Photographing Birds

A warm, sunny February day in Mountain Home to explore and seek out images of the area!  I just received my new birding lens, a Nikon 200-400 zoom, and I cannot wait another day to try it out.  After checking out the map I find a road to explore that runs along the White River and my wife and I head out for a day in nature.

Blue skies, clear water, bare trees, yet the birds still find places to hide.  As I worked my way along the river there were vultures and hawks circling and I could see birds fly for cover as I slowly rolled down the dirt road that ran along the river.

Lesson #1 - Slow down, become part of the scene, let the birds come to you.  Birds have great vision and hearing and are hard wired to not trust humans (quite wise of them).  Locate a place where birds are feeding, get in position and just wait.  If you are patient and unobtrusive they will often come to you.

This female Cardinal was very busy working on a meal of bag worms and paid little attention to me.  I watched her working for 20 minutes and when she got her fill of worms she started in on the buds of a nearby tree.

She continued to actively feed, perhaps getting ready for the upcoming breeding season.  Two male Cardinals were also working the area but this female was totally ignoring them.

As we moved farther down the road we spotted a hawk, high in a tree over the road.  I slowly approached and stopped the car almost directly under the hawk without disturbing it. 

Using an 80-400 IS lens I was able to get images of this bird through the open sunroof of my car.  He seemed comfortable as long as I stayed in the car.  Several other cars passed by as I sat on the side of the road and watched this Hawk.

This is a light juvenile Broad-winged Hawk. 

1/640 Second  f5.6
400mm

While working along the river on foot with the Nikon 80-400 lens, I photographed this Sparrow looking for food among the rocks.  There are many varieties of Sparrow and I am not an expert but I think this is a Savannah Sparrow.  These birds winter in the southern 1/3rd of the US and in Mexico and spend their summers in the upper half of the US and all of Canada.  Arkansas is right along the border of their summer and winter range.

We reached the end of the road and returned to civilization in Cotter, Arkansas at about 4pm.  I know of an Eagle nest at Norfolk Lake that is only 15 minutes away so we decided to drive there for the sunset.  This will be my second visit to this nest.  On my first visit there was an Eagle in the nest but the mate did not return before sunset.  I am hoping for better luck on this visit.  This will also be the first test for my new lens.

I arrived about an hour before sunset and there is an eagle in the nest.  The eggs have probably been laid and one Eagle will always be on the nest until the eggs hatch.  I set up one tripod with a Nikon D300 and my new Nikon 200-400 with 1.4X teleconverter, and a second tripod with a Nikon D300s and Nikon 80-400 zoom.  My plan is to video the return of the Eagle with my Nikon D300s and photograph the return with the Nikon D300.

I have been waiting for almost and hour and there is only about 5 minutes of light left when the Eagle in the nest raised her head and quickly looked around.  I followed her gaze and there he is, just to my left and coming fast from behind a row of trees! 

Fortunately, both cameras were locked on the nest, pre-focused, set to high speed shutter, and rigged with remote releases.  Forget about movies, there is no time to set the D300s!  Just grab the remotes, get an eye to a viewfinder, and start shooting.

Look closely at the feet of the returning Eagle.  He is bringing a gift of an oak leaf in his left talon to add some padding to the nest.  These Eagles quickly settled and in less than 5 minutes the sun had dropped below a ridge and the light on the nest was lost.  I stayed for another 10 minutes but these Eagles appeared to be in for the night.

Lesson #2 - Be prepared!  Things can happen very quickly and often there is no time for setup or adjustments.  Try to anticipate the action and do everything possible to prepare in advance for it.

Check back in April.  I hope to get back out here to photograph after the chicks have hatched.

Nikon Lens Recommendation for Close-up work

One of my workshop participants recently requested a lens recommendation.  He is interested in macro work and already has a Nikon 105 IS Macro lens.  He is looking for a lens to add to his lens kit that offers some variety to the ability to focus close.  My first recommendation was the Nikon 200 Micro lens, a great macro lens that is sharp and gives fantastic background control.  I own this lens and it is my favorite lens to work with for macro and close-up work.

