Monthly Archives: July 2016

Photographing Grasshopper Sparrows Singing their Hearts Out

Just Birdsong

On my way to the Allegan State Game Area, I always stop to admire a little patch of coreopsis established in a grassy field. These vigorous yellow flowers, all dewy and intermixed with a few showy purple pea flowers, are luxuriously tucked in with the tall looping grasses. Their gleaming and peaceful countenance always gives me pause. On this particular morning, the sky is cloudless, and looking west above the coreopsis, a partial moon sits illuminated in the daylight sky. Every time I go, I hope that I will see some bird, any bird, bobbing in and around this lovely scenario. Just birdsong so far.  Perhaps I’ll have better luck when the flowers go to seed.

Photo of Grasshopper Sparrow
Grasshopper Sparrow in Full View,
ISO320; f/9; 1/800 Second

Photographing Grasshopper Sparrows

Other more productive bird photography locations awaited. When I took these photos in late May, 2016, Grasshopper Sparrows were singing their little hearts out in the tall gold prairie grasses. The males were tirelessly on task and not about to be diverted from their mating rituals.

And thank goodness for that! Despite the easy photographic pickings right in front of my eyes, I was momentarily captivated. The birdsong, the caressing breezes, the rhythmic motion of the golden grasses, and the sublime morning light came together to form a breathtaking convergence of shape, sound, color, and form. So soothing….easy to drift away and get lost in the moment.

The Grasshopper Sparrows no doubt would have continued their songs, but the soft early morning light would not stay for long. I captured a dozen or so images and then sat back to enjoy.

Territorial Songbirds

Spring brings many rewards for bird photographers. Once these Grasshopper Sparrows reach their nesting destinations, the males sing with great enthusiasm, in full view, especially in the early morning. They defend their nesting territories robustly with song, threats, dive-bombing – whatever it takes. If a weaker/younger male bird is forced out by a more powerful bird of the same species, he will try again in another territory or simply wait until the following year when he is stronger and more vigorously appealing.

Bonding with Song

By mid-June, fewer birds are out in the open. The nestlings and even the fledglings are tucked away, listening and learning. Survival depends on the young being able to bond with parents.  At some time, very early in their lives, these young birds learn to recognize, imitate and then replicate their species’ song.

Grasshopper Sparrow
Grasshopper Sparrow Quivering his Feathers between Songs.
ISO320; f/9; 1/800 Second.

Learning v Genetic Predisposition

Research out of Australia – and associated with the Cornell Lab of Ornithology- suggests that some song birds are capable of learning their mother’s special calls during the embryonic stage of development and then reproducing those calls as nestlings begging for food. Included in this fascinating research is how ornithologists were able to discover and analyze these embryonic voiceprints using spectrographs and computer analysis. Visit this link to learn more.

Vocal Gymnasts

Every morning whether I’m out in the field or in our yard, I hear breathtakingly sonorous bursts of bird song carried in the wind. The musical vocalizations of song birds are much more complex than any other species can produce. Two sets of vocal organs (called the syrinx) have evolved to allow birds to sing multi-layered, acoustically diverse songs (with region specific dialects). In addition to bird song, many species of birds use non acoustical sounds (like hums made with beating wings or tails, or drumming made with chiseling beaks-or enticing dancing and quivering.) to increase their chances of being noticed and successfully reproducing.

Life Affirming Repertoire

It’s an enduring and life affirming repertoire that I love to listen to. Makes bird photography a most enticing and calming endeavor.

 

 

Photographing Sedge Wrens Hiding in the Grasses

Photographing the Sedge Wrens

We first saw these Sedge Wrens foraging in a grassy field on one of those secluded service roads where parking is not permitted by the DNR. All visitors must park in a designated and wildly overgrown lot that is neither convenient nor close. This is because some of the public land in the Allegan State Game Area is leased out and cultivated by farmers who do not want to be bothered by photographers in the road while driving their wide monster combines. Once the planting is done, you don’t see the farmers again until harvest time, but you do see the DNR officers making their rounds and enforcing the parking rules.

Despite the “no stopping to photograph birds from the car” rule, I could not help but be mutinous. I saw a curious Sedge Wren tucked in the tall grasses very close to the road and lifted my camera.

Sedge Wren
Sedge Wren in Early Morning Golden Light.
ISO800; f/8; 1/1000 Second

The first two photos included in this post came from the initial car window shoot. The Sedge Wren came in so close to the edge of the grasses that the 500mm lens was able to isolate his little body from his surroundings and lock focus almost immediately.

