Photography equipment, bird shots, and lens discussion

My photography configuration consists of the Canon t1i body and Canon 75-300mm lens ( also known as the worst lens 'ever' made by Canon ).

I think not! This lens is affordable, compact, takes good quality photos, and creates a beautiful bokeh if the conditions are right. It has nice contrast and its focal length is very capable.

But, there are some "not so good" qualities about this lens. If there is any sun, every picture taken has a purple and green line around everything. Not so good. Also, the focus ring doesn't have the range of focus I like; not specific enough, but all in all, it has great value if you're looking for an affordable, smallish, hobby lens. For me, it has worked brilliantly. Even though in the next year I would like to upgrade, this lens has done fantastic. Really, it has; here are some of my best shots with the Canon 75-300 lens :


Western Tanager - my house, Kelowna, B.C.


Barrow's Goldeneye - Glenmore Pathway, Kelowna, B.C.


Yellow-headed Blackbird - Rotary Marsh, Kelowna, B.C.


White-breasted Nuthatch - Robert Lake, Kelowna, B.C.


White-crowned Sparrow - my house, Kelowna, B.C.


American White Pelican - Salmon Arm Bay, Salmon Arm, B.C.


Cedar Waxwing - Robert Lake, Kelowna, B.C.


Hammond's Flycatcher - my house, Kelowna, B.C.


Common Terns - mouth of Mission Creek, Kelowna, B.C.


Dark-eyed Junco - campsite, Revelstoke, B.C.


Wandering Tattler - Iona South Jetty, Vancouver, B.C.


Lazuli Bunting - Beaver Lake Road, Winfield, B.C.


Canyon Wren - Vaceaux Lake Cliffs, Okanagan Falls, B.C.


Eurasian Wigeon - Rotary Marsh, Kelowna, B.C.


Glaucous-winged Gull - Gary Point Park, Richmond, B.C.


Pygmy Nuthatch - my house, Kelowna, B.C.


Steller's Jay - my house, Kelowna, B.C.


Least Sandpiper - mouth of Mission Creek, Kelowna, B.C.

Thanks for looking!

Who's getting bored of Munson Pond?

Today, following a lead of two birds : Harris's Sparrow and Snow Goose, I went to the same birding place I've gone in the last month. Both species I had already seen this year, but they're good for the month list. No luck on the Harris's when we got there ( the wind was madly loud and cold ), but I did get the Snow Goose.

Ironically, a fellow birding friend, Chris Siddle, was there already and had the goose in the scope. An immature bird, it's a good one for Chris and I's month list. We are battling it out for third in the Okanagan for bird species this year; me at 235, and him at 234. So far, I have the authority - Mwah ha ha!!! But he'll get me, I'm sure.

Here's two shots of the Snow Goose :

Snow Goose

 

Also on the water were around 35-40 Cackling Geese; an alarming total! Some were of the b.h. minima subspecies, which are darker and smaller.

Cackling Geese ( b.h. minima )

 

 

This will probably be the last Munson Pond post until I 'hopefully' get a Greater White-fronted Goose. You're probably getting tired of it. :)

Is this a Common Grackle ( shot on Tuesday @ Munson Pond )

Here is that recording of that possible Common Grackle at Munson Pond. It is the distinct sound at the back of the geese and others. You may want to turn up the ol' sound on your computer, because it's quite quiet. Any opinions???

It calls at 0:01, 0:02, 0:05, and 0:09.

Thanks for your help.

Munson Pond, and the kingfisher story - October 22nd, 2013

Yesterday, I went to Munson Pond - again. Looking for Greater White-fronted Geese - again.

I started at the usual spot; the beginning of Munson Road. Practically ALL of the migrants have left in a very short period of time. Only a juvy White-crowned Sparrow and two Yellow-rumped Warblers were in the usually productive scrubby patch. But, to my surprise, when I looked twice at a massive flock of starlings and RW Blackbirds on a wire, I noticed that at least 1/3rd of the birds were doves. Yes, doves! Both Mourning and Eurasian-Collared were noted, and I counted at least 30 birds of both species.

Walking along again, the yards I passed were dead; no birds. Finally, as I neared the pond, the action ( or what was left of it ) picked up. A nice Cooper's Hawk glided along overhead, as did a pair of grunting Great Blue Herons. At the pond, I was greeted with a beautiful outlay of fall foliage :

 

Then, some good ol' Canada Geese moved into picture :

 

 

One of the omnipresent Belted Kingfishers was calling quite close, and I then found her ( yep, a her, the brown partial belly-band and all. ) She was calling raucously at me in a most disgraceful way, and was perched right by the water on a lamp-post.

