[LeDave]

Sat out there for 20 minutes with my new 55-300.Well, I am kind of sad that there were no life in my backyard. There were no birds, no squirrells, no bugs. There were just trees, leafless in the snow.

[PJ1]

Sat out there for 20 minutes with my new 55-300

Build yourself a bird feeder - or a squirrel feeder. "If you build it, they will come" (Field of Dreams).

[boriscleto]

Build yourself a bird feeder - or a squirrel feeder. "If you build it, they will come" (Field of Dreams).

Unless it's covered in snow...

[ccc_]

three things will make wildlife like your yard: cover, water and food.

to start with get a heated water dish (winter).

pick up one of the fruit and nuts mixes at menards (least expensive) and put it out in a low sided container (we use a bonsai pot)
for now just set it on a patio table or a deck railing.
this mix will draw in more of the "desirable" birds

try a seed cake to keep the house sparrows and starlings busy (though woodpeckers use them too}

while you're at it a suet cake should hang out there somewhere

some of this stuff can just hang on shepherd's hooks

squirrels will become your constant nemesis (try ears of corn farther away)

your neighbors may resent the early morning clamor and the occasional droppings

the last thing is to consider plantings that provide cover and/or food.

put this stuff where you can get a shot without scaring your visitors.
but separated so you don't build conflict zones that keep things away

this kind of photography is just catch and release hunting.
the same skills apply.

I love the 55-300 for bird/wildlife photography but you're going to need to be closer than you originally thought.
I read somewhere a warbler's head is the size of your thumb.
so some level of stealth is required.

your state wildlife people have some of the better house/feeder construction books around.

you might try this website: Chris the Photog AKA DIY Cheapo Depot.
he has some very good ideas.

you'll have to pardon me this is a stream of consciousness exposition.

lastly do all of this in small increments to see if you actually like it.

we started out with one hanging feeder.
we now have a dozen kinds of feeders scattered about.
we plant for a variety of finches and hummingbirds
we built a stream and a pond...it just goes on.

but we've had days when we had thirty five species out back
on a normal day we average twelve.

as for attracting peepers and dopers...they mature and migrate just like the birds.

hope this helps.

have fun.

[wildman]

Sat out there for 20 minutes with my new 55-300.Well, I am kind of sad that there were no life in my backyard. There were no birds, no squirrells, no bugs. There were just trees, leafless in the snow.

Feed them and they will come.

[boriscleto]

Feed them and they will come.

You will attract House Sparrows at the very least...

Gradkles love a handout too. I should start seeing them soon.

[zman]

you might try this website: Chris the Photog AKA DIY Cheapo Depot.
he has some very good ideas.

Just bookmarked this website. Thanks for the tip.

[r0ckstarr]

Another thing. Figure out what your local birds are. Then look up what kind of plants they prefer and grow those plants in your yard.

[Lowell Goudge]

Where do you guys typically go for wildlife shots? Do you guys often do it in your backyard?

You should go here

http://ebird.org/ebird/hotspot/L152123

Or browse generally this site
http://ebird.org/ebird/hotspots

[Paleo Pete]

I shoot a lot in my yard, and have a feeder set up for birds. I use a log we cut for firewood, but with a large limb coming out the side I didn't want to try and split it with an axe, so I'm using it for a feeder. My mother has a half dozen, while she's gone to Florida I'm enjoying being back to one, it concentrates the birds for my camera. I also hang up a couple of one spout hummingbird feeders and make my own nectar. 4 cups water to one cup sugar, bring it to a boil and cool. It stores swell in the fridge, I heat a 1 1/2 quart jar and pour it in while still very hot. The heat sterilizes the inside of the jar and I've never had any mold grow.

We have plenty small bushes and a few trees for perches and hiding places, I can always tell when a hawk comes around, all the birds suddenly scatter and head for the trees, and one is only 10 feet from the feeder. We get -

Sparrows, Chipping Sparrow I think (winter)
White Throated Sparrows (winter)
Goldfinches (winter)
Pine Warblers (winter)
Dark Eyed Junco (winter)
Cardinals year round
Blue Jays year round
Tufted Titmouse year round
Carolina Chickadee year round
Carolina Wren year round (they only go for the suet feeder)
Mockingbird year round (won't use feeder at all)
Bluebird year round, won't use feeder
Summer Tanager in summer, so far won't use feeder
Baltimore Oriole occasionally in summer
Orchard Oriole in summer
Red Wing Hawk
Red Shouldered Hawk
Bald Eagle
American Kestrel
Ruby Crowned and Golden Crowned Kinglet in winter
Blue Grey Gnatcatcher in winter
White Eyed Vireo in summer
Indigo Bunting in summer
Painted Bunting summer
Blue Grosbeak in summer
Pileated Woodpecker (Woody Woodpecker)
Downy Woodpecker
Red Bellied Woodpecker
Red Headed Woodpecker
Yellow Bellied Sapsucker
Northern Flicker

I'm probably missing a few...and that's not including the water birds..Egrets, herons, Ospreys, ducks, cormorants, Ibis, Kingfisher...

