Bird Thread

I like this one, he's all puffed up lol. Like a puffer fish.

I thought that they were going to fly today. The chicks were taking 2-3 steps while really flapping their wings; not just stretching. The parents brought them less food and stayed much more briefly, almost as if taunting them to venture out. But the bigger surprise for me was reviewing a batch of shots from today. There are actually 4 chicks, not 3.

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Originally Posted by kgosden

Not sure how I managed the black background; didn't think it was that dark out at the time.

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The flash you used on the shot may have something to do with it:p

Light intensity from flash falls off significantly with distance ie distance squared or to the 4th from memory. ie - If the background is only a little further back it will be much darker.

Dread Pirate, that would be true except i did not use a flash. Check the EXIF data.

Daddy's Home. They are still not flying.

Do you go out there on your lunch break everyday?

On the way to the office in the morning, my lunch break when I can, and after work for up to 2 hours. I figure I only have a short time window to capture them so I am sacrificing some other activities. In two hours I generally get 4-6 parental landings and take offs. about 75% are on my viewable side of the nest. If I get one decent shot out of those I am pretty happy.

I love the way the one chick is staring at the dad as he leaves in this shot. Like, "I gotta learn how Dad does that."

Yeah thats a cool shot. You much have your finger right there on the shutter release for those lol. The little baby has it's head turned like a confused dog lol!

Hope to get some time at the nest Friday. I know they will be flying. I bicycled by around 6:15 tonight with my manager and we watched them for 5 minutes or so. One of the chicks was flapping up a storm and lifted off the nest enough that we could see its feet dangling. Then it plopped back down. No camera with me on the bike :( I went back after our ride and got a few more shots, but had to push it to ISO1600 to get any speed at 8PM. No one was interested actual flight.

I managed to catch the first flight I saw this evening. Still mostly vertical and a bit uncontrolled. After I saw this one there were 2-3 more minor excursions. At least one of them has taken to flying/running up one of the tree trunks about 3-6 feet. Not sure if I will get back to the nest over the weekend as it is a bit out of the way from home (and there is rain forecast tomorrow).