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Winter Bird Photos

14 years ago

Hi all,

Well it's sure winter here in St.Louis now, and we know a lot of you are in the grips of cold weather too wherever you live. But we are glad to say our birds are still here with us thru all the ice and snow and frigid cold. And we are still photographing them everyday.

Here are some recent shots we'd like to share...

Cardinal:

Downy Woodpecker:

Dark-eyed Junco:

Yellow-rumped Warbler:

Tutfted Titmouse:

Carolina Wren:

Bluejay:

Red-bellied Woodpeckers (mating pair) :

Yellow-bellied Sapsucker:

And a Bluebird:

We hope you and all your birds are staying warm...

And we hope you enjoy these,

Kenn

Here is a link that might be useful: Our current slideshow

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Comments (10)

bandjzmom
14 years ago
Enjoyed them VERY much....as always!!! Especially impressed with the photo of the mating pair of Red bellied Woodpeckers. I know that the odds of getting that shot must not be very high. What's the Carolina Wren eating? Is it suet or egg? I love the shot of the little butter butt!! (Yellow rumped Warbler) It made me realize that I haven't seen one of those in ages and ages. They sure are fiesty little things. Thanks for sharing your wonderful photos Kenn. They really are something special!!~Angie
bob414
14 years ago
Great photos as always. The Yellow-rumped Warbler looks like it is not very happy with the weather and the Sapsucker is really puffed up.
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Thanks, very much everyone for your positive feedback. IÂm so pleased you like the photos. They are so much fun for me to do and more fun to share. Sue White-throated Sparrows can be quite variable. The one shown here is a tan-striped morph as opposed to the white-striped morph that you have there. This bird is probably a youngster also because of the heavy streaking on the breast feathers. Some adults do retain some streaking but I donÂt think quite this much. Sparrows can be a real challenge to ID. Gldno, thanks, I didnÂt know that the juvie White-crowned had red-brown coloring on their heads. Neat! This is the first one of these IÂve ever had here. There is only this one in a large flock of mixed Juncos and sparrows. Marian, yes we do get Purple Finches here, they are our state bird, but I only rarely get them in my feeders. The females do look just like sparrows. T. no, no, noÂ No snow envyÂ You donÂt want thisÂ We have way too much. But if you insist IÂd be happy to ship it all your way. LOL Thanks! Michelle and Eileen, "unbirded"Â LOL Deanne
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I feed the birds all year sort of. They start with cleaning off the sunflowers that they plant the previous fall and continue to clean off the grasses, berries, and corn that I sometimes grow just for them. Of course I have water out all the time for them and a heated dish in the winter. I feed the big birds cat food with bread or cereal in it. They get any left overs when I cook a turkey or ham. I make my own concoction of peanut butter, prunes, hulled sunflower seeds, rolled oats, millet, black oil sunflower and a few other things they like to pick at. I buy millet, black oil sunflower and striped sunflower by the sack and keep it in large bins in the hall along with peanuts,hulled sunflower seeds, oats and rabbit pellets. Once in a while I will give them a treat of meal worms from the petstore or cut up fruit. And sometimes I will get a seed bell or spray millet just to watch them. I also ground up dry catfood last year and put it in the feeder. The little birds get much needed fat and protein to keep warm that way. I have the usual black and white feather dusters, the blue jays, lots of chickadees (black capped and boreal), nuthatches (red and white breasted), woodpeckers, northern flickers, juncos, finches, sparrows, the odd grosbeaks, waxwings, and redpolls and I even had a kestral last spring. Not many crows unless it is a really warm winter. My computer is in the corner of the front bedroom where there are the old corner windows. I feed the birds from about 5 feeders and baskets hanging from the big white spruce about 2 feet from the corner of the house here. I feed the rabbits under the tree and the dish feeders on the fence from big heavy ceramic dishes. It is such a routine for me to feed the birds after I feed the dogs on winter mornings. My neighbours are used to the crazy lady in her fleece pjs out feeding the birds every morning and the dogs go out and wait by the fence for the maggies to drop food for them. Quite the scene to watch! The maggies are very comical and they literally talk to me. I can't stand to see anything go hungry or be cold and the little birds seem to like to feast under the protective branches of this 50 foot spruce. My neighbour across the street says she likes to sit with her coffee in the morning and watch the bunnies and birds eating. And that reminds me: Must find a bale of hay for the bunnies. Last year I fed a cat all winter but coudln't catch her. She left me mice most mornings under the kennel....... I hope we have a mild winter or at least get some snow. It is bitterly cold without a little insulation. Ginny
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Thanks everybody. I love deep Hunter Green and it goes so well with the holidays too. Karen, I was pretty sure you would like the cardinals. Marlene, I really appreciate the compliment. Kath, I like plaids a lot, maybe its my Scotch heritage. Jeanne, I loved your pictures of the real birds. The stemware was so pretty, that I actually paid full price at the TS for it, LOL Punk, the flatware is not as bright red as it photographs. Jane, I have some of her Snowman dishes also. They will be showing up soon in a future tablescape. The plaid mats and runner have some gold metallic thread in them. Just enough shimmer for the holidays. Frou, I only have those 2 figurines of cardinals, but they just seemed to set the table off perfectly. Luvs, the pattern is called Winter Birds because the salad plates have 4 different scenes of winter birds/birdhouses. Nana, the transition was very easy as the tablecloth, flatware, chargers, and mats were already on there from my Christmas decor. DC, they didn't have the salad plates at the TS, so I'll have to keep looking! TTFN, Candy TTFN, Candy
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rachel_frome_ky
14 years ago
Amazing detail..professional photography!
callalilykris
14 years ago
WOW!!!! I've never seen such creativity in photography! SO BEAUTIFUL!!
Charlee_MO
14 years ago
Wonderful pictures, Kenn. thank you for posting them.

