OSPREYS 2021 AND OTHER SHORE BIRDS

i am putting up a couple of shots here, taken this morning, the very first outing with my new sony A1, delivered last tuesday, so new that i haven't even started setting up the custom buttons , due to my familiarity with the A9, i just decided to throw on the 200-600, the 1.4 tele hang it all on the wimberly gimbal head at my favorite osprey nest and take a few first shots. i kept 11 out of 532, first impressions, i better have plenty of cards at pixelmania, it would be really easy to hit card full. i have an nexto di 10 with a 1 tb ssd so will be deviating from my usual policy of a fresh card each day with a spare along, instead i will be downloading the card, or cards each night. given the cost right now of cfexpress type A cards, in the realm of xqd pricing, i intend to have a second card by then, but i need a few more manufacturers to get in the game and create some competition for sony before i get into card a day setup. this thing seems to focus instantaneously, i mean i would step up , halfway push the button and before i could blink i had focus, i didn't even have bird eye focus in play.
the birds, wonderful news, again they have 3 chicks, apparently healthy, and within probably 2 weeks of first flights. this nest is so deep that unless all 3 get up on the inner edge you are not even aware there are 3. and i know they are soon to fly, one of the parents was out fishing most of my time there, and the overwatch parent actually left the nest for a couple of minutes to hop down onto the marsh and bring back a stick to add to the nest, they keep doing that and this thing will rival an eagles nest. eagle nests are up to 20 feet across and usually 5-6 feet deep. having seen them in alaska i can verify that. and osprey parents, like all raptor parents are very devoted, they do not ever leave a nest unattended until the chicks are almost fully grown. this pair has fledged 3 for several years in a row, they should be in the osprey hall of fame, adding yearly to the overall osprey population.



other parent coming back with what i believe is a sand shark, notice the gutted fish, about 15 minutes before this photo a small local trawler came in, with crew working the deck and winding up the net. they also already had a bunch of shipping boxes assembled and stacked on deck, ready to go to market tonight. this fish as by catch, and i do not believe it has to be thrown back, so i wouldn't be surprised if one of the deck crew gutted it and threw to our osprey. that is a nice sized fish, and 2 adults and 3 healthy chicks require a few pounds of daily fish.

 

tech details, shutter 1/500th, f8, 840mm per lightroom exif, iso 500, i had iso auto set to 100-4000, since i had the 1.4 tele on the camera wouldn't let me open up to 5.6 at 600 mm. so effectively shooting at 900mm. the base of the pole with the nest is about 350-400 feet away from the parking lot, camera was leveled, but the nest pole has a real right hand lean to it, maybe the Audubon local can get some support to it next fall. looking forward to some more birds, if i can get the time this afternoon to start setting up the menu for myself, i may try to get some plovers later, i believe the nesting area is still being used at the jamesport town beach.

 

so putting this out here, after looking at my post this afternoon, both photos kind of seemed a little too dark, so here it is with a lighter preset, which one is better?? i have come to the conclusion i seem to like a darker processing, maybe to match my sense of humor?? but may be hiding too much detail for viewers

 

I think the lighter processing looks better. Maybe tweak the preset a bit and go just a touch darker than the lighter preset. I think the dark preset is too dark.

 

today i made my second outing with the new camera, again to my favorite osprey nest. it has been raining and not nice weather for the last 4 days, but today it started off cloudy and cleared all the 2 1/2 hours i spent at mattituck inlet park. i really like shooting here, i can set up the tripod about 15 feet off the front of my car, with my folding camp chair, and my extