave me yesterday, and it isn’t for a free cup of coffee, it’s a $10 gift card, several cups of coffee! That has to be a sign that my luck is changing, although I’m tempted to return the gift card. It seems wrong to accept it, even though I didn’t solicit it in any way. I have no idea why a complete stranger would think of handing me a $10 gift card.

The other big news, I took the plunge and ordered the EF 300 mm f/4 L IS USM lens this morning, I just couldn’t pass up saving almost $250 on it. In a way, it seems silly to purchase that lens when I love the photos that the Beast turns out, but there’s the reason that I’ve nicknamed the Sigma lens the Beast, it’s heavy and huge. This new lens will be much more appropriate for walking around with.

The underlying reason that buying a lens to use rather than the Beast bothers me a little is that I have to admit to myself that I’m a wimp, and that I’d rather not lug something as large and heavy as the Beast around. 😉

Okay, so I’m a wimp that would rather not carry a camera/lens combination that weighs 6 pounds and is as large as a small log. And, it isn’t just carrying the Beast, it’s trying to swing it around to catch birds in flight, or even just raising it up to my eye. It’s trying to find a safe place to set it down when I take a break, or try to use my other camera body and lens. The Beast is so big and heavy that I can’t just let it dangle on the end of my camera’s strap.

The 300 mm prime telephoto uses the same tripod mount that fits the 70-200 mm lens that I already have, so not only is that lens lighter than the Beast, it’s much more compact as well, making it much easier to handle all the way around. Or, at least that’s what I’m hoping.

I’ll still use the Beast, especially if it ever warms up around here, but having a lighter alternative to it means that I’ll be more likely to use my other gear more often, and I’m looking forward to that. The 300 mm prime is a pound and a half lighter than the Beast, that’s more than my Tokina macro lens weighs, so I’ll be more likely to carry and use the Tokina.

Having said all that, with nicer weather today, the Beast is going back on the camera for the walk today, bbl.

I’m back, and how can one not love a lens that can do this?

American robin

Pluck a bird the size of a robin from the top of a tree and have the photo come out like that, yes, the Beast is a great birding lens. As if I haven’t said that enough times already.

Male northern cardinal singing

When I tried to move so that I didn’t get the shadows, the cardinal took off on me, darn.

One of the smaller hawks, I can’t tell if it’s a sharpie or a Cooper’s hawk, came blasting past me as I was walking in the subdivision on my way to the park, resulting in this interesting photo.

Accipiter paying some one a visit

And here are a couple of long shots of a crow alerting the rest of the birds to the hawk’s presence.

American crow sounding the alarm

American crow sounding the alarm

I have no idea why they do it, but crows seem to blink a lot while they are squawking.

Here’s a sure sign of spring.

Wild strawberry?

And to round out the day, a couple of shots of Bertha, the female red-tailed hawk.

Female red-tailed hawk in flight

Female red-tailed hawk in flight

As you can see, it was a beautiful day today, but it isn’t going to last. There’s rain and snow in the forecast for tonight, then colder tomorrow with scattered snow, and even colder for Sunday.

One more thing about my order this morning, I also ordered a gadget to go with the macro fine focusing rail that my brother gave me, but not a gizmo. Looking at the gadget, it dawned on me that it comes with its own gizmo, so I don’t need another one. 😉

Saturday

Well, the one day of great weather has come and gone, now it’s back to the clouds and cold for the weekend. Officially we’re down to three inches of snow on the ground, but there’s still so much snow in most places that getting around is still tough to do.

This week is looking depressing as well, cloudy and cold until Thursday, but the good news is that it should get up to around freezing each day. Maybe we will lose all the snow by next weekend, and it’s a long way off yet, but the forecast for next weekend looks good right now. I should be so lucky.

Other good news, the new 300 mm prime telephoto lens was shipped yesterday afternoon, and I should have it in my grubby little hands by Tuesday.

I was getting all fired up and looking forward to the arrival of the new lens until I saw the weather forecast for the week. But, there’s nothing that I can do about the weather other than complain, and that doesn’t seem to be doing any good.

