Bird Photography

All posts tagged Bird Photography

Sunday ~ August 15, 2021

Posted by Dave Updegraff on August 15, 2021
Posted in: Daily Posts. Tagged: , , , , .

Happy Sunday!

A few more images of the Grand Tetons.  These were taken as we were leaving the Tetons and headed back to Yellowstone National Park.  As you can see from this image there was a rain storm moving in.  Click on the image to make it larger and more detailed.

It did rain on us for a fair amount of time, however it was not as much rain as the area needed.  It was quite dry in both parks and the fire risk was high.

The clouds were pretty but mixed in with the haze and the pending rain storm it made for a difficult photography experience.  Still it’s hard to take a bad picture when these wonderful mountains are in front of the lens.

Occasionally the sun would break through the clouds and give us a wonderful view of the mountain tops. 

There are just so many rivers, hills, trees, and rocks that it makes for a photographers delight.

On the way back to West Yellowstone I caught a glimpse of this (I believe it is a) large hawk.  I pulled over and got the long lens ready.  I wasn’t expecting to see in flying wildlife.  At first I thought it might be a juvenile eagle, but the more I looked at it I decided it was a hawk.  As you can see he is missing one talon.  He seems to be doing alright and didn’t have any trouble maintaining his balance.

That’s it for today.  My next post will be back in Yellowstone park with some wonderful scenery and of course some more bison. 

Enjoy your day and be careful.

Tuesday ~ October 09, 2018

Posted by Dave Updegraff on October 9, 2018
Posted in: Daily Posts. Tagged: , , , , , .

Happy Tuesday!

We have had so much rain over the last six-days (and more rain today) that our back yard has become more of a lake than a yard.

Yesterday, when I looked out the patio door there must have been 30 or more robins and common grackles in our back yard hunting for worms and taking baths.  This rather rotund robin spent a lot of time bathing himself.  I finally decided to get my telephoto lens and capture some of the fun.

This common grackle was looking for a private bathing area but most of them were already taken.  I must have spent 20 minutes watching the birds play.  Of course when I started making images most of the birds took off.

Mr. Robin was creating quite the shower with his fluttering about.

My  yard looks more like a hay-field.  Still to wet to run the mower over it.

Enjoy your day and be careful.

Thursday ~ August 27, 2015

Posted by Dave Updegraff on August 27, 2015
Posted in: Daily Posts. Tagged: , , , , .

August-25-2015-B

Happy Thursday!

It’s been sometime since I last burdened you with images of birds so that is what I have for you today.  I love these little Gold Finches.  They are all that I am feeding this summer.  When the colder weather comes I’ll start feeding all the birds but for this summer I have only fed the finches and provided a full bird bath for all the birds.

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A real treat yesterday as I got to play golf with some good friends.  If I was to design the perfect weather day it would have been a day like yesterday.  Big puffy white clouds, beautiful blue sky, temperature around 72 degrees, low humidity and just enough of a breeze to keep the bugs at bay.

I have never been blessed with any athletic abilities.  My eye-hand coordination is suspect at best but golf is one sport that I had some success with.  Lots of practice, a bunch of golf lessons, and a fair amount of playing at one point got me down to a 9 handicap.

However as life, work, and kids made more demands on my time what little ability I had gained soon evaporated.  I finally quit playing except in special outing type events like best shot and group effort type matches.

Knowing that I had this game coming up at a nice golf course I called my old golf instructor and took another lesson.  In no time he had me hitting the ball with some proficiency again.  I hit practice balls over the weekend and was confident that I could at least play good enough not to embarrass myself.

August-25-2015

I was wrong.  What little game I thought I had deteriorated in the blink of an eye.  I lost 11 golf balls, had a thee digit score and drew the attention of the roaming ranger more than once.  😦

Truth is I’d much rather photograph a golf course than play on it.  The clubs are back where they belong and can no longer do any damage to me or the golf course.  I will stick to photography and leave the golfing to those who have abilities.

That’s it for today.  Enjoy your day and be careful.

Monday ~ August 03, 2015

Posted by Dave Updegraff on August 3, 2015
Posted in: Daily Posts. Tagged: , , , , .

August-02-2015

Happy Monday!

I took a little drive Sunday morning and found this interesting collection of farm buildings against a dynamic sky full of clouds.  Although it was past the golden hour for landscape photography I think the clouds makes up for it.

