Brought to Central Park in New york City, in the late 1800’s by a man who wanted to bring all the birds mentioned in Shakespeare’s works to the US., the Starlings proceeded to expand outward in ever increasing waves.  Now they are spread over most of the US where they merrily go on expanding. So I was quite surprised to find quite another side to the Starlings — they can produce some spectacularly choreographed winged dance movements.

One afternoon I was at one of my favorite sites, looking for Harriers when I noticed an accumulation of birds, Starlings, festooning the lines on a nearby power pole

They were packed in so tightly that I thought they would push each other off the perch.

Wondering what that was all about, I went on to where I thought the Harriers might be and perched on my Walkstool with my camera in my lap.  Behind me was a vineyard, its green leaves already assuming the vibrant colors of autumn.
Gradually I became aware of a faint, low-pitched murmuring sound behind me, and then without warning, a subtle pressure pushed against my back. Startled I turned into a rush of hundreds of silent birds – the Starlings – flying through the vineyard behind me on murmuring wings. I barely managed to capture a single usable image before they were off in a great cloud sinking down between the rows.

Abandoning my interest in the Harriers for the moment I turned to see that the Starlings had formed a huge cloud. Unfortunately I had only my long telephoto lens with me  – my other lenses were in my car – so I was only able to capture a part of the cloud.

As I watched the cloud began to move and weave about.

And then come back to rest on the power lines again.

Finally, after a time, the flock rose and joined with other flocks to begin weaving an exquisite aerial dance.

Murmurations I

I was awestruck. I had seen videos of Starling Mumurations on England but never expected to see them on the West coast of the U.S.

I cannot say that I wholeheartedly embrace the Starlings and their presence in the U.S. but I can certainly see why they attracted Shakespeare’s attention.  Sometime I am going to look up which of his plays they were in and what he had to say about them.

But perhaps one of you know??

Often mistaken for a Hawk, the Kestrel is too small for a Hawk. This beautiful bird, a young adult male Kestrel, is the smallest in the falcon family of raptors. You’ll see Kestrels perched on telephone or power lines, where you are not likely to find Hawks. Hawks will sit on the cross bars, but rarely on the lines themselves.

This handsome young adult male still carries some of his juvenile chest markings. Here is an older male showing us his fine gray feathered wings.

Just to be fair, here are two photos of female Kestrels.

Obviously she is on the hunt. Unlike some birds, male and female Kestrels don’t seem to hunt very close to each other, at least I haven’t seen them do that.

And she brings her catch to a favorite perch for lunch.

Kestrels also perch on fence posts and tall poles where they look mostly for large insects such as grasshoppers, potato bugs, crickets. (A bit of green, a bit of brown, a bit of black supply appropriately varied anti-oxidants, you know.)  Here are three shots of a male, watching, launching and finally, snacking on his catch.

I’ve noticed more Kestrels this year than in the last few, all across the North Bay from San Rafael to Lodi. Don’t know why, but the food supply must be OK or they would have moved on. Graceful in flight, they are fun to watch. Kestrels are easier to watch than Hawks. Hawks will leave and fly a long way off as soon as you get out of your car. As often as not, they will circle and climb until they are hard to see. But Kestrels are used to moving up and down the length of the power lines and then back again. So, if you think you have scared one away, just wait, he or she will likely be back soon.

Watching their sudden dives and captures followed by the flight back to where they started, with their prey in their tiny beaks, is well worth the short wait.

These two shots are of a male Kestrel who snatched up a grass sprig along with the beetle which you can barely see.

Looking very much like a knight of old with his foot on the “Dragon” this Kestrel sticks a classic victory pose.

Kestrels mostly eat small bugs and insects but will occasionally, when food is scarce, attack and capture small birds. Usually weaker ones that cannot get away.

Kestrels are adaptable. They live all over North America and do not seem to migrate each year as much as other birds. Kestrels will hover, like White-tail kites do, but much closer to the ground.

Kestrels are a challenge to photograph. It took me several years to be able to track and capture them in flight. But it was great fun, even the missed shots.

