Getting Motivated

I'm waiting for it to warm up a bit then I'm going out to get more firewood up to the porch. Being at home every day I'm using a lot more than usual. Got loads of it around the yard so not going to run out until the next ice age. While waiting for it to warm up I'm just just scanning through some pictures from last spring. This one I like so I cropped it a bit and Denoised it. I'll have to go scouting down the bottom of the yard and find a nice log with ferns and moss for a perch for when I get photographing again.

Eastern Bluebird

Bluebirds on the deck

I've just spent a good few minutes watching 5 Bluebirds on the Upper Deck. I have a hanging feeder from the Hickory tree that looks like a little house with clear lexan sides Each end has a Bluebird size hole which excludes the Starling Vultures who steal all the food. Part of the roof folds up allowing the addition of lots of dried mealworms and chopped cranberries. The Bluebirds are in and out all the time so I'm happy. Heres a picture from earlier this year.

Eastern Bluebird

Merry Christmas to all 3 of my avid readers

Spring Birds

 While waiting for my camera to be returned after reassembling the parts that fell on the floor when I dropped it I had a look through some pictures from earlier in the year. Here are a few that I didn't add in the Spring.

Ruby-throated Hummingbird

Scarlet Tanager

Gray Catbird

Bay-breasted Warbler

Rose-breasted Grosbeak

Swainson's Thrush

Very good reason for no updates...

So you see there was a Mockingbird eating the Winterberries out front, the light was perfect so I quickly got the window slid open and the smoked Lexan in it's place. I got the tripod raised to standing height and slid the Z7 and 500mm into the Quick Release on the Ballhead. Did you read where I used the word 'quickly'? Yeah....too quick. I never locked the quick release down properly. I needed to adjust the tripod height a few inches and lifted it up and crash! The camera, FTZ adapter and lens fell 4 feet onto the hardwood floor and separated. Little bits of the mount were everywhere. The camera switched on OK even with the broken mount and the lens mount looks OK to my eyes but I think the mount might be distorted. The F to Z adapter I think is toast however. So all the gear is away at Nikon being repaired and checked. The longest available lens I can use with the Z6 is the 70-200mm so I've not been taking any Bird pictures. Heres one from before the crash.

Carolina wren

Image Quality Test

A test of image quality before and after a simple HTML tweak.

Blackpoll Warbler before tweak

Nikon Z6 500mm PF ISO 5000 1/400 s f/7.1

Blackpoll Warbler after tweak

Nikon Z6 500mm PF ISO 5000 1/400 s f/7.1

On the LH side of Blogger tool bar there's a pencil symbol with a down arrow which switches between HTML view and Compose view.

Select HTML view. 

What you're looking for is something like this :-

  src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_aA9zSiqoBGRbGtdyZVYh5G8gv5sMQRRLGcYukXRZQMfCOQlqJSE1Hs1UjyjgSdpuKJvyh-cNBctyuiGrCpdZS0Jw5l0WBnSHnkZVJ7PgLRyQwcVl1DdSH4sRU6pwZEw749MkEwBkXik/s600/Blackpoll+Warbler+1.jpg"

            width="600"

        /></a>

See the bit where it's /s600/ well change that to /s1600/ that's all you have to do.

A few qualifications, I enter my 1600x1200 px images as X-Large.

If you do add your images in Compose view for some reason the HTML code changes for some reason known only to Google developers or people smarter than me.

Added in Compose view without HTML change

Added in Compose view with HTML change

If you do add an image in Compose view the portion of underlying HTML code will look like this:-

 src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0e6Fu_31BU89lqEMBgi93p5yXHf308Ywxfkdehsb6TZUDQKSRjKx7Eux6qtyEGAq2Fg_t_0mSF_R6NSBxzpl9E5bazippsz0-eDFylTSzGOUasnsYK0VTDdMGFzxMbn6D1kaKoM24sE8/w640-h480/Blackpoll+Warbler+1.jpg"

            width="640"

        /></a>

Where it says /w640-h480/ I double it to /w1280-h960/ which also seems to work OK.

If any real HTML programmers know of a better way to achieve better quality representations then I'm interested.

Monday Hawkwatch

As the 2nd Mountain Hawkwatch is on an 18,000 acre National Guard Training Facility we're used to being buzzed by a variety of military aircraft. This Marine Corps KC-130J Hercules overflew us several times and pretty low. I had my camera set on a very fast shutter speed of 1/5000 sec for migrating Raptors so that freezes the whirling propeller blades, in reality they were spinning very fast.