After thinking more about the request and his reference to wanting a lens that offered more variety, I am adding the Nikon 80-400 IS Zoom to the recommendation list.  This lens is one of those lenses that doesn't do anything to perfection but it does LOTS of things very well.  I use this lens for close-up work with insects and I use it for bird and wildlife photography.

Check my post from Feb.14, Reelfoot Lake and my post from Feb. 13, Trumpeter Swans to see examples of images of birds in flight taken with this lens.  I use a DX format camera so this lens is a 120-600mm zoom with autofocus.  That is plenty of reach for wildlife photography.  The VR works well but it is not the newer VRII that is offered on higher end Nikon lenses.  Autofocus is slow on this lens and I find it difficult to acquire focus on flying birds unless they are very close.  The lens works well for wildlife but it is not perfect, there are some limitations.

The lens minimum focus distance is 7.55' but at 400mm that gives you almost 1/2 life size!  That is plenty of magnification for larger insects like dragonflies and butterflies and with a working distance of almost 8' you are in a great position to work with insects.  Here are a few examples of images of insects taken with this lense.

80-400 lens
Zoomed to 400mm
f5.6   1/500 Second

80-400 lens
Zoomed to 400mm
f5.6  1/500 Second

80-400 lens
Zoomed to 400mm
f5.6   1/1250 Second

One of the limitations of this lens is its smallest aperture of f5.6 when zoomed out to 400mm.  This limits your ability to blur out objects in the background.  I usually look for subjects where the background is separated from the subject by distance or I look for background objects that compliment or support the main subject.

If you understand the strengths and weaknesses of this lens you can make it work for you in many situations.

Careful placement of the main subject allows you to avoid distractions when the main subject and the background merge or overlap.

This lens is a great compromise lens that does many things very well but it is not a lens that should be bought without carefully thinking through how you will use it.  It is large and heavy so it does not travel very well and it requires a pretty strong committment on your part to carry it in the field.

Even with all the shortcomings, if I lost the lens I would immediately replace it.  It has found a permanent place in my camera bag, until AP takes it back or Nikon upgrades it with better autofocus and VRII.

Alternate lenses that Nikon offers could be the 70-300 VR Zoom or the newer 55-300 VR Zoom.  Both of these lenses are much smaller, lighter, easier to work with, and cost less than 1/3rd as much.  So why not go with one of the newer designs?? 

The two things that make this lens a winner for my use are its reach at 400mm for wildlife and its close focus ability at almost 1/2 life size for insects.  Both of these are lost with the alternative choices.

The Great Backyard Bird Count

This weekend was once again time for the annual GBBC sponsored by The Cornell Lab of Ornithology and Audubon.  I am always looking for a good excuse to go out and photograph birds and my wife is really into finding, identifying, and observing birds so off we went this weekend for two days of birding.

I am still in Mountain Home, Arkansas so the bird counting took place in and around Mountain Home with the best results at Bull Shoals State Park and Gaston's Resort property.

We found flocks of Ring-billed Gulls on the White River, add 49 birds to the count!

There were many song birds at both locations.  This pair of Cardinals was flying around the area, hunting food.  We identified 37 species of birds over the two day period, saw hundreds, and I photographed 19 species.

One of the most common songbirds was the Robin.  Robins were very active both on the ground and in the trees.  They were very actively looking for food.

Ideally, all of these images would be taken with a camera firmly attached to a tripod but walking around looking for birds does not lend itself well to working with a tripod.  The birds are in the wild and not easily approached.  When they appear, it is usually for a very brief period of time and you either quickly get the shot or you get nothing.

All of the songbird images were made using a Nikon D300s and Nikon 80-400 image stabilized lens, handheld. (Thanks to AP for the lens)  I upped the ISO rating to 640 to get a faster shutter speed and shot wide open at f5.6.  In direct sun this gave me a shutter speed of about 1/2000 second.  Even with that fast shutter speed the image of the Cardinal in flight is not very sharp.