To try to get a picture was another story. I crept slowly up, hiding behind some trees, but the smart kingfisher spotted me through a teeny-weenie hole in the leaves. She chattered at me in utter disgust, and took off. Sure enough, as soon as I moved back on to the road, she ( of course ) returned to her perch and again beaked off. This cycle continued for at least an hour : of me sneaking up, turning my camera slowly to fire, then the bird taking off. I just had to laugh at the bird's laser-beam eye; seeing where I was at all times. But the kingfisher's silliness of coming back to the same area when I wasn't there at that precise moment was amusing - and frustrating for the photographer side of me.

Finally, I was able to fire a decent couple shots : one of her on one of her favourite perches, and one of her on a telephone wire.

 

Belted Kingfisher

 

 

After an hour and a half of trying to get a shot of the kingfisher and scanning through the hundreds of

Canada Geese for a Greater White-fronted ( I didn't find one ), it was time to call it quits.

 

On the way out, I got three more species of birds of prey : American Kestrel, Sharp-shinned Hawk, and Red-tailed Hawk. There also was a bird calling that may be a Common Grackle!!! I have a recording, so I'll post it when I can.

 

Merlin and American Robin + some fall foliage

My yard has been hopping with birds lately. These are two of my best shots from the last couple days.

Merlin ( wonder why this word popped up there? <  instead of here > )

American Robin

 

And here's some fall foliage :

 

 

Thanks!

 

 

October 14th : Munson Pond & Sutherland Hills Park, a day of Kelowna fall birding + 1 BC Lifer!

Yesterday, we birded at Munson Pond and Sutherland Hills Park, two fantastic birding spots in Kelowna.

We started at Munson Pond, which is a migrant trap in migration, especially in fall, where uncommon sparrows love to stop by. Rarities here are annual and some good birds spotted here in its history are : Sage Sparrow, American Bittern, and several Eurasian Wigeons in the winter. By late September, a few Greater White-fronted Geese *should* be passing through, resting on the large wooded pond with the hundreds of Canada Geese. But this year, they STILL haven't arrived yet, a delay of almost a month. That trend continued today.

Well, we started at the end of Munson Road, which leads to the pond. This stretch of farmland and bushes / trees host a variety of migrants, especially warblers and sparrows. In fact, a couple weeks back, I got a Clay-colored Sparrow mixed in with 5 kinds of warbler in a resident's yard's bushes. ( Please don't qualify me as a peeping tom. ) Oh, well. Today, when I got out of the car, I scanned the farm fields for a GRWHFRGO among the hordes of Canada to no avail. But by one of the fences, in a scraggly area, I was greeted with a ton of White-crowned Sparrow ( 90% juvenile ), and several Yellow-rumped Warblers. Many Song Sparrows were calling, and horde of Red-winged Blackbirds and European Starlings zipped by. Three Red-tailed Hawks were surveying their usual territories, as was a little flock of Black-capped Chickadees. A few minutes later, I detected some Dark-eyed Juncos chipping in a thicket. California Quail were everywhere as they always are. Just as a side note, even though the California Quails are introduced from California, our Okanagan population is the densest in the whole world! Back to the birding. Along the way, I heard a Wilson's Warbler; they are starting to get scarce this late in the season. Adjacent to the calling warbler, there was a nice Dark-eyed Junco of the Slate-colored variety. Uncommon, and always great to see, I tried to snap some shots, but they were only half-decent.

( Slate-colored ) Dark-eyed Junco

As I reached the pond itself, a Belted Kingfisher stormed over in a fury for no apparent reason; flying away from the pond. "Yo, kingfisher! The water's over here!" Chattering away, he was all but polite. On the pond there were dozens of Mallards and Canada Geese, not to mention a huge horde of American Crows cawing their beaks off beside the water. Three Pied-billed Grebes were fishing pleasantly near the shore, and one caught a fish that looked too big for his little bill. Nonetheless, he/she harfed it down. Surprisingly, no more waterfowl except one Wood Duck were counted. Usually there are loads of wigeons, teal, shovelers, Ring-necked Ducks, both mergansers, and more. But, not to be discouraged, I searched the tangles of brush on the left side, right by a tiny creek bed. I immediately saw a suspicious sparrow flush up from the brush, leaping to a bush on the other side. I flushed him again to the other side, but he wasn't cooperating. Finally, I got a good look at him : White-throated Sparrow! Then another popped up. The same two rare White-throated Sparrows that I got last week at this very spot! How ironic! One of the pair was being uncooperative, probably the one I saw flash across the road. The other meanwhile, was being a little better behaved. He was scrambling from branch to branch, calling profusely all the while. After 15 minutes, and a lot of pishing and imitating on my part, the sparrow finally plopped onto a branch in full view. The bird was so back-lit, I could swear someone was holding a flash-light on the other side of him. Being the determined photographer I am, I shot many photos his / her way and here are three :

