My Week, one step back?

Monday

After about a perfect weekend, the weather is forecast to go downhill for the rest of the week, starting this evening. In a way, that’s okay, it was really too warm for me too soon yesterday afternoon, the warmest day since October 12th. The forecast for the rest of the week is for cooler weather, which suits me just fine. We could use some rain, and may get a little overnight. That would go a long way towards helping things green up around here.

I wore myself to a frazzle yesterday, I can feel it in my bones today, but that’s okay, it’s a good kind of tired. You’d think that since I walk two to three miles everyday all winter long that I wouldn’t need time to get into shape for longer hikes in the spring, but I guess that old age is catching up to me.

I can see that the new 300 mm prime lens is going to play into my naturally lazy streak, it’s so easy to carry compared to the Beast (Sigma 150-500 mm lens) and it does near macros almost as good as the Tokina macro lens. But, almost isn’t good enough, I know that next weekend, when I go to Aman Park for the wildflowers, I’ll be using the Tokina lens on the second camera body, and have it mounted on the tripod as it should be.

It kind of surprises me that I haven’t been seeing any early spring warblers migrating through the area, but they will come, eventually. I should be tracking them on eBird, but haven’t found the time to do so.

I’m back from my walk, but I don’t have time right now to work on this, so I’ll have to do it tonight after work.

I didn’t have time to work on this last night either, so now it’s Tuesday morning, so I’ll just dump the photos from yesterday in here and move on.

Trout lily

Trout lilies

Red squirrel

Red squirrel

Cutleaf toothwort

Hyacinth

Maple flower

Blue jay

I suppose that a few quick words are in order. I’m trying to shoot more flower photos in anticipation of this next weekend when I’ll spend a day in Aman Park photographing even more flowers. I’m trying to get the few species that grow around here “done” so that there won’t be far too many for me to choose from then.

I know that I have posted a few images of the maple flowers, but this is my best so far. I hate to keep working my way up to a really good one, but I never know that’s what going to happen. I could hold off and wait to see if I get better photos, but that doesn’t always happen before the flowers fade, as was the case with the crocus earlier this spring.

I included the blue jay, because it is a male that had just given its mate a bit of food, which is common practice in some species of birds. Two summers ago, I posted photos of a male cedar waxwing giving his mate berries. That behavior is quite understandable in the bird world, as how well that the male is able to provide food for the female on the nest and/or the young birds when they hatch is very important. But, what does that say about human females and their desire to receive gifts from their mate? 😉

Tuesday

Since I’m running behind, just a quick weather report. After some much-needed rain overnight, it’s sunny, but much cooler than it has been the last three days. The forecast for the rest of the week is now for continued cool, even cold weather into next week. Today will be 25 degrees cooler than yesterday, somewhere in the middle would be nice.

I’m back from my walk, and I have decided that it’s time for me to make some decisions, about a number of things.

For one thing, I’m thinking of driving to the park in the morning at least until after my vacation is over. I’m trying to take it easy on my legs by not carrying anything more than just the new lens, but that isn’t helping much, especially since I have been spending the majority of the days on weekends outdoors for the past few weeks. I purchased the Tokina macro lens to get photos of small flowers, but because I’m trying to go easy on my legs, I haven’t been carrying it, and if I don’t have it, I can’t use it.

I started today by taking photos of small flowers that I knew wouldn’t be what I wanted for my blog, well, I could post them, but then, I’d kick myself for not doing things the right way. The flowers are beautiful, but tiny, and they wouldn’t show up well here. I need to use the macro lens mounted on the tripod to get the photos that I would like.

On top of that, the small woodlot at the corner of the apartment complex is being cleared, I believe that there’s going to be a storage facility built on that property. That woodlot was one of the few spots on the walk to and from the park that I would shoot any photos. With the woodlot gone, there’s not much reason for me to walk along the road a mile in each direction other than for the exercise, and right now, my legs need rest, not exercise.

You see, this all started as I thought about how many photos of the maple flowers that I shot, and the few that I posted, before finally getting a good one, the one in this post. I could hold off posting any photos of a subject until I did get a good one, but a much better plan would be to get a good one on my first attempt. I know how, but I get lazy, or come up with an excuse such as it is too windy to bother taking the time to do it right. Well, I should either do it right or not at all.

So today, after taking photos of the tiny flowers that I won’t post, each time I photographed something, I asked myself “Is that the best you can do?”. Most of the time, the answer was no.

Here’s a series of images as an example. I noticed the cedar waxwings in a pine tree, and shot this first photo.

Cedar waxwing

But that one was not alone, there was a small flock of them in the tree, many of them huddled together.

Cedar waxwings

I started to walk away, then I asked myself if I could do better, and the answer was of course, so I went back, stopped down the aperture for more depth of field, and shot this one.

Cedar waxwing

It may not appear that there is much difference between the two photos here, but full screen, there’s a huge difference, the waxwings are all entirely in focus in the second photo, while some of them are a bit blurry in the first.

Hopefully, I’ll continue to ask myself that all important question with each photo that I shoot, so that I can post fewer, but better photos, like these two.

Willow catkins in the sun

Vinca minor, or myrtle

But, despite my new attitude, there will be times when I have to shoot fast, at least until going for the highest possible quality becomes second nature. Here’s an example from today.

I had seen an eastern phoebe in the distance, and was working toward it, and a few other birds, when the phoebe landed on a branch where I had a fairly good view of it, and it had a beetle in its beak.

Eastern phoebe

The phoebe smashed the beetle into the branch repeatedly to kill the beetle.

Eastern phoebe

Then turned the beetle so that it could be swallowed head first.