On the afternoon of the second day we hit the jackpot!  We had heard about an Eagle nest on the White River at Gaston's Resort.  Jim Gaston, the owner of the resort, loves nature and photography.  He has set aside almost a mile of riverfront land with trails and numerous feeders and birdhouses to make his property a natural preserve for wildlife.  In addition to making the property available to guests of his resort, he generously allowed us to walk his trails with photo gear and spotting scopes.

I had heard that the eagles nest had fallen in a storm so we were not sure that we would find eagles.  Jackpot!  The nest was rebuilt and occupied by, I assume, a female eagle sitting on her eggs.  But that's not all!!  The nest was in a tree that was behind a tree that was an active Great Blue Heron rookery!  I counted about 12 nests, nine in one group of trees right in front of the eagle nest.

There is a lot going on in this image.  It was shot with the 80-400 lens at 360mm.  In the lower left corner you can see the eagles nest with what looks like two white heads peeking over the top.  It is actually one head and the tail of one eagle sitting on the eggs.  There are nine Great Blue Heron nests with one GBH in flight and seven Herons sitting on the nests.

The bad news here is that the nests are across the river on the far river bank.  My best guess is that they are 300-400 feet away and there is no way to get closer for detailed shots.

I am less that 1/2 mile from my car so I walked back to get my biggest lens, a Nikon 500 f4 P and 1.4X teleconverter.  The Nikon 500 f4 P is a very nice lens but it is old, without any of the new features like IS or even autofocus.  In this situation it is the only way I can get a closer view but from this distance, really tack sharp shots will not happen with this lens and tripod combination.

I am using a Nikon D300s camera which has a 1.5X multipler based on the DX chip.  With this camera, lens and tele-converter combo, the effective lens focal length is 1,050mm and the fastest aperture is f5.6!  With this setup, using an aperture of f5.6 or f8, I estimate that the DOF is no more than 1.5 - 2 feet.  It is a real challenge to manually focus with that much accuracy at that distance PLUS the whole rig moves at the slightest touch!  I am using a heavy Gitzo tripod with Wimbly gimble head but it is far from rock solid with this much focal length.

Usually I think that the Eagles are the stars of any show but as I watched this scene I found that the Herons were putting on a magnificant show with mating activities, nest building, and aggressive actions between the competing males.

The birds are in their breeding attire with magnificant plumage and bright yellow beaks.  This pair was competing for territory and I could hear their calls even though I was almost 400 feet away.  They were striking at each other with their sharp pointed beaks.  Now, lets put this into perspective because if you are not familiar with Great Blue Herons you cannot appreciate the danger here.  First, these are very large aggressive birds.  An adult GBH is about four feet tall with a six foot wing span.  Their bill is about 6" long and very sharp.  I have watched them spear fish with that bill and they easily run it through a fish.  I have been told that they can run their bill through a wooden boat paddle so this is not a no risk territorial dispute!

They both seem to be very good at dodging and blocking attacks.  I watched them for about 30 minutes as they argued and aggressivly fought over the rights to this nest.  Fortunately neither bird was injured.

The other interesting behavior that was going on was courtship.  Great Blue Herons mate for a season and work cooperatively to build a nest.  The male gathers nest material and presents it to the female.  The female accepts the material and builds the nest.

In this part of the country, the birds pair up and build nests in February.  They seldom build alone and usually create rookeries with many birds nesting in a single or group of trees.  This rookery had about 12 nests in two groups of trees.  The larger group had nine nests.

In the middle of the afternoon, most of the nests were occupied but by only one bird.  By around 5pm more birds began to arrive and by about 30 minutes before sunset, most of the nests had a mated pair of birds in it.

I do not believe that the birds have laid eggs but that should start to happen within the next two weeks.  They typically have 3-6 eggs and the male and female share the responsibility of sitting on the eggs for the 25-30 days required for them to hatch.

Looks like it might be a hot night in Heronville tonight!

The Herons kept me entertained and busy for the afternoon but I was also keeping an eye out for the missing mate to the Eagle sitting on the nest.  After about three hours I spotted a Bald Eagle making a flyby.  I assumed that this was the returning mate so I quickly framed the nest and did the best job I could of focusing.  The long wait paid off, about 5 minutes after the flyby I spotted the Eagle returning behind the line of trees and I had about 10 seconds to get ready for it to land on the nest.

