Birds of Manitoba - Craig & Rose: July 2015

Thursday, 30 July 2015

Bee's, Chipmunk and Yellow Bellied Sapsucker Nest - 23 June 2015

Got a series of photos of the Yellow Bellied Sapsucker family at their tree hollow. Not certain what happened to the Nuthatches that seemed to be setting up a nest in the same hollow a month before.
I observed the family interact for over an hour. I noted that just about every time one of the parents had finished feeding the nestling the nestling would push the parent bird away with a pretty good jab from its beak.
Here is a link to a 34 second video of the action. You can see the nestling jab one of the parents after being fed.
I posted the link to this video in an earlier post so some of you may have already seen it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v4N4V6bQ71g

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Ever present Bee's

This Chipmunk was pretty interested in me until a second Chipmunk dove on it and they both scurried away.

Mama with a snack

Mama giving me a close look as she flew past me at a few feet distance.

Papa checking me out before giving nestling its snack

Nestling emerges, checking out the outside world and waiting for another snack.

Another yummy bug snack being served

Saturday, 25 July 2015

Fort Whyte Alive - Birds,Moth 16 July 2015 - Part 2 of 2

Second set of photos from Fort Whyte from 16 July 2015.

Eastern Phoebe's

Eastern Phoebe

Gold Finch

Grey Catbird. This bird was only about 3 feet away. It didn't move until a jogger ran past, then it ran into the bush. Suspect it was either a young bird, ill or injured.

House Finch and Gold Finch

Mallard

Mallards

Moth.

Butterfly

Pelicans

Pelicans just before they took off

Song Sparrow

I think this is a juvenile Yellow Warbler

Friday, 17 July 2015

Sod Hut - Fort Whyte Alive - 16 July 2015

Sod Hut

Photos taken with FZ1000.
It is quite dim inside the hut so I had to use the flash. I didn't notice the black arc lower center frame until I got home. I am certain it is the lens hood.
I wished I had taken a photo of either the doorway or one of the windows to display the thickness of the walls. I would estimate that they were at least a foot thick.
The windows in this hut were glass, but, I have heard of instances where oiled paper was used in place of glass.

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I wished I had taken photos of some of the posters on the wall as they would be copies of posters from the period. Will try to remember next time we go and will post them and hopefully a photo showing the thickness of the walls.

Fort Whyte Alive - Birds, Squirrel, Dragonfly's 16 July 2015 - Part 1

Fort Whyte Alive

Attended Fort Whyte on the 16th. Weather was threatening rain and possibly thunder storms. I was a little surprised to find no one on the trails. I saw a lot of birds, likely because it was so quiet.
There was one brief shower which barely wet anything so I really enjoyed my outing. I was there for about 3 hours and people were just starting to go out on the trails as I was leaving.
All photos were taken with a Panasonic FZ1000. It is a good camera but not as good as a DSLR.
Focus is pretty fast, image quality is good but loses detail quickly as photos are enlarged. Image stabilization is very good.
Focal range is 25mm to 400mm, and I think F2.8 to F5.6 . There is also Intelligent Zoom which extends the reach to 800mm. There is digital zoom which extends range to 1300mm but it is not very good and we don't use it.
Electronic Viewfinder is excellent. Using the viewfinder as you get focus lock you will get a good idea of how the photo is going to turn out.
I quite like the camera but prefer a DSLR.

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