Photo Update

I finally got my bird photo site updated- check it out at http://schmoker.org/BirdPics

In this update you'll find:
1. Fulvous Whistling-Duck
2. White-tailed Ptarmigan
3. American White Pelican
4. Neotropic Cormorant
5. Anhinga
6. American Bittern
7. Great Egret
8. Snowy Egret
9. Little Blue Heron
10. Tricolored Heron
11. Cattle Egret
12. White Ibis
13. White-faced Ibis
14. Roseate Spoonbill
15. Turkey Vulture
16. Northern Harrier
17. Red-shouldered Hawk
18. Red-tailed Hawk
19. King Rail
20. Purple Gallinule
21. Common Moorhen
22. Hybrid American x Pacific Plover
23. Black-necked Stilt
24. Wilson's Phalarope
25. Red Phalarope
26. Eurasian Collared-Dove
27. Mourning Dove
28. Flammulated Owl
29. Great Horned Owl
30. Barred Owl
31. Common Poorwill
32. White-throated Swift
33. Ruby-throated Hummingbird
34. Broad-tailed Hummingbird
35. Rufous Hummingbird
36. Downy Woodpecker
37. American Three-toed Woodpecker
38. Gray Flycatcher
39. Cordilleran Flycatcher
40. Gray Jay
41. Clark's Nutcracker
42. Common Raven
43. Tree Swallow
44. Barn Swallow
45. Carolina Chickadee
46. Red-breasted Nuthatch
47. White-breasted Nuthatch
48. Rock Wren
49. Bewick's Wren
50. Sedge Wren
51. American Robin
52. Black-throated Gray Warbler
53. Prothonotary Warbler
54. Brewer's Sparrow
55. Lark Bunting
56. Chestnut-collared Longspur
57. Black-headed Grosbeak
58. Lazuli Bunting
59. Red-winged Blackbird
60. Western Meadowlark
61. Yellow-headed Blackbird
62. Common Grackle
63. Boat-tailed Grackle
64. Great-tailed Grackle
65. Lesser Goldfinch
66. Lawrence's Goldfinch

Plus assorted other non-avian wildlife.

Let me know what you think.

Another Photo Mash-Up

Sometimes when I get strings of flight shots, particularly when the bird is beyond ideal range for good enlargements, I like to make a composite shot showing the various aspects the bird takes on in its flight. The last one I posted was of a sky-dancing Northern Harrier. This time the subject is a White-throated Swift taken on The Nature Conservancy's Carpenter Ranch property west of Steamboat Springs, Colorado. I was there on a trip during the Colorado Field Ornithologists' annual convention out of Craig, Colorado. (Click the pic to enlarge.)
The concept is pretty straightforward- first, shoot lots of frames as fast as your camera will fire (in my case, 5 frames per second.) Then, at home I pick shots that show the different aspects that I'd like to include. Out of these, I try to pick one with suitable room around it (although if I run out of room I can enlarge the "canvas" in Photoshop and clone in more sky for background.) Then, I crop out the bird in each additional frame I'll use, and use the "duplicate layer" function in Photoshop to copy it onto the master frame. Then, I use the magic wand tool to select the sky in the copied layer and cut it out (just using the "edit-cut" command), leaving only the bird in that layer (sometimes having to adjust the tolerance level so it selects the right amount of sky, leaving only the bird behind.) Then I can move the layer with the bird in it until I get it where I want it in the sequence. Occasionally I'll rotate the layer to fit the sequence as well- I can't always keep a level frame of reference since I'm not shooting off of a tripod. Plus, my sequences are really photo illustrations, not necessarily sequential shots showing exactly where the bird was in each successive frame, and I nearly always leave out frames for various reasons. In fact, sometimes I put them together in different order than the shooting sequence because it tells the story better, in my opinion. By their very nature, swifts are tough to photograph so I was pretty pleased to get those shots, even at a distance. Frustratingly, when nimble, fast birds like these are closer in and have much better potential for detail, they are also much harder to track and focus on. I did get a couple of cool closer shots, though. This one isn't tack-sharp, but the bird is about to nab a bug in flight (total serendipity- didn't see the bug 'till I got home), as swifts are wont to do. By the next frame 1/5 second later the bug was already gone- yum!! And one more parting swift shot... The day wasn't all about swifts, though. Led by Ted Floyd (editor of Birding Magazine and birder extraordinaire), we tallied 95 species entirely on foot (us, not the birds), walking about 8 miles around the amazing property on the Yampa River. Fortunately, the mileage was mitigated by a near-total lack of climbing. Our steepest challenge was to get up onto and later back down off of the railroad grade. Otherwise the section of the Yampa Valley where we birded is forgivingly flat. In typical Colorado fashion, there was frost on the railroad ties as we began our hike at dawn and by lunch we were enjoying temps in the 70's. Our remarkable big-walk total was due to the convergence of many habitat types, including mid-elevation riparian, wet meadows, arid brushy hillsides, and coniferous forest. Here are a few other photo highlights from the day. Peace out- Bill