 

 

Note : the rest of the pictures came out smaller for some reason. Does anybody know why? I tried to adjust the size, but it wouldn't let me. Sorry.

 

White-throated Sparrow

 

 

In this section there was also an abundance of Ruby-crowned Kinglets. They were virtually everywhere. They were bouncing off the walls if you know what I mean. Here's two crazy pictures of the crazy kinglets being crazy :

 

 

 

 



 



 After the fun with the Ruby-crowned Kinglets, I directed my attention to a nice Orange-crowned Warbler of the Gray-headed ssp. This is the best I could manage of the cutie.

 

 

 

Pardon the photo, he blends into the background quite easily. Here's a cropped version of it :

 

Orange-crowned Warbler

 

The way back to the car was overall birdless, with the same birds noted before. That's right, no Greater White-fronted Geese.

 

 

Next stop, Sutherland Hills Park. Under a time constraint, we didn't want to be pokey ( eg. Staring at a wee little ant for ten minutes. ) Can ( the verb ) the corny sense of humor, me! As we rounded the bend to the parking lot, we noticed an outrageous amount of people everywhere. Oh, boy; people are birders worst enemies in the field for many, many reasons. I hoped when we got up into the park ( which is at the top of a hill ) we would lose the human traffic. Okay, I'll back up. Sutherland Hills Park is a huge pine forest situated right by the locally famous Mission Creek, and smack dab in the middle of the city. The birds love it up there, as there are many species that breed there. Migration is good too, trapping a whole whack of tanagers, flycatchers, and warblers. The wooded ponds up at the top are host to the Central Okanagan's largest breeding population of Wood Ducks, and the conifers often have a Great Horned Owl's nest. Rarities here include : Ferruginous Hawk, Great Egret, and Magnolia Warbler.

 

When we got to the top, we were greeted by.................... more people. But thankfully, as we continued walking, the crowd started to dissipate. Typical piney-woods suspects started to make themselves known, such as Pygmy Nuthatch, Northern Flicker, and Dark-eyed Junco. The birding was quiet until we got to an excitingly active patch of pine-lover species. First I heard a bunch of Golden-crowned Kinglets peeping away, and more Pygmy Nuthatches were going nuts. Ascending two separate trees was a pair of Brown Creepers, a winter resident in the Okanagan. I guess they are back and ready for the winter season, sensing the crispy-cold air that's been swirling around these last few days. Black-capped Chickadee were everywhere in this patch too. After a while, the GC Kinglets were getting tired of our staring eyes, so they bounced on their happy way; dashing to a farther away tree. The creepers were out of view now also, so we continued on. Around the next curve, which leads to a kind of meadow, an amiable Downy Woodpecker sauntered overheard, providing great, but brief looks of this charismatic tree-pounder. In the Downy's case, "tree-tapper."

 

Crossing the small field, nothing was moving except for a few Song Sparrows, and a circling Red-tailed Hawk. Then we walked for while, and not much was really anywhere. Only four Mallards in one of the ponds, a pair of Black-billed Magpies, four Ruby-crowned Kinglets, and some American Robins were to report. At the back of the park, where we had worked ourselves to, was a short, but very steep hill. On this hill, there is a pond on the left side, and a wide, open field on the right. I always thought this would be an ideal place for sparrows. It had never been until today. What sparked my interest was a juvy White-crowned Sparrow that flushed out of a bush on the left hand side and stirring up a Dark-eyed Junco on the other side of the path. Then I noticed a sparrow behind the junco, which had now gone onto the path, feeding on the ground. This sparrow was very light and very sleek and slim, with a long tail. My binoculars shot up to my eyes, and I got fairly good looks at it. I said, "Oh, my goodness, I think it's an American Tree Sparrow! " Not daring to go closer, I watched it forage along the ground, hopping across the trail with the junco and White-crowned Sparrow. It turned around, showing me its side view. Picture time for confirmation!

