Yesterday morning I often had more birds in front of me than I could aim my lens at. That hasn’t happened in a very long time.
I’ve been going to the same spot in the mountains for weeks now but bird activity has been slow to nonexistent and many mornings I was nearly or completely bird-skunked. But yesterday was different.
Waves of mixed flocks of Red-breasted Nuthatches and Mountain Chickadees kept coming through to feed on Douglas Fir seeds, to the point that at times it almost sounded like a shooting gallery inside my pickup from the shutter sounds of the two of us firing bursts at about 10 frames/sec. It was a rare luxury to have to choose between individual birds and even different species to point my lens at.
Damn it was fun!
1/1600, f/6.3, ISO 800, Canon 7D Mark II, Canon EF 500mm f/4L IS II USM + EF 1.4 III Extender, not baited, set up or called in
Here a nuthatch has just extracted a seed and is preparing to fly off with it, most likely to cache it as they were often doing. Usually in my photos I had fir branches and needles and/or other cones behind the bird but this is one of the rare instances where I managed to get a clean background. I like the fine detail on the dorsal surfaces of the nuthatch, the head turn that provided a good look at the face and eye and of course the upside down pose. The seed in the bill is a bonus.
There may have been a lot of birds but that’s not to say the shooting was easy – far from it. Even with the sun fairly low in the sky it was very difficult to get catch lights in their eyes or a good look at their faces as they were poking around in the cones looking for seeds or hanging upside down from them. Depth of field was also a problem at such close range at my focal length. I took over 1100 photos but after culling to get rid of the garbage I only have a few of them left and many of those are only marginal keepers.
But that’s how it goes with bird photography and it beats the hell out of coming home with my tail between my legs and smelling like skunk.
Ron
Just a delightful photo. Glad it’s not my finger between those grappling hooks.
I would be in “heaven” if I captured a nuthatch photo like that!
Thanks, Deedee. Believe me, I felt pretty good about it…
What a beautiful shot! And so much fun too. Looking forward to seeing “Freefall”, tomorrow maybe?
Dabchicks, its got a nice ring, I like it.
Thanks, Dave. It’s looking like it’ll happen. I just finished processing that image and four others for tomorrow’s post.
Ron, I don’t have any stories to tall like your other readers, so I’ll just say that I think that the fact that this Nuthatch hangs upside down is quite amazing. I’ve not heard you mention other birds that do that. Thank you for the interesting post.
Alice, soon I may be posting a photo of another species doing the same thing.
Excellent nuthatch shot, just excellent, light, everything.
We have beaucoup birds here this morning too. Cormorants, red shouldered hawk, osprey, crows, western bluebirds, hermit thrushes, great blue heron, great egret, pileated woodpecker, dabchicks, etc. No rain, water, far too low, I think stress is why the birds are congregating near the remaining lake waters.
I had to look up “dabchick”. Thanks for the education, Martha.
What a great shot! The seed definitely puts this in the bonus round! 🙂 Birds can be feast or famine — glad you’re getting some of the feast right now, even though the embarrassment of riches can make the photography more difficult.
Had my own wing-pourri on my morning walk today. Several pigeons hanging out together, including one with a red breast (too big to be a robin, but perhaps it is a non-pigeon interloper), some Black Phoebes, a hummingbird, a couple of butterflies, and the giant flock of 50-ish green parrots who came to greet me by landing in a couple of trees I was just about to walk under. (Wow, I think this must be the longest sentence fragment with dangling participles in the history of FP! 😉 )
Thanks, Marty. Dangling participles, just like dangling birds, are allowed on Feathered Photography. 🙂
I love this shot. I want to turn it the other way because it is so odd to look at. 😀
“I want to turn it the other way”
Now I’ll have to do that in Photoshop just to see what it would look like!
I like it! Really captured some behavior as well as the bird itself… 🙂 Interesting the way the feet are clutching the bottom of the cone – I’ve never really seen their feet in action…… Several years ago I finally figured out they WEREN’T a chickadee! Oops! They are definitely a challenge to capture photography wise……
Judy, sometime I’ll have to post another shot I got yesterday. The bird is upside down and has just let go of the cone with its feet which are very prominently featured. I think I’ll call it “Free Fall”… 🙂
I love this photo! For me it is as close to perfect as possible. And, Nuthatches are one of my favorite birds. So acrobatic. This is why I look forward to all of your posts! Always a treat.
Thanks very much, Melanie.
Truly unique! Absolutely love the feet placement in this photo! He truly co-operated for you here. Just enough resin on those cones for added texture. One photo like this makes for a very good day. So many people just don’t understand that 1100 clicks may only give you one or two that you feel are worthy of keeping.
“So many people just don’t understand that 1100 clicks may only give you one or two that you feel are worthy of keeping.”
Yes, you get it Kathy! I think I’ve said it before a time or two or a zillion – good bird photography ain’t easy.
>>it beats the hell out of coming home with my tail between my legs<< And…it beats the hell out of staying home and not photographing at all. Nuthatches are hard to capture! I have only two images I've kept over the years and neither can hold a candle to this beautiful image. Congrats!
Thanks, Sharon. I didn’t have anything decent of this species until fairly recently either.
Very nice photo Ron. Good color, good light, excellent background, and the seed is indeed a bonus. Had the same kind of morning myself yesterday. Took about 1000 photos many in continuous bursts etc, but nothing seemed to be right. Murphy was everywhere turning heads the wrong way so there was little or no catch-eye, wrong light at the wrong time, birds like the soaring Harrier outfoxing me continuously and so forth. Had very little to show for my efforts. Some days your spirits soar like an eagle and other days you end up looking like a coot.:)
Yup, that’s bird photography for ya! I think most folks don’t appreciate how very difficult it is to get quality photos (if you’re not baiting or using setups…).
May be just a few keepers, but the sharpness of the head and upper body, the pose, the diffuse background all make this a wonderful photo. Bravo!
Last night Bob and I watched PBS Nature’s Serengeti Rules that you recommended. It was a wonderful suggestion. The show made a strong case for protecting our keystone species. Life is a bit more complicated than a single presentation could deal with, but it affirmed local efforts to keep prairie dogs, wolves, and other often-loathed members of our ecosystems. I’ve wondered Chronic Wasting Disease would have become so rampant if we’d just allowed native predators to take their share of our wild ungulates.
Thanks, Nancy. Yes, what was a fascinating documentary and you make some interesting points about keystone species. I’ve had similar thoughts.
It’s an appealing photo: made moreso, as you say, because of the seed in its bill. I recently photographed a pied-billed grebe with a very large fish in its bill, and wanted to tell you how much I appreciated finding your posts about the western grebe that tried to walk on shore, and the grebe habit of feather-eating. Both helped me answer some reader’s questions, and learn a bit more about grebes in the process. Your archives are as much a treasure as your daily photos!
“Your archives are as much a treasure as your daily photos”
I appreciate that, Shoreacres. That’s one of the reasons I like to cover a lot of subjects related to behaviors in my posts.
BTW, I’ve also photographed Pied-billed Grebes “trying” to walk on land and even on ice. It’s hilarious to watch.