Eastern phoebe

Eastern phoebe

Eastern phoebe

Eastern phoebe

Then, it was down the hatch!

Eastern phoebe

After it was all over, I had time to fine tune the focus for this photo.

Eastern phoebe

Again, there may not seem to be much difference in the photos here, but there sure is full screen! But, I didn’t want to take a chance on missing the action by playing with the focus as the phoebe was eating.

Wednesday

I’m finally getting caught up, I could use a few more hours in every day lately.

I have given the idea of driving to the park at least some days more thought, and I think that today, I will drive. Yesterday wouldn’t have been a good day for macro photos, as the wind was quite strong, and even the shortest of plants were swaying in the wind. So, I think that until after I get back from vacation, what I’ll do is to check the weather forecast, if it looks good for macro photography, I’ll drive to the park. If it doesn’t look good, with either clouds or wind, then I’ll do the full walk instead of driving.

Driving to the park will not only save me wear and tear on my legs, but also “wasted” time, the time it takes me to walk to and from the park each day. One thing that I’ve learned is that good macro photos takes time to get the set-up correct, or I’m better off not bothering to try them.

The alternative would be to try to alternate what I try to photograph each day. Bring one of the long lenses one day, then the macro lens and tripod the next, and do that repeatedly. The problem with that is that I would miss photos like the one of the phoebe eating the beetle, or a migrating species of bird. Besides, there are times when the new 300 mm lens would be the right lens to use on the tripod for near macro photos.

I can carry all my stuff, I’ve done it, in fact, for a week, I did just that. But, strapping an extra ten pounds of photo gear to myself doesn’t help my legs to recover. I’d rather not start my vacation with tired, worn out legs, even though I do plan on spending some of my time just relaxing for a change.

Anyway, enough whining, time for food and photos.

Well, I’m back, and I’m disappointed. I did drive to the park, and I discovered a few benefits to doing so, the major one is that I’m not walking two miles on pavement. I’ll bet that I walked almost as far today as I do on a typical day starting from home, but today, since I walked on ground rather than the sidewalk, my legs feel fine. I was gone longer than I normally am, and did two and a half laps around the park.

Also, on a day like today, when it started out frosty, but warmed up quickly, I could throw the clothes that I shed into my vehicle, and not have to carry them around along with my photo gear.

My disappointment is from my macro photos, there were some fair ones, I’ll post one or two, but I’m finding good macro photos are tricky. If every bad photo is a learning experience, I learned a lot today! Like, if I’m standing on squishy ground, I had better not move while the camera shutter is open, not even to breathe! And, that’s with the camera mounted on the tripod. Also, if a small flower looks like it is vibrating slightly in the wind as I look through the viewfinder, it is, and any photos I shoot at 1/10 of a second for a shutter speed are not going to be as sharp as I want them.

So, here’s my photos from today, starting with an old stand-by, a male cardinal singing with a shadow across its face.

Male cardinal singing

I know that I have posted quite a few photos of red-tailed hawks in flight, but here’s two more, first is Bruiser, the second is his mate, Bertha.

Red-tailed hawk in flight

Red-tailed hawk in flight

The reason that I posted those is that I’m beginning to think that when they spot me, they fly over me to check me out. Bruiser normally circles me at a short distance away, Bertha flies directly over me, at low altitude.

Now then, for my two macro photos, and the first barely qualifies.

Spring beauties

Unidentified bug on unidentified flower

The reason for the second one, even though it is crap is due to the size of both the flower and the bug. The flower was about 1/4 of an inch in diameter, I couldn’t see the bug without my reading glasses on, it was that tiny. That was shot with the Tokina 100 mm macro lens and the Tamron 1.4 X extender behind it. I should have bumped the ISO up from 100 to get a faster shutter speed so that the wind wouldn’t have ruined that photo.

I suppose that the good news is that the combination of the Tokina 100 mm macro lens and the Tamron 1.4 X extender will allow me to photograph even the tiniest of flowers, once I get the hang of it.

Wait, I have one more macro photo worth posting.

Willow catkin

That was taken using just the macro lens without the extender, and it is also where I learned that I have to be still while the shutter is open, even with the camera on the tripod. I had the camera set to lock-up the mirror, and to use the two second self timer delay so I thought that the camera would be steady while the shutter was open. I would press the shutter release, then step back to make sure that I didn’t bump the camera, but the ground was so squishy that my stepping back caused the tripod to move. Silly me! It wasn’t until I noticed that both the tripod and my feet were sinking in the mud that I figured out why I couldn’t get a sharp photo.

That’s all for today.

Thursday

Cloudy, mild, and breezy this morning, with the chance of a few sprinkles of rain, so I won’t be trying any macro photography today. I have to say this about the week so far, despite the dire weather forecasts for this week, in reality, it has been quite pleasant. I hope that the meteorologists are just as wrong about next week as they were about this one! They are predicting temperatures in the 40’s next week, with quite a bit of rain, but that’s what they were originally forecasting for this week, but it turned out to be seasonably cool with just a little rain, we could use more.

The weather forecast for this weekend are looking good for a trip to Aman Park for the spring flowers. Hopefully, I’ll put what I learned yesterday to good use and come back with images worth posting.

It really surprised me yesterday as far as how good my legs felt after my walk, since I avoided walking on pavement by driving to the park, rather than walking. But, since I’m not going to be lugging all my gear today, I’m going to walk to the park, but avoid the pavement and walk in the grass whenever I can to see if that helps.