As I waited for the return of the Eagle, I imagined that he would bring a gift of food to his mate when he returned to the nest.  Not so, it looks like a piece of moss or other choice nesting material.  Before I go farther, let's separate fact from speculation.  Once the eggs are laid, Eagles share the responsibility of sitting on the eggs and the eggs are never left alone until the babies hatch.  There is no easy way to tell the difference between the male and female Eagle so I really don't KNOW which Eagle had been setting on the eggs for the past 3 hours and which was out roaming the area.  I assume that the female was on the nest and the male was out and this is my story so that's the way it was!

After three+ hours of sitting on the nest without a break, the female had some choice words for her mate.  I am not sure if it was his choice of gift (I would have gone for a fine dinner, nest material is kind of like a washing machine for Valentines day) or his prolonged absence but the neglected female had lots to say and then she left the nest and perched on a nearby tree.

I stayed and watched the couple until after sundown but the female never returned to the nest.

I'm sure that I am imprinting human traits on these birds, but I swear it looked like the male was in the nest with a "hangdog" look while the female sat on this perch about 30 feet away and glared at him.  I can only say that given a choice, I would rather be in Heronville tonight.  I left about 20 minutes after sunset and she was still sitting on that perch glaring at the nest.

Working with a long telephoto lens is very challenging.  The longer the lens the more technical the job becomes and the more demanding.  Equipment is very imporant and can make the job easier but good photographers were getting great images long before image stabilization and auto-focus were developed.  If you have a long lens in the 500mm neighborhood, work to get it as stable as possible on your tripod.  One thing I can do to reduce camera shake is to use mirror lock-up.  This would reduce the camera shake caused by the mirror slapping up and down.  I can also add an extra stabilization point to the lens to stop the movement I am getting when I release the shutter. 

I hope that this post inspires you to get out there and make some images and gives you some ideas on how to make better telephoto images using the equipment that you already have.  Even if you have the most modern IS lens, good technique can make your images even better.  Don't let technology be an excuse for sloppy technique!

Reelfoot Lake - Hidden Gem of Nature

I just returned from a three day photo trip to Reelfoot Lake in northwestern Tennessee.  This remote and little known area consists of a State Park and a Wildlife Management Area that straddles the border of Tennessee and Kentucky.  This was not my first trip to Reelfoot but my previous trips had been in the summer and I never realized the tremendous population of birds that make Reelfoot their winter home.  The most notable of the birds is the American Bald Eagle.

The weather has been very mild this winter and I expected pleasant days and cool nights.  Naturally, as soon as I arrived the temperature dropped and the wind and snow started...

It is really amazing how cold it is with 32 degree temperatures and a 15 MPH wind off the lake.  There just are not enough clothes to keep the wind out!

After a night of freezing cold, wind, waves and blowing spray, beautiful ice sculptures formed along the banks of the lake.

Reelfoot Lake was formed by the earthquake of 1811 - 1812 when a large depression was formed near the Mississippi River.  A channel opened and the river flowed into the depression to create the lake.  Over time the channel filled with sediment and Reelfoot Lake was born.

The lake is very shallow and surrounded by Bald Cypress.  Navigation is so difficult that the locals developed special boats with protected motors to prevent damage on the hidden hazards under the surface.  The fertile waters and the Cypress forest that extends out into the lake provide the perfect habitat for all types of wildlife including fish, reptiles, insects, and birds.

The winter population of ducks and geese is estimated to be 150,000.

This flock had about 30,000 geese in it.  It is truly a spectacular experience to be close to this many birds.  The sounds are incredible and when they take flight, they create a roar that fills your head and almost shakes the ground like the earthquake that formed the region.  This is a MUST SEE event.





The geese are awsome but to me the stars of the show are the Bald Eagles.  There are about 20 pairs of year round residents that nest at Reelfoot but, in winter, Reelfoot Lake has more Bald Eagles than anywhere in the United States outside of Alaska.  The winter population is usually 300-400 Eagles.

