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04-17-2009, 03:18 PM   #31
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A place where I used to work had a regular hawk ("Lot Hawk") who would sit on the light/electric poles all the time. One time he got a little too close to the wires...

04-17-2009, 03:32 PM   #32
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An idea for the cardinals...learned this one by chance. Sitting in an Iowa hotel room first week in April two years ago and a beautiful cardinal kept cavorting outside the window (no camera as I was there with a group of athletes for an annual wrestling tourney). Hopefully, your WI cardinals haven't finished cavorting yet...After a few too many visits for the cardinal's antics to be coincidence I noticed a wad of orange surveyors tape tangled in a fence just outside my window. Apparently, that male cardinal was "chasing" the tape away from his mate, who also kept coming back to tease me at the window.

My unstudied presumption is that the tape was close enough to cardinal red that the male bird was aggressively attracted to it. He generally appeared before the female...she seemed to follow him in each time. So he wasn't as much protecting her as he was soliciting a fight from the tape. The wad of tape was not particularly cardinal shaped and had a couple ends waving loose which may have been the attractor with both color and motion. Note that the weather was dismal windy and rainy throughout my visit to Iowa that year--don't know if that's a factor, but thought you should know because most critters behave differently during adverse weather.

Just my hunch, but perhaps a cardinal red decoy of some sort may draw those beauties down to your level during the prenesting period. Try it, what have you got to loose but a few feet of surveyors tape?
04-17-2009, 05:20 PM   #33
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That is a pretty interesting thought...there has to be something similar just sitting around here. A pair of cardinals always visit the feeders a little after sunset...I can hear them every time...

Well I went into the front yard for a little...nothing exciting. Went to the back yard and started watching the house finches do their thing...the males with their tales all poofed out, hopping around and tweeting...fighting each other away from the females...

I got lucky on this pic...she just decided to fly away at the right moment:
(About 50% crop of 260mm shot)


And then I was looking in the sky when a pair of hawks flew above me. Well...260mm isn't long enough, and the FA 80-320 is unuable at 320mm so this is a 100% crop of the best shot...sharpened of course:
04-17-2009, 08:37 PM   #34
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Not a hawk. That's a turkey vulture. Every now and then you'll see them flying more at treetop level. Less often you'll see one on the ground, and they're BIG birds.

04-17-2009, 08:47 PM   #35
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QuoteOriginally posted by sholtzma Quote
Not a hawk. That's a turkey vulture. Every now and then you'll see them flying more at treetop level. Less often you'll see one on the ground, and they're BIG birds.
They sure are! Here's one being harassed out of his/her lunch by magpies (a bit smaller than a crow, but not much) so you can see exactly how big they can be. Taken last summer, K10D + M 400/5.6 + A 1.4X-S converter, at Writing on Stone Provincial Park in Southern Alberta, Canada.
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04-18-2009, 06:16 AM   #36
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Vultures are the bain of my existence down here in Texas..everytime I see something soaring, I get my hopes up, but it turns out to be just another turkey vulture

As ugly as they are, they're fantastic soarers.

One thing I;ve noticed in my likmited experience is that hawks, et al seem to be bothered less by cars approaching at a creep than they are by people on foot. I have gotten a lot closer to several hawks, kestrels, etc by coming up on them in my car (assuming they're on the side of the road) than I have on foot....as soon as they can see me/I get out, they're gone.
04-18-2009, 06:58 AM   #37
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Hawks and eagles have such keen vision--we've all heard about eagles being able to see a mouse at more than a mile distance--you need to be careful about how you look at them. I swear they can tell exactly what you are looking at. I sometimes have success by averting my eyes and only viewing through the lens. Gawk at them openly and they often fly just from their discomfort at your stare. Of course, given the "wrong" glare on the front element, your lens looks like a very big eye staring at them and can run them off as well.

Can't tell you how many times I've been working a big raptor and then looked up over my lens only to see the bird squirt to lighten it's load and fly off. It's as if they cop an attitude--"Don't you be eyeballin' me boy!"

04-18-2009, 10:19 AM   #38
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QuoteOriginally posted by sholtzma Quote
Not a hawk. That's a turkey vulture. Every now and then you'll see them flying more at treetop level. Less often you'll see one on the ground, and they're BIG birds.
By goodness...you're right. I've never, ever seen a turkey vulture in this city...only out in the country. I just assumed they were hawks since that's all I see in my yard. One of my bird books has a real photo of each bird and also an illustration of each bird's wings spread open, viewed from below, and exactly like my pic.

The birds were a good 200 feet up...came from east and turned north above my street...they were in sight for about 3 minutes.