I did get a couple of photos of a mourning cloak butterfly yesterday, but I’m not going to post them, as I missed the exposure slightly. But, I should say that the new 300 mm lens is great for insects that size! I was able to stay back from the butterfly far enough not to spook it, yet nearly fill the frame with it. The images would have been great, if I hadn’t over-exposed them a little.

Time to get going.

What an odd day! It did sprinkle lightly most of the time while I was outside, but that’s usually good weather for seeing birds if not photographing them. But today, I saw very few birds at all. It was too cool for butterflies, and too cloudy for any of the spring flowers to have opened for the day.

So, to get it over with, my two photos from the day, one is fair, the other is crap.

Female red-winged blackbird

Male brown thrasher singing

The only reason for posting the thrasher is because he was singing away like crazy today. And, isn’t that the way it goes, on nice sunny days, they stay low and hidden in the thickest of brush, on a cloudy, rainy day, he perches right out in the open to sing, as if he knows that I can’t get a good photo of him on such a day. No matter what, it is a joy to hear him in full song!

My vacation starts two weeks from Saturday, and I’m beginning to get a little concerned about the conditions that I’ll have. There’s still snow on the ground in some of the wooded areas, and some of the lakes are still frozen over. Well, I suppose that I could look on the bright side of things, at least there won’t be any skeeters or black flies!

I need to pick up a couple of items before I go, a fishing license, a new duffel bag, and something to store water in. I’m planning on doing at least some camping out in the woods, not in a campground, so I need to be able to pack water. Other than that, I’m set other than packing everything up and into my Forester. Oh yeah, I’ll need to go to the bank for some cash, as the Michigan DNR doesn’t accept debit cards at the campgrounds that I do stay in.

If worst comes to worst as far as weather, I can combine some day trips from home with as much time up north as the weather allows. That, or I could work my way north as conditions improve. We’ll see, there’s still two weeks to go.

I think that it’s time to start a check list to make sure that I don’t forget anything.

Friday

I’ve been fooling around some waiting for the overnight rain to clear out this morning before I go for my walk today. It will be cloudy when I do head out, and I’d call the temperature seasonable for the end of April.

I’ve started my shopping list of things that I need for my vacation, and have added a few small items such as spare lantern mantles, I think that I used my last one last fall. Better safe than sorry! When I go grocery shopping this weekend, I can buy the food that I’ll be taking on vacation that can be frozen, so I’ll have that done and out of the way.

Over the next week, I’ll get all my gear sorted and ready to pack, it will be the busy time of anticipation before the big event really gets here, and I’m so looking forward to two full weeks away from work and being out in the woods all day, every day!

Well, enough of that, time to get moving.

I’m back, and let me change the weather report slightly. It was cloudy, but it was unseasonably cool, even though there was no wind until I was almost finished with my walk. I could see my breath most of the time.

Other than it being cooler today, the weather was much the same as yesterday. Then, there were very few birds around, today, they were all over the place.

The weather the past two days has exposed a weakness in the new lens and extender, that combination is never fast to auto-focus, and the past two days, I’ve missed more shots than I’ve gotten due to how slow that the combination is in low light. I’ve noticed the same thing before, and even in good light, they are slow to auto-focus. I was able to get a few good flying bird images this past weekend, but there were several times that I considered removing the extender and just using the new lens by itself.

I don’t think that I have tried this replacement lens without the extender, I really should. The lens that failed was much quicker to auto-focus without the extender than with it.

Or, I could take the Beast, which is much better at getting the birds, however, it can’t do this as well as the new lens.

Box elder tree flowers

If I limited myself to just birds as subjects of my photos, then I would have been better off with Canon’s 400 mm prime lens, but I don’t limit myself, so the 300 mm lens is better for me.

Okay, for my other photos from today. I’m going to start with a pair of mallards for two reasons, one, is to show how little water that it takes to make a mallard happy. The second reason is that just before these two moved into the drainage ditch, I saw them feeding on the nightcrawlers on the pavement next to the ditch. Maybe it’s just robins that turn up their beaks at an easy meal.

Female mallard

Male mallard

Next up is a poor photo of a cedar waxwing. That’s to remind me to tell you that the poor waxwings were being chased out of most of the trees that they tried to perch in by robins that have nested in the trees. I didn’t know that female robins on the nest were so territorial, but they were chasing the waxwings out of “their” trees. Maybe it’s because the waxwings landed in numbers, and often, very close to the robins’ nests.

Cedar waxwing

This next series is to remind myself to tell you that I was wrong about the chickadee chewing into a cedar fence post last week, as I thought that the chickadee was excavating for a nest. It wasn’t, the chickadees have chewed their way almost completely through the fence post that I saw one chewing on last week. And, I watched again today as several chickadees chewed on a number of the fence posts, it must be that they are finding insects inside the fence posts.

Black-capped chickadee

Black-capped chickadee

Black-capped chickadee

Black-capped chickadee

I know, too many, but I love chickadees, and I love the green background in these! And, these are only cropped slightly, I love seeing larger than life chickadees on my computer screen!

My last photo of the day is another red squirrel, one of these days I’ll get a really terrific image of one.

Red squirrel

Saturday

Well, just what I didn’t need to have happen happened last night at work. I grabbed the handle of one of the carts that I have to roll off from the trailer, and the cart wouldn’t budge. So, I gave it my all, and ripped the metal handle off from the cart, with the welds that hold the handle on the cart breaking,  because the cart didn’t want to move. I went flying across the trailer, and ended up in a heap on the floor, with a sore knee and ankle. I hate my job!

