Tag Archives: MN North: Wawina Bog

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

Northern Hawk Owl in a Boreal Forest Bog

Year 12

See part one of this series for the video! I promised there would be a second post about my over two hours watching a Northern Hawk Owl hunt yesterday, New Year’s Day. Remember, if it is not obvious, the Northern Hawk Owl is my blog’s featured bird. The banner for this website for over ten years has always been this tiny owl.

This collection of hawk owl photographs may be more than you folks, my loyal readers want, but I want to post the images! Learn more about the Northern Hawk Owl courtesy of the Cornell School of Ornithology, but back to my story. In total yesterday I took well over 350 photographs of this bird, and a bunch of videos.

Northern Hawk Owl in the Minnesota Boreal Forest (not Sax-Zim Bog)

To lead off here are three images … taken almost at the same time, but different zoom treatments. Notice how the feel of the photograph changes. I tend to better like images that include habitat, rather than extreme close-ups.

And now rest of the story as Paul Harvey would say … Wikipedia link.

New Year’s Day Northern Hawk Owl

Year 12

2025 started out extra special. After listening to Les and Amy hoot during the pre-dawn dark hours of the morning I left with a friend to go birding. As you may know, the Northern Hawk Owl is my blog’s signature bird. Oh my, did the New Year have a treat in store for me. Not only did the owl put on a hunting show for us, the forecast clouds disappeared for a brief time and blue skies / sun made an appearance.

I will lead with this video. While watching the video it should be obvious that not only was I amazingly close to the owl, but it could care less about me. I ever approached the Northern Hawk Owl, but it decided that the dead white bird near where I was standing was a great hunting platform. It flew own and landed next to me! 2025 will be a fantastic birding year if this owl is any indication! (video link for blog email subscribers)

Here are two photographs I took this morning while the Northern Hawk Owl was hunting. I spent over two hours watching the owl, and it was still hunting when I left because the 12F temperature and brisk wind was chilling me … at least for me if not the owl.

This will be a two part blog post. I have only edited a couple of all the images I took this morning. Happy New Year!