hmmm, nothing all weekend from either Conrad or Noelle. Looks like I'll have to bring this thread back from the dead.
sooo, I was at the San Pablo Bay National Wildlife Reserve on Saturday - my recent fad, trying new places. Anyhow, looks like wintering birds are mostly gone and there were only a few straddlers, nothing to write home about.
what to do?? hmmm, okay, let's go ahead and get off my a$$ and make that DIY project I've been thinking of since last year! So here it is, my backyard bird perch:
That's the window I'll be shooting out from in the background - that's not a camo blind on the window, it's a reflection of trees in my backyard, but I will likely do a blind next time I get off my a$$ again http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3586/3477947887_fd80736709.jpg
The upper post is held onto the lower post with 2 wingnuts so I can lower it to replace the suet or the entire perch. The perch is held onto the upper post with screw tightened crimps so I can replace the perch occassionally. A suet cage hangs from the perch. The upside-down plastic planter pot towards the bottom is to prevent squirrels from climbing the poles. http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3395/3477947765_4e7623803f.jpg
My backyard don't seem to attract any interesting birds as I already have a traditional bird feeder and bird bath and so far I've only had finches, black phoebe, some dull brown bird, stellars jay, blue jay, robin, mourning dove, and juncos. There are also crows that are not going to visit the perch, turkey vultures and RTHs that only visit a mile in the sky, and hummers which I will likely put up some sort of hummer magnet later to attract. BUTTTT, it would still be interesting to get some sharp closeup shots and I hope to attract other more interesting birds that I've heard to be around my area.
Noelle wasn't able to make it to the Forsythe NWR yesterday morning to shoot with me, but I was there. Activity wasn't as great as it's been in the past but here's one I got with my 40D and 100-400
Very cool Maverick! Boy there sure have been a lot of posts to this thread! I am happy to see others putting up their pictures! Thanks for keeping the exif data intact so we might learn a thing of two! Cheers!