Typically, eagles begin to arrive at Reelfoot in October and they peak in February but this has been a mild winter so the population was lower this year and the eagles have already begun to move back north, following their food.  Even with the lower population I saw about 25 eagles on my first day of shooting and 16 on the second day.

Eagles have a life expectancy of about 40 years in the wild and they mate for life.  They reach maturity in 4-6 years and it is not until that time that they get their iconic white head and tail and yellow beak.  Juvenile eagles have dark heads and tails but they are the same size as an adult.

This pair of immature eagles took a Snow Goose and now the fight is on to determine who gets the largest portion of the meal.

The primary food for a Bald Eagle is fish with live or freshly dead fish making up about 80% - 90% of their diet.  Small animals including waterfowl make up the remaining 10% to 20%.

A Bald Eagles wingspan is 6 to 8 feet and they typically weigh 6 to 8 pounds.

When they reach maturity and mate, the female will return to the general area of her maiden flight to build a nest and make a home.  The eagles may set up permanent residence at that location or they may migrate, returning each winter to the nest.

Nests generally start at about 5 feet in diameter but each year the returning eagles add to the nest.  Nests of 8 feet across and 12 feet deep are not uncommon.  These nests can weigh over 4,000 pounds!

Once the female lays her eggs, the pair will take turns on the nest until the eggs hatch.  The eggs are never left alone during this period.

Young eagles are ready to fly and leave the nest at 10-12 weeks and at that time they are the same size as the adult.

Photographing eagles requires patience and a LONG lens.  Eagles in the wild do not tolerate humans well and it is very difficult to approach close enough to get frame filling images without scaring off the birds.

Some of these images were captured with a Nikon 500 f4 lens on a tripod but in many cases the action and opportunities happen so quickly that there was no time to set up a tripod.  Many of the images were captured handheld with a Nikon 80-400 IS lens.  (Thank you AP)

Most of the images in this blog were cropped about 50% to bring the eagle into better view.  Fast shutter speed is very important so I do not use a polarizer.  I shoot in RAW format and at the camera's native ISO of 200 to get the best possible image quality.

This close-up portrait is of an eagle recovering from an injury at Reelfoot Lake State Park.

The Bald Eagle became our national symbol on June 20, 1782.  We almost lost these magnificent creatures in the 70's due to unregulated and ignorant use of pesticides.  Fortunately, they are making a strong comeback at Reelfoot Lake and other areas and currently have been removed from the endangered species list.

Trumpeter Swans - Central Arkansas

Arkansas is right in the middle of a major migration flyway for Swans, Geese, and Ducks.  Snow Geese  are plentiful and flocks of 10,000 plus are fairly common but Trumpeter Swans are rare and not a widespread visitor to Arkansas.  In researching areas to photograph waterfowl, my wife ran across a wildlife area in central Arkansas called Magness Lake Wildlife Refuge.  Magness Lake is privately owned but open to the public.  It is near the town of Heber Springs.  We decided to visit to photograph the swans.

The story of the Magness Lake swans is that many years ago the swans were blown off course by a storm and they landed in Magness Lake.  They stayed and wintered there and have been returning ever since that first winter.

When we arrived at Magness Lake we found a flock of about 75 Trumpeter Swans and a large number of Ring-Necked Ducks.  There were 15-20 people viewing the Swans and feeding them cracked corn.  The Swans were very acclimated to people and were very close so getting close-up images was easy with any lens in the 200mm range.  Unfortunately, the viewing area was at a spot where the ground dropped off about 3-5 feet plus the property owners had installed a fence that was about 4 feet high to keep people out of the water.  The result was a high shooting angle so most of the images were of swans and water.  Not too many options for backgrounds unless you shot swans that were at a distance out in the lake.  The other side of the lake was an open field so again, the background options were limited and generally uninteresting.

They are beautiful birds but the limited shooting options resulted in rather uninteresting compositions.

After a couple of hours of waiting for anything to happen, a bird to land or take off, light to change, a fight to break out, ANYTHING!!, I figured out that these birds were pretty content and well fed. 

I got a break when one of the locals mentioned that there were several more lakes where swans and other birds were wintering.