Marine Corps KC-130J

We spread some seed on the tree stump which attracted the usual crowd.

Dark-eyed Junco

Tufted Titmouse

Tufted Titmouse

White-breasted Nuthatch 

 

Sunday Evening Colors

While trying to capture an image of a Pileated Woodpecker this evening I gave up and took these instead.

Sunday Birds

 Very bright Sunday morning and the feeder was quite active so I stuck the lens out the window and took these. 

American Goldfinch

Downy Woodpecker

Northern Cardinal

Red-bellied Woodpecker

Starling

Yard Birds

 Yesterday was bright and sunny and very cold at just around freezing. I had planned to get the leaves chopped up prior to bagging them using big John Deere but it was too damn cold. I decided I was going to photograph the feeder birds instead. I did the leaves later on when it had warmed up a lot BTW.

Blue Jay

Carolina Chickadee (probably)

Carolina Wren

Carolina Wren

Tufted Titmouse

Tufted Titmouse

Tufted Titmouse 

Tufted Titmouse

White-breasted Nuthatch

White-breasted Nuthatch

More Evening Grosbeak

I added a few more of the Evening Grosbeak. I had another wander round the Gamelands this morning as the flock down there had been reported again. No luck unfortunately but it was a nice morning to be out in the sunshine. 

Evening Grosbeak at the feeder

Evening Grosbeak

Evening Grosbeak

Evening Grosbeak

Over the years I've seen Rose-breasted Grosbeak, Japanese Grosbeak, Blue Grosbeak but never ever the best looking of the lot, an Evening Grosbeak. Theres been an influx of them this year, and last Sunday and Monday we spent several hours looking for a flock that Brian saw without success. Out of the blue this afternoon a txt message from Tim sent me haring off like the old twitcher I am in pursuit of a flock at a nearby feeder a few miles away. Tim's message gave the address as M****** Drive and as I headed out of the driveway I asked Siri to navigate to the address. Siri came back with directions to M***** Road so I said no I want M***** Drive. This went on through several iterations until I told her to go and do something  unnatural with the rough end of a Pineapple. I stopped and entered it into the cars built in GPS and it took me to M***** Drive except when I got there the road sign does say Road after all. I apologize Siri. Anyway after waiting for a few minutes the Grosbeak flock flew over the house and into the distance. Oh well I've seen one I thought but I'll give it a few more minutes. They came back.

Evening Grosbeak

Evening Grosbeak

Evening Grosbeak

Evening Grosbeak

Red-breasted Nuthatch

 I saw my first ever Red-breasted Nuthatch about 31 years ago. Not in the US but at Holkham Pines in Norfolk. It was accepted as a first for Britain and certainly a first for me. Lovely bird, lovely call, I saw it several times during its 5 month stay. You could often find it by its call or see it drinking from a gutter on the old summer house.

This year I've got at least 3 hanging around the yard. I'm keeping the feeder well stocked up with black sunflower seed in the hope of attracting a flock of Evening Grosbeak. Hoping. In the meantime here's a few of the Nuthatch from today.

Red-breasted Nuthatch

Red-breasted Nuthatch

Red-breasted Nuthatch

A few more from Tuesday

As we're currently being swiped by Tropical Storm Zeta I'm inside in the warmth and dryness of the living room with a nice cup of English Breakfast.

Carolina wren

Dark-eyed Junco

White-breasted Nuthatch

 

Terrible Day Birding

 Monday October whatever it is has been a lousy day for birding. We went back to SGL145 to try for the flock of  Evening Grosbeak without any luck whatsoever. We did see Bluebirds, hordes of Chipping Sparrow's, White-throated Sparrow's, Song Sparrow's, Pine Siskin's, Goldfinch, House Finch, Purple Finch, Pileated, Downy, Hairy, Red-bellied Woodpecker's and Flicker's, Tufted Titmice, Chickadee's but not one Evening Grosbeak. So I came home. 

At the base of one of the feeders was a stunning male White-crowned Sparrow which I didn't manage to photograph. Bugger, I'm not having much luck today at all. I reluctantly decided to have a go at photographing out of the window at a new perch I set up at the weekend. Damnit I missed a Red-breasted Nuthatch. This day has been just awful. I did take a few shots while I was waiting for the Red-breasted to come back which he didn't. All in all a terrible day's birding.

Carolina Chickadee (probably)

Dark-eyed Junco

House Finch

Immature Male Northern Cardinal

Male Northern Cardinal

Purple Finch

Purple Finch

Red-bellied Woodpecker

Blue Jay