Photo Update

Folks- I have a bunch of Colorado bird pics from late winter and early spring that I've finished adding to my site (http://schmoker.org/BirdPics). Check 'em out and let me know what you think. Enjoy- Bill Included this time:
"Snow Geese" (a little photo pun- click it to see what you think.), Canada Goose, Trumpeter Swan, American Wigeon, Mallard, Cinnamon Teal w/ hybrid Cinnamon x Blue-winged Teal, Northern Pintail, Green-winged Teal, Lesser Scaup, Long-tailed Duck, Bufflehead, Common Goldeneye, Hooded Merganser, Common Merganser, Red-breasted Merganser, Ring-necked Pheasant, Wild Turkey, Western Grebe, Turkey Vulture, Northern Harrier, Red-tailed Hawk, Ferruginous Hawk, Rough-legged Hawk, American Kestrel, Virginia Rail, Wilson's Snipe, Glaucous Gull, Rock Pigeon, Eurasian Collared-Dove, Mourning Dove, Barn Owl, Great Horned Owl, Northern Pygmy-Owl, Burrowing Owl, Long-eared Owl, Northern Saw-whet Owl, Belted Kingfisher, Downy Woodpecker, Northern Flicker, Black-billed Magpie, American Crow, Chihuahuan Raven, Horned Lark, Mountain Chickadee, Pygmy Nuthatch, American Dipper, Hermit Thrush, Varied Thrush, Curve-billed Thrasher, European Starling, Cedar Waxwing, Slate-colored Fox Sparrow, Harris's Sparrow, Red-winged Blackbird, Hepburn's Gray-crowned Rosy-Finch, Brown-capped Rosy-Finch, House Finch, Red Crossbill, & Pine Siskin.

Photo Update

I wrapped up all of my remaining 2006 images- this batch is all from Colorado. Link on over to my bird pics site to see:

domestic Swan Goose, domestic Mallard, Ross's Goose, Canada Goose, hybrid Canada x Swan Goose, Cackling Goose, Brant, Tundra Swan, Wood Duck, American Wigeon, Mallard, domestic Peacock, Wild Turkey, Common Loon, Yellow-billed Loon, Pied-billed Grebe, Horned Grebe, Eared Grebe, American White Pelican, Brown Pelican, Bald Eagle, Sharp-shinned Hawk, Red-tailed Hawk, Harlan's Hawk, Ferruginous Hawk, Prairie Falcon, American Coot, Long-billed Curlew, Pectoral Sandpiper, Long-billed Dowitcher, Ring-billed Gull, California Gull, Great Black-backed Gull, Eurasian Collared-Dove, Black Phoebe, Horned Lark, Brown Creeper, Mountain Bluebird, Townsend's Solitaire, Curve-billed Thrasher, European Starling, Yellow-rumped Warbler, Grasshopper Sparrow, Song Sparrow, Harris's Sparrow, White-crowned Sparrow, Golden-crowned Sparrow, Dark-eyed Junco, and House Sparrow.

Chihuahuan Ravens in Boulder County

While observing a Virginia Rail and Wilson's Snipe (see post below) yesterday, I was alerted to a pair of oncoming ravens by their calls. It struck me that the calls were thin and high, unlike the Common Ravens I commonly hear around Boulder. I snapped a string of shots of the closer bird as it flew by, which provided fodder for analysis. Below the pics is my brief ID summary and discussion, posted to Cobirds this evening. Click the photos to enlarge. No adjustments have been made except for cropping and compression to make them more web-friendly. The last image has comparison images of Common and Chihuahuan Raven bills superimposed, sized and rotated to match the bird in question.

