Backyard birdies

I am using an ipad mini. I have had 2 digital cameras (small auto focus, about $200) in the past, an older Fuji and a Nikon and both had remote but they shut off automatically. Then they need to focus (first by opening the lens, then focussing both of which make noise) and Im thinking by the time that happened my feathered friends would be outta. The Fuji has two dead batteries and while I know where the Nikon is, I have no idea where its remote is. I have never been a photographer and see it takes a lot of practice (and patience with birds) to get good. The front of my house is so close to this tree. With the weather warming I could try to transform myself into the bird whisperer on my porch but I dont know how much time I will spend on my porch bc one of my neighbors is beyond a total you know what and I try to avoid him period.

//Im getting the feeling that what I want, as simple as it is, is pretty hard to find, probably due to draining battery juice just by being left on.

Thanks for the help, I will get better at pics. There are lots of birds around here (the vultures are out now, saw a Coopers hawk yesterday, plenty of them as well), I just cant seem to get a worthy pic.
 
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thin_ice said:
I am using an ipad mini. I have had 2 digital cameras (small auto focus, about $200) in the past, an older Fuji and a Nikon and both had remote but they shut off automatically. Then they need to focus (first by opening the lens, then focussing both of which make noise) and Im thinking by the time that happened my feathered friends would be outta. The Fuji has two dead batteries and while I know where the Nikon is, I have no idea where its remote is. I have never been a photographer and see it takes a lot of practice (and patience with birds) to get good. The front of my house is so close to this tree. With the weather warming I could try to transform myself into the bird whisperer on my porch but I dont know how much time I will spend on my porch bc one of my neighbors is beyond a total you know what and I try to avoid him period.

//Im getting the feeling that what I want, as simple as it is, is pretty hard to find, probably due to draining battery juice just by being left on.

Thanks for the help, I will get better at pics. There are lots of birds around here (the vultures are out now, saw a Coopers hawk yesterday, plenty of them as well), I just cant seem to get a worthy pic.
Click to expand...

I think what I'd do, given your budget, would be to source something like an older, used Nikon D300 and a lens (or similar Canon or Fuji or Olympus or...) from a reputable dealer. Then for another few dollars find the wireless remote that is suitable for that camera. Even something as old as a D80 would work well for this. I used to see rigs like this for sale all the time, and most often they look next to new. But buying from a private party is a risk, imo.
 
I went to Tractor Supply and Ollie's today and am going to set up a Nyjer/thistle seed feeder. The cedar grand chalet hopper feeder holds 14 lb of seeds and 2 suet cakes. They are getting quick at emptying the feeders and I need to lower the current hopper feeder as the squirrel can get to it. I have a vernal pond and the seasonal ducks have arrived and will be around for the next couple of months. Today they were under the hopper feeder when I got home.A6FB1B1E-A22F-406E-8779-55EB407F5369.jpeg
 
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mhardy6647 said:
Indeed.
Most of the chickens 'round here (anecdotal data only -- we don't do chickens, but we buy lots of eggs!) fall prey to age, pecking order, maladies, or predators well before they reach six years of age. :(
Click to expand...
We had one reach age 10 and still seemed healthy and spry when a racoon nabbed her one night by tearing thru the window screen on the coop.

People sometimes ask: "How long do chickens usually live?" Answer: 7 weeks.

It's hard to believe, at their ages, our gals are still laying the occasional egg. You'd'a thunk they'd'a reached henopause.

They're engaged in a turf war with the neighbor's flock - who have discovered that the cuisine is better over here.
 
This was in a local park my wife and I frequent. We hear them in our neighborhood quite often but rarely see them here, kind of like the Owls we hear every night but never see.

Now that we know their song we are constantly trying to locate them in the forests.








IMG_8175.jpgIMG_8162.jpgIMG_8161.jpgIMG_8178.jpg
 
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We have a viburnum outside the kitchen window that provides berries for the usual LBJ* species.
Today however, this critter & 40-leven of it's best friends decided on a rest stop buffet.
Crappy pic through a screen of a Cedar Waxwing.

PENX1446.JPG
*
Little Brown Jobs
 
Every year 3 ducks show up for a couple months +/- when my vernal pool is largest (the spring peepers have been peeping a few weeks now). They have gotten into their routine (this past week was my spring break and I mostly watched birds and listened to tunes) and it includes visiting a couple hard plastic ponds I recently set up. About 1:30 they visit my feeders. I also have set up 2 feeders and 2 suet feeders in the back and in a couple days my "grand cedar chalet feeder" will be ready to go. After about 45 minutes at the feeders rummaging through the grass they head to the end of my driveway and watch the cars go by for a while and also get in the little stream in the drainage ditch by the road and play around/eat for a bit. Lastly they visit my neighbors feeders then head back to the vernal pool.

649A4DA9-19C3-4EEA-A3D2-A10AACF3CC20.jpegDDFC65AD-F619-4C2E-8154-5740DD3C521D.jpeg47819D01-2A92-4DA4-BECE-482505BCB210.jpeg
 
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@thin_ice how goes the backyard birding?

We're starting to get some good spring birds, but I don't have much in the way of photographic evidence ;)

That said, I can share a coupla piccies.
First, a flicker, a photo of which I have uploaded to Flikr, ironically enough ;)

DSC_0295 (2) by Mark Hardy, on Flickr

... and, a few days ago, a gaggle (?) of turkeys (presumably young toms) were tussling right behind the house; feeling their oats. I wonder if they know that spring hunting season is just days away?

DSC_0301 by Mark Hardy, on Flickr

DSC_0303 by Mark Hardy, on Flickr

I do think that turkeys, at least in the spring, could probably be trained to play rugby.

DSC_0306 by Mark Hardy, on Flickr

DSC_0314 by Mark Hardy, on Flickr

DSC_0318 by Mark Hardy, on Flickr

DSC_0315 by Mark Hardy, on Flickr
 
Did I mention that -- if you discover that you have 44 utterly surplus seconds in your life expectancy ;) , you can watch the movie. :smoke
I apologize that the first 11-ish seconds are out of focus. I was proud of myself for even being able to figure out how to take a movie with my new (ish) DSLR "on the fly", as it were. :confused::o



I'll note that the audio is completely irrelvant (it's Marketplace on the kitchen radio), so you might as well mute your audio if you watch the video. :)
 
This week has brought back some of the "A-List" birds :) Ruby-throated hummingbirds, Rose-breasted grosbeaks, and O-ree-oles (as they're known in Bawlmer, hon). :)

No good pics yet (weather's been grey and rainy, which is good -- we need the rain), so here're some bad pics. :cool:

Two (male) orioles and what appears to be a downy woodpecker on tube & suet feeders (which is odd in the case of the orioles -- we do have oranges out there, and that's where they "should" be, but these two've been playing the field ;) ).
DSC_0421 (2).JPG
Moments later, Mrs. H & I saw something we've never seen before. On the left, a male and female evening grosbeak. On the right, a male rose-breasted grosbeak. :)

DSC_0449 (2).JPG
 
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