]]> http://richardsbirdblog.com/2010/12/31/kestrels-the-smallest-falcon/feed/ 6 http://richardsbirdblog.com/2010/10/22/a-gbh-adopts-the-wet-look/ http://richardsbirdblog.com/2010/10/22/a-gbh-adopts-the-wet-look/#comments Fri, 22 Oct 2010 19:24:58 +0000 admin http://richardsbirdblog.com/?p=748 Continue reading →]]> The weather is always a factor in a good photo, the sun should be at your back or at least not behind the bird, the wind should not be so high as to blow the bird and you around. But this time the weather took over the shoot and turned what would have been a few good pictures into great ones.

Click on any photo to see a larger version, use your back button to return.

No, you can’t order this fellow from the Franklin Mint, though he does look a bit like a shiny silver casting painted with touches of blue and rufous (brick-red).

A few weeks ago, I was near the bridge at the east end of Rodeo Lagoon, a favorite place for Herons and Egrets, grousing about the thick fog patches that were hanging on in spite of the warming sun. But the sun was breaking through over my left shoulder so I decided to wait a few moments to see what happened. The thick wet fog felt good on my face – though I worried about it getting on my lens.

Just then, another thick wet batch blew in from the sea. Nuts! I thought and started to get up from the portable stool I sit on when photographing birds when, from behind my right shoulder in swept this GBH with a angry, warning croak – he was much closer to me than he liked, plus he didn’t like the fog.

The fog rolled over him as he began to turn towards the sun.

Then out he came, his fog-laden feathers glistening in the hazy sunlight, giving him the appearance of a shiny lead toy soldier touched with brush strokes of bright blue and reddish brown.

And then he was gone, leaving only these memories etched in my camera and now on my blog.

I packed up my Swedish Walk-stool and my camera and went back to my P.T.Cruiser; anything I took after this would have been anti-climactic. Beside, who am I to push against the Photo-Gods who have just blessed me.

Click on any image for a larger version, use your back button to return to this page.

So they spread their wings wide and paddle, run actually, across the surface until the wind under their angled wings is strong enough to lift them up to where they can catch an oncoming breeze to lift them further.  Something like you used to do as a kid; running down the beach with a kite, trying to get up enough speed to launch it. (OK, some of us still do it. Sorry.)

And He is Off!

Anyway, the birds are quite a sight, legs stretched wide, moving faster and faster into what lifting breeze there is, until it supports them and they rise up a few feet, where they are once again free to soar on the supporting air.

And he’s off!

No, the Albatrosses  don’t build nests or lay eggs on the water, they find a sandy shore where they can lay their single egg for the season.

It isn’t only pelagic seabirds that run on the water to get enough speed to take off, Cormorants do also. Here is one, paddling furiously, his wings slapping the water with every beat of his wings.

On the other hand, the birds the Birders have come to see travel from place to place, hang out swapping stories, check out the local scenery, chatter, gossip, and feast on the local culinary delicacies, then go to bed exhausted only to get up early and start over – until its  time to go home.

Well, fancy that now! Only the Cranes get to stay longer.

Greater Sandhill Crane climbing in a faint haze

Sandhill Crane migration routes extend from Siberia and Alaska to the Northern United States, from Lower Canada to Texas and New Mexico, and from Lower Lake Michigan to Florida.

One group of Sandhills migrates entirely within the western U.S. Both Greater and Lesser Sandhill Cranes summer in Lower Oregon/Upper California and migrate to winter over in California’s Central Valley. Click the Map for a down-loadable version.

The Sandhill Cranes’ Winter Festival

All images taken at their wintering grounds near Lodi, California

Click on the images for a larger size, use your back button to return here

Off they go.

Flying about, seeing the countryside
Cranes do fly in formation, but not as consistently as some other migrating birds.
And sometimes not …

Very often they fly alone
Until it is time to land – the least graceful of aerial activity

After all, a Crane does have to eat sometime.