Still, it will be nice to have a good, lightweight alternative to the Beast to use while hiking, but the thought lingers in the back of my feeble little mind that it was a lot of money to spend on an alternative to a lens that produces photos that I love. And, the reality is that the new telephoto lens is actually a better choice as far as lenses for the weather this week than what the Beast would be.

As I have been purchasing lenses, each one up until this last one has increased my capabilities as far as the types of photos that I can take. First, there was the Beast for birds and other wildlife. Then, the 70-200 mm lens for foul weather birding and longer landscapes. Next, the 15-85 mm lens for landscapes and as a near macro lens. Finally, the Tokina 100 mm macro lens for true macros. This prime telephoto will only make it easier for me to shoot the same photos that I could otherwise shoot with one of my other lenses.

In a way, I almost wish that I had ordered the 10-22 mm lens that I mentioned earlier. That lens would put a new perspective on things, and I’d have fun exploring just what it could do.

I know that when the new telephoto lens arrives that I’ll have fun with it as well. One of my reasons for purchasing that particular lens is its close focusing capabilities for butterflies and dragonflies. The only problem is that there aren’t any of those around right now.

I’m back from my walk, and I thought about deleting most of what I typed before I had left, for it is mostly buyer’s remorse. The new prime telephoto that I’m getting may not add very much direct capabilities, but I think that it will be of more value to me than I had thought.

In a trial run of sorts, I carried the 70-200 mm and Tamron extender today, even though I could have carried the Beast. I also brought my tripod along as well. I made a point of testing how well I can carry and use my new gear as I would like to use it on longer hikes. I won’t bore you with the all the details other than to say that I can see myself carrying the tripod almost daily from now on, which will have a huge impact on the quality of some of my photos. I alternated between wildlife and macro photos, although I used only one body today, changing camera settings as I went.

Things went extremely well, and they will only be better when I carry both bodies so I’m not changing settings all the time. I would have brought both bodies today, but with the snow and sleet falling at times, I didn’t want to go overboard. 😉

I stared with a pair of mallards in a temporary pond that the melting snow left behind.

Mallards

Then, I set-up and began shooting lichens.

British soldier lichen

Unidentified lichen

I would have photographed more of them, but the wind and snow picked up, and I wasn’t going to freeze for bad photos. 😉

But, when Fred began posing for me again, I just had to photograph him.

Fred the friendly fox squirrel drinking

Fred the friendly fox squirrel asking me if he’d done alright

He’s such a ham!

I forgot to change to aperture priority for this one, so the depth of field is too short, but even though the photo isn’t great, I can still see the possibilities of using my tripod more often.

Unidentified green stuff

Things didn’t go without a hitch though, I had a little trouble with the locks on the tripod head for tilting and swiveling it. I took care of that problem when I got home, lubricating the threads of the locking handles, it works like a charm now. So I guess that these test runs are a good thing, as conditions couldn’t have been much worse for photography than they were today. That applies to the carrying bag for the tripod as well, it gave me fits the first time that I used it, with it properly adjusted, I didn’t have a problem with it today.

So, I’m looking forward to the arrival of the new lens, and being able to carry it and my other gear at the same time without killing myself. With the weather forecast to be poor next week, it will give me a chance to put the new lens through its paces to see how well it performs.

If it performs as well with the Tamron extender as I hope it will, then The Beast will be reserved for trips when birding is my only objective.

That’s it for this one, thanks for stopping by!

March 22, 2014 | Categories: Birds, General, Hiking, My Week, Nature, Photography, Weather | Tags: Birds, Hiking, Nature, Nature photography, Photography, Photos | 12 Comments

My Week, does it ever end?

Sunday

Well, sitting here drinking my coffee, trying to decide if I should go in to work early, and walk in the afternoon, or walk now, and work later. Since it’s sunny and the wind is relatively calm right now, I guess I’ll go for a walk as soon as I finish breakfast.