Before I go off on a rant about my place of employment, I’ll change the subject slightly. I had planned on going to Palmer Park today, as it is close to home to save on gas for my vacation in two weeks. If I were smart, and I’m not, I’d stay home to let my leg rest, but it is too nice of a day to sit home. After this past winter, the last thing that I want to do is sit home, even though I could start preparing for my vacation if I did.

I thought about doing some drive by birding in the Muskegon area, that would be easier on my leg, and there have been reports of some early wading birds being seen in the area. Last night while driving for work, I could see a few small wading birds around some of the small ponds and large puddles in the Holland, Michigan area, which is about forty miles south of Muskegon. I couldn’t ID the birds from the truck, but I could see that they were present.

But, going to Muskegon would require gas, and I’m trying to save every penny that I can so that I’ll be able to splurge a little while on vacation.

So, I guess that I’ll go back to my original plan and head over to Palmer Park. The trails there are unpaved for the most part, which I’m finding is easier on my legs. I don’t have to be in any hurry, I have all day to hobble around as much or as little as I want to, and there are several places where I can sit along the trail and let the birds come to me. I may not cover much ground, but at least I’ll be outside to enjoy this fine weather!

That reminds me, the weather forecast for this week was for rotten weather, but it has turned out to be quite nice, although slightly cooler than average. Two days ago, the forecast for next week was for temperatures twenty to thirty degrees colder than average, but the meteorologists have already begun backing off from those predictions. It looks cool and wet, but not nearly as bad as their first forecasts predicted.

Well, that’s enough for now, I’m going to eat breakfast, then go out and soak up some sun.

I’m back, and I shot nearly 300 photos. It took me six hours to cover 2/3 of the ground that I normally cover at Palmer Park. Part of that was my going easy on my bum leg, part of it was that the birds and other things wouldn’t leave me alone. Here’s three quick images from today as a teaser, even though I’m tossing more of the images than I thought that I would, there will still be too many for this post.

Cooper’s hawk eating lunch

Male ruby-crowned kinglet

Blue-grey gnatcatcher nest building

It was about the perfect spring day, so I thoroughly enjoyed myself!

I’ll keep working on the rest of the photos from today, they will appear shortly. I don’t know if I’ll lump them in with the flower photos from tomorrow, or do two separate posts.

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

April 22, 2014 | Categories: Birds, Flowers, Hiking, My Week, Nature, Photography, Weather | Tags: Birds, Flowers, Hiking, Nature, Nature photography, Photography, Photos, Wildflowers | 11 Comments

Easter Sunday 2014 Part I

Sunday

It’s Easter Sunday, and I was up at dawn to greet the morning. That has me looking forward to my vacation, when not only will I be up before dawn, but I’ll be outside with either a camera of fly rod in hand as the sun pops up over the horizon. Two weeks of peace and quiet, just me and the critters.

It;s probably not good for me to spend so much time alone, but I have come to the conclusion that I don’t really fit in with human society. Actually, I’ve known that for some time, but for some reason, I feel compelled to try from time to time.

The group that went on the “nature walk” yesterday were mostly photographers first, and nature lovers second, or were using the walk as an excuse to shoot photos. I’m more of a nature lover first, who tries to convey my love of nature through my photos.

I love birds, but, I don’t want to sit in a blind behind a 20 power spotting scope all day trying to rack up big numbers, or impress others with the rare bird that I managed to see. Yes, I like getting a lifer from time to time, but as long as I’m around the birds and can watch and listen to even the common species singing, that’s really all that I need.

I love fishing, but my goal is not to land more or bigger fish than any one else, it’s my time to relax and become one with the river that I’m fishing in, and the nature that surrounds the river. If I land fish, or a big one, that’s nice, but as long as I’m out there standing in a river, it’s enough to make it a great day.

I love walking in the woods, but my goal isn’t to cover a set distance, or to complete it in as little time as possible, I want to stroll around taking in the nature that surrounds me. At the end of the day, I want to remember what I’ve seen, heard, and smelled, not how far or fast I went.

I was going to go on at length on these topics, as well as nature and my views on religion, but I don’t have the time to type all of that. For you see, I went to Aman Park early this morning to check on the progress of the wildflowers, and things are coming along just fine, next weekend should be spectacular! I knew that it was going to be a long day, so I carried just the new 300 mm prime lens with the extender. I’ll add very few of the images that I shot there today, because I’ll get even better ones next weekend when I take my tripod and the Tokina macro lens and do things right.

I did just a short loop at Aman Park, then, I went back to the Millennium Park where I was yesterday to do some more “exploring” there. As I said in my last post, I could see areas that I thought would hold wildlife, but they were some distance from the parking lot. I looked for a parking lot closer to the less developed part of the park, but they don’t allow parking in the parking lot that I wanted to park in, go figure.

So, I went back to the main parking lot from where I started yesterday, and walked the mile and a half across the butt ugly part of the park to get to the woods and wetlands. Of course, that meant a mile and a half back to the parking lot again once I was done walking around the good part of the park. So that was three miles just to get to and from where I would have otherwise started my walk. Needless to say, I carried just the new lens again, which actually worked out well. I have no idea how far that I walked in total between the two parks, but it was enough so that my legs are telling me to take it easy tomorrow!

My opinion of Millennium Park has changed some, I got quite a few good photos there today, but I’m not going to walk the three miles back and forth across an old gravel pit to get to the good parts, at least not very often, not when I can get photos of the same species without that boring walk at other places.

Anyway, for the photos. I’ll start with a few from Aman Park first.

Harbinger of spring?

Red squirrel eating breakfast

Moss

Black morph of the grey squirrel

Black morph of the grey squirrel

Snowdrop?

Bloodroot?

Interesting patterns on a log

??

Harbinger of spring?

???

???