Then I happened by some flowers growing along the side of the road.  No one seemed to be living there but the flowers were beautiful so I had to make some images of them. I didn’t have my macro lens but the 24 – 120 f4 VR lens seemed to work just fine.

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I also had my long lens just in case i came across some wildlife but they were scarce so no images of them for today.

Very hot afternoon so I didn’t get outside much.  Josh had his last soccer game of the year yesterday afternoon at 5:00 p.m. so we went and baked during that.  I’ll have some of those images for you tomorrow.

Ben got called from the game and had to do surgery so Angie and the kids came over for dinner and I grilled some chicken for us.

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We played a lot, ate a lot, visited a lot and then they went home.  I think I lasted maybe 15 minutes in front of the History Channel and then was out like a light.  🙂

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That’s all I have for you today.  Less humid today so I have a lot of activities planned.  We’ll see how many of them I get done.  Thanks for stopping by the blog.  Enjoy your day and be careful.

Wednesday ~ July 22, 2015

Posted by Dave Updegraff on July 22, 2015
Posted in: Daily Posts. Tagged: , , , , .

July-21-2015

Happy Wednesday!

I decided to sit out on the patio last evening after dinner.  The temperature was moderate and a light breeze made being outdoors and watching nature far more appealing than watching TV.

I have scaled back on my bird feeding during the summer for several reasons.  However I do keep fresh water in the bird bath and the birds love it.  Usually if I’m sitting on the patio they won’t come to the bird bath so last night I sat close to the house behind some other chairs with my long lens and had a ball capturing bird images.

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I have not seen the Cardinal around for sometime.  I saw him last night for the first time up by the trees.  I was just about to call it a night when he showed up at the bird bath.  I have never seen him at the bird bath let alone photograph him there.  It was a real treat for me.

I always enjoy photographing a Cardinal and my friend Ron enjoys them a lot so I have a couple of images for you today Ron.

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The only feeder I still have out is the thistle feeder for the Gold Finches.  They are such a pretty bird and I really enjoy watching them.

The bird bath has become a busy place this summer.  It is used by all sorts of birds and there is usually a waiting line to use it.  A lot of birds just use it for a drink but the last few hot days there were lot of birds getting cooled off by taking a full bath in it. 🙂

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So it was an enjoyable evening doing two of the things I really enjoy.  Watching nature and taking photographs.  I shot 474 images and culled those down to 67 keepers.  There were actually more keepers but they were all of the same thing.  I used the Nikon D4 (which will rip off 57 shots in nothing flat) fitted with the Sigma 150 – 600 mm lens at ISO 400 1/640 sec @ f6.5.

That’s it for today.  I hope you enjoyed the bird images.  Thanks for stopping by the blog.  Enjoy your day and be careful.

Monday ~ July 20, 2015

Posted by Dave Updegraff on July 20, 2015
Posted in: Daily Posts. Tagged: , , , , , , .

July-19-2015

Happy Monday!

I went out to the Dubuque Regional Airport yesterday morning to photograph the war-birds on their last day here.  I was told on Friday that they would more than likely take off and do a group formation between 10:00 – 11:30 a.m.

I arrived at the airport around 8:30 a.m. with cameras, lenses, lawn chair, umbrella, and lots of water, full of anticipation.

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I shot 1,000 images yesterday and the first image I’m showing you is a bumblebee. Not only is it my first image, it’s all I’m showing today.

This little guy or some of his buddies were working the small wild flowers all around me.  The action at many times was non-existent on the air field so I amused myself by photographing the bumblebees and a little ground squirrel, which I’ll show later.

I spent 4.5 hours at the airport and never did see the group take off or fly over.  I finally packed it in around 1:00 p.m. as I had other things I had to do.  I met several nice people while I was there including a very interesting man from Germany.

As we were watching a couple of the war-birds taxi out for take off he said to me, “Those planes use to shoot at me when I was a boy.”   He introduced himself to me but the only part of his name I could hear was his first name, which was Reinhardt.  I doubt if I have spelled it correctly.

He said he was born in 1937 near Düsseldorf, Germany and towards the end of the war the American fighter planes would seek targets of opportunity after escorting the bombers. During this period of the war they did a lot of strafing of the German country side and he remembers that.  Fascinating gentleman and I wished we could have visited longer but he had to go.

