Post Your Own Wildlife Photography

[crazyfingers]

Some critters from today so far.

A gray squirrel was on the deck railing resting like Walle might do.



A nuthatch upside down as usual



A chipmunk collecting dried leaves and took them to it's hole in the ground



It's now showering outside. Hopefully it will get nicer later.

 

[ZiprHead]

Porky came back today to rummage in the next door neighbor's garbage.

 

[crazyfingers]

Porky came back today to rummage in the next door neighbor's garbage.

Fun to watch. Especially in daylight. I wish I would see one more often. I think I've seen 4 in the last 25 years. But two of those I got good photos.

I'd like to see more of our larger animals. Turkey and Deer are pretty common to see but raccoon, skunk, opossum, coyotes, I can tell they come around by night. But few sightings or photos though.

I got proof today that there are at last two bunnies in the yard. I haven't seen any babies yet. It's a little early.




I hope these two bunnies are a little smarter than the two I had last year. Last year the bunnies made their nest in a hole in the grass in the middle of the cat fence. All of the babies got killed in the nest.

Saw a juvenile Robin though. They are keeping to the shadows. Not a good photo but you can see the white spots on the back that shows it's a juvenile.

 

[crazyfingers]

Beautiful day today. Not a lot of action though.

Gray squirrel by the cedar tree by the driveway

Several photos of the juvenile Robin. It was with a parent learning to find food. A couple times the parent fed it but I couldn't get shots of that. It looked like it was fining food itself for the most part. It looks like it can fly short distances.

Chimney swifts have been flying around. I need to work on getting a better photo. I cropped the photo below. I almost never crop. These birds spend most of their lives flying. The only way to land is to hang vertically. They can't sit around, hop or walk like other birds. Amazing things.

Gray catbird in the shade

 

[crazyfingers]

Animals in the yard today

Chipping sparrow. It was in the shadows so I brightened this image.
Garter Snake. One head in focus. Another with its tongue out and focused on the grass
Baby bunny. So there is at least one baby bunny down where the adults mostly hang out. The baby bunny is a bit larger than a chipmunk. Smaller than a red squirrel.

 

[crazyfingers]

I think that there are at least two baby bunnies and maybe a 3rd. I saw this one around 5:30pm today. I saw one on the other side of the back yard about 45 minutes later and one ran into some prickers before that.



I think they live in here. A once garden between the house and the garage this is now a small forest. I need to get on this.

 

[ZiprHead]

Cute little buggers.

 

[Loren Pechtel]

I think they live in here. A once garden between the house and the garage this is now a small forest. I need to get on this.

View attachment 38948

Well, hop to it!

 

[crazyfingers]

I was at my parents house for a while today. I was sitting at the dining room table and out the window across the yard this white tail deer approached. I took these through the window.





This was interesting. This small (less than 6 inch shell length) snapping turtle crossed the same yard. It was coming from a swampy area in the back side of my parents property and headed the right direction towards a very nice pond across the street. At the time I had not though of that but I've read that it's usually wrong to assume a turtle doesn't know what it's doing and are best left to do what they are doing. So I took pictures.

The turtle is in the middle of the photo nearly hidden in the grass. It moved quite quickly when it decided I wasn't looking.

 

[crazyfingers]

This gray catbird



sits in this over grown garden



And goes YACK YACK YACK ALL DAY LONG!

YACK YACK YACK YACK.

I hear it in the basement.

I hear it in the kitchen.

I hear it in the bathroom

ALL DAY LONG! YACK YACK YACK!

 

[crazyfingers]

On gray catbirds,

"Male Gray Catbirds sing a long, halting series of short notes collected into "phrases," which combine to make a song. One whole song can last many minutes. Sounds include whistles, squeaks, gurgles, whines, and nasal tones. The notes often are imitations of other birds as well as of frogs and mechanical sounds. The series of sounds is random, but certain notes are often repeated."

Gray Catbird Sounds, All About Birds, Cornell Lab of Ornithology

If you’re convinced you’ll never be able to learn bird calls, start with the Gray Catbird. Once you’ve heard its catty mew you won’t forget it. Follow the sound into thickets and vine tangles and you’ll be rewarded by a somber gray bird with a black cap and bright rusty feathers under the tail...

www.allaboutbirds.org

And when you hope the song is over, it starts it's next song. It can go on for hours. The bird has I think finally stopped. 8:18pm and it's more night than day.

 

[ZiprHead]

He's just horny. Get him a girlfriend.

 

[thebeave]

He's just horny. Get him a girlfriend.

Yep. There's a bird in my neighborhood who tweets all night. This has been going on for months. Drives me nuts and has meant lots of lost sleep. I don't care for guns, but this if there was ever a reason for me to get one, this is it. I wish some female bird would just do everyone a favor and give that poor avian incel a hand (wing?) job.

 

[crazyfingers]

I went down to a local pond today for about 30 minutes.

There were many families of mallards with chicks.
Red wing black birds
Mute swan
Best of all a muskrat. I don't have many pictures of muskrats. It was a bit bigger than a gray squirrel but not by much. Adults are only 8-10 inches long.

 

[ZiprHead]

I went down to a local pond today for about 30 minutes.

There were many families of mallards with chicks.
Red wing black birds
Mute swan
Best of all a muskrat. I don't have many pictures of muskrats. It was a bit bigger than a gray squirrel but not by much. Adults are only 8-10 inches long.

Do you use a real camera or do you use your phone?

 

[crazyfingers]

Do you use a real camera or do you use your phone?

Canon Powershot SX70

It's a point and shoot camera with a humungo zoom.

 

[Loren Pechtel]

Do you use a real camera or do you use your phone?

Canon Powershot SX70

It's a point and shoot camera with a humungo zoom.

Yeah, the only real use for point-and-shoot these days is underwater and superzoom. Isn't that a bit of overkill, though--1,300mm at the far end is going to be awfully hard to handhold! I find the far end of my 25-600 very difficult to use. At moderate range I would think there's an app somewhere that can give me just about as good capability on my phone (the stock system doesn't have things like image bracketing) but for distant targets the phone just doesn't cut it.

 

[crazyfingers]

Isn't that a bit of overkill, though--1,300mm at the far end is going to be awfully hard to handhold! I find the far end of my 25-600 very difficult to use.

Probably at least 50% of the animal photos I've posed are at maximum optical zoom and then x2 digital. Like this bluebird. It's not cropped or edited in any way.

Canon has amazing image stabilization.

 

[ZiprHead]

Do you use a real camera or do you use your phone?

Canon Powershot SX70

It's a point and shoot camera with a humungo zoom.

That's what I figured. I've got a Sony Cybershot DSC-WS70 but the wife "put the (proprietary) battery charger away" which means she just stuffed it anywhere she could and then has no idea where she put it.

 

[crazyfingers]

That's what I figured. I've got a Sony Cybershot DSC-WS70 but the wife "put the (proprietary) battery charger away" which means she just stuffed it anywhere she could and then has no idea where she put it.

I learned long ago not to let my wife borrow anything because when I want it she will not know where it is.