My neighbor also caught some pics of a yellow-bellied sapsucker yesterday...another bird none of us have ever seen in our area. Every manner of walking animal (including deer in the middle of the city!) and now a couple new birds hanging around...love it
04-18-2009, 02:06 PM   #39
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Equipment / settings I use:
  • Pentax K10D - I use shutter priority and set to about 1/640th of a second to avoid blurring of bird movement
  • I set to continuous auto focus
  • I set to 200 to 400 ISO
  • I use my Pentax 55-300 mm lens...on the K10D the 300 setting converts to about 460 mm...I would think your Tamron does the same at 300mm
  • Too heavy a lens might be disadvantageous for walk abouts
  • I check out local bird watcher's for locales of interesting bird sites
  • I go for walks in the forest-around here we have the Boreal Forests and during the sping and winter...look upward in the tops of trees for birds of note-easier to see without leaves
04-18-2009, 02:53 PM   #40
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QuoteOriginally posted by lesmore49 Quote
Equipment / settings I use:
  • Pentax K10D - I use shutter priority and set to about 1/640th of a second to avoid blurring of bird movement
  • I set to continuous auto focus
  • I set to 200 to 400 ISO
  • I use my Pentax 55-300 mm lens...on the K10D the 300 setting converts to about 460 mm...I would think your Tamron does the same at 300mm
  • Too heavy a lens might be disadvantageous for walk abouts
Pretty much the same for me... except sometimes:
  • TAv Mode (1/1000s, F/8, then use Noise Ninja to fine tune, if needed for hight iso)
  • Manual focus, if subject is partially screened by branches.

Cheers...

Last edited by Michaelina2; 04-22-2009 at 01:59 PM.
04-18-2009, 04:03 PM   #41
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QuoteOriginally posted by Michaelina2 Quote
Pretty much the same for me... except sometimes:
  • TAv Mode (1/1000s, F/8, then use Noise Ninja to fine tune, if needed for hight iso)
  • Manual focus, if subject is partially screeed by branches.

Cheers...
Good point about changing the setting to manual focus to compensate for branches obscuring the subject. I also do this.
04-18-2009, 08:27 PM   #42
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QuoteOriginally posted by jmbower Quote
Bird Photography pointers?

Okay, just couldn't resist this any longer. I've heard English or Irish setters are pretty good pointers, but personally just prefer a a plain old Labrador Retriever. Hey, if you can hunt with at dog, the same should also be able to point out a bird or two for you to photograph as well.

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*By the way, as a disclaimer, I don't hunt, so do take the above as just a joke.


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Last edited by stewart_photo; 04-18-2009 at 08:46 PM.
04-19-2009, 06:29 AM   #43
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QuoteOriginally posted by ryan s Quote
By goodness...you're right. I've never, ever seen a turkey vulture in this city...only out in the country. I just assumed they were hawks since that's all I see in my yard. One of my bird books has a real photo of each bird and also an illustration of each bird's wings spread open, viewed from below, and exactly like my pic.

The birds were a good 200 feet up...came from east and turned north above my street...they were in sight for about 3 minutes.

My neighbor also caught some pics of a yellow-bellied sapsucker yesterday...another bird none of us have ever seen in our area. Every manner of walking animal (including deer in the middle of the city!) and now a couple new birds hanging around...love it

When we lived in Va Beach about 5 years ago, I just happened to look out the window and saw a grey fox running down the street. Now this was a very populated neighborhood with really no wooded areas around. I just stood there in awe. Of course I didn't have any cameras near me so all I could do was just stand there with my mouth open.
04-19-2009, 10:42 PM   #44
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The foxes live at the golf course about 3/4 of a mile away. Where the deer came from...no idea. They were laying down and enjoying themselves, that's for sure

I saw a male yellow-bellied sapsucker today...the woodpeckers love the crabapple tree...that's 3 different woodpeckers in 2 days, and I only look when I go to the bathroom Got some pics of the male but through the window glass + storm window + plastic inside = pics that aren't worth even editing :/ At least he's sticking around
04-21-2009, 10:06 PM   #45
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QuoteOriginally posted by jmbower Quote
I am down on the Texas Gulf Coast (Houston area) so have a lot of NWR's around (have already been to Anahuac, Brazoria, San Bernard, Attwater's, etc). So finding the birds hasn't been an issue... getting good shots...that's been harder
Hello Fellow Houstonion!

I use a 70-200 MF Cosina with a manual 2x TC for my bird shots. This equipment is relatively cheap on the used market( mine was given to me, but I researched).

You could get a longer reach lens at a good price, but it may be used and MF, with no AE functions.

Just shop around.
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