I know that I have whined too much about the weather, but since this winter is going into the record books as one of the harshest on record, I think that I’m entitled to a little whining. Three days of warm weather melted just 6 inches of the snow on the ground, there’s still 18 inches left, so I still can’t get around very well. If the forecast for this week is correct, we’ll set one or two records for lowest temperatures for those dates. The overall temperatures for this coming week are forecast to be nearly 30 degrees below average. If we get as much snow as they are forecasting, this winter will go into the books as the second snowiest winter ever, and we very well may make the number one spot this winter if this pattern doesn’t break soon.

The strong winds on Friday pushed all the ice on Lake Michigan into piles along the Michigan shore, so there’s a lot of open water again now, which means more lake effect clouds and snow. Ice coverage on Lake Michigan went from 85% to less than 30%, but with record-setting cold this week, it will start to freeze back over again.

Well, I’m back, and despite the fact that I knew that I would nearly freeze my fingers off, I took the Beast (Sigma 150-500 mm lens) with me. The birds must have known that, most of them stayed well hidden today, probably staying out of the cold wind as well. It was a good thing that I took the Beast, otherwise this would be the only photo from today.

Fox squirrel

As it was, the only birds that I managed to photograph were a red-bellied woodpecker and a robin.

Red-bellied woodpecker

American robin fidgeting

American robin

If I said any more about today, it would end up being about how cold it felt even with the bright sunshine, besides, I have to go to work and make the run that I didn’t on Friday because of the wind and snow.

Monday

Well, back to “normal” around here today, cloudy, cold, with light snow swirling around my window. I’m tired of saying that I’m tired of this winter, but it’s going to stick around for the foreseeable future. The long-range computer forecasts keep us below freezing for day time highs until the middle of March. Now that’s a depressing thought! Three more weeks of cold.

If that all holds true, then we may not lose the snow cover around here until April, as it will take more than a week of above freezing temperatures to get rid of all the snow that’s on the ground now, and we’ll only be adding to that over the next ten days.

If there’s any good news, it’s that my knees are improving with each day, since I’m taking it a bit easier at work. My left knee doesn’t bother me at all any longer, and even the right knee is getting much better. It’s still tender if I twist it too far, or if I put a lateral load on it, but at least I can walk in a straight line without limping any longer. So,I guess it’s time to bundle up and face the cold, again.

I’m back, and I’m going to attempt to not complain about the cold and the wind.

I took the Canon 70-200 L series lens with the Tamron Extender behind it today, and I noticed that the British soldier lichens that I photographed with the Tokina macro lens shortly after I purchased that lens were visible again. So I shot a number of photos of the lichen, but without a tripod, they all came out really bad, too bad to post here. That was mostly due to my not being able to stop the lens down to get enough depth of field, but the other part of the equation is still that I have a difficult time getting the L series lens and the Tamron extender to focus well together up close.

So, my three photos of the day are of a robin trying to stay warm while eating a few crabapple.

American robin

American robin

American robin

The first photo wasn’t cropped at all, the second and third were.

If there’s a bright side to this bad weather, I think that it is that I’m getting better at getting good photos under poor conditions. Maybe if this winter hangs on as long as it looks like it is going to, I’ll actually get good at photography in snowstorms. 😉

In a way, I hate to post so many photos of the more common species as I have been, but that’s all that I’m seeing right now. I wouldn’t want my blog to become the fox squirrel photo of the day blog, but then again, as long as my photos continue to improve, then I’ll keep on posting what I see. The squirrel photo from yesterday ranks as one of the best that I have ever gotten in my opinion.

Tuesday

What’s to say other than cloudy and cold. Sorry that I sound like a broken record, but that’s the way that it’s been around here.

There will be one change today, I have a dental appointment just after noon today, so I won’t be walking today. Typically, I would try to sneak in a walk before or after the appointment, but I really see no reason to. Instead, I took this extra time today to post my weekly species of bird in the My Photo Life List project that I started last year.

I’m making good progress, and I have photos saved that will put me to the half-way point on the list of species that I am working from, but some of the photos are bad, and I hope to shoot better ones before I get to those species. Some of the photos that I have saved were shot with my old Nikon D 50 and 70-300 mm lens that I used to use, and they can’t hold a candle to the photos that I am getting with my new equipment. That’s the problem with upgrading your equipment, learning to use it correctly, and significantly increasing the quality of the photos that you get, you don’t want the world to see what you used to think was a good photo. 😉

Since there won’t be a photo from today, I’ll use up this one that I shot one night last week after I arrived home from work, a rather rare sight in Michigan during the winter.

