Yesterday’s bird

[RichDitch]

I know I promised more photos from the recent car show here, but I’ve been distracted by migrant birds in our back yard. This migrating Green-tailed Towhee has been around for a few days but has been staying a bit too far out for decent photos. That didn’t stop me from taking far too many shots of it that haven’t gotten any better when I check on them. But late Friday it came in to the water feature and I had a V3 with the70-300 CX ready. I was in Shutter priority mode and set on 1/320th second, and that pushed the ISO way up. The noise was addressed with Deep Prime XL, but I feel that took a toll on image detail.

Anyway, here are some full frame shots.









The Green-tailed Towhee is primarily a bird of the western US that winters south of the border. It is a rare vagrant to the central US and to the mid Atlantic coast (I saw my first one in eastern PA). Like other towhee species and many sparrows it scratches on the ground back and forth to kick up seeds and insects.

Now that I’ve processed these shots I was planning on getting back to the car show, but tonight’s migrant bird was a Yellow Warbler that needs processing.

--
You can see a lot just by looking.
And you can learn a lot by reading the manual.
WSSA #449

 

[CX Bob]

Geesh, Richard! These are gorgeous!

I mean, this is what makes the N1 system so great. Theoretically, the photos could possibly look a little better if your personal preferences are a blurry mess at a lower ISO, or if you used a Hasselblad with the extra-long Astro-Bladar (made up name!) lens, except the bird would have been gone before you could set up the shot.

A V3 that's 'ready' with the 70-300 CX lens sounds like a thorougly glorious thing!

 

[RichDitch]

Geesh, Richard! These are gorgeous!

I mean, this is what makes the N1 system so great. Theoretically, the photos could possibly look a little better if your personal preferences are a blurry mess at a lower ISO, or if you used a Hasselblad with the extra-long Astro-Bladar (made up name!) lens, except the bird would have been gone before you could set up the shot.

A V3 that's 'ready' with the 70-300 CX lens sounds like a thorougly glorious thing!

Thanks Bob.

Yes, having the V3 + 70-300 ready has worked out pretty well for the backyard birds. It sits on top of a sideboard by our table, fully extended, set on A mode at f/5.6 with auto ISO 6400. I used to have it set to wide area focus but for these small birds I now have it set on single point. And it is light enough so I can hand hold it and not bother with any support.

 

[Paul Pasco]

Nice series of a pretty bird Rich, thanks for posting.

 

[RichDitch]

Nice series of a pretty bird Rich, thanks for posting.

thanks Paul.

 

[Kazmarov]

Interesting bird - seems larger than the usual Passeridae. The sparrows here are smaller and "chubbier". Personally I find the shots interesting and as they say in the trade, a bird in the shot is better than none!

 

[RichDitch]

Interesting bird - seems larger than the usual Passeridae. The sparrows here are smaller and "chubbier". Personally I find the shots interesting and as they say in the trade, a bird in the shot is better than none!

It is smaller than the other towhees in the US (Eastern, Spotted, Abert’s, Canyon, California), and not much bigger than the abundant White-crowned Sparrow. Here’s the page from Sibley’s iOS app:





--
You can see a lot just by looking.
And you can learn a lot by reading the manual.
WSSA #449