We Might Have Some Good Pics... (Read that Wow!)
Don't get your hopes up too high, but I put out the NovaBird remote, movement-triggered camera just in time for a virtual "bird storm".
Okey dokey, the afternoon has passed and I just brought in the old NovaBird and am looking at the snapshots - all 354 of them. Let's see what we got...
- A bunch of nice grackle photos (love the white iris)
- The cardinals didn't let us down
- There are the usual chickadees
But better yet, we've got perhaps the finest shot of a bird's ear ever. (Well, okay.. maybe it ain't the finest, but should the picture make the rounds, I'd guess a few ornithologists will sit up and take notice! The link to the high res photograph is here. You can also use our library link below and browse to it there.)
Is that not wild or what?!? I've searched the Web, and looked at my books: Sibley, Peterson, and Alsop III... So far, this is the best I've found. That hole behind and below the eye is called the auricular, or outer ear. Normally this is covered with down/feathers. Hopefully, given the time of year, this little fellow is still molting (versus being sick.)
I don't know why that stupid picture above gives me such a kick, but it does. I've made it no secret that I'm not a bird nut... Yeah, I like to look at them, and yeah their songs sound nice. And their flights are acts that human dance will ever approach... But I'm still not about to pop a second mortgage to go to Peru and search for the rare "Ha Cha Cha" bird. Sorry...
Still there's something very rewarding about that picture. (Eat your heart out USGS!) I don't know... Maybe it's just that a well-intentioned though time-challenged amateur can occasionally come up with some pretty fair stuff. Maybe it has to do with these inexpensive results compared to the exorbitant costs of "real birding"... In any event the photograph looks cool beans by my eye.
Very content by the feeders,
CapeCodAlan
Cornell Ornithology Laboratory: Inside Birding
Cornell Ornithology Laboratory: All About Birding
Comments
Congratulations!! That has to be one extremely rare photo! No, you're not a bird nut, MUCH!!! You're just totally fascinated by them and you do many people the favor of sharing that wonderful interest! Thanks!
Posted by: Josie | July 28, 2009 3:10 PM
Truly, award deserving photos. Thanks for posting them. I relate personally with them and "my" birds. I use an Olympus F-120. That's the best I can do, and I have to be outside with them and within 6-8ft before I can get a halfway descent picture.
Your photo of the Red-Wing Blackbird is of special interest. One of my RWB has a bald head at this time, much the same as yours. Is this really molting or something worse?
Cheers,
Harry "Gipper" Morris
Posted by: Harry Morris | July 28, 2009 5:56 PM
Thanks for the kind words...
Harry, I have a similar pocket camera. (Mine is a Vivitar 8600s.) It's great at very close range, but struggles at distance. Still, I have fun with it. See:
http://www.ebirdseed.com/blog/gomphus%20borealis_03_resized.JPG
Besides (for me anyway) a blurry picture is better than no picture at all. I try to bury notes into the file name so that I always can remember the details of the bird.
Thanks for your readership,
CCA
Posted by: CapeCodAlan | July 29, 2009 12:01 PM
Allen
With that photo, I'd be embarrassed to show you my best photo.
As to your Grackle photo, there could be dozens of "captions" to go with it. My first impression was "Get out of my feathers, you paparattzi,(sp) and leave me alone!!"
Cheers,
Harry Morris
Posted by: Harry Morris | July 29, 2009 3:34 PM