Moon

That was shot using the Beast and the Tamron extender and then cropped a bit, not too shabby.

Wednesday

A change in the weather! It’s sunny, but even colder than what it has been the past few days. The temperature when I got up was 4 degrees F, with a wind chill of -12 F.

I want to quit looking at the weather forecasts, as they all say that this cold is going to hang around through at least most of the month of March. But, I need to know what the weather is going to be for work, so I’m stuck listening to how cold that it is going to stay.

Well, there’s nothing I can do but bundle and trundle, be back later.

I’m back, and I’m trying to get some warmth back into my body. Some clouds and even snow moved through the area while I was out, but there was sunshine most of the time, even that wasn’t enough to kill the chill though.

The average high temperature for the first of March is 40 degrees F, the forecast high for today through Friday are 10 to 12 degrees, nearly 30 degrees colder than average.

It’s been so cold for so long that there have been many water main breaks in the past few weeks, and some cities are asking residents to keep a faucet or two dripping at all times to prevent the water mains freezing and bursting.

There have been more roof and even building collapses due to the weight of snow and ice, too many to keep up with of late.

I have to wonder if this constant cold is making my knee as bad as it has been. It’s been very cold in the trailer while I unload and load it, so cold that last night I broke down and wore a pair of heavy, insulated Carhart coveralls that have seen better days, but I’ve grown tired of freezing while working. I was very pleased with how good my knee felt last night when I got home, and even more pleased with the way that it felt this morning when I got up.

However, once I was outside in the cold this morning, by the time that I got past the building I live in, a dull ache was settling in my knee, so bad that I considered turning around. But, I didn’t, I trundled on. That has me thinking that I should start adding another layer to what I wear while I’m walking to protect my legs from the cold better. I’ll try that tomorrow to see if it helps.

I did manage to get a few photos today.

Female downy woodpecker

Female downy woodpecker

Last week I posted a photo of Bertha and Bruiser, the mated red-tailed hawks, perched together in a tree that I’ve never seen either of them use before. Like most raptors, red-tailed hawks have a few favored trees that they perch in while hunting so it was unusual to see the two of them together in what I would consider an odd spot.

Today, Bruiser was perched in that same tree again, but I didn’t see Bertha. I did get a couple of poor photos of Bruiser as he moved on looking for better hunting grounds.

Red-tailed hawk in flight

Red-tailed hawk in flight

Normally I would have deleted those two photos, but since I’m having trouble coming up with any photos, and they do remind me that Bertha and Bruiser seem to be changing their habits, I’ve included them today.

Thursday

I don’t know why, but the cold really got to me yesterday. It took forever for me to get warm again, even though there have been many days this winter when it has been just as cold as it was yesterday.

Speaking of just as cold, the weather today is almost an exact repeat of yesterday, some clouds and sun, with a stiff wind out of the west, and occasional snow showers passing through the area. We’ve already recorded what will likely be the high temperature for the day, as the temperature is falling now as the wind pushes another blast of Arctic air into the region. It’s a whopping 6 degrees (-14 C) outside as I type this.

At least it isn’t as bad as last night, when yet another system passed through the area, dropping more snow that blew around causing drifts large enough for many schools to be closed again today. We’re up to the third snowiest winter ever on record right now, the next storm over the weekend will likely move us up to the second position with over 9 feet of snow for the season. We’re just two inches from that “magical” mark.

As I look out the window, I can see the trees swaying in the wind, snow swirling around, and I see that the drift outside of the building has grown in height to the point where it is covering the bottom two inches of my window again.

I have decided that I am going to wimp out again, and not go for a walk today. I have already missed about as many days this winter as I have the past three years total up until this winter, but this is ridiculous! I know that my walk is supposed to be for the exercise, but I can exercise inside again today.