With valued input from several friends of mine, research into my sound files, and using photo comparisons of raven bills, I believe that they were indeed Chihuahuan Ravens (CHRA). A key point that Tony Leukering brought up was that the bird in the photos was an adult by plumage (lacking any brown aspect in the head), and should therefore have a fully-developed bill (younger ravens retaining the possibility of having bills not fully developed yet and therefore not reliably proportioned.) While the exact position of the nasal bristle tips is obscured by snow on the bird's bill in the photos, I believe that the extent of snow sticking far down the top of the bill suggests the long bristles of CHRA (in fact, the otherwise uniform snow ends with a little lump right about where I would expect CHRA's bristles to extend, much farther down the bill than in Common Raven [CORA].) I admit that this is speculative, though, as the actual bristles can't be seen. More importantly, and not obscured by the snow, is the overall length of the bill and the relatively steeper curve of the leading edge of the culmen (top surface of the bill), which compares nearly perfectly to a reference shot I have of a known CHRA. In the Common Raven (CORA) profile shots I compared, the bills looked distinctly longer and had a more gradual curve on the leading edge of the culmen. All of my respondents shared my regret that the tail wasn't photographed from directly underneath, but the birds didn't cooperate in this area by flying over me. However, in at least one of the shots I feel as though the view isn't inconsistent with CHRA's shorter tail with a flatter trailing edge in comparison to CORA. Finally, while I reiterate my awareness that CORAs can exhibit a wide range of vocalizations, these birds sounded just right for CHRA, further supporting the list of positive CHRA traits I observed in these birds. I've wondered if the blizzards in SE Colorado might push CHRAs out of their "core" range more than normal this winter. It has also occurred to me that the rough conditions down there might instead help them if the predictions of thousands of dead cows (with resultant scavenging opportunities) came true. Of course, we probably don't even have a handle on where the normal distribution of these birds is away from their breeding grounds, as they can be so hard to detect and document in areas frequented by CORAs and American Crows. I wouldn't be at all surprised if they regularly push into the northern Front Range. On a birding trip a couple of summers ago, Doug Faulkner commented to me that they historically ranged into Wyoming following bison herds, so places like Jefferson, Boulder and Larimer Counties shouldn't be a big stretch. Anyway, with other probable CHRA sightings at the Erie Landfill and Valmont Reservoir in the past few weeks, it bears remembering that our big black corvids deserve careful scrutiny, too- something I've usually been guilty of neglecting.

Brrr Brrrds

At the risk of sounding like a broken record, we've continued to have cold, snowy weather in Colorado for the last week. I think we had lows below zero for at least the last four nights here at my home base in Longmont, with the coldest being -14° F my low-registering thermometer marked three nights ago. Today was the first day in a while that we broke into the 20s.
So obviously, most of the water around here is now frozen, making any open water that much more valuable to birds. One interesting place to keep an eye on in Boulder County when things freeze up is the Valmont Reservoir complex, a group of three lakes that provide cooling water for a coal-fired power plant. The return water keeps at least two of the lakes perennially open, attracting hordes of birds whose other options are to leave the area or die. Birds of the big water there include thousands of gulls coming to roost in the evening (7+ species reported so far this winter), all kinds of waterfowl, grebes and cormorants that forgo migration to spend the winter there, and so on. But some water-reliant birds eschew the big lakes.
A couple of days ago, a buddy of mine (Richard Trinkner) reported an accommodating Virginia Rail at a still-open outlet of a small lake near Boulder Reservoir. I investigated yesterday and was delighted to find the bird right above the little culvert draining the otherwise completely frozen, snow covered lake. The little guy ducked into the culvert and soon came out the other side, where it began foraging in the narrow flowing watercourse. It was pretty crazy to see it probing under the overhanging snow on the edges, and to see it run over ice and across snow banks that shortcut to another section of the running water. Eventually I saw it catch a crayfish about as long as its bill, immediately followed by a retreat to the privacy and security of dense cattails to deal with its prey.
In the course of watching this bird I also noticed two companion Wilson's Snipe alternating between imitating reedy growth and probing the soft sediment flooring the waterway.
Of course, wintering Virginia Rails and Wilson's Snipe aren't unheard of around here, but seeing them in in a mid-January snowscape as cross-country skiers swished by behind me was pretty cool.

