juncos

[Howieh]

Bad news, winter's coming, I have juncos in the back yard! Anyone else have 'em? And btw, still no white throated or white crowned sparrows.

[Shortsighted]

Yes, only one Junco, ... George.
Two light-morph WT sparrows and about five dark-morphs.
One juvenile WC sparrow showed up and then left with an adieu
One Brown Thrasher flew again the window and then perched
on my log feeder and then left as well.
A couple of resident Am. Song sparrows.
Lots and lots of Blue Jays and mucho doves.

[Howieh]

Lots of chickadees, red breasted nuthatches and a white breasted nuthatch (don't see many of those). I'd given up on the blue jays but I just saw about twenty flying pretty high from ne to sw, time to try luring them down with peanuts. And I mustn't forget the tailless black squirrel under the feeder; I promised to return his tail if he behaved himself and stuck to peanuts. Btw, the hummingbird feeder is still up - I really don't expect to see any more hummers but the chickadees and the nuthatches love drinking from the ant moat so I'll leave it out for a while yet.

[Shortsighted]

White-throated sparrows in yard:

[Howieh]

Very nice, thanks for posting. Have you managed to 'scope' mars lately?

[Shortsighted]

My care-giving duties take up my time until I go to bed and then
I wouldn't have enough energy to do anything. My telescope is
not set-up (no room) and it does not have the capability of providing
a good image of Mars. I recall the way it presented years ago and it
was not impressive. I would need a great deal more resolution than
my 77mm objective can deliver. Photography with that refractor is near
impossible and I do not have an adapter as I did when using the university's
10" reflector. Of course, I didn't have the advantage of a digital sensor back
then, nor DST software (which I still have not tried using), even though I have
10 images of Neowise that I could have stacked. Since my lens speed and exposure
combined to provide only 1/4 of the light that Dinu's stacking project had to
work with I figured there is no point in trying to stack my images. His shot is
terrific and 25% of terrific is not worth the effort, especially when free time is
so limited.




Is he checking me out?

[Ally]

Two juncos came to my yard this morning, so was a palm warbler, the official ground transfer ceremony was witnessed by the formally whited tied white throated sparrow.  A Hermit thrush posed nicely for me.

[Shortsighted]

Indeed, that is a co-operative thrush. What were your camera settings for that shot?
Was that taken at 600mm?

[Ally]

Indeed, that is a co-operative thrush. What were your camera settings for that shot?
Was that taken at 600mm?

Sports, I think it was 600mm. He was on a even better perch 1 minute prior, but I had to open my door, so he switched.

[Shortsighted]

Sports mode on your Canon is not the camera setting chosen by most bird photographers
because they are uncomfortable with giving the camera too much control of the exposure.
Ultimately, all settings give the camera's software some control but most photographers
prefer to shoot either on the manual setting, or Av-control setting. The Av setting lets
you decide what ISO to use (usually the lowest # that will provide you with a fast enough
shutter speed to manage your particular lens). You then select the aperture you want to
achieve the depth-of-field you think is needed. Wide open lens for subjects that are far away
and somewhat stopped-down for close subjects. Your lens is quite slow, so f6.3 is already small
and offers decent DOF. You are likely shooting wide open most of the time. At Av setting your
camera decides on the shutter speed that best suits the ISO you preselected. You can often
shoot at least a third of a stop closed (compensate to the left) or even 2/3 stop if it is sunny
and the sun is in your favour. This boosts your shutter speed even more. Only you can determine
how fast your shutter needs to be based upon how much you shake and how profound your OS
feature is. Many times your shots seem to be taken at a very high ISO setting based upon the
noise in the picture and the loss of exposure latitude (high contrast images). If you limit your
ISO to 800 or less you will get less noise and better balanced contrast. Your OS should help with
this limitation. You might also try investing into a gun stock grip that lets you brace the camera
against your arm pit and point the lens like a rifle. The slight under-exposure with exposure
compensation to the left also boosts your camera's selection of shutter speed. You can boost
the under-exposure in PS to compensate a little.

[Ally]

Sports mode on your Canon is not the camera setting chosen by most bird photographers
because they are uncomfortable with giving the camera too much control of the exposure.
Ultimately, all settings give the camera's software some control but most photographers
prefer to shoot either on the manual setting, or Av-control setting. The Av setting lets
you decide what ISO to use (usually the lowest # that will provide you with a fast enough
shutter speed to manage your particular lens). You then select the aperture you want to
achieve the depth-of-field you think is needed. Wide open lens for subjects that are far away
and somewhat stopped-down for close subjects. Your lens is quite slow, so f6.3 is already small
and offers decent DOF. You are likely shooting wide open most of the time. At Av setting your
camera decides on the shutter speed that best suits the ISO you preselected. You can often
shoot at least a third of a stop closed (compensate to the left) or even 2/3 stop if it is sunny
and the sun is in your favour. This boosts your shutter speed even more. Only you can determine
how fast your shutter needs to be based upon how much you shake and how profound your OS
feature is. Many times your shots seem to be taken at a very high ISO setting based upon the
noise in the picture and the loss of exposure latitude (high contrast images). If you limit your
ISO to 800 or less you will get less noise and better balanced contrast. Your OS should help with
this limitation. You might also try investing into a gun stock grip that lets you brace the camera
against your arm pit and point the lens like a rifle. The slight under-exposure with exposure
compensation to the left also boosts your camera's selection of shutter speed. You can boost
the under-exposure in PS to compensate a little.

I feel when I'm in the field, I won't have time to dial up or down. I tried the AV setting for a bit, and some shots were so blurred and I got discouraged.

[Shortsighted]

If your images were all blurred when set to Av-mode then your shutter speed
was too slow, despite your OS feature and that can only happen when your
selection of ISO was also too low. Everything good requires practice, even
thought the act of practice can be very frustrating and discouraging.
Progress comes from "persistence" and that is the secret of success
in absolutely every endeavour, including love. You certainly embraced the
the persistence element associated with going out every chance you get
and that persistence has paid-off well. So many people find every excuse in
the book not to go out and their photographic portfolio reflects that inertia.

Selecting your most productive ISO and aperture can be done without even
looking at the camera, while you walk, or stand and wait. ISO: turn on the
camera at the hip, push the button, immediately crank the ISO up, or down,
as your brain directs, and then hit the compensation button, while the camera
is still away from your face, dial up 1/3 stop, or down 1/3 stop depending on
whether you are in shade, or the sun emerges, or you are now facing the sun
and need compensation to the right instead of the left, and re-set as needed
without even looking through the viewfinder. Sometimes your estimate turns
out to be incorrect, especially if the camera controls didn't respond as cleanly
as you anticipated, but with practice you can get very good at it. You do this
automatically while your eyes are searching for a twitching leaf. I even did this
with my Canon G9 before acquiring a DSLR at least when it comes to selecting the
the most appropriate ISO, which was dialed in without requiring the menu on the
screen ... it had a separate manual dial.

[Shortsighted]

The juvenile White-crowned sparrow returned today. There was a second
WCS later in the day. Lots of White-crowned sparrows.

[Dinusaur]

Looks like everybody's backyard is getting Juncos and other assorted sparrows. I haven't seen a junco at the backyard yet; however, seen a few at the end of Sept in Downsview Park.