Dining alfresco

When feeding one is always on guard

Sandhill Cranes feed on a wide variety of plant tubers, grains, small vertebrates (mice and snakes) and invertebrates (insects or worms). Sandhills feed in shallow wetlands and drier, harvested grain fields.
Unable to fly, the chicks forage mostly on insects, worms and other protein rich foods needed to fuel their rapid growth.

Guard Calls are single loud vocalizations used to warn other cranes of danger or to threaten other cranes. These calls are sometimes echoed by the other member of the pair. You can hear this “echoing” in this audio clip. Sandhill Crane Guard Call

Time for a bit of gossip

Unison Calls performed with the birds standing close to each other and in a synchronized duet, reinforce the pair bond between a female and a male. The Calls are also used to threaten predators or other cranes. Unison Call

Mixing with other migrating flocks

First, Greater white-fronted Geese

Canada Geese fly past a nearly full moon

The most dramatic flights are in the evening as the day draws to a close and the light darkens to pinkish rose.

and finally,
To bed for the night, standing upright in shallow water. Tomorrow the Cranes will do it all again.
And they will be back next year, you can bet.

Don’t leave yet, you will want to check out these sibling posts:
“Sandhill Cranes dancing“
and
“Tundra Swan U455“
which you will find in the right hand column, under Bird Life and Behavior.

For information about the November Lodi Crane Festival click www.cranefestival.com or phone 800/581‑6150

For information about Crane Migration click
www.savingcranes.org

Expand images by left-clicking, use back button to return.

Male Blackbirds sing arias, Great Egrets preen, pose and flare their long white aigrettes into pretty cloaks as their lores turn color, just to be noticed by the females of their species. Male Sandhill Cranes who never enter bird beauty contests and whose vocal talents consist of the sounds of rocks rubbing — dance. Sandhill Cranes dance to find a partner, dance just prior to mating, and dance as a token of their commitment.

Crane Dances include a variety of movements: Upright Wing Toss, Horizontal Head Pump, Bow, Vertical Leap and Vertical Toss, stick or grass Tossing, Precopulatory Bill Up, Copulation and the Unison Call. Unison Calls are limited to paired adults and appear to facilitate egg fertilization. Unison Calls are performed with the birds standing close to each other and in a synchronized duet, reinforce the pair bond between a female and a male. The Calls are also used to threaten predators or other cranes.

Unlike humans, who dance for mate attraction usually at night under rotating sparkling star balls surrounded by pounding drums and screaming singers, Cranes dance in full daylight, often in fields of wet cornstalks, accompanied only by the gargling sounds of music they produce deep in their throats. Dancing is believed to be involved in the cranes motor development, one that thwarts aggression, relieves tension, and strengthens the pair bond.

A Small Entertainment

Here one fellow stands by his unconcerned mate. Uncomfortable with her nonchalance,

he attempts to entertain her by executing a basic Vertical Leap.
Raising his arm wings …
He leaps up!
Spreading his wings as his mate seemingly obliviously strolls by
and he drops back into the wet mud.
Unimpressed, she continues her stroll on, so he tries again, leaping so vigorously that water streams from his feet.
But this time, much higher, causing her to turn her head. (A common reaction among the females of all species when presented with a truly dazzling display of “Look at ME!” by the male of the species.)
And he descends in a graceful ballet-like posture.
He appears to look aloof but it is really the Bill Up dance position.

As he proudly finishes his Declaration of Interest.
And the pair resumes their stroll through the muddy cane field, muttering sweet nothings as they go. Cranes Muttering to each other

These ingoing dance rituals seem to work very well. Sandhill Cranes mate for life and only rarely ever re-mate. (Possibly because there are no divorce attorneys in Craneland. )

Crane dancing is a delightful counterpoint to the massive formations of Cranes moving across the sky at sunset or sunrise.

Definitely a must see!

And then, a day comes along when it seems like all the birds want to be photographed and they gather around presenting their best sides. Saturday March 28^th 2009 was one of those days. I thought you might like to see what I acquired — in just over two hours.