Aside from the yard, I live about 100 yards from a large lake, Sam Rayburn outside Lufkin TX, and I go to several local areas too. City parks are sometimes good, and we have several, we also have a lot of national forest around here that's usually pretty good.

Even in town you can often find birds and squirrels, sometimes raccoons and other wildlife.

At the lake I sometimes bring a mini blind originally intended for hunters, that helps. You can also find a spot and build a blind out of brush lying around, and if you can have someone else go to your blind with you then leave, animals can't count, they think everyone left. Then if you can sit fairly still, wait about 15 minutes and you'll start to see some critters come out.

Wear earth colored clothes, browns and greens, blue jeans seem to do OK. No bright white, yellow or red, and minimize highly reflective jewelry like gold or silver watches. Strangely enough, talking quietly if you are in a group doesn't seem to make a lot of difference. I sat in a photo blind at a north Louisiana wildlife area and talked to another photographer for 20 minutes, watching a Great Blue Heron walk around and forage in the shallows for food. A couple of ladies calling themselves bird watchers scolded us for talking...I told her we had been watching that Heron and talking for 20 minutes or more, and she spooked it when she came in...but we didn't talking...to be fair it only flew a few yards then settled down and we got to watch for a while more. But talk quietly.

Move slowly, birds and animals don't like sudden movements and loud noises. Forget about sneaking up, they know you're there long before you know where they are. Walk a few steps, stop and look around. That's how animals move, if you move like they do you'll see more critters. Never walk non stop.

Bird seed - Sunflower seeds is best but more expensive. Most birds like them better though, Tufted Titmouse and Carolina Chickadee will pick out and throw away anything else if it's in a feeder where they can't just pick one up, like my stump. Cardinals will take other seeds, so the mixed seed commonly available works. I get that and sunflower seeds and mix in more sunflower seeds. Nothing will stop squirrels.

Suet - excellent for birds that won't visit a standard seed feeder, especially woodpeckers. The Red Bellied Woodpecker will visit my stump feeder every day, and the Downy Woodpecker occasionally. The Carolina Wren won't touch the feeder but will go to the suet.

Melt one cup lard or beef fat to a liquid. If you're using beef fat, strain it through cheesecloth 3 or 4 times to remove all solids. Mix one cup smooth peanut butter into melted fat until it's all liquid, keep the heat low at all times. Mix in bird seed until it's almost solid seed, pour it into a mold of some sort and let it cool until solid. I use a square tupperware container. Dip it in hot water for a couple of minutes to remove. You can get wire cages to hang it, hang about 6 feet off the ground, I hang mine from a tree limb about 5 feet from the trunk. You can also add peanuts, unsalted, dried fruit, other nuts if you can afford it. Orioles will sometimes visit hummingbird feeders, and you can get Oriole feeders, they are also supposed to like oranges but I haven't been able to get them to go for it so far.

If you find a good spot for it, your car will also make a decent blind sometimes. I stop on the road to take pictures of hawks a lot. Uswually they fly but occasionally I get lucky.

[Des]

A photographer I read tells of a place between a warehouse and sewage pond where he sees and photographs a wide variety of birds.

Sean Dooley (one of Australia's leading birders) says that, on arriving in a town, the true birder immediately asks where the sewerage treatment plant is.

[ccc_]

if a town has open lagoons it is very good advice

a lot of local birders run circuits that include wastewater lagoons and sediment traps where streams enter impoundments

I have to admit I have some reservations about the beauty in nature when a heron is wading the edges of two or three acres of poo

[boriscleto]

Just saw this blog on eBird.

Better Birding: Using eBird to Plan Trips | eBird

[jbinpg]

Just a reminder to never use honey in a hummingbird feeder. It contains a fungus that makes the throat swell, eventually killing the bird.

[wildman]

Where do you go for wildlife shots

Here.

It's a piece of land (the "back 60") that's been in the family since it was homesteaded in 1852.
When my Great Great Grandfather handed it down to his son he stipulated that it was to remain as a natural area and not grazed just as he had found it in 1852.
He loved it so much because it reminded him of the old country he had left - Germany. That stipulation has been honored by all following generations up to the present time. Back during the great depression it was almost sold for timber due to hard times but the rest of the family chipped in so my Uncle could hold onto it until better times.

Back in 2008 we had a family reunion there where 5 generations and about 120 people showed up.
After 165 years and five generations it has become sacred ground within the family.