Bird Watching a Relaxing Hobby

[wotan]

Tim

You are completely correct. Long lenses, particularly the cheaper ones like mine, do not allow fast shutter speeds and are always tough to hold very still so take lots of blurred shots. Occasionally I get a decent one. I also use a 70-300 which is a little easier to handle.

John

 

[Tim Marlow]

I have a Canon system John and the lens anti shake adds about three stops of relative speed......wish it added about six though.....the 300 prime was an early lens so only added about one and a half, another reason for swapping it on.

 

[tigersteve]

Fish Eagle, photographed a few years ago in Malaysia

 

[Tim Marlow]

Handsome beast isn’t he....

 

[Lee Drennen]

Steve. That a beautiful bird and you took some great shots. Thanks for sharing. Yesterday there was a Coopers Hawk flying above me in the Barn lot I didn’t get my phone out in time to take a pic till it was to late.

 

[tigersteve]

I went to the beach this morning at 05.00 to see the sunrise in Amble, Northumberland.
Nice watching the Oyster Catchers.

 

[GerryW]

Our regular woodpecker

 

[spanner570]

Great thread Lee, and equally great pictures from members.

Plenty of nesting/feeding activity going on in our garden, so hopefully some young will be spotted soon.

...three more.

Our 'Tame' Wood Pigeons.


A Gold Finch


....and a chancer!


Cheers.
Ron

 

[spanner570]

Off on slight tangent. Sorry Lee, but on reading the discussion about lens's, I thought the following might be of interest to someone....

I'm an opportunist, point and click merchant and know nothing about camera settings, except where the 'Auto Option' is on the dial thingy.

However, I've always wanted a camera with a good zoom, compact enough to go into a jacket or rucksack pocket. I certainly didn't want to lug around those huge and clumbersome lens's. My son bought this camera and suggested it might fit the bill - And How!

It's a Sony DSC-H400. It has a 63X Optical zoom and goes up to 126X digital. Expensive? Nah, there is a second hand one running on eBay as I type for less than £50. (New, around the £150/ £170 mark.




I took these images this morning. We have a plastic owl on a wall to deter hawks etc. (As much use as a tit on a bull!)

No tripod. I wedged the camera against a tree trunk.

The owl on the wall.



Here it is at 63X optical.


....and 126X digital.


So if anyone on here wants a nice, reasonably priced compact zoom camera, this Sony might just fit the bill - It does for me.

Once again, sorry for the slight diversion, Lee.

Ron

 

[Tim Marlow]

Nice one Ron. The optical zoom on that is pretty good. It would be even better on a bright day.

 

[Lee Drennen]

Steve. Beautiful pic now that how to enjoy life.

Gerry. That set up you have look so familiar I thought I was looking at mine

Ron. Thanks for the complement on the thread. Those are some great looking pics I don’t mine it’s still tagged as bird watching you got to have a camera. Thanks for sharing your pics.

 

[GerryW]

Steve. Beautiful pic now that how to enjoy life.

Gerry. That set up you have look so familiar I thought I was looking at mine

Ron. Thanks for the complement on the thread. Those are some great looking pics I don’t mine it’s still tagged as bird watching you got to have a camera. Thanks for sharing your pics.

That's one of the back feed stations, another beside it, and 2 at the front

 

[wotan]

Nice shots Ron and that looks like a pretty useful little camera.

We have our bird feeder hanging just outside our dining room window, so I can take photos while sitting in comfort.
This is an American Goldfinch that stopped by for breakfast this morning.



John

 

[Tim Marlow]

He’s a stunner John. As I’ve said before, you get some colourful birds in your neck of the woods.....

 

[tigersteve]

Gentleman Jack !

 

[Lee Drennen]

John. I caught a pic of one of those yellow Finches last year about this time at my feeder but I’ve lost the pic.

 

[Lee Drennen]

Steve. Nice. If he eats all that I doubt if he could fly. Lol

 

[wotan]

More dining room visitors. This is a female Oriole. She appears to be madly jealous of her reflection in the dining room window since she repeatedly throws herself against the glass. Never could understand women.



John

 

[Tim Marlow]

There was a pied wagtail around here that used to do something similar last year John. He used to sit on the wing mirror of my car, see his own reflection in the passenger side window, and attack it.....he did that time after time. Before I saw him do it I used to wonder what the marks on my passenger window were and where they came from.......

 

[GerryW]

Just had two stock doves in the garden, grabbed the phone to take a photo only to see them hightailing over the hedge!
Must admit that the first time that I saw one, thought that it was a young wood pigeon, as very similar, but no white collar.