Okay, so I lied, I did go for a walk, I did a lap and a half around the apartment complex here. That way I didn’t have to dodge vehicles, or the slush and salt spray that they throw in my direction as I walk down the street to the park.

I felt like I was letting myself down by not going for a walk, and more importantly, I felt as if I was letting you, the readers of this blog down by not going.

Another factor in my decision to walk after all was that the other day when cleaning and organizing the storage closet of my apartment, I found the pair of heavy flannel lined and insulated jeans that my ex bought for me almost ten years ago. I have seldom worn those jeans, as I was still driving over the road, and packing on the pounds when my ex purchased them, and I soon outgrew them. Now that I have lost most of that weight, and I’m not looking to find it again, believe me, the jeans fit pretty well now, even with the wool/silk blend long underwear that I normally wear when it’s this cold.

Just as I learned at work, keeping my knee warmer helps considerably.

I even managed a few photos today.

A pair of mallards

Male mallard

Female mallard

I kind of like the last one, of the lone female in the snow, but none of the ones I shot today were as good as some of the ones that I got the last time I was in Muskegon.

Male mallard breaking ice

I also found a female hairy woodpecker to shoot.

Female hairy woodpecker

Hairy woodpeckers look almost identical to downy woodpeckers, the difference is that the Hairys are much larger than downys.

The really big news though is that with the updated snowfall totals from last night’s storm, we’re now over 9 feet of snow for the season, and solidly in second place as far as the snowiest winters on record.

Friday

Well, where do I begin?

I mentioned yesterday that when they updated the snowfall total from the storm yesterday that we had officially topped 108 inches, or 9 feet, (274 centimeters) of snow for the season, which puts us in second place for the all time snowiest winters.

I complained about the wind and drifting snow, they were bad enough that the Amtrak train that runs between Grand Rapids and Chicago got stuck in a snow drift and had to be pulled out by another locomotive.

So, how do we top that? Easy, set two record lows in one night.

The temperature dropped down to -9 F (-23 C) before midnight, so we broke the old record of -6 F for the 27th of February. The temperature continued to drop, down to -12 F (-24.5 C), so that’s the new record low for February 28th, breaking the old record of -2 F. It’s now back up to -8 F, so I think that I’ll fool around inside for a while before venturing out.

With two minor snow storms forecast to pass through the area this weekend, I’ll be staying home for another weekend. There’s no reason to drive somewhere to walk during a snowstorm.

You know, there are times when I wonder if I’m crazy, or merely foolish. I’m back from my walk, and guess what, it was bitterly cold out there today, go figure. What surprised me was the wind. It had gone calm overnight, which is why we got so cold last night. I assumed that the wind would still be light, wrong!

It’s not as if there were a howling gale blowing, but it doesn’t take much wind when it’s as cold as it was to make it feel a lot colder than it really is, like none of you knew that.

That brings up a couple of items I should throw in here before I whine about the weather any longer.

One of the local TV stations has their meteorologists do the weather report outside on the “weather deck”. Yesterday, the meteorologist outside didn’t finish his report, he was getting near the end when he said “This is bleeping nuts, I’m going inside where it’s warm”, and walked off the set.

Last night while the train was stuck in the snowdrift, one reporter was interviewing a passenger by phone and asked if the snow was deep. I don’t think that I have to type out the answer that the passenger gave. 😉

Back to my walk. I didn’t feel like busting drifts today, so I walked down the street and back, rather than walking in the park. Keeping my knees warm both at work and while walking is helping a great deal, and I didn’t want to put any extra strain on them as they are improving daily. As cold as it was, I didn’t have to worry about slush or salt spray. 😉

I even managed a few photos, starting with this one.

Left overs?

Those flowers or seed pods have to be left over from last fall, but if so, why haven’t I noticed them before now? That tree is in the apartment complex, I walk past it every day that I walk, and I check the tree for perched birds on most days. It must have been the light today that caused me to notice the seed pods today.

A male house finch did his best to hide from me.

Male house finch

Even though I didn’t have a clear view of the finch, I like that photo anyway.