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I did shoot lots of airplanes yesterday so I have several of those to show during the week.  I just liked the bumblebee images so that is what I share with you today.

Notice the “pollen” bags on their back legs.  I didn’t notice those when I was taking these images.  The lens I had wasn’t really suited for macro photography but it seemed to work.  These images were shot with: Nikon D750 | Nikon 80 – 400 mm f5.6 VRII lens | ISO 100 1/1000 sec @ f8.0

Thanks for stopping by the blog.  Enjoy your day and be careful.

Wednesday ~ July 01, 2015

Posted by Dave Updegraff on July 1, 2015
Posted in: Daily Posts. Tagged: , , , .

June-30-2015

Happy Hump Day!

I was sitting on my humble patio last evening contemplating the whys and wherefores of things and decided I should grab a camera and a long lens and capture some images of the little Gold Finches that are now prevalent in our back yard.

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This was not my intent when I wandered onto the patio but they are such a pretty little creature and as their feathers glistened from the sun I reasoned that it was the proper thing to do.

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There was precious little sun, hence there is a fair amount of noise in these images.  I had to shoot them at ISO 2000, which is kind of high for the D750.  Also I’m not thrilled with the Sigma 150 – 600 mm lens but it was what I had available on short notice.

So that is what I have for you today.  Three images all Gold Finches.  I hope it was worth your time to stop by the blog.  Enjoy your day and be careful.

Thursday ~ October 30, 2014

Posted by Dave Updegraff on October 30, 2014
Posted in: Daily Posts. Tagged: , , .

Birds of a feather

Happy Thursday!

All I have for you today is this image of two birds on my makeshift tree branch.  It was either show you this and babble a little or not post at all.   When I don’t post (and take pictures) something is missing from my life.  So it’s birds today.

I wasn’t feeling well yesterday and so laid down after dinner last night just to rest.  I woke up early this morning after the Royals had lost the World Series and past the deadline for entering the photo contest.  😦

I was happy with my potential entry so maybe I’ll save it for next year.  There is no expiration date on the photo.

I showed it to a friend yesterday at lunch on my iPhone and his comment was, “Oh Wow!”  That made my day.  🙂

That’s all I have for today.  Hope you have a great day today.  Thanks for stopping by and be careful.

Thursday ~ October 02, 2014

Posted by Dave Updegraff on October 2, 2014
Posted in: Daily Posts. Tagged: , , , .

October-01-2014

Happy Thursday!

A short post today as I have training all day and of course I’m running late.

This little bird perched on my new branch with leaves, which Jeanne thought would not happen.  🙂

Jeanne and I met with the dietitian yesterday afternoon.  It was comforting to know that what we’ve been doing was the right thing and she was very impressed with our progress.  We both learned a lot from her though so it was an hour well spent.

Looking back I think the way things worked out was best.  Had we met with her shortly after I was diagnosed I think we would have ended up with more questions than answers.  This way she confirmed what we were doing right and made suggestions on things we should change.  Additionally providing some insight that we had not considered.

Enjoy your day today.  Fall is here and I love it.  Thanks for stopping by the blog.  Be careful.

Wednesday ~ September 24, 2014

Posted by Dave Updegraff on September 24, 2014
Posted in: Daily Posts. Tagged: , , , .

A lowly Sparrow

Happy Hump Day!

It has been a busy couple of days to start this week off.  I have not had time for photography or blogging.

I captured this image last evening at the bird feeder line.  Yes it’s just a lowly sparrow but he sat and posed for me a long time.  Usually they will fly off after about the third or fourth shutter click.  I got the feeling he enjoyed it because he would turn his head from side to side and hold the pose.  🙂

I spent the day conducting training yesterday.  Every time I teach a course I have a renewed respect for the work that Jeanne does on a daily basis.

I am so excited by the subject that I’m trying to teach yet many times I can see from the faces and body language of my audience that they are either not getting it or they are not sharing in my exuberance and that is my responsibility.  It is especially hard to teach a subject after lunch when the room is dark for a video and the food is draining the individual of energy.  Some might say it is because the presenter is boring and they may have a point.

On the way home yesterday I looked for some harvest pictures.  I went by miles of fields but still no machinery harvesting the crops.  I have training this evening so it will be dark on my drive home.  Perhaps in the next couple of days I’ll be able to make some harvest images.

That’s it for today.  Thanks for stopping by the blog.  Enjoy your day and be careful.