The days are getting longer! Today was sub-freezing all day. but the sun was out and it felt like spring skiing. There was two to four inches of fresh snow overnight. I usually don't get out much on weekdays, especially work weekdays. But there are sometimes you just have to get out.
When I got to the park, I headed out to my tree stand with hopes that the little birds would want to get out in the sun. I arrived at the stand and ....... Silence. Only the traffic noises. But I still got out and walked around.
The tree stand is probably fifty yards long. The first forty five yards can be best described as above. But the last five yards had some bird chatter. And some small birds. And some color. I thought I was taking photos of robins - but it looks like they were the Common Redpoll. The photos aren't all that good. Small birds at 30 yard morph into very small birds to photograph. Those photos could be a rainy/snowy day project for AI Gigapixel.
But what I did get was this American Goldfinch. Nice yellow and black. Pittsburgh colors. Give it a cap/helmet and a ball. This was relatively at a distance and a pretty good crop. In other words, I've done better. And that's OK - room to improve.
For the small bird shoots, I need to use the D500 to get the extra 250 mm of reach. And maybe a chair. With the monopod. And more time.
So after my pass by the tree stand, I did a short loop through some of the trails. I was out, not one to waste a good walk. I had to watch my footing a bit on the trails. What was icy last weekend was now covered with a couple of inches of snow which helped a lot. But still had to be careful. I'd walk a bit then stop to look and listen. Never much noise. But the best part of the day for me was to spy this small group of Mourning Doves in the trees. No noise. Just me looking around and seeing something that was different. A birdwatcher moment?
No comments:
Post a Comment