cyberastrofolkie's photos with the keyword: Birding

I have never seen a hawk this darkly colored. We have many Red-tailed Hawks here in many variations. I believe this one is an Accipiter. The general consensis has been that this is a Cooper's Hawk. I imaged this one in the back yard in rural upstate Columbia County, New York, USA, very close to where New York meets Connecticut and Massachusetts. It would have been nice if the weather conditions were better. Because of the dark gray day, I had to raise the sensitivity up to ISO 1600. I made some adjustments to the shadows and contrast in FastStone. For this image, I used my manual focus Tamron Adaptall-2 Model 55BB SP 500mm f8 Mirror Lens and Tamron Adaptall-2 140f 1.4X Flat Field Teleconverter with attached Tamron Adaptall-2 Pentax K M Mount on Pentax K20D Camera, hand held at the camera with the lens pointed out the opened bathroom window and resting on the window sill, manually focused, Shake Reduction set to 700mm, ISO 1600, f8 on lens, 1/180 sec, with available ambient light. My lens was functioning as a 700mm f11 Mirror Lens.

For the egret, not for me. This Great Egret, Casmerodius albus, had walked the shoreline of the Roeliff Jansen Kill to a bend in the stream in front of where I was sitting and was walking past me. Because the bank is high above the stream, all of the bird visible is only the bird's head and upper neck. I imaged this scene in Copake, New York, USA, near the border with Ancram, along Empire Road where the stream runs through Snook Hill Farm. For this image, I used my manual focus Tamron Adaptall-2 Model 55BB SP 500mm f8 Tele Macro Mirror Lens and Tamron Adaptall-2 140f 1.4X Flat Field Teleconverter with attached Tamron Adaptall-2 Pentax K M Mount on Pentax K20D Camera, hand held, manually focused, Shake Reduction previously set to 500mm focal length (forgot to change to 700mm when adding 1.4X TC), ISO 400, f8 on lens (f11 with TC), 1/125 sec, with available ambient light. This lens was functioning as a 700mm f11 lens. This is a full resolution Large JPEG and is Straight Out Of Camera (SOOC) and is without any post-processing, adjusting, editing, cropping, or re-sizing.

Standing between a yard and a meter in height, this Great Egret, Casmerodius albus, appears to be an imposing figure when compared to the other residents along this stream. This particular Egret seemed more tolerant of my presence than the Herons and other birdlife. I was sitting on the guardrail along Empire Road, completely out in the open. I like this spot to observe and image the wildlife. The Roeliff Jansen Kill flows through the land belonging to Snook Hill Farm, bends and flows alongside Empire Road before bending again to flow under the bridge on Empire Road. This bird was walking along the shore towards the first bend where I was sitting. I imaged this scene in Copake, New York, USA, near the border with Ancram. For this image, I used my manual focus Tamron Adaptall-2 Model 55BB SP 500mm f8 Tele Macro Mirror Lens and Tamron Adaptall-2 140f 1.4X Flat Field Teleconverter with attached Tamron Adaptall-2 Pentax K M Mount on Pentax K20D Camera, hand held, manually focused, Shake Reduction previously set to 500mm focal length (forgot to change to 700mm when adding 1.4X TC), ISO 400, f8 on lens (f11 with TC), 1/125 sec, with available ambient light. This lens was functioning as a 700mm f11 lens. This is a full resolution Large JPEG and is Straight Out Of Camera (SOOC) and is without any post-processing, adjusting, editing, cropping, or re-sizing.

I have been offline for several weeks with chronic computer issues. I have a bit of a backlog of digital images to upload. I captured this one today at Roy Swamp Wildlife Management Area in Sharon, Connecticut, USA. I took this image in late afternoon light. The original image was edited in FastStone to lighten the shadows and add a bit of contrast and sharpening to bring out some detail. This image was cropped a bit as well to remove the part of a second duck and most of the doughnut bokeh above the duck, typical of the mirror lens that was used for this image. There are just a few doughnuts remaining, in the upper left and lower right. This duck is only one of six siblings, all unafraid and eager to pose for me. I was standing on the shoreline only about twenty feet, or so, away. The mother and father were nowhere in sight and I would enjoy the opportunity to image them as well. For this image, I used my manual focus Tamron Adaptall-2 Model 55BB SP 500mm f8 Tele Macro Mirror Lens and Tamron Adaptall-2 140f 1.4X Flat Field Teleconverter with attached Tamron Adaptall-2 Pentax K M Mount on Pentax K20D Camera, hand held, manually focused, Shake Reduction set to 700mm focal length, ISO 800, f8 on lens (f11 with TC), 1/180 sec, with available ambient light. This lens was functioning as a 700mm f11 lens.

This image is from March 03, 2013. The birds were on a feeding frenzy as the snow was falling. This female Northern Cardinal stopped long enough to allow me this fairly crisp image from her perch on the deck railing about six to eight feet from my camera. I imaged this Cardinal in rural upstate Columbia County, New York, USA. For this image, I used my manual focus Tamron Adaptall-2 model 55BB SP 500mm f8 Tele Macro mirror lens with attached Tamron Adaptall-2 Pentax K M mount on Pentax K20D body, manually focused. hand held at the camera with the lens barrel resting on the window sill and pointed out the opened bathroom window, Shake Reduction set to 500mm, ISO 400, f8, 1/125 sec., with available ambient light. This full resolution large JPEG was edited in FastStone to slightly lighten the shadows to bring out some eye detail.

I imaged this one along the boardwalk by the western side of Sunderland Pond in Ooms Conservation Area in Chatham, Columbia County, New York, USA. This guy seemed to enjoy posing for me. For this image, I used my manual focus Tamron Adaptall-2 Model 55BB SP 500mm f8 Mirror Lens and Tamron Adaptall-2 140f 1.4X Flat Field Teleconverter with attached Tamron Adaptall-2 Pentax K M Mount on Pentax K20D Camera, hand held, manually focused, Manual mode, Shake Reduction set to 700mm, ISO 400, f8 on lens, 1/250 sec, with available ambient light. My lens was functioning as a 700mm f11 Mirror Lens. This is a full resolution Large JPEG and is Straight Out Of Camera (SOOC) and is without any post-processing, editing, adjustment, cropping, or re-sizing.

This Blue Jay has just finished loading as many seeds and nuts as would fit and pauses for a moment to look in my direction, just long enough for me to take this image, before flying off. If you view this image in the Original Size, you will see the reflection in this bird's eye of the house and the opened window through which I took this image. This Blue Jay was at close range, less than six feet away, on the end of the deck railing, in rural upstate Columbia County, New York, USA. For this image, I used my manual focus Tamron Adaptall-2 Model 104A CF 75-250mm f3.8-4.5 Tele Macro lens with attached Tamron Adaptall-2 Pentax K A mount and Pentax K20D camera body, hand held and imaged through opened bathroom window, Shake Reduction set to 250mm focal length, ISO 400, f11, 1/125 sec, with available ambient light. This is a large JPEG and is Straight Out Of Camera (SOOC) without any adjustment, re-sizing, or cropping.

I was tossing shelled peanuts out the opened bathroom window to the Northern Cardinals late this afternoon and saw something moving at the edge of the yard. I grabbed my binoculars and saw this Red-tailed hawk starting to consume caught prey. I ran to my room to grab my camera and took one shot. It was almost black, due to the low late afternoon light on a gray day. My camera's ISO was 400. I raised it to ISO 3200 and continued imaging. I liked this one the best. Because this bird was beyond the deck, I had to image between the vertical rails of the deck. This bird was imaged in the backyard in rural upstate Columbia County, New York, USA. For this image, I used my manual focus Tamron Adaptall-2 Model 55BB SP 500mm f8 Mirror Lens and Tamron Adaptall-2 140f 1.4X Flat Field Teleconverter with attached Tamron Adaptall-2 Pentax K M Mount on Pentax K20D Camera, hand held at the camera with the lens barrel pointed out the opened bathroom window and resting on the bathroom window sill, manually focused, Shake Reduction set to 700mm, ISO 3200, f8 on lens, 1/90 sec, with available ambient light. My lens was functioning as a 700mm f11 Mirror Lens. This is a full resolution Large JPEG and is Straight Out Of Camera (SOOC) and is without any post-processing, editing, adjustment, cropping, or re-sizing.