As soon as I learned about the existence of the other lakes, I packed up and began a search for more photogenic locations.  Good move!  It turns out that there were two other lakes and both had swans and ducks with no barriers to the birds and much better backgrounds.  The birds were still somewhat acculimated to people but they were much more active and as it got later in the day the birds became even more active.

As the light began to get lower and warmer, the birds became more vocal.  There was a steady breeze and I noticed that a group of birds was gathering in a corner of the lake that was downwind.  They became very vocal and as a group they started bobbing their heads in unison.  It looked like they were getting ready to take off so I got ready for the event--just in time!

What a magnificant creature!  These birds, while honking at the top of their lungs, began to run across the water into the wind.  They quickly left the water, flew low over the lake, gained altitude and circled over the lake again before flying off to points unknown.  Over the next hour most of the flock of about 75 birds flew off in small groups.

The birds that stayed behind were aggressive in staking out space.  I left around dark and at that time there were still 20-30 swans at the lake.

If you ever have an opportunity to visit Arkansas in winter, the Heber Springs area is worth a visit to see the wintering Trumpeter Swans.  The two lakes were I got the best images are also privately owned.  I photographed the birds during two visits and on the second visit I met the owner of the lakes.  He is very generous in sharing his property with the public and allowing open access to the swans.

Night Photography

The average photographer hangs up the camera and heads for the house after sunset and the real amateur often gives up before the sun goes down.  Take your photography to a new level by working after dark!

Actually, night photography is lots of fun and can result in some very interesting images.  No special equipment is required, just a camera, lens and tripod.  A fast lens is nice but not really essential.  You really don't even have to pump up the ISO and I highly recommend that you DO NOT use the "night photography" preset that is offered on some cameras.  Just open up the lens and leave the white balance set to "auto".  You may be amazed at the interesting results you get in the mixed lighting situations that exist at night, especially in cities.

Returning from a recent nature photography trip to south Florida, I stopped in St. Augustine and ended up staying for three nights.  St. Augustine is a very interesting city with lots of history, an old fort that is beautifully preserved, and a downtown area that is beautiful and very nicely lit at night.  It offers great opportunities for night photography in a safe environment.  The city has added lights to trees and buildings that create many opportunities for interesting compositions.  To make things even better there are lots of downtown motels and B&B's with reasonable rates and lots of good restaurants.  Need I say more???

Just one of MANY interesting places to stay during a visit to St. Augustine.  No special exposure setting was required for this shot.  I just put the camera on a tripod, set up was aperture priority and I let the camera meter handle the exposure.  White balance was set to auto.  Exposure was f4 for 2.5 seconds.




A short walk of about 2 blocks put me into the main historic area of St. Augustine with beautifully lit buildings, motels, museums, city parks, restaurants, and people enjoying the mild February evening.  On this evening it was warm enough to dine outside.

This is one of the public parks in the city.  As you can see, they have gone all out to make the city attractive and inviting.

One of the big draws for St. Augustine is Ghost Tours.  In this image I got a shot of three ghosts strolling through the city park.

Exposure f4 for .6 seconds.  With this shutter speed, anything that moves will blur.



There are two special effects in this image.  The exposure for this was f11 for 8 seconds.  The 8 second exposure caused the water to blur and actually smooth out as the movement painted itself on the sensor.  The second effect is the star pattern around the point light source of the streetlight.  Even the smaller lights on the trees have a star effect.  This effect varies depending on the design of your lens so you will need to experiment.  As you stop a lens down, strong point light sources will diffract along the blades of your lens aperture creating a star pattern.  You cannot see this in the viewfinder, only on the final image.

In post processing you always have the option of being creative with the color balance or you can be more realistic.  In this image I made it more realistic by cooling the color temperature to bring it closer to what the scene looked like to my eye.  Notice the two ghosts in the sidewalk?

This image was exposed at f13 for 13 seconds at 13 after the hour on the 13th of the month.  I hope it's not unlucky!

Don't put up your camera at night.  There are many great opportunities to make interesting images at night and if travel photography is interesting to you, night photography gives you a chance to add some unusual images to your show that most people are not used to seeing.