Tuesday, October 29, 2013

Birding outing

We went out with Christian Artuso this past Saturday. Christian Artuso is the coordinator of the Manitoba Breeding Bird Atlas, and a good friend of ours. We have been out together birding a couple times before (see Assiniboine Park - English Garden Photos  post). I always email him when I have a question. I have learned so much from him!  
Like I said in the last post we got some incredible photos of Rough-legged Hawks. I had a great time. Also like I said in the last post we got a new camera. Its great! My brothers used it while I used Christian's camera.
We went all the way to the Grand Beach area. When we were on the highway we saw Rough-legged Hawks every couple minutes. There were many, many Common Ravens too.
We went to some feeders and watched the birds there for a bit. We  saw woodpeckers, chickadees, and nuthatches. I haven't seen a Red-breasted Nuthatch in quite a while.
We saw some Snow Buntings on the shoulder of the road, we would stop and take pictures. Sometimes we use the van a blind; we would walk along side of it while it moved very slowly forward. When we were close enough it would stop, we would peek around the corner and snap some pics.
When we were on our way home, we saw a Northern Shrike fly across the road. We turned around to see if we could find it, but no such luck.

Here are the checklists from ebird that Christian made: ebird checklist Scanterbury areaebird checklist Gull Lakeebird checklist, Patricia Lake

Thank you Christian for taking us out!!

Here are the photos I took with Christian's camera.
Black-capped Chickadee

Black-capped Chickadee

Red-breasted Nuthatch

Double-crested Cormorant at Gull Lake

Hairy Woodpecker

Red-breasted Nuthatch flying

Black-capped Chickadee getting ready
to fly


Rough-legged Hawk hovering, getting ready to dive at prey
Rough-legged Hawk hovering,
diving

flying


Snow Bunting























































































The rest of the pictures my brothers took, they shared our new camera. They took some fantastic photos also: 
Black-capped Chickadee

Common Ravens, flying off sign

Double-crested Cormorant

Christian on the right, me next to him, my brothers beside me

The moon was out, so I took a picture quickly

Black-capped Chickadee

Patricia Beach

Patricia Beach

Patricia Beach

Red-breasted Nuthatch, I love the look of the wood

Red-breasted Nuthatch starting to fly, and Black-capped Chickadee

Rough-legged Hawk

Rough-legged Hawk


Rough-legged Hawk


hovering




Rough-legged Hawk hovering

Snow Bunting


Sunday, October 27, 2013

Upcoming post

Rough-legged hawk hovering, getting ready to dive
We just got a new camera a couple of days ago. A Canon EOS Rebel T3i, 18 megapixel camera. The whole family has been saving up. Also we went out with Christian Artuso yesterday. We got some amazing pictures of Rough-legged Hawks, late migrants. We went all the way out to Grand Beach and Gull Lake with him and saw a couple of Snow Buntings, and lots of Rough-legged Hawks.

Stay tuned for a full post and more amazing pictures. Join this site and follow by email to be automatically informed of any new posts



Rough-legged Hawk diving at prey

Thursday, October 24, 2013

Weekly What Bird

I haven't posted a Weekly What Bird in a while, but here's another one, can you guess what this bird is.

Click for fullscreen

Ask for a hint

Monday, October 21, 2013

Tailless Chickadee

Tailless chickadee
I was watching the birds at the bird feeder, and I saw a tailless chickadee. A chickadee, without a tail, or barely any. I was reading on another blog about a tailless tailless cardinal. I have been seeing the chickadee around the feeders a lot. It seems to have no trouble flying.

Tailless chickadee

Tuesday, October 15, 2013

Birds In Flight

I collected most my photos of birds in flight, enjoy!
Click on any picture for fullscreen
Birds in flight are very difficult to capture. You have to take the picture at the perfect moment. Many of my bird pictures in flight were taken accidentally. I have recently challenged my self to try to get pictures of birds in flight.
To get photos of birds it requires fast shutter speed or flash. Our camera is just a simple point and the flash isn't powerful so I use fast shutter speed.  
Bird feeders are a good place to start taking pictures of birds in flight. Even though the birds may be small they come time and time again which allows gives you another opportunity to take another picture if you miss it. 
The Owl that we see in winter

The Cooper's Hawk

Hermit Thrush

American White Pelicans

Cooper's Hawk

More pelicans


Strip the Red-breasted Nuthatch

Tree Swallow

Tree Swallow

American Crows

Rose-breasted Grosbeak

Black-capped Chickadee

American Crow

Female Ruby-throated Hummingbird
Hummingbirds are sometimes easier that other
birds to photograph in flight, because they hover in one position. You need
to have a fast shutter speed or a flash to freeze it in flight

Western Kingbird

Red-winged Blackbird


Female Ruby-throated Hummingbird

American White Pelican

Cooper's Hawk

Cooper's Hawk
If this picture was in focus it would have been an
amazing picture

It may be hard to see but there is a Cooper's Hawk
landing in the tree

Cooper's Hawk

Canada Geese

Female Ruby-throated Hummingbird

Flock of Blue Jays

Black-capped Chickadee

White-breasted Nuthatch

Black-capped Chickadee by my brother. The next
six pictures are taken by my brother also

Black-capped Chickadee

Black-capped Chickadee

Black-capped Chickadee

Black-capped Chickadee

Lincoln's Sparrow

Black-capped Chickadee

Blue Jay

White-breasted Nuthatch

Black-capped Chickadee

Black-capped Chickadee

Dark-eyed Junco in bottom left corner.

Black-capped Chickadee

Canada Geese

Canada Greese

Though these geese aren't flying I thought it
would be worth putting in

Female Ruby-throated Hummingbird

Female Ruby-throated Hummingbird