I'm about 150 miles S. of you and haven't had near the variety of birds that you do.
kenn3d
Original Author
14 years ago
Hi all,

We're always glad when our friends enjoy our birds too. That's why we post them. :)

Angie - We do often see our mating pairs together (the Red-bellies, Cardinals, Bluebirds, and many other species), but you're right... it's fairly rare to get a decent shot with both in the frame at once. The Carolina Wren is enjoying scrambled egg in that shot. The CAWR and Bluebirds are our best egg customers, but Cardinals take some too quite often. Our Yellow-rumped Warblers are here all Winter and for awhile in the Spring, and we only see a couple or three individual birds. They have been noticeably bolder this year and have been tiny terrors with the Chickadees and Juncos especially... but harmless really and lots of fun to watch.

charlee_mo - I think the habitat is all-important for attracting many species. Water (especially liquid water in Winter), food (of various kinds, both served and from natural sources), and trees for roosting, nesting, and cover. And of course, watching a lot is often key to seeing them all. Some birds are more secretive than others, and I believe most of us have birds we rarely see. We spend a great deal of time outside with them and most of our regulars have become somewhat accustomed to our being in their midst. But we also have several elusive ones which we hear much more often than we see. :)

Thanks again for all your nice comments, we'll be back.

Kenn
pertgarr
14 years ago
Your pictures are just awesome. I've just started visiting this website this week and will watch for new postings from you.
Jonathan68
14 years ago
Hello Kenn,

Your bird photography is stunning! Thank you for that wonderful and delightful share.

I am a new member to the site - joined a few minutes ago.

As a a 68 year old nature photographer who just went with a DSLR system over a year ago from my 35mm Canon F-1/ FD system that I started with in 1973, I would be interested in knowing what camera and telephoto lenses you are using for your bird studies. Are you using a Better Beamer flash extender for that work?

Can I post samples of my work from today on this thread?

Jonathan

I just joined this site.
kenn3d
Original Author
14 years ago
Hello pertgarr and Jonathan58, and thanks for your comments.

Jonathan - We use Canon superzoom compacts (S3,S5,& SX30-IS) for all our bird photography. These small-sensor cams have built-in zoom lenses which reach to 436mm & 840mm equivalents respectively. And we use Sony 1.7x teleconverters on the S3 and S5, which increases their focal lengths to @735mm eq. We do not use any kind of flash. All the images we post online, (both in the forums and in our smugmug galleries), are taken hand-held in Manual mode, and have been processed and scaled for web presentation in Photoshop.
Your long-term experience shooting wildlife with 35mm film is very interesting indeed. We will look forward to seeing your DSLR work here also.

Best regards, and welcome to you both,

Kenn

Here is a link that might be useful: 2011 Gallery
Jonathan68
14 years ago
Kenn, Thank you for your response. I am using a Canon EOS 30D DSLR, with a Canon EOS 100mm-400mm telephoto lens on a Wimberley tripod for my winter bird studies here in rural Northwestern New York State on Lake Ontario.

I am set up outside, working about 12 feet from my bird feeder zone.

This is a sample of my work from this year. I am not using flash, nor Photoshop - just a simple editing tool for mainly cropping and fill light if needed.

Jonathan

Female Red-bellied Woodpecker

{{!gwi}}

Red-breasted Nuthatch

{{!gwi}}

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