Category Archives: Year 12

Bird Your Local Cemetery!

Year 12

The past few mornings have seen me birding Duluth’s Forest Hill Cemetery. From now till the end of Fall Migration the results can be fantastic, and the permanent residents don’t tend to mind. If your local cemetery has a pond, focus upon the water. Forest Hill has two ponds and the birds know it is a time of plenty in terms of food. Better yet, due to some live humans who frequent Forest Hill, the birds are somewhat accepting of your birding presence. (learn more about Forest Hill and obtain the GPS coordinates via my My Minnesota Birding Locations web page)

I’ll lead off with a Great Blue Heron. This bird has been hanging out at the cemetery for almost one week. Make certain you watch “The Strike Video”. I have slowed down this action by a factor of two. The video also shows you the strike at normal speed. (video link for email subscribers)

Reflective Mornings … Great Blue and Green Herons

And perhaps my biggest treat … a pair of Belted Kingfishers are busy fishing all the time and somewhat permissive of my getting closer. Their young will fledge soon. One fact about Belted Kingfishers which is unusual for bird species … the female is the more brightly colored sex. As female birds tend to do most of the incubation of eggs, their colors are normally more drab to help camouflage their presence.

Smoked Moose

Year 12

The smoke continues … The wildfires up in Ontario and Manitoba are sending their smoke down to Minnesota, and the skies are gray. Heck, you can smell the smoke at ground level.

Thus, I give you smoked moose. I saw this grand lady up on Toomey Williams Forest Road two mornings ago. Seeing and photographing the moose was my consolation prize. Only a few minutes before I had a “lifer”.

My lifer … As I drove along this remote forest road, I saw what I thought was a clump of dirt. No!!!!! There was a timber wolf cub / pup cuddled up and sleeping or keeping warm at sunrise (it was 37F outside). I did not recognize it as a mammal first, and unfortunately flushed the little guy. The young wolf ran across the road only ten yards in front of me and disappeared into the forest. Amazing sight!

Here is the moose.

Comparing my Birding Cameras

Year 12, ,

A number of folks have asked which camera I have used for some of my recent photographs. This post attempts to provided some feedback.

A quick comment … my Sony A6300 with its 70-350 mm lens is definitely a better camera that my Canon sx70, however each camera has its strengths and weaknesses:

  1. The Canon has a amazing zoom, but a tiny sensor. This means I tend to only use this camera when there is very good light, and I have a bird subject that is far away.
  2. The Sony has a great combined package with great low light capabilities, but I need to get much closer to my subject.
  3. The Sony and its 70-350 is not a full sensor camera, nor do I have a big lens (by choice). I like the smaller form factor which is much more practical for hiking. You will never see me taking bird photographs with a tripod. I move around two much, and am very often a long ways away from my car.

Here are some images from the past few days.

Steam Shovel Sally and her 3 Juveniles – Ospreys (Canon)

Broad-Winged Hawk in Flight (Sony)

Northern Harrier (Canon … the harrier is quite far away)

If you use a Windows PC, Windows File Explorer gives you the ability to always determine my camera and the settings used.

  1. Download the photo in question
  2. Highlight the filename of the photo using Windows File Explorer
  3. Select the “details tab”
  4. Scroll down to see an image’s details / settings