[Canada_Rockies]

Seconded - WOW!

Thirded WOW! What a great series.

[normhead]

K-3 and Tamron 300 2.8 with Pentax HD DA 1.4 TC.
Anyway, the migration continues, birds are headed on their way north to their breeding territories. For days there were a few Red Winged Blackbirds hanging out with the grackles. Today most of the grackles were gone , there were a few left hanging out with the Red Winged Blackbirds.

A straggling Grackle....




One of the (probably immature) Red Winged Blackbirds
\

New yesterday, 3 or 4 female Redwinged Blackbirds


These guys stop in for a few days spring and fall. There were three last fall, I've just seen one come back to date, a fox sparrow.




The latest arrival before yesterday, the White Throated sparrows, who've been here about a week, and who's calls fill the woods when you walk. A whole flock must have arrived.


One of the American Tree Sparrows who stayed the winter, still hanging around.


And also one of the 4 or 5 Dark Eyed Juncos left rom the 40 that wintered with us.


And of course, our contingent of rodents.

[noelpolar]

A bird in the bush for me today. Silvereye (or two) via DFA 150-450 in the Mallee Country (Australia)



(I'm going through a bird in it's habitat phase.... and a square crop phase as well for some unknown reason)

[siva.ss.kumar]

You're already convinced to leave abandoned eggs where they lie, but I doubt the female moved it out. I suspect she was just careless once when laying.

Bird-ecdote, hopefully pictures will follow. I set up early today at the edge of a pond & swamp where a couple days back we spotted a pair of Canada geese with new chicks. They never showed up, but while waiting (eventually for two hours) I spotted two dark, black birds fighting in a dead tree that was standing in the water a long way off on the far side of the pond. As I swung the big lens around to see if I could capture anything, they fell fighting into the water amid a little bit of debris, a few floating branches. It was a pair of grackles, and the one was definitely getting the better of its opponent. It looked as though the c-b was deliberately trying to push the other bird below the water, and certainly it did so time after time. Eventually the dominating bird flew back up to a branch and shook the water out of its feathers, and the other tried to extract itself from the water, but it was having a hard time. Then the first bird, seeing the struggling, flew back down and renewed its attack, again seemingly trying to push the other grackle under water (probably the same kind of thing it would have done on land). The winning bird left again, and losing grackle renewed its efforts to get out of the water, but it failed, again and again, its feathers too water-logged for flying. It was obviously tiring. Eventually it gave up, and drowned!

MUST CORRECT AN ERROR, and have done so in the description above. Now that I've looked at, enlarged and cropped the images it's clear (as clear as a deep crop from a zoom set @ 600mm can be) that both birds were grackles, so the cowbirds are off the hook.

Two images of the birds fighting, mostly the winner. atop, is visible.
The loser swimming away and simultaneously trying to get into the air. It never got more than about half its body out of the water.
The loser dying. A few seconds later the wing (or tail?) dropped into the water so only a black lump was visible.

Wow. What a drama!!
Nicely captured too. I have heard the Black Drongo will fight to death. Drongo is one of the fearless birds I have seen. No size is too big for them

[Pentaxians]

A Purple heron with a happy face after catching a fish

[WPRESTO]

A Purple heron with a happy face after catching a fish

Great series.

---------- Post added 05-03-18 at 11:38 AM ----------

WOW! I never...

---------- Post added 05-03-18 at 11:39 AM ----------

Seconded - WOW!

---------- Post added 05-03-18 at 11:39 AM ----------

Thirded WOW! What a great series.

Thanks to all who commented on the bird fight-to-the-death. Glad if you enjoyed the series although like me, we all tend to have sympathy for the loser and wish we could have lifted him from the water in time to give him another chance.

---------- Post added 05-03-18 at 11:43 AM ----------



AND NORMHEAD:

A whole passel of good images in one post. Enjoyed them all.

---------- Post added 05-03-18 at 11:44 AM ----------

[normhead]

Thanks WPRESTO

[Designosophy]

Just snagged a Sigma 150-500 off of Ebay for a pretty good price. Fingers crossed that there's nothing wrong with it. I'm well-acquainted with the dangers of buying photographic equipment on Ebay. This means I'll likely be selling my Tamron 300 f/2.8. It's a good lens, but it's so heavy and the manual focus is tough.