For about 45 minutes I perched on my Walkstool in a sun warmed half-meditative state holding my camera in my lap watching nothing at all of interest when suddenly this magnificent bird loomed itself in from my right, so close that I could hardly keep it framed in my viewfinder as I scrambled to get the shot!

Click on the image(s) to see a larger version, use your back button to return

Fortunately , I got the shot.

Then, silhouetted by the morning sun, this Western Grebe sailed by, head high and stately. Aloof, as always. Or maybe just focused on filling its empty stomach. Graceful in the silence, another shot to keep.

Then nothing. No image to keep.

Now I am tempted to look into the preview window on the back of my camera, to see if the composition was right, if the lighting was good, or just to fully enjoy the beauty of the last two shots.
But I don’t, I don’t because I know that the Photo God will send me another great image while my attention is away from where it should be, and I will say bad words at myself for missing it.

Then I notice this big-footed dorky looking Snowy Egret hopping from rock to rock, peering in the cracks.  Not much here, I thought, but I took the shot anyway. Just “for the record” I say to myself – in a digital world ‘film’ costs nothing.

Now who would think that this unimpressive big-footed bird could suddenly transform into a graceful white-winged wonder and lift off into the sky.But it did just that, and flew right past me as if to say, “Look at me now!”

Wow! By now, I am fully attuned to what I came to do, take photos of birds. No more dreamy half meditation in the warming air for me. I’ll save that for my recliner, later.

Finally, after a time, I was abundantly rewarded when these two Canada Geese honked their way into this ‘calendar shot.’  “Take us, take us, take us, too!”

Not bad for two hours, don’t you think?  What more could I ask?

So I picked up my camera and stool and trudged to my car, eager to get home and upload these to my computer where I could crop them as needed and print them.

Not having to use a tripod is a tremendous blessing for the nature photographer, especially those who like me specialize in B.I.F. (Birds in Flight). 
What, you say? Handhold a long telephoto? Not possible you say?
I am very happy to inform you that it is entirely possible – and that I can teach you how to do it with very little practice. (The examples I use are Olympus lenses, but don’t let that throw you, these tips work for any camera and any lens.)

One of the things that attracted me to the Olympus ZD 300 mm I use was that the first photographer Oly sent into the field to photograph the Le Mans casually remarked that he was pleased to find that he had no trouble handholding the ZD 300. I decided that if he could I could.
It wasn’t easy at first but slowly I learned. Then I found out that many would not believe me. I recall posting several images on a web forum and being called a liar for suggesting that I could. That doesn’t happen anymore.

Not convinced that you don’t need a tripod? I was sitting with my camera in my lap, facing westward, photographing a pair of White-tailed Kites. Out of the corner of my eye I saw a movement and turned to see this Great Blue Heron approaching. I lifted the lens to my eye, swiveled my torso nearly 90 degrees — and got the photo. There is no way I could have rotated a lens on a tripod — I would have had to run around behind it to focus — and gotten this photo.

Springtime Rhapsody

1. Stabilizing your lower body
Stability starts, not with your camera, but with your feet and legs. As bipeds, we humans are inherently unstable, any movement of our arms and/or shoulders is immediately compensated for by a complex series of lower body adjustments, all of which contribute to camera and lens movement. You can only be moderately successful shooting while standing; when it is windy you might as well forget it entirely.
The answer is to sit on a chair or on a stool with three legs. (No one wants to drag around a four-legged canvas chair and they are not stable on rough terrain.) There are a number of three-legged stools available but most are not suitable. Rough terrain and the necessity of supporting a heavy body that will twist and lean to one side or the other precludes most of the lightweight camping stools or massage stools I have see advertised.
The solution: For several years, I have used a Swedish Walk-Stool, which is very strong, easily collapsible and comfortable. Made in Sweden (with all the design expertise we expect in a Swedish product) it is available all over the world in several sizes; find a distributor at www.walkstool.com. I call it my ‘People Tripod.‘
Now, with your lower half stabilized you can easily rotate your upper body from the waist and move your arms up and down while following the bird. But that’s not all there is to stability.

