More Mangle

This morning dawned bright and beautiful with high clouds in the sky. The Little Lake Valley below was gorgeous. It was covered in a light fog. A great morning for photography. I needed to photograph some images for my upcoming book and the lighting was perfect. I had just finished my work when I heard a Wild Turkey gobbling down the ridge from us. I threw my tripod over my shoulder, grabbed a handful of bird seed and I ran out front. I threw the bird seed behind a log and went into my photoblind and waited. I had a only short wait before a turkey ambled out from behind a fir tree and found the seed. It was "Mangle" the Wild Turkey. Below is a close up image of his mangled tail. You can probably see why I nick named him Mangle. It's pretty distinctive. He must have had a bad run in with something big and luckily he survived. He stayed around for quite a while eating the seed before he trotted off down the ridge. God's love to all, chris Camera Equipment Used- Canon 7D, Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS USM Lens, Manfrotto 055XPROB Tripod with a Bogen 3055 Ballhead. Camera Settings- AV mode, ISO 400,F stop and shutter speed varied. #SecretsofBackyardBirdPhotography

Morning Mix

Yesterday morning I was in the backyard photoblind looking to photograph the Band-tailed Pigeons. While I was waiting for them to come down from the trees I had plenty of opportunities to photograph some of the other creatures that came to visit my feeders. First to come visit were the Steller's Jays. They make their presence known with a lot of calling and boisterous behavior around the feeders. The chipmunks were next. They are furtive and make only carefully planned moves as if expecting to be attacked at any moment. Which the probably are! They jump off and run at the slightest of sounds or movements. Following the chipmunks came a Douglas Tree squirrel. They are cute and feisty. They are quite sure of themselves as well though not to the point of being careless. They still stay on the alert. Finally after there is a lot of activity showing that it is safe at the feeders the Band-tails came flapping down. They stayed for quite awhile this morning until something spooked them off. I got some great images that I'm really happy with and the critters got some free food. God's precious love to all, chris Camera Equipment Used- Canon 7D, Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS USM Lens, Manfrotto 055XPROB Tripod with a Bogen 3055 Ballhead. Camera Settings- AV mode, ISO 400,F stop and shutter speed varied. #SecretsofBackyardBirdPhotography

Outsmarting the Raven

Yesterday afternoon I spent some time in the backyard photoblind. My goal was to try and get images of some of the Band-tailed Pigeons that have started stopping by. I photographed some Juncos and then the Band-tails started dropping in. I wasn't in the blind much longer when I heard a Raven calling from the trees overhead. The Ravens where I live are extremely camera shy. I'm not sure why? A fellow photographer a couple miles down the ridge from me is on a friendly basis with them. Even my next door neighbor has a Raven that visits her regularly. With me they flee on sight. As soon as I heard it calling I didn't move. I just froze myself against the view finder on my camera. With a large flapping of wings the Raven came down. It touched the perch next to the feeder and flew off again. I remained motionless for what seemed an eternity before it came down again and landed on the perch. Just my luck my camera was out of position to photograph it. I had to very, very slowly move my lens over to the Raven and compose an image. At the very first click of the shutter it made a jerk and looked my way. Once again I froze in place until it started feeding again. I started clicking again. Eventually it leapt off the perch and went over to feed on a suet block. It flew away when it was satisfied with its meal. What a cool experience. God's light and love to all, chris Camera Equipment Used- Canon 7D, Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS USM Lens, Manfrotto 055XPROB Tripod with a Bogen 3055 Ballhead. Camera Settings- AV mode, ISO 400,F stop F5.6,Shutter speed varied. #SecretsofBackyardBirdPhotography

Beauty of the Heavens

Here is a compilation of images from last nights lunar eclipse. The glory of God revealed in the heavens!

chris

OUCH!

This morning Lenore and I had a beautiful walk on one of the country roads on the edge of Willits. It has very little traffic and it is fairly level. Just perfect for walking. While we were walking I spotted a perfect bird perch in a drainage ditch beside the road. It was a broken off branch all covered in moss, lichens and fungi. It was too big to carry around so I came back for it with my pick up after our walk. This afternoon when I was putting it up I jammed a screw driver sized hole in the side of my thumb. Ouch! man did that hurt! I propped up the perch while I went to wash off the blood and get a bandage. While I was walking back I heard a crash. The branch fell and broke into three pieces. Now I have three shorter perches. Here is a Dark Eyed Junco on the end of one of the sections from my backyard photoblind this evening. God's love and blessings to all, chris

Camera Equipment Used- Canon 7D, Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS USM Lens at 330 mm, Manfrotto 055XPROB Tripod with a Bogen 3055 Ballhead. Camera Settings- AV mode, ISO 400,F stop F5.6,Shutter speed 1/125th of a sec.

Lilac in the Air

Yesterday afternoon found me in my backyard photoblind with the fragrance of Lilac in the air. It was heavenly. I was photographing the Red Breasted Nuthatches coming to my bird feeder with our Lilac bush in the background. What a beautiful setting for photographing birds. This was my favorite image from the set. God's precious love to all, chris Camera Equipment Used- Canon 7D, Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS USM Lens at 400 mm, Manfrotto 055XPROB Tripod with a Bogen 3055 Ballhead. Camera Settings- AV mode, ISO 400,F stop F5.6,Shutter speed 1/500th of a sec.

Mangle

I spent a good part of yesterday spring cleaning our back patio. I needed to clean off scattered seed, perches, backgrounds and some assorted junk. While I was working I heard two Wild Turkeys calling back and forth over the ridge. When one of them got closer it dawned on me that a good opportunity was at hand. I grabbed my camera and ran out to my permanent photoblind in the front yard. Before I could climb in I noticed one of the jakes was right across the driveway from me. Catching my motion it scurried off into the trees. I climbed into the blind and started giving soft hen turkey clucks. (Hard to imagine me as a hen turkey isn't it!) The other jake answered with a couple of gobbles and came running up the ridge less than a minute later. This caused the other jake to come back which pleased me to no end because it was quite a bit bigger. It was looking for that jenny it had heard. It hung around for quite awhile giving me plenty of opportunities to photograph it. The lighting was a bit iffy but I still had a great time. The poor jake never did find his girl. I decided to call him "Mangles" because half of his tail feather were mangled, torn up and missing. God's light and love to all, chris Camera Equipment Used- Canon 7D, Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS USM Lens Camera braced to blind frame hand held. Camera Settings- AV mode, ISO 400,F stop F5.6,Shutter speed varied