Camera Setup in the Sedges

We returned to this location three more times to try to photograph these little birds. Dutifully parking in the lot each time, we hauled the equipment down the road and forged a path through the grasses as close to the road as possible. The gear was stabilized on a matted-down oval shaped impression – most likely deer bedding.

These photo shoots turned out to be unproductive and exasperating. Instead of landing on the taller stalks like they did when we were photographing from the car, the wrens stayed camouflaged within the grasses. Once in a while, they peeked their little heads up or flew to a new location, but for the most part they would not rise above the dense low growth of the sedges. With any camera movement, they dove deeper into their lush domain. We could hear them calling and see the wispy grass bend as they maneuvered around us, but they rarely rose into the golden light.

Photo of Sedge Wren
Sedge Wren in the Early Morning Light.
ISO800; f/8; 1/1000 Second

Trouble Locking Focus

My 500mm lens motor and stabilizer patiently whined softly back and forth…desperately trying to lock focus on a bird tucked in dense grass. The only clear photo I have from the later shoots (showing the Sedge Wren adeptly couched into his element) is posted below.

Photo of Sedge Wren
Sedge Wren, Hiding in the Sedge.
No Golden Light Here.
This photo was typical of the wren’s hiding
maneuvers. It was taken in the third shoot.
ISO1600; f/8; 1/640 Second

Nomadic yet Territorial

Sedge Wrens are pugnacious little birds that are known to puncture the eggs of other bird species’ who venture into their territories. Considered to have erratic and transitory breeding behaviors, it is not always predictable as to where they will nest from one year to the next. This nomadic (yet territorial) behavior makes them hard to find.

I plan to go back…. and try my luck again photographing them from the car.

Photographing Red Headed Woodpeckers and Controlling the Vivid Colors

Photographing Red Headed Woodpeckers

This spring, we spotted a pair of Red Headed Woodpeckers in our yard. (It’s hard to mis-identify this bird species.) They stayed for a couple weeks, long enough for me to wishfully assume that they had chosen a towering dead oak in our yard to set up housekeeping. But then one morning, they were just gone.

Red Headed Woodpeckers are very skittish around humans and quick to pick a fight with other species of birds, especially other woodpeckers. They consume a wide variety of seeds, fruits, nuts and any insect they come across while foraging in trees and tree bark. Unlike most of the year-round woodpecker residents in our yard, Red Headed Woodpeckers will head south in the Fall to escape the harsh Michigan winter.

This species of woodpecker is considered uncommon, and according to the “IUCN Redlist of Threatened Species” is on the decline to the point where they are listed as “near threatened”.

Red Headed Woodpecker
Red Headed Woodpecker
ISO800; f/7.1; 1/640 Second.

Controlling Color Intensity

The head on this Red Headed Woodpecker is vividly red. How the camera captures the color intensity of that red (and other colors) will vary from camera to camera, depending on the camera’s settings. Most DSLR and point and shoot cameras allow you to express your color preferences by configuring the “picture style” settings in the camera menu. You can choose neutral tones or vivid, knock-your-socks-off color renditions. It’s all about artistic preference.

NOTE: Other camera settings also impact color rendition. For this shoot, the camera was set to Canon’s “Evaluative Mode” which I think does a nice job of rendering colors in nature.

Photo of Red Headed Woodpecker
Red Headed Woodpecker
Objecting to the Camera.
ISO640; f/7.1; 1/640 Second

Managing In-Camera Color

In Canon cameras, you can manage in-camera color and contrast by adjusting “Picture Styles” settings. Your menu choices are: Standard, Portrait, Landscape, Neutral, Faithful, and Monochrome. Once the appropriate picture style has been selected, you can further customize that choice by refining attributes like sharpness, contrast, saturation and color tone.

If the presets offered by the in-camera menu are not to your liking and you wish to customize and save your own favorite interpretations of color, Canon cameras allow you to “register” three of your color preferences. For more information, press this link to review Canon’s Publication “Quick Guide to Picture Style Settings and Customizations”.

Photo of Red Headed Woodpecker
Red Headed Woodpecker.
A Very Long Tongue.
ISO1000; f/6.3; 1/640 Second

Balance

My camera (set to “standard” picture style) did a good job balancing the intense black, white and red colors. Once I loaded the images into Lightroom, almost no adjustment was needed to improve on the hue, saturation and luminosity.  I moved the “white” slider a touch to bring out more detail in the breast feathers. The histogram showed no overly exposed bright spots.