2. Merge your Camera with your body
You need to become one with your camera. You do this by locking your camera to your forehead or your cheek bone. If you are shooting a camera without a rubber eyepiece you may have difficulty. Some cameras come without eyepieces, if you have one of these try eBay.  Rubber eyecups are available for many cameras. If not, you can get an Orion Rubber Eyeguard, available on the web from a number of telescope distributors.
To merge I press my eyebrow to the rubber eyecup and my cheek and nose to the body of the camera. This supports my camera firmly and takes some of the load off my hand, which allows me to squeeze the shutter button more freely. (Yes, this works with most eyeglasses; I wear eyeglasses all the time while photographing.) Tip: If you can’t get a good fit with the top of the eyecup, tape a bit of foam rubber to the top with black vinyl tape.  Black vinyl tape is good for keeping the little protectors on the hot shoe in place, also.

Practice sighting through the eyepiece of the camera while moving your head, eye and camera/lens as a unit. Learning to move your head and the camera as a single unit is the key to stability and it does not take that long to learn. But you do need to practice.
Get out near a freeway and practice shooting cars as they whiz past. Take the photos, blow them up on screen to check what you are doing.

3. Supporting a long lens
When starting out most people try to use two hands on the camera body to support it. (We used to have to do this to turn the focus ring but autofocus put an end to that.) For the best stability you need to support the front of the lens barrel with your left hand underneath it. Put your left hand as far out as you can, and don’t hug your elbow to your side or try to support it on your chest. This will impede your tracking – your arm has to be free to follow your head.

Heavy lens? I rest the whole rig on my lap in between photo opportunities. You are sitting after all; you might as well relax between takes.

4. Breathing
Do not try to breathe in and hold your breath. With your arms, shoulders and head locked to the lens, there is not much chance of your breath interfering. To tell the truth I don’t know how I breathe; but I do not consciously hold my breath. I know I can’t be holding it long as I do not feel my heartbeat build up as it would when holding my breath.
Sit, take a few moments for your heartbeat to slow down, relax and just breathe naturally. Then you are ready to go.

5. Clothing
You need to be able to move your arms freely. Be sure your shirt, jacket, whatever, has large armholes. Small arm-holes will  cause your arms to pull on the jacket body, slowing you and pulling you off-track. When it is cold, wear one or more sleeveless sweaters under your jacket. Your arms must not be impeded.

6. Exposure Setting
For the ZD 300 mm and ZD 90–250 mm (both f2.8 lenses) I recommend setting the shutter speed at 1/4000 without an extender, 1/3200 with the 1.4 extender and 1/2000 with the 2.0 extender. (However, I don’t use either extender very much, it is too hard to track with them.) Set your ISO at 400 (400–800) and use a grain remover such as Define2 or Noise Ninja when processing. Don’t worry about needing a high number f stop to get greater depth of field. You are not concerned about the background when shooting birds in flight. All that needs to be sharp in a photograph of a bird in flight is the eye, beak and claws. People expect a bit of blur especially at the wing tips. (But not much.)
Go back and look at the older photo books of birds. Most, of course, are black and white. Notice how blurry the wings look. Then look at current books, shot at higher shutter speeds — which looks best?

7. Image Stabilization
Others do but I don’t recommend IS with moving birds. Image Stabilization is intended to correct for slight camera body movement. However, you are making major camera movements tracking birds in flight and the IS will make other movements to counteract your movements. Image Stabilization can cause some weird feather patterns in photos of birds in flight. I will use IS for some photos. For example I recently was photographing hummingbirds at a feeder. These guys are hard to track, as you know if you have ever tried. Holding your camera steady and shooting when they come into view works well, when IS is on.  Here is an example:

8. Position yourself
Figure out where the birds will be and position yourself so the sun will be roughly at your back when you are facing the birds, or where you expect them to be. Try to position yourself so that the wind is coming from your right or left. Plan to shot when the birds are flying into the wind. It is much easier to follow them and much easier for your camera to get the focus and exposure correct.