California Dreaming- Round 3

(And see California Dreaming Round 1- Jaegers/Skuas and Round 2- Sea Mammals)

Well, I'm off for two weeks of winter break, looking out my window at a raging blizzard (DIA is shutting down & Colorado's plains & Front Range are getting pounded!) So what better to do than to look back some more at the Monterey pelagic trip I took with CFO last September? (Well, there is my NAB report to compile, Boulder Christmas Count data to enter, carpets to vacuum, etc. but those don't sound as fun.)

Photographing fast-flying, rapidly wheeling birds from a rolling boat while coping with salt spray and a protesting stomach can be, um, challenging. But somehow I get more excited about this kind of photography than anything else. All I can say is thank goodness for image stabilization, AF-S autofocus, 5 fps continuous shooting, and large memory cards. And thank goodness for all of the sunshine we had on our two days out- on previous pelagics that I've done I had much tougher light to work with.

How about looking at shearwaters this time? We saw four species but our single Flesh-footed Shearwater was too distant to even try to snap. Sooty Shearwaters, however, were abundant (perhaps hundreds of thousands) and often close to the boat. I vastly improved my pics of this species- the ones I had from WA and ME weren't lit well which is especially tough on dark birds. So here are a few I like:
While not as abundant, there were still lots of Pink-footed Shearwaters. For some reason they seemed to approach the boat more frequently, though. Some even landed in the wake to get in on the chum-grabbing frenzy. A couple of these shots show how this bird group got its name- by knifing a wingtip along the water. Very sharp looking birds!

Probably the nattiest shearwater we saw, though, was Buller's. The pattern on their back is pretty sweet, kind of like a Sabine's Gull, and their underparts are gleaming white. There were fewer of these than Sooties or Pink-footeds, but still plenty for great observations and photo opps. Again you'll see a couple of these shearing the water with a wingtip.

Photo Update

I've been taking advantage of the Thanksgiving break to catch up on lots of stuff, including my photo website. I just completed an update that includes pics from Arizona & New Mexico last late July/ early August.

Jump over to take a peek at Ruddy Duck, White-tailed Ptarmigan, Sharp-tailed Grouse, Wild Turkey, Double-crested Cormorant, Turkey Vulture, White-tailed Kite, Red-tailed Hawk, Long-billed Curlew, Sabine's Gull, Rock Pigeon, White-winged Dove, Common Ground-Dove, Greater Roadrunner, Spotted Owl, Broad-billed Hummingbird, Broad-billed x Berylline (?) Hummingbird, White-eared Hummingbird, Berylline Hummingbird, Blue-throated Hummingbird, Magnificent Hummingbird, Lucifer Hummingbird, Black-chinned Hummingbird, Anna's Hummingbird, Costa's Hummingbird, Calliope Hummingbird, Broad-tailed Hummingbird, Rufous Hummingbird, Elegant Trogon, Acorn Woodpecker, Western Wood-Pewee, Buff-breasted Flycatcher, Sulfur-bellied Flycatcher, Thick-billed Kingbird, Plumbeous Vireo, Mountain Chickadee, Verdin, White-breasted Nuthatch, Cactus Wren, American Robin, Aztec Thrush, Hepatic Tanager, Rufous-winged Sparrow, Black-throated Sparrow, Lincoln's Sparrow, White-crowned Sparrow, Blue Grosbeak, Varied Bunting, House Finch, and Lesser Goldfinch. I also put up some dragonflies, butterflies, and herps.

Here are a few of my favs from this update. Enjoy- Bill

Giving Blogger a Whirl

So I thought I'd try out a birding / bird photography blog. I've had an online presence for about 6 years now, the last several at schmoker.org/BirdPics. My gig is bird photography- I've got a little over 550 species in the hopper, but my site is at 549 until I get new Arizona and California pics up. (#550 was a Black Storm-Petrel in Monterey Bay- yee-haw! Also got ABA area #600 on that trip- Ashy Storm-Petrel.)

Anyway, stay tuned for updates on my bird pics site and on Blogger. This one is kind of just to see how things work. -Bill