???

Sycamore seeds?

Sycamore seeds?

Old habits are hard to break. For years, up until I began this blog really, I never really cared what the names of most flowers were, I just knew that they were pretty, and that I liked them. I’m trying to get better at identifying them, but the small spring flowers are like the small wading birds, they all look-alike to me. 😉

On top of that, my memory isn’t what it used to be either. I know that I could scroll through the posts that Allen, who does the New Hampshire Garden Solutions blog has done in past years to refresh my memory, but I don’t have the time or energy to do so tonight.

I really am trying to be ruthless in not posting too many photos, but, that’s not working out too well. For one thing, it seems as if everyday when I go out, I come back with better photos than the day before. Or, I come back with photos that may not be great, but they are of interesting behavior on the part of some bird or other critter.

Hardly a day goes by now that I don’t at least think about going back to the beginning of the project that I’m working on to photograph every species of bird regularly seen in Michigan and start over. But, I won’t. I do have some better photos of double crested cormorants to put into the post that I’ve already done on that species, as you are about to see.

Double crested cormorant

How they are able to perch on tree limbs with those giant webbed feet is beyond me, and when one turned around while perched, it looked as if it might fall.

Double crested cormorant

Double crested cormorant

Notice his buddy paying no attention to what’s going on in that last one.

Double crested cormorant

Whew! Both feet firmly holding on to the limb again. I’m so proud of myself!

Double crested cormorant

Double crested cormorant

This goose and the ducks were watching to see if the cormorant would fall.

Canada goose and ring-necked ducks

I got some fair flying waterfowl images.

Mallards in flight

The male lesser scaup was showing off for the female, she looks totally unimpressed!

Lesser scaup

Lesser scaup

More fair flying waterfowl photos.

Double crested cormorant in flight

Double crested cormorant in flight

And, a red-tailed hawk made a couple of passes over me.

Red-tailed hawk in flight

Red-tailed hawk in flight

I don’t think that a hawk would take on a cormorant, but this cormorant wasn’t taking any chances, he kicked it into high gear!

Double crested cormorant in flight

Lesser scaup

You may have noticed that I titled this one part one, I still have many photos from today that I’d like to post. Some are poor quality, of a pair of chickadees doing their mating dance, but I’ve never posted photos of chickadees doing their mating dance, so I’ll have to include them in Part II, along with the best mallard photo that I’ve ever gotten.

So, that’s it for this one, thanks for stopping by!

April 20, 2014 | Categories: Birds, Flowers, Hiking, My Week, Nature, Photography, Weather | Tags: Birds, Flowers, Hiking, Nature, Nature photography, Photography, Photos, Wildflowers | 23 Comments

My Week, savoring the spring?

Monday

The weather today and tomorrow is forecast to be rather dismal, that’s okay, I’ve shot and posted too many photos already of late. I also have to take my Forester in for its scheduled service tomorrow, so I may not get a walk in.

I should throw in a shameless plug for B & H Photo., the company that I purchased the new prime lens and tripod from. Not only do they have good prices, but the customer service in handling the defective lens was excellent! While I would still prefer to buy from the local camera store, but for big-ticket items, I may do more shopping with B & H.

But, my big-ticket purchases are about over with, the only thing on my want list as far as actual photo gear is a 10-20 mm super wide-angle lens. Other than that, I have just a few bits and pieces left to complete my kit.

It’s been about one year exactly since my old Nikon died, and I started assembling the Canon gear that I am using now. I put many hours of research and weighing the pros and cons of each purchase, and I think that the images I’m getting from the new gear made all that time worthwhile.

I bounced back and forth for a year deciding which prime lens, the 300 mm or 400 mm, that I should purchase, and for a while, even considered doing without a long prime lens. I’m very happy with my decision to purchase the 300 mm for its close focusing ability, along with its reach when using it with the Tamron extender. The 300 mm lens is the perfect complement to both the Beast (Sigma 150-500 mm lens) and the Tokina 100 mm macro lens.

In my opinion, the Beast is close to the perfect lens for serious birding. It may not be quite as sharp as the 300 mm prime, but it always gets the bird. Its auto-focusing is fast and precise. But, it’s heavy and cumbersome to carry if I’m carrying anything else.

The Tokina 100 mm macro lens is superb as a macro lens for small subjects that I can get close to, but the 300 mm lens’ close focusing ability makes it easier to use for larger subjects out of reach of the Tokina.

The 300 mm prime lens with a 1.4 X tele-converter fills the bill of an excellent all around lens for my daily walks when I’m carrying other gear with me, or for longer hikes when carrying the Beast leaves me arm weary. It will also be my lens of choice on days like today, cloudy, gloomy, with occasional rain, as it is somewhat weather sealed, and easier to protect from the elements than is the Beast.

Now, all that’s left for me to do is to put these excellent lenses to work getting the images that they are capable of delivering!

Two observations before I get to the photos from today. One, the weather was nasty! It’s getting colder by the hour, with a stiff northwest wind blowing the cold air this direction. There’s snow in the forecast for tonight, but it felt as if it could start snowing at any minute, in fact, there were a few pellets of sleet mixed in with the rain at times.

Two, and I brought this one up in the past. We received a good amount of rain overnight, enough so that some of the paved areas in the park were covered in nightcrawlers, some dead, some still alive. There were robins pulling nightcrawlers from the ground within just a few feet of the pavement, but not one picking up the bountiful supply on the pavement.

Most wildlife is very opportunistic when it comes to food, so why don’t robins eat the nightcrawlers that are on the pavement, or any other birds for that matter. I have seen turkeys eating the worms on the pavement from time to time, but never a robin. I wonder why?