9. Bird Identification
Forget it till later. Shoot before you identify the bird. Often the bird will not be of interest and you will discard the image, but it costs you nothing. If you wait to discover if it is a bird you want to photograph it will always be too late to get your camera up and ready to track it.    Shoot first, ask questions later.

10. Auto focus?
Of course but remember that auto focusing mechanisms need contrast in order to focus. Easiest to focus on are white birds in flight against a clear sky, with the sun at your back. The worst are dark or black birds against a dim, dark jumbled background. On a dark day, or backlit.

11. Practice
Practice, practice, practice. Practice on pigeons, automobiles speeding past, bicyclists, whatever is moving.

An Extra Tip.
Since you can’t use a neck strap very well with a long telephoto lens and need a way to carry it more safely than dangling it by the camera body, make use of your tripod mount. Rotate it 180°and convert it into a very secure handle. I carry mine with the lens pointing to the rear and place my thumb on what is now the front of the mount to secure it. This works for the ZD 300 mm, the ZD 90–250 mm and the ZD 150 mm.

That’s it. Grab your camera and go get ‘em!

The next day the juvenile Red-tailed Hawk spread his/her wings more easily and flew far more often. Juvy was getting stronger. Exploring the sky was beginning to become exciting — there were many places to go, lots of trees to look down upon.  And there were other birds out there. Lots of them.

“Hmmm, I wonder what’s out there today.”

“Let’s go see!”

“Sometimes there is almost no work to this at all.”

Juvenile Red-tails watch their feet intently while landing. Hawks are long-sighted. They need to be able to spot prey from great heights so their eyes have become adapted to that need over the centuries. But that means that their near vision is not as good. Remember how, when you first learned to drive, how you were worried about keeping the proper distance from the curb at the corner when executing a turn?
It is the same with Hawks. Learning to land is the trickiest of maneuvers so they watch their distance closely. Later when they come to know where there feet are they won’t need to do this.

And off again; the rest periods are getting shorter.

And off again.

“What’s over there?”

By the third day the art of flying was being mastered; among other new maneuvers the bird was learning to drop his legs to slow his/her flight.

Legs lowered for stability,

Time for a little fun in the sky

Meeting a sibling.

Playing in the sky

Enough for today, and the end of my shoot as the juvenile left shortly and so did I.

The next day I returned but the juvenile didn’t.  After a two hour wait, I gave it up.
So, for me the story is over for this year.  You can bet I will be back next year!

Your comments & questions much appreciated

It was easy to imagine, as it had been on earlier days when first I saw Juvy standing on the nest peering out at the world, the trepidation it must have felt. Some will tell you that birds have no emotion but I think that is ridiculous; no creature could make its way through the world without emotion. Why would one be cautious unless first feeling fear?

Anyway, I imagined the bird looking down at the far-off ground and the intervening branches and leaves as they moved about in the wind being somewhat perplexed.

Is there space between those things? Can I trust those little stick things to hold me?
If I spread my wings will they hold me up?

At some point the bird, perhaps through the insistence of ancient memory, has to lift off and fly. And so Juvy did, but not very far at first.

“Get out of the way, branch!”

“That’s better!”

“Get me to that branch over there.”

Not having the strength to fly back up to the nest, where it would be fed, after having flown down to the tree below the nest, Juvy made short hops from branch to branch back and forth between the two trees, gaining height with each short flight.

“Made it!”

“Now back to the bare tree!”

“Here we go.”

“Gotta watch my feet.”

Time out for a little rest.

“Time to go climb the tree to my nest, I’m hungry.”

“Nearly there, good thing my claws are sharp.”

“OK, Mom, where are you, I“M HUNGRY.”

Eventually it got back up to the nest in time for Mom to bring lunch.

So much for today, time to take a nap.

(Continued in A Red-tailed Hawk’s first flights (Part 2)