birds - Mark's Photography Spot

Project 365 Update Day 68 to Day 80

Animal Photographs, Flower or Plant Photographs, Food and Drink, Manmade Objects, Photographs, Project 365 No Responses »

Mar 212012

Yes, I’m still alive, just extremely busy. Between work, life and spending time demoing the new Adobe Lightroom 4 (which I’ll post more about here very soon), I’ve been lax in posting to this blog. Well, time to catchup a bit. Here are the last 10 days or so of my project 365 images from newest to oldest. I should be back on track with more regular posting here very soon.

Day 80-Backyard Azaleas in Bloom

Day 79-Snorting Pollen

Day 78-Five Guys Burgers and Fries

Day 77-Mourning Dove

Day 76-Spring Colors

Day 75-Time For A New Refrigerator?:

Day 75-Time For A New Refrigerator?

Day 74-Red Azalea Bloom:

Day 74-Red Azalea

Day 73-White Azalea Bloom:

Day 73-White Azalea

Day 72-Avocado and Shadow:

Day 72-Avocado and Shadow

Day 71-Is Lightroom 4 The Answer:

Day 71-Is Lightroom 4 The Answer

Day 70-Sushi Lunch:

Day 70-Sushi Lunch

Day 69-The Circle of Life:

Day 69-The Circle of Life

Day 68-Ginger Snaps:

Day 68-Ginger Snaps

Day 66-Cedar Waxwing Flock

Animal Photographs, Project 365 No Responses »

Mar 062012

We had a huge flock of Cedar Waxwings migrating through our area today:

Day 66-Cedar Waxwing Flock

They were flying in and out of the trees near the office. There were about 75-100 of them in the immediate area. This is a fairly typical thing for us this time of year as the birds start their migration North. We enjoy seeing them but I don’t really like cleaning up all the “bird bombs” that land on my car

Bird Seed Ain’t Cheap!

Animal Photographs, Photographs, Project 365 No Responses »

Feb 252012

A Pine Warbler takes advantage of our free food:

Bird Seed Ain't Cheap

We’ve been feeding the birds in our yard for 15 years now and I think if I’d saved the money we spent on bird seed I could probably retire

We do enjoy watching the birds come to our feeder but it does get a little expensive. I figure it costs us about $40/month average over the course of a year. $40/mo x 12mo/year x 15 years equals somewhere around $7200 dollars. That’s a lot of cash, I hope the birds appreciate it!

Office Hawk

Animal Photographs, Photographs, Project 365 No Responses »

Feb 132012

Look what landed on the ledge outside my office this morning:

Office Hawk

This Coopers Hawk (I’m pretty sure that’s the species) has been nesting in the trees around our office building for a couple of years. Each year about this time it starts flying around the immediate area as if its checking out the area. Maybe it’s establishing its territory? It lands on the ledge outside my office window several times a week but is often very skittish.

Today, as I was working I heard the telltale “knock” on the window as the Hawk lands on the ledge. I think its the beak that hits the glass. I turned around slowly to take a look at it and to get my camera to hopefully get a good image of it. I realized that the camera was in my car and not on my desk (insert Homer Simpson-like DUH! here) but I pulled out my cellphone to see if I could get a shot of it before it flew off.

The hawk sat fairly still, allowing me to snap a couple of quick photographs with my Droid phone. The resulting image will definitely not make the cover of National Geographic but I still think it’s a neat image.

Hopefully the hawk shows up again when I have a real camera sitting on my desk!

Day 16-Female Northern Cardinal

Animal Photographs, Photographs, Project 365 No Responses »

Jan 162012

Today I decided to try and get some decent images of the birds that visit our birdbath, which is on the deck. I setup the T3i on the tripod, just inside the door and waited. After a few minutes the birds got used to me sitting there and continued their quick stops at the birdbath. This photograph of a female Northern Cardinal was one of the better ones:

Day 16-Female Northern Cardinal

I used the Canon EF-S 55-250mm “kit” lens to take this. For the price, it is a pretty good piece of glass. Luckily the birdbath is close to the glass door so I’m able to get some decent shots. The bird-feeder is another issue. It’s about 30-40 feet away from the deck so 25mm doesn’t quite get me close enough. I’d love to have this lens to get closer to the wildlife in our yard but unless I win the lottery it ain’t happening any time soon