Okay, on to the photos, I’m only going to post a few from today, and save some in reserve for tomorrow, since I’ll be at the Subaru dealer at the time I normally walk.

As long as the cedar waxwings are around, I’ll continue to photograph them.

Cedar waxwing

Cedar waxwing

And, as you can see, there’s a lot of them around, or at least there were.

Cedar waxwings in flight

I was surprised to see all the smaller flocks join together and fly off like that, but as I lowered the camera after that shot, I saw a small raptor fly over. I couldn’t tell if it was a Cooper’s hawk or a sharpie. But, it seems to me that the waxwings made a better target of themselves by flying, rather than staying hidden in the trees. But, I’m not a bird, so what do I know?

I spotted a fox sparrow perched fairly close to me, but try as I may, I could not get a clear shot of it, despite trying several angles.

Fox sparrow

Fox sparrow

Fox sparrow

Fox sparrow

The last one is full frame, not cropped at all. How I wish that the twig crossing the sparrow’s bill wasn’t there! Oh well, another species that I’ll have to add these photos to in the My Photo Life List project.

The next two photos aren’t very good, but they are of an American Kestrel, the first of the year for me, and the first time that I’ve spotted one here at home!

American kestrel

American kestrel

The thought crossed my mind that this may have been the raptor that I had seen earlier, but no, being of the falcon family, the wing shape is completely different from that of hawks, and the raptor I had seen earlier was definitely a hawk.

One last note, now how cool would it be if a pair of kestrels took up residence around here giving me more chances to photograph them? I have a few bad images, because they are so small, not much larger than a dove or pigeon, and they keep their distance. I’m surprised that I got as close to this one as I did.

Well, that’s it for today, time for a shower, then a visit with my mom.

Tuesday

I’m back from the Subaru dealer after getting the scheduled service done on my Forester. I could probably sneak in a walk before work, but that would be pushing it, as I also stopped at the camera store on my way back home and picked up a holster style bag to carry the second body and an extra lens with me when I do walk.

Since there aren’t any photos from today, here’s a couple of images from yesterday.

Male american goldfinch

British soldier lichens as shot

British soldier lichens cropped

Cedar waxwing

All those were shot with the 300 mm prime lens using the Tamron 1.4 X extender behind it.

I have enabled the “Like” button again for my posts, since I received so many comments about it being disabled. I was trying to save time having it disabled, but oh well, I have to go with the flow.

Back to the holster bag, why don’t these things come with instructions? It has an array of straps and attachment points, but which straps go where? And why? It’s going to take me a while to figure this thing out. As a last resort, I can always attach it to the military style belt that I already have, but first, I want to see if what the bag came with will work as well or better.

Okay, I went to the LowePro website and checked out a video there. It was a promotional video, but in showing the features of the bag, I figured out what went where and why. It looks like it’s going to do exactly what I want it to do as it comes. I can get the second body and both of my short lenses in it, along with the spare battery, SD card, and filters, with a lot of room left for more small items. I think that it will be a winner, especially since my brother loves his.

Walking around inside my apartment, the holster bag rides very well, much better than my regular camera bag., but the real test will come tomorrow.

Oh, by the way, I picked a great day to have my Forester serviced. We received several inches of snow overnight that’s sticking around, along with a stiff cold wind as well. I don’t feel so bad about missing a day of walking when the day is a throwback to February. 😉

Wednesday

Yesterday was the coldest April 15th on record, the high temperature reached only 35 degrees Fahrenheit. We may have also set a record low temperature for today, I won’t know until later, but we were one degree short of the record when I checked.

Most of the snow from yesterday is gone, there are just a few patches of the stuff left in areas that are shaded all day.

I purchased the holster bag yesterday because I have my vacation coming up next month, and I wanted a good way to carry the second camera body, at least one of my short lenses, and a few essentials with me, and the case that I already had just didn’t cut it. The new one seems like a winner, I can get the spare body and two short lenses in it, along with all the essentials that I could need while out in the woods.

This is going to work out well, for now, I can use the old case to hold the 70-200 mm lens, and whichever of my two longer lenses that I’m not going to carry. All my gear will be safe and secure, which is a good thing. There’s no way that I could carry it all at one time for any distance, so having all my stuff in two bags will be okay.

While at the camera store yesterday, I checked out the Sigma 10-20 mm lens that I’m planning on purchasing one of these days, it looks like another great lens to add to my collection,  but there’s no hurry for me to do so. The lens is sharp and produces great color, but that’s more of a play toy than a lens that I just have to have. Since I now have a way to safely carry my 15-85 mm lens, I should do more playing with it from now on. That will give me a better idea as to whether or not I’ll purchase the wider lens.

Photography wise, I’m all set for my vacation, I have one or two small items that I have to buy as far as camping gear, but that’s it. I am so looking forward to having two full weeks off from work and out in the woods!

And, speaking of out in the woods, the temperature has made it to about the freezing point, so I suppose that it’s time for me to get moving, be back later.

Okay, I’m back, and it was a great, albeit somewhat chilly day. I thought that I had gotten photos of a lifer for me, but no such luck. Turns out that the bird in question was just a puny hermit thrush acting a little strange.

However, that brings up something that I wanted to add here anyway, how great it is to live in West Michigan. My daily walks are done in a small county park on the edge of the suburbs, not a nature preserve or wilderness area by any means.

Last fall, I began reporting a few of my bird sightings to eBird once a week, or if I see a species that I think is somewhat special. Of the dozens off species that I have reported, the only one that came back as a rarity is the white-eyed vireo that I spotted last fall. Bald eagles, not rare. American Kestrels, not rare. And so it goes.