RAW format

Setting and refining Picture Styles can be a very creative undertaking, but it is important to remember that as long as your camera is set to RAW format, the camera will NOT apply the picture style settings to your images. You may see the impact of your picture style choice in the camera’s LCD screen, but only because you are seeing a JPEG rendition through that screen. I always shoot in RAW format, consequently, I make all picture style adjustments in post processing. (NOTE:  RAW format produces a huge image file that is processed minimally by the camera.  Further processing is done once the files are loaded into your post processing software.)

NOTE: Canon includes post processing software with all its DSLR cameras. If you shoot in RAW, you can easily apply the in-camera picture style settings you chose if you use this software.

Photographing Yellow Rumped Warblers on Our New Deck

Who Else is Up There?

I can identify most of the birdsongs of the regular avian visitors in our yard. Not infrequently, I hear an unfamiliar tune belonging to a bird who must be residing high in the trees or in the shadows.

New birdsong is compelling because:

  • It’s nice to know they’re up there—probably many more bird families than I think- either discretely passing through or nesting undercover;
  • I have to identify the species and figure out how to coax them to come down near the camera. NOTE: If a particular birdsong is completely mysterious, I try to isolate it and record it on my phone. I then upload it to the Whatbird.com for the bird auditory experts to ID.
  • It’s always a challenge to figure out the best placement for my camera – taking into consideration stealth, quality of light, and proximity to my subjects.
Photo of Yellow Rumped Warbler
Yellow Rumped Warbler.
Backlit from the Morning Sun.
ISO1600; f/6.3; 1/400 Second

Creating An Tempting Setting For New Birds

To attract some of the birds we know are up there but never see, we cleared a few low-lying straggly trees near the back end of the house, installed a deck and planted a variety of endemic plants to attract pollinators, beneficial insects and birds.

Off on the eastern edge of this structure, we installed a natural stone basalt recirculating fountain. It is the key to enticing the birds to venture down from on high. Burbling and in harmony with its surroundings, the three stones darken and glow as water circulates down. Little maintenance (except for a few drops of bird safe, environmentally friendly algicide) is required because the water flow design makes it basically self cleaning. The soft gurgling sound of the water attracts bathing birds… birds that we normally don’t see at the feeders.

We set up a couple perches just above and to the side of the fountains so the birds could settle and check out their surroundings before they hopped into the water streams. The  lush, green and woodsy background was situated 10-12 feet behind the perches so as to create the perfect Bokeh.

NOTE:  A pleasant Bokeh amounts to nothing if there is no enticing subject.

Photo of Yellow Rumped Warbler
Yellow Rumped Warbler.
ISO1600; f/6.3; 1/400 Second

 

Comfort Levels

Visually, this deck looked like the perfect place to set up the tripod and camera and make myself comfortable in a deck chair. But those rarely seen birds up high are the more cautious ones. They clearly prefer to have a wide personal space between themselves and humans, so a camera setup and photographer fairly close and in full view on the deck just may cancel out the allure of the bubbly fountain.

Proximity Problems

The birds did not come- at least not while I sat on the deck. Birds were coming when I wasn’t on the deck. I could see them indulging in the cool waters when I was inside the house. Apparently I was too close for their comfort. So, I hauled up my blind from the basement, left it assembled on the deck for a couple days so the birds could get use to it, then climbed in with my gear to wait.  Still nothing!

My proximity seemed to be the issue. We have a glass door in the bedroom which opens on to the deck. The distance between this door and the perches near the fountain is little far, but if I have my 1.4 extender attached to the 500mm lens, I can make it work.

Door open and camera setup inside the house, I pointed the long lens toward the perches and sat down to wait. Before too long, I had several species of birds coming in to bathe who clearly saw me, but were comfortable with my distance. This Yellow Rumped Warbler was one of the first of the new birds to venture close.

Other Deck Visitors

I was feeling pretty pleased with myself – checking exposure, rearranging my setup, drinking my coffee, and checking my phone while I waited. It wasn’t long before I noticed half a dozen or so confrontational looking hornets working on their nest situated right above me at the top of the door between the glass and the screen.

I was heavily distracted by those hornets, but too stubborn to relocate. I kept nervously looking up to see if the hornets were noticing me. They weren’t, but to be comfortable and on task, I’m was going to have to get rid of that hornets’ nest.

Photographing the Yellow Rumped Warbler

I sat there another hour or so, long enough to capture these shots of the Yellow Rumped Warbler. He definitely noticed my proximity, and even the hornets, but lingered long enough to get a drink and before he flew off.

Usually when I photograph warblers, they are tucked deep within the foliage. It nice once in a while to capture their beauty on an isolated branch, without the having to work around the tangled and thorny thickets that are their natural habitat.

I can’t wait to see what other newcomers come to drink at the fountain.