Great Horned Owl

"Departure"
Great Horned Owl @ Free Flight @ ASDM, Tucson, AZ  (4/4/2013)

I had the day off work on Thursday and spent part of the day out at the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum (ASDM) where I took this series of Great Horned Owl pictures during their Raptor Free Flight demonstration.  During the cooler months of the year, twice a day, they put on a very impressive flight demonstration of a number of larger desert birds.  Check out the talons above!

"Arrival"

"Landing with flare"

It's really nice to be able to see these birds close up as they land for food from their trainers, then take off and soar high overhead.  On this particular morning, the demonstration included Ravens, a Prairie Falcon, Great Horned Owl, and a Red Tailed Hawk.

Click on any picture for a larger view...

Ring-necked Duck

1/7/2012 Ring-necked Duck,  1/250, f5.6

I wandered over to Agua Caliente Park in NE Tucson this morning to start the long process of getting acquainted with my new Canon 7d camera.  I don't have much telephoto reach with my current zoom lens, so I had to concentrate on some relatively close by birds.  Nice morning out -- brought back memories of when I used to go birding out here quite often.

I'll still be taking a lot of pictures with my Canon G12 compact fixed lens camera that I've shot many of my past blog pictures with -- its a very convenient to carry camera with full manual controls when desired.  However the G12 has weak spots when it comes to situations where I need to shoot in low light without flash, and/or need faster focus, and/or want more creative control. 

That's where my new 7d comes into the mix: larger sensor, faster, better low light performance, more control over settings, ability to swap lenses.  That all comes at the expense of a bulkier and much heavier camera, which is somewhat offset by having a much lighter wallet.

Many, many years ago, I used to shoot with a film SLR camera and then shifted to compact cameras when I found I would often not have my camera with me due to size/weight and found that smaller cameras could easily do 90% of the shots I wanted to do for photo albums, web, email.  But I've been feeling the itch for a couple of years to make the jump again...   Its simply amazing how photographic technology is growing by leaps and bounds.   And no such thing as a perfect camera either...  Comparing my iPhone camera, my compact G12, and now the 7d, each has strengths over the others.  

And so much of taking a good photo has to do more with setting up the shot than the camera -- for example, its amazing how good the photos coming out of Kodak box cameras were (anyone remember threading 120 or 220 film across the back of a box camera, winding by hand until the exposure number on the backing showed through the rear window?). 

I sometimes miss the smell of film.  But I sure don't miss the cost of film or processing film.  It makes me think that it could be a good exercise to go out occasionally with a self imposed limit of a 12 or 24 or 36 exposure "roll" -- allowing myself only that many shots total, no "do overs", focus on setup.

But equipment helps, and since equipment is getting so complex, it should provide a creative challenge too?  Right?  Ok, we'll see...

[new to me:  started shooting pictures with a digital SLR (#7), first time owning or using one other than occasionally pressing the shutter button on friend's cameras.]

hmmmming birds

Violet Crowned Hummingbird

There is a house down in Patagonia (an hour & a half drive south of Tucson) that graciously opens their backyard to birders interested in visiting their feeders, asking nothing in return except a donation for the purchase of sugar. I've been visiting their yard for many years, and its a great place to see some of southern Arizona's many species of hummingbirds.

I believe you can find over nine different species of hummingbirds visiting their yard over the course of a year. Several of these species are at the top of their northern range.

These are all snaps taken with my P&S camera during a trip down there on Thursday (taking a quick break from my study/search). I'm quite pleased with how the Violet Crowned picture came out for using such a small camera/lens.

Broad-billed Hummingbird

Black-chinned Hummingbird

More Broad-billed Hummingbirds

female Broad-billed Hummingbird

on the left is a Rufous Hummingbird

Gambel's Quail

wowsa, I've really fallen behind in blog posts over the last few weeks. One of those periods of time where other life challenges have had to take priority for a bit...

Tucson has been having some really nice, albeit unusual, weather the last few few days. Our temperature is above normal by about 10 degrees, and we are getting clouds and some very light rain at times. The kind of weather usually not seen until July when the heavy thunderstorms arrive from the south. Great morning/evening patio weather!

The picture above is a Gambel's Quail traversing my backyard wall this morning.

sweet times in the backyard

This is a male Gila Woodpecker visiting one of my backyard feeders this afternoon. I'm pretty sure more of my sugar water goes to woodpeckers than to hummingbirds (not sure how many nectar drinking bats I get, if any). Quite a good looking bird. Click on pics to see a larger image...

The male Gila is easily identified by the red patch on the top of his head.

sweeeet.

A male Anna's hummingbird stopped by to demonstrate "proper" perching etiquette.

on the trail with my eyes open

I took a break from hitting the books today and took a quick 6 mile hike through part of Saguaro National Park (SNP). SNP is about a 10 minute drive from my house. I was really happy that the Curved Billed Thrasher stayed put long enough for me to snap a picture.

Beautiful day out today -- its supposed to get windy tonight before our next storm hits. I took the Shantz Trail out past Pink Hill to Squeeze Corral Trail and back via the Cholla Trail. Quite a few people out on the trails today, including several on horseback.

Even in the dormant winter months, colors linger from summertime.

This is part of the internal framework of a dead prickly pear cactus pad.

A new arm starts to emerge out of the side of a saguaro

A really strange cactus in the foreground

This is what happens when you take phototropism too seriously...

Looking NW toward the Santa Catalina mountains north of Tucson. This range peaks at 9157 feet, has a pine forest on top, and even a ski area. About an hour's drive from Tucson will put one on top.

Trail head sign warning of mountain lion sightings as well as reports of rabid bobcats and foxes. It seems like we've had a lot a rabid bobcats in particular in the last few years.

Ok, well time for dinner and then back to the books / career strategy.

Anna's Hummingbird

Anna's Hummingbird at my backyard feeder early Sunday evening.

I found focusing on a small rapidly moving hummingbird to be a challenge for my camera's auto focus so I used manual focus, stood very close to the feeder, and pre-focused on where I thought the bird would likely be on arrival -- then stood still and patiently waited...

Pure confidence -- sees me right there and knows he is the fastest

I like this shot -- interesting wing illusion...

Must see the football game on TV behind me in the house. Who says refs have to be zebras?

palm sunday

This Sunday I was doing some yard work and decided to take a few pictures of a date palm tree in my front yard...

I ran into this nesting dove in the palm and got a little too close, causing her to flush from the nest briefly.

time for a quick nest photo and a quick retreat (I don't like to purposely scare birds off nests)

and a more distant shot of the returned parent.

[On a sad note, I learned today that Tom Vezo, an incredible professional wildlife and nature photographer passed away while hiking Friday in the Rincon mountains east of Tucson. I knew Tom and his wife from the Tucson Native American flute circle. A really nice guy. Tom's work was widely published in magazines, including National Geographic, Outdoor Photographer, Audubon, and Arizona Highways. Tom will be missed greatly and those of us that knew him while he was here are better for the experience.]