I’ve gotten photos of a half a dozen species of birds for the My Photo Life List project right here at home. as I said before, I think that most of the State of Michigan is a birding hotspot going by what gets reported to eBird.

Today was no different, there were plenty of birds about to photograph, and I’ll start with a pair of house finches working on their nest for the spring. The male would bring items to the nest….

Male house finch

…and the female…

Female house finch

…would wait while the male started working what he had brought back into the nest, then she would go in and re-arrange his work.

I re-stocked my supply of cedar waxwing images.

Cedar waxwing

Cedar waxwing

Cedar waxwing

Now you can all say that you saw a photo of a cedar waxwing’s tongue!

I caught a goldfinch trying to escape having its picture taken.

American goldfinch leaping into the air

I have photos of a great blue heron and a herd of deer, but they were all too far away for really good photos, so I won’t bore you with those, I’m sure that I’ll do better on a later date.

How cold has it been the past two days? This cold!

Ice along the creek

Bertha did a fly by for me, you can tell that this isn’t the same hawk as before, this one isn’t missing any flight feathers.

Red-tailed hawk in flight

It was about the same time that I spotted the puny hermit thrush, and chased it around for a while.

Hermit thrush

Hermit thrush

Hermit thrush

While chasing it, I found the original nuthead.

Is this where the name “Nuthead” originated?

I also spotted a winter wren while chasing the thrush. Let me tell you, there are many species of birds that are difficult to photograph, none more than any of the wrens. They stick to brush piles, down inside the brush piles most of the time, and the wrens only pop out for a quick look around from time to time. I spent at least ten minutes watching the wren, and I use the word watching loosely, waiting for it to come out into a relatively open area. Most of the time, I was seeing flashes of the wren between branches as it moved around in the brush. I missed it the first few times, either the camera and lens focused on a twig or leaf in front of the wren, or I was too slow on the shutter.

In a way, I was glad that I didn’t have the Beast with me today, my arms would be dead from holding it up, and trying to move it as quickly as the wren moved. I saw the wren poke its head up between two branches, I shot, the wren was already diving back into the branches.

Part of a winter wren

My patience sort of prevailed though.

Most of a winter wren

On the opposite end of the difficulty scale are the gulls. They’re large, slow, and make good practice subjects for flying bird shots.

Ring-billed gull in flight

Although, I have to say that I did well on these next two, any bird coming straight at you is tough to catch just right.

Ring-billed gull in flight

Ring-billed gull in flight

Well, that’s all the photos from today.

One more thing though, I wore the new holster bag today, and it worked great! While chasing the thrush and wren through the brush, I didn’t have a problem with the holster getting snagged by the brush all the time like my regular camera bag has always done. The holster bag has a shoulder strap, plus a waist belt to hold the bag right up tight to the body, and its smaller size makes it less of a target for brush. So far, so good.

Wednesday

Before I get started on today, I have one photo left from yesterday to post. Since I now have a good way to carry the second camera body and my two short lenses, I made use of that yesterday for this photo.

British soldier lichens

That was taken handheld using the Tokina 100 mm macro lens. The 300 mm prime lens may do near macros, but it can’t beat the Tokina for small subjects!

And, a thought from yesterday as well. While chasing the smaller birds, especially the winter wren, I considered removing the extender from behind the 300 mm prime lens to enable me to get “on target” a little quicker than I could at 420 mm. In a way, the Beast has a small advantage, in that I can zoom out a little as I attempt to follow smaller birds in thick brush. But, the downside, as it always is with the Beast, is its weight as my arms get tired of holding it up for extended periods of time.

I can see myself taking the time to remove the extender if I come on a flock of small birds in thick brush when I am very close to the birds, as I was yesterday.

Now then, for today, it’s partly sunny, cool, and breezy this morning. I’m hoping for a repeat of yesterday, with better photos, of course. I’ll take the new lens with me as I want more time learning it, although the Beast would be a good choice on a day like today.

The replacement 300 mm prime is everything that I hoped that it would be and more, but the more that I use it, the better I will get with it, as I learn what works and what doesn’t, along with becoming more familiar with the buttons that control the IS mode, and turning the auto-focus on or off. For my style of photography, shooting while on the move, being able to make any setting changes quickly is an important component of being able to get the photo that I’m hoping for.

The controls of the Beast are second nature to me now, I don’t have to fumble around trying to find the right switch for what I want to do. It’s the same with the camera bodies, I’ve used them enough so that I don’t have to look for the controls to make setting changes, unless the changes I want to make require going into the menu system.

Oh well, enough prattling on for now, it’s time to get a move on!

With warmer air being blown into the area, it was hazy today, so many of my photos weren’t up to my new standards.

If I was able to get close to something, then the images are good.

Daffodil

Dark-eyed junco

The daffodil was shot with the Tokina macro lens, it does do a better job up close than the 300 mm prime lens does, and yes, I shot the same flower with both lenses.

However, by using the 300 mm lens, I was able to get my first butterfly photos of the year.

Mourning cloak butterfly

Mourning cloak butterfly

Not great, but a fence prevented me from getting a good photo.

Anyway, with the haze, and the sun being behind a layer of mid-level clouds most of the time I was out there, these are more typical of what I was able to get.

Willow catkin

Red-tailed hawk

Red-tailed hawk

Red-tailed hawk in flight

Red-tailed hawk in flight

Eastern towhee

Red squirrel

I’ve been taking a break at the far end of the park each day since the weather has been nice. One of my reasons for doing so is to give the critters time to calm down after I’ve just walked past them, and so that I can choose a time to start back when there hasn’t been anybody else walking past where I hope to find the birds again.