 

American Tree Sparrow

 

Cropped

 

Original size. The ATSP is on the right beside a White-crowned Sparrow.

 

 

To further confirm it for me, the blessed little bird uttered a flight call, and sat in perfect light, straight facing me for a split second. The sparrow showed me it's rich reddy face pattern, buffy chest, and central breast spot. It also showed me it's black top mandible and yellow lower mandible. American Tree Sparrow indeed!

 

BC Lifer #275, BC year list #261

Okanagan Lifer #243, Okanagan year list #235

BC + Nevada lifer #317, Overall year list #302

 

I'm a happy camper!

 

Well, that's my day report; I hope you liked it! Many more to come.

 

 



 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Day 1 of Las Vegas trip, September 3rd, 2013 part 2

The bird was coming out slowly, then I got a good look at it. Common Gallinule! Lifer #11 for the trip, and my gorgeous subject was coming closer :

Common Gallinule

 

 

It was soon joined by another adult and a baby :

Common Gallinule juvenile

 

After about 15 minutes of watching and shooting, I turned around, and I raced to the juicy migrants in one of the trees. At eye-level, there were tons of Yellow Warblers, Song Sparrows, Warbling Vireos, and others. Along the water, there was a tall, thick stand of moist trees which I thought I would check out. In that patch, there was one Pacific-slope Flycatcher, a nice Wilson's Warbler, and a SINGING Yellow Warbler. That may sound silly, because all birds sing."DUH" you would say, but this late in the season is quite interesting. We ran into a flurry of Black-chinned, Anna's, Calliope, and Rufous Hummingbirds when we got going again. In the wetlands park, there is a confusing array of paths and trails, where you don't know which one to take! We took the right hand fork, for I thought that vegetation would be good for migrants. As we started down the trail, it felt like we were in a damp, deep, dark jungle, as the branches, weeds, and trees bent and stretched right over the path. The silence in that place was all-encompassing. I peered into the quiet undergrowth, but not a bird was to be seen. So, I started pishing. That got everything going, and a MacGillivray's Warbler quickly hopped into view, and somewhere a Northern Mockingbird was calling. Then, a hummingbird buzzed over my head, and hovered right close to me. It was small, but plump. It then landed on an exposed branch for a split second, then took off to a farther-away perch, daintily looking at me. A little ray of sun poked down for a second, showing me the rich violet color of the throat, and the white eye-brow. Costa's! :

 

Costa's Hummingbird

 

 

 

 

 

Happy dance time!!! Lifer #13, and one of my top priority birds for the trip. Lighthearted, we came out of the tunnel-like trail, to another pond. Birds here included Anna's Hummingbird, Sharp-shinned Hawk, Northern Harrier, and American Coot. A bird call that stumped me turned out to be a lifer Green-tailed Towhee. Here's a recording of the bird. You can faintly hear him crying out at the 0:04 mark of the tape. The other birds in the recording are a mix of sounds, composed of Verdins, Black-tailed Gnatcatchers, and maybe an Anna's Hummingbird.

Green-tailed Towhees and others deserty species

 

 

We decided it was getting late, and was time to hit the hotel. On the hot, sweaty hike back to the car, around every corner there seemed was a pack of Abert's Towhees, and I counted 30+ for the time we were at the park. The trail was not birdy for a while, until we practically reached the car. More migrants were calling from numerous hiding places, and I heard my first Blue-gray Gnatcatchers ever. On the drive out, my mom (who is fantastic at spotting birds) said, "What's that on the wire?" I got out, and photographed a lovely Lesser Nighthawk up on the telephone wire. Yah, Mom!!!

Lesser Nighthawk

 

 

 

Well, 19 lifers for Day 1 of the Las Vegas trip was unexpected for me, and with two more full days of birding yet to come, I couldn't be happier! As always, I thank my mother explicitly for driving me to all of the birding places there are! She says she loves it too, so, fantastic!

