A Peaceful Morning on the Deck

It’s mid morning in early June; the sunlight is heavily filtered in our yard. I catch the sweet scent of Locust flowers on the breeze and hear the soft droning of honey bees as they feast on the nectar rich Locust blossoms high above. As I set up the camera I think about how the birds must be feasting up there as well.

Chipmunks are everywhere this spring, fashioning their homes within the confines of the Sassafras and Locust logs densely stacked between tree trunks. They pause every few steps to check around for predators as they forage for food dropped below the feeders. Lots of impromptu and playful chasing going on. 

On my deck, delicate single web threads join trees and furniture and sway with the soft wind. I can barely feel these silk gossamers as I move about with my camera equipment and disrupt their tenuous holds. These lines of gauze belong to the tiniest of spiders-and warblers seek them out.

Photographing a Black Throated Blue Warbler

This Black Throated Blue Warbler did not seem especially shy- or perhaps he was just desperately thirsty from his long migration journey north. In any case, he came in close to the fountain for a drink, heedless of the camera and me.

The perch he chose was perfect….. at least 10 feet between the woodsy background and the bird. Because of the low light, I opened up the aperture and shot at a relatively slow (for birds) shutter speed. The bokeh, brown tinged with green, with no seams and no visible outlines of the tree trunks and brush in the background, complements the ragged, lichen draped perch and the bird’s plumage.

Black Throated Blue Warblers nest in the Blue Ridge Mountain range and also in Northeastern United States and Eastern Canada. They are known to seek out vast tracks of forests for their nesting grounds, so it is likely that they made their homes in SouthWest MI long ago. Come fall, they will migrate south to the Gulf States and the Caribbean.

The male Black Throated Blue Warbler keeps his distinctive blue and black plumage year round. The female mostly blends, like a lot of other female warblers. I photographed the female Black Throated Warbler last fall with her dull olive plumage and subtle white lines above the eyes.

A Slow Migration Season

This spring, a total of six warbler species stopped to rest in our yard and within the camera’s view. None came so boldly as this Black Throated Blue Warbler.

The migration season for warblers is past. During most of April and May, my cameras and I have been at the ready. I’ve watched the leaves mature and reach out to take their share of the available light. This Spring, we’ve had very little success photographing migrators, despite our warbler friendly yard filled with thicketed and overgrown brush. I know millions of birds are coming through just as they’ve done for millennia, I’m just not seeing them. Jealously, I note that lots of luckier bird photographers are posting splendidly colorful finds. All I can do is continue my search and hope my luck gets better come Fall migration.

I’ve updated my Spring 2016 migration Flickr page. Looking over my past images, it seems I have more luck photographing warblers during Fall Migration. Another adventure to look forward to!

Photographing A Cape May Warbler

In Spring, migrating warblers are eye candy, most especially the males. This Cape May Warbler with his prominent chestnut cheek patches and brightly streaked head and chest perched right outside my (closed) window. He did not appear frightened by me or the camera, so much so that I considered opening the window. After a minute or so, he bolted for more satisfying territory, but not before I was able to get off a few through-the-glass-window shots.

Cape May Warblers winter in tropical climates (S. Florida, Caribbean, West Indies and Mexico) where they are known to feast on nectar collected with their curled and semi tubular tongues. They migrate long distances to breed in Northern U.S .and the Canadian woods where their preferred food is spruce budworms. In SW Michigan, we see only a few of them in the Spring and Fall.

User Settings

Whether I plan to drive to a birding location or am surprised by a warbler outside my window,  it’s relatively easy for me to make sure that all settings for both my cameras are properly adjusted at what I consider to be optimal for the intended shooting location. This not so short checklist of settings includes: white balance, max auto iso, one shot or continuous shooting mode, metering mode, live view, video, exposure compensation, file format, aperture, shutter speed, ISO, minimum and maximum ISO/Shutter settings, image size, picture style, autofocus modes, autofocus point selection, P, Tv, Av or M shooting mode, etc. (Whew!)

Both of my cameras see a lot of action in different locations, consequently I have to be able to make setting adjustments as quickly as possible to accommodate different environments.

Instant Recall

This Cape May Warbler departed as fast as he came. As is often the case, there was no time to even think about complex camera configurations. The knowledge and experience stored in my brain is not necessarily instantaneously retrievable, especially in the heat of an exciting bird sighting. I will more than likely miss some action if I take my eyes off the bird  to try to remember how to adjust something like the autofocus point selection.

Custom Shooting Modes

Modern DSLR cameras have storage and instant recall functions called “custom shooting modes” into which you can register or preset preferred settings and functions. (NOTE: The camera’s memory cards are not used for this task.) When you set up custom shooting modes, the camera saves to memory your favorite camera settings which are then retrievable with a flick of a switch. The camera’s long term memory will hold your preferences until you change them.

I use all three of the customized shooting modes that are available to me on my Canon cameras.  C1 and C2 are used for my birding adventures and C3 for family/people photography. These presets allow me to confidently operate “on-the-fly”.

Easy Setup

Custom Shooting Modes help make prepping for bird photography simplier. Canon menu systems provide a very straightforward process to activate custom shooting modes, and best of all, you don’t have to start from scratch to configure your first C mode. Just set the camera as you usually do right before you go out in the field. Then register these settings quickly in the menu by going to “custom shooting mode” and then the “tools” tab.  Assign a C1, C2 or C3 designation, then OK, the SET.  Other more in-depth options are available if you wish to customize further, like: 1) clear your settings whenever you want; 2) program new settings over the old; or 3) enable “Change Auto Update Set” to permanently retain new additions to a group.

Store What You Know

It’s fun to experiment with the range of options available in sophisticated DSLR cameras, but it’s best to set up your custom shooting modes in a thoughtful, non-rushed way.  These presets are not a place to store hardly ever needed, adventurous stuff that will not be useful in the heat of the moment and will soon be forgotten, or worse, accidentally triggered. Take the time to think about what you want and need for different bird photography scenarios and then make them available instantly by flicking on the custom shooting modes C1, C2, or C3 on the camera’s mode dial.

Presetting your custom shooting modes into the camera before going on your bird photography adventure is all about anticipating what might happen – and then being ready when it does.