I have noticed that the birds have stopped singing or even chattering for the most part after the burst of noises that they were making a couple of weeks ago. It must be that they realize that spring isn’t as close as it is supposed to be given how more daylight there is. Oh well, they’ll start singing again soon.

My last photo of the day.

White breasted nuthatch

Saturday

Well, it’s a new month, but we’re still stuck in the same old weather pattern, cloudy, cold, and a little snow left over from a weak system that moved through the area last night. Even though it’s 30 degrees warmer today than yesterday at this time, it’s still cold, and well below freezing.

The countdown to spring widget that I added to my blog tells me that there are only 19 days left until spring, stupid widget. That may be the official start of spring, however, I have no illusions or delusions that the changing of the seasons is going to go by the calendar this year.

It is March however, and even if the temperatures continue to run well below average, the average temperatures climb dramatically during the month, so we’ll see some thawing of the snow eventually.

Sorry, you can’t tell, but I drifted off there for a while, thinking of how nice it will be to walk on grass and be able to move around, rather than being stuck trying to stay on the hard packed snow trails that are the only places for me to walk at this time. That, unfortunately, is a long way off yet, there’s almost two feet of snow that has to melt first, then will come the mud.

The snow that’s on the ground now contains over 6 inches of water according to the hydrologists that study such things in order to be able to predict the flooding possibilities for this spring. So I suppose that it’s for the best if we have a long, slow warm up, rather than one as quick as I would like, but I’m sure that it’s going to be a muddy mess around here when the snow does eventually begin to melt.

Well, time for a walk.

I’m back, and it was a surprising day today. The birds were once again behaving as if spring were near, even though it didn’t feel or look like it is.

I worked harder today trying to get some so-so photos than I have in ages, you’ll see what I mean. It all started with a pair of mallards flying overhead, I got a poor shot of the male.

Male mallard in flight

About halfway between my apartment and the park, I spotted this hawk in the brush, and tried several angles trying to get a clear view of it.

Red-tailed hawk

Without much success, there were always branches in the way.

Red-tailed hawk

Once I got to the park, there were birds everywhere, except in places where I good get good photos.

Mourning doves

Black-capped chickadee

This next one sums up the way that it’s been for me of late, but I decided to shoot anyway.

Northern flicker hiding

Part of the problem has been the deep snow, even when I venture off the paths to try to get good photos, the birds can see or hear me coming, so I can’t sneak up on them. But, there’s something else going on, I don’t know if it is due to the predators around or what, but all winter long the birds have been much more skittish than usual.

That changed for the better when I got to the far end of the park and I decided to take a break.

Cedar waxwings

American robin

There was a flock of about thirty robins, and a flock of around a dozen waxwings, and a few individuals from each of the flocks would drop down out of the taller trees to the crabapple trees to wolf down a few of the crab apples left on the trees. They didn’t seem to mind my being there, several of the waxwings almost struck me as they flew past on their way to or from the food supply.

Even though the light was about as bad as it gets, I went crazy shooting photos of the birds eating the crab apples.

Cedar waxwing swallowing a crab apple

Rather than flood this post with all the photos that I shot today, I’m going to save them and parcel them out in next week’s post, unless I get better ones in the meantime.

It felt different outside today, it was cold, but it felt like a different kind of cold, a damp cold rather than the dry cold that has been the rule this winter. Or, was that all in my head because I know that it’s March, and that it should be warming up?

But then, why did the robins and waxwings show up today?

There’s been a few robins around here all winter, but never in the numbers that I saw today. I haven’t seen a waxwing in months. Do the birds have little calendars tucked in their feathers that they go by? Do they know that it’s March?

I know that birds go by the amount of daylight that there is but there’s still almost two feet of snow on the ground yet, it seems to me that the birds would stay south until there’s a better food supply for them as the snow melts. It will take some one with a lot more brains that what I have to figure that out.

Maybe the end of this winter is in sight, way off in the distance, but I’m not going to be holding my breath!

That’s it for this one, thanks for stopping by!

March 1, 2014 | Categories: Birds, General, Hiking, My Week, Nature, Photography, Weather | Tags: Birds, Hiking, Nature, Nature photography, Photography, Photos | 15 Comments