I had only taken a few steps after my break today, when a pair of sharp-shinned hawks zipped past me. I missed getting good photos, they were too close, and too fast for me. But, it was as if there wasn’t a bird within a mile after the sharpies went past me, for a good 10 minutes, there was almost total silence. Then, one by one, the birds began making noise and moving again. That’s when I got the photo of the towhee.

At one point, the winter wren from yesterday was giving the towhee pointers on how to frustrate would be photographers, but in the photo that I tried for, the wren was out of focus, and the towhee was too obscured by leaves and brush for me to use it. Now that would have been a photo I’d have been proud of if I had pulled it off!

Friday

Spring has returned once again, and it looks like it will stick around this time. The weekend is looking good, although there may be some rain on Easter Sunday.

Last night, I received a notice that the Meetup camera group that I “joined” several months ago is going to have an outing tomorrow (Saturday) at a county park near where I live, so I’m going to tag along. It will be the first meeting that I have been able to attend, due to my schedule, or interests.

The park where the outing is taking place is Kent County’s largest park, known as the Millennium Park, and I’ve never been there since it officially became a park. Its claim to fame is that it the east end of the park used to be the notorious Butterworth dump, one of the first EPA Superfund sites. I won’t go into the full history of the area, but once the pollution was finally cleaned up, the county was left with land no buyer would touch, so they turned it into a park.

Here’s a blurb about the park from the county’s website.

“Millennium Park is a unique, ambitious project to reclaim 1,500 acres of heavily used land for public recreation. The park encompasses rolling terrain and extensive wetlands and lakes southwest of Grand Rapids, between Johnson Park and John Ball Park. Its land is rich in natural resources, featuring woods, wildlife, fish and waterfowl. Facilities within the park now include a six-acre beach and splash pad, nearly 20 miles of trails, and other diverse opportunities for recreation. Touching Grand Rapids, Walker, Grandville and Wyoming, Millennium Park is one of our nation’s largest urban parks.”

I’ve been meaning to check this park out in the past, but have never gotten around to it yet, so even if the Meetup is a bust, I’ll put the time to good use. I saw a number of rare bird reports from the park over the winter, but this past winter wasn’t the time to check out any new places, so now will be a good time, before the summer crowds show up.

The Meetup doesn’t start until 2 PM on Saturday, I’ll be wandering around much earlier than that. I’ll return to the parking lot for a lunch break, then, join the group for as long as they hang around.

I haven’t decided on what to do on Sunday yet, I’ll wait to see how the weather is going to shape up. I may return to the Allegan State Game Area, since that’s to the south, and the rain in the forecast is predicted to be to the north of here.

Well, time for breakfast.

It was one of those days. My best bird photo of the day is of one of my least favorite species, a brown headed cowbird.

Male brown headed cowbird

A little later, I heard one of my favorite species of birds, a brown thrasher, singing its fool head off, but I could not get the lighting right.

Male brown thrasher

Male brown thrasher

For those of you not familiar with thrashers, they are related to mockingbirds and catbirds, they take snippets of many different species of bird songs, and weave them together into a symphony that is an absolute joy to listen to. So, I may not have gotten the photo that I wanted, my time spent trying was well worth it as I was able to listen to him for some time.

Before the light went completely bad, I got a slightly better photo of a willow catkin.

Willow catkin

Since tomorrow promises to be a long day, I carried just the new 300 mm prime lens with the extender today, and with better light today, and less wind, it did better than the Tokina did yesterday. But, If I had the Tokina today, I’m sure that it would have edged out the new lens.

Soon after that photo, the clouds rolled in for most of the rest of the time I was out there, but I managed a few good images.

Hermit thrush

Female yellow-bellied sapsucker

Dark-eyed junco with lunch

Cottontail rabbit hiding

Female American goldfinch checking out a robin’s nest

I don’t know what the goldfinch was up to, I had just seen the robin building the nest in that photo a few minutes before that photo was taken. Maybe the goldfinch was checking construction methods of other birds? 😉

Spring is officially here!

May apple plant

Unknown flower buds

Trout lily

There’s soon going to be wildflowers blooming everywhere!

A quick check of my archives tells me that next weekend, I’ll be going to Aman Park for the awesome displays of trillium and other wildflowers. Two years ago, the peak bloom was April 15th, but that was a very warm spring. Last year, I hit the peak on May 4th, but we had a cool, wet spring last year with record flooding in April. Next week is forecast to be slightly warmer than normal, and since the trout lily are about a week ahead of trillium, I should hit the peak next weekend, let’s hope that the weather is good!

And finally, when I’m chasing smaller birds in thick brush, I am going to have to remove the extender from the 300 mm prime lens. It doesn’t auto-focus quickly enough for the small birds that are constantly moving, it proved that on the winter wren, and the ruby crowned kinglets that I’ve tried to photograph the past two days. Darn, and I thought that it was about the perfect lens. 😉 I know that I would have gotten photos of the kinglets if I had been using the Beast, I’ve used it enough to know how fast it is in those conditions. I’m hoping that removing the extender speeds up the 300 mm prime, it should, we’ll see.

I’m going to call this one finished, since I’ll be out all day tomorrow, and possibly Sunday. I’m sure that I’ll come back with too many photos, and readers have said that they prefer shorter posts.

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

April 18, 2014 | Categories: Birds, Flowers, Hiking, My Week, Nature, Photography, Weather | Tags: Birds, Flowers, Hiking, Nature, Nature photography, Photography, Photos, Wildflowers | 23 Comments