LVBTLL : 19
Nevada Life List : 47 ( sad, but it will improve in the coming days! )
Year List : 274

Next post : Corn Creek, Nevada

Day 1 of Las Vegas trip, September 3rd, 2013 part 1

Last month, I travelled to Las Vegas and birded around the area. My family had other purposes there, but I still got tons of birding done in the three days we stayed. You would think, "Oh, Las Vegas. For birds?! No, question, they'll be nothing there, but a desert full of nothingness." But, no, the Las Vegas area is not all desert, with some patches of lovely rich vegetation like the Wetlands Park ( which I will talk about in this post ), Floyd Lamb Park, and Corn Creek. There are even mountains which can be explored within a half an hour of the city. Even the deserts can be hosts to a glorious amount of species. All of these locations and habitats I explored and birded, and will be summarized in the next few posts.

Day 1, September 3rd :

There was a birding spot only ten short minutes from our hotel, so the commute was easy. The hot-spot was called Wetlands Park, and had just been restored. Me, being one of the first birders ever in the park since it's been reno'd, I had my first taste of Nevada birds.

We first checked out a part of the park called the Duck Creek trail. ( No creek in sight. ) Whatever. I started searching the marsh a few feet away from the road where we parked. I was greeted by a lifer; in the form of a Snowy Egret. Situated elegantly on a shopping cart ( yes, in the middle of the marsh ), the egret proceeded to eye me suspiciously while a few Black-necked Stilts played around below him. As nonchalantly as possible, the heron dipped his head down, and began to walk slowly along the mud :

 

Snowy Egret

The light was HORRID, but I then directed my attention to two of the lovely Black-necked Stilts on the shore and in the air, not a lifer, but a year-bird.

Black-necked Stilt flying

Then, I saw a huge brown shape moving among the reeds.......... White-faced Ibis! Lifer #2 for the afternoon. ( In the morning, I saw an Inca Dove and Lesser Goldfinches from the hotel room's window! ) Overall, White-faced Ibis was lifer #4 for the trip. After that excitement, I spotted a flycatcher that I couldn't identify at first, but after some scrutinization, the bird turned out to be an Ash-throated Flycatcher, lifer #5. In the marsh, I searched for more shorebirds, and I picked out 20 Greater Yellowlegs, 2 Long-billed Dowitchers, 3 Spotted Sandpipers, and 5 Killdeer. A flock of Least Sandpipers was swirling around too. No lifers, but I was happy anyway. The adrenaline rush continued though, as I saw a black thing jump out from the top of a bull-rush and snap a bug out of the air. Waiting with baited breath for it to come up again, I knew I had seen a phoebe; hopefully a Black. Then, it came up again. Black Phoebe! Finally, I pulled myself away from the marsh, because I knew that even better birds were to come at the Wetlands Park itself.

At the entrance to the park, I began to hear tons of birds, all which I had never heard before. Hummingbirds of unknown kinds were zipping everywhere, and the Nevada heat was giving my mother and I no mercy. As I reached the edge of the vast amount of shrubs, I heard my first Gambel's Quail peeping in the brush, and there was a Verdin flitting about in one of the taller shrubs. At this time, I had my eye on some movement below a bunch of bushes; on the ground. The sound of this bird was a high piping note, reminiscent of a ground-squirrel. I crept up slowly, and finally after several minutes, the bird gave itself away. The ground-lover was an Abert's Towhee, a declining species in the southwestern desert. The LVBTLL ( Las Vegas Birding Trip Lifer List ) was now at 9. A great start, and we hadn't even reached the trail yet. On the trail, more cute little Verdins were fluttering and chattering in the bushes. Here's a shot of one of them :

Verdin

 

As we continued up the trail, a colony of Gambel's Quails was proceeding to scramble across the road in panic, obviously petrified of my presence. A call which had been confusing me was plaguing me again, but I was determined now to find it, or them. Turns out, the birds which were calling were Black-tailed Gnatcatchers, which would prove to be one of the most abundant birds of the trip.

They are notoriously hard to photograph, as they love to flit out of sight, just as you put up your camera to shoot.

 

Black-tailed Gnatcatcher

 

We continued around a bend, marvelling at the diverse vegetation, much dryer and different from what we have here in Kelowna, B.C., Canada. Up in the air, a Double-crested Cormorant flew past, only providing brief looks. On the right side of the trail, we noticed a beautiful pond, with human-height reeds, and a ripple in the water.......... meaning there's a bird in there!

For right now, I am oblivious to the gorgeous Black Phoebe flycatching over the pond, and the juicy migrants I can hear in the trees near-by. All I am focusing on is the ripple in the water by the reeds. I first see a bit of black emerging from around the corner, then a bit of yellow, a bit of red, THENNNN..............................

tune in next time for part two!