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.