Bird watching on the porch

Posted by Sven on December 13, 2012 in Blog | 0 comments

Since my son was sleeping on the front porch in his baby carriage, I decided to get my camera and just sit still for while. It’s amazing what you can see if you only sit still and observe. I saw a Tree Sparrow (Pilfink) chasing several Bohemian Waxwings (sidensvansar) like crazy. Never thought they were capable of such speed. I saw a pretty rare sight for our neighborhood, Pine Grosbeak (Tallbit), our northern parakeets, whom were munching away at frozen rowan berries. A beautiful bird that lives primarily in northern pine forests.

Female Pine Grosbeak (Tallbit), Canon 1d Mark III, 300 f/2.8 IS @420 mm, ISO 2500, f/4, 1/500 s.

They come in many different colors and are quite acrobatic and agile. Old males are red and gray, while male juveniles have a range of colors as you can see in the photo below.

Male juvinile Pine Grosbeak (Tallbit), Canon 1d Mark III, 300 f/2.8 IS @420 mm, ISO 2500, f/4, 1/400 s.

I also found this sorry fellow, who must have missed his flight to north Africa. He looked kind of cold and sat completely still. I wonder how long he will survive in this kind of weather.

Juvenile Eurasian siskin (Grönsiska), Canon 1d Mark III, 300 f/2.8 IS @420 mm, ISO 2500, f/4, 1/640 s.

Shooting conditions was really bad as usual. Snow kept interfering with the auto focus and light was scarce. As you can see i used ISO 2500 for these shots, so they are a bit grainy.

/Sven