[Des]

Saw this Robin egg next to the nest. Do I leave it alone or move it to the nest? Not certain how it got where it is. Shot with an A* 300mm

One possibility is that a parasitic bird like a cuckoo laid an egg in the nest and tipped out one of the robin's eggs.

Dramatic story @WPresto. Nature red in tooth and claw.

Fine images @normhead, @noelpolar, @pentaxians. Such impressive work in this thread.

[normhead]

Just snagged a Sigma 150-500 off of Ebay for a pretty good price. Fingers crossed that there's nothing wrong with it. I'm well-acquainted with the dangers of buying photographic equipment on Ebay. This means I'll likely be selling my Tamron 300 f/2.8. It's a good lens, but it's so heavy and the manual focus is tough.

Is that like mine, the Tamron SP AF 300 2.8 LD [IF] ?

[dadipentak]

Out on the porch yesterday we saw this hawk flying over the valley. I saw it was carrying something and assumed it was nesting material and took a few shots with the K-3/AF 1.7/DA*300 combo.* When I checked out the photos, it turned out to be a snake . This is hand-held and cropped to <2mp.



* My longer lenses are on the shelf as I recover from shoulder replacement surgery and I've had to adjust my hand-hold technique to take most of the gear weight on my left. This was a good exercise in using the AF 1.7x as a focus limiter--I'd have come up empty-handed with the HD 1.4x.

[ChipB]

Out on the porch yesterday we saw this hawk flying over the valley. I saw it was carrying something and assumed it was nesting material and took a few shots with the K-3/AF 1.7/DA*300 combo.* When I checked out the photos, it turned out to be a snake . This is hand-held and cropped to <2mp.



* My longer lenses are on the shelf as I recover from shoulder replacement surgery and I've had to adjust my hand-hold technique to take most of the gear weight on my left. This was a good exercise in using the AF 1.7x as a focus limiter--I'd have come up empty-handed with the HD 1.4x.

Dave, bummer about needing a shoulder replacement - hope the recovery is fast and painless!

[normhead]

Out on the porch yesterday we saw this hawk flying over the valley. I saw it was carrying something and assumed it was nesting material and took a few shots with the K-3/AF 1.7/DA*300 combo.* When I checked out the photos, it turned out to be a snake . This is hand-held and cropped to <2mp.



* My longer lenses are on the shelf as I recover from shoulder replacement surgery and I've had to adjust my hand-hold technique to take most of the gear weight on my left. This was a good exercise in using the AF 1.7x as a focus limiter--I'd have come up empty-handed with the HD 1.4x.

Ya take care of that shoulder. AT one point I though I'd g for the whole package, hip shoulder and knee, after the hip I just said "That's enough of that nonsense." I'll live with what I have from now on. Although I have to say, having my hip done was worth it.

Ya, I really like the 1.7 as focus limiter, but you really have to have top quality glass to make use of it.

[dadipentak]

I really like the 1.7 as focus limiter, but you really have to have top quality glass to make use of it.

Also plenty of light.

---------- Post added 05-04-18 at 02:31 PM ----------

Dave, bummer about needing a shoulder replacement - hope the recovery is fast and painless!

Thanks, Chip! That shoulder's taken a lot of abuse over the years (starting with a broken collar-bone during WWII) but it's coming along pretty good. Too bad I can't mow the lawn though--I had to get my grandson to do it.

[normhead]

Also plenty of light.

I use mine with my Tammy 300 2.8 to give me 510mm 4.5, so light isn't such an issue.

---------- Post added 05-04-18 at 02:33 PM ----------

Also plenty of light.

---------- Post added 05-04-18 at 02:31 PM ----------



Thanks, Chip! That shoulder's taken a lot of abuse over the years (starting with a broken collar-bone during WWII) but it's coming along pretty good. Too bad I can't mow the lawn though--I had to get my grandson to do it.

Around my house Tess does that. And my grandson live is Alberta. Fat chance he'll be mowing any lawns for me.