Long Island Birds

Went down to Long island yesterday. First stop was Heampstead Lake state park. We went for migrants but found nothing. I did find a blue gray knatccatcher nest which is pretty fun to watch. We were there on the 25th last year and had around 5 warblers. Aftere striking out at Hempstead we traveled to Oceanside marine study area. There are always birds there. We had yellow crowned night herons, tree swallows, osprey, yellowlegs,pectoral sandpiper. I got some pretty decent pictures. I hate this time of year where the sun gets so high in the sky.

Early warbler

Palm warblers are always one of the first warblers to reach Ny state. I also have had pine warblers singing in my backyard lately. These shots are of a Palm warbler that is almost in fully breeding plumage. Soon the warblers will arrive in numbers and BirdBoy will be doing work. Expect a lot of pictures this may.

My schedule

early may-central park a few times

mid may-capemay weekend

end of may- northern vermont

B1rdBoy

florida pictures

Hello, I am sorry for the late post. Here are my shots from Florida Keys. There are so many I didnt know how to post them. So what I will do is post the link to the flickr set, and post a few teaser pictures on here :p Below is link to the florida pictures

http://www.flickr.com/photos/30566773@N08/sets/72157623372845231/

And here are teasers

Backyard shots

last week I was in the florida keys for vacation. It was a bird haven, I got 53 shots that are up to a good standard for me and will take a few posts. This post is a catch up from shots I got at my feeder a fews ago. I really like the sapsucker.

some new shots

We finally have off of school this week and I am taking advantage of it. I got lifer red header woodpecker this week, but no shot due to stupidity difficulties. I got my favorite duck in flight the other day. The common goldeneye is hands down one of my favorite ducks. They are so skittish and hard to photograph around here. The other day I was down at the river and I heard this noise looked up and a male and female came whizzing by. I thought i missed them, but they turned back!!! It was cloudy and I had my camera set to AV thinking the camera might be smart, no it shot at 1/4000 of a second. I dont understand why, but weirdly the shots came out alright. Also Im posting some kinfisher shots I got a week ago. They are another tricky bird to get a picture of. Yesterday I got one of my favorite shots I have ever taken. A sapsucker came to my feeder and landed on the tree to pose for me. I had been waiting on my porch for this, and got one shot. Thatll be next post :)

duckkkks

I have been enjoying shooting(photographing) ducks this winter. Bufflehead ducks are every where but I have yet to get a good picture, up to my standard. I found a redhead duck which is pretty rare around where I live. I really want to get a shot of a Pintail duck, which has been hanging around at the same park. Last weekend I went to point lookout in Long island and got lifer Harlequin and black scoters, great looking ducks. I want to go to Barnegat lighthouse, which is famous for its Harlequin ducks. Hope you enjoy the pictures.

400mm fun!!!

Hey everyone. Sorry for the lack in posting. School had been rediculously hard this year. I did get my 400mm though and use it as much as possible. The weather has been great the weekends when I have to to shoot but I have gotten some nice pictures. I got good pictures of red tail, red shoulder hawk, and redhead ducks. I guess its a red thing? Well I will start off with the red tail. Two days after i got my lens, I went to the local croton point park, where I had a close encounter with a red tail last year. Well Again I had a good encounter. I think he likes me :) I still wasnt used to the 400mm but I was getting better holding it, and focusing. well I got so close to this hawk which was sitting on a pole in the field. I litterally had to move back to get the whole hawk in the frame. Here are some shots!!! Can you see the difference in these pictures compared to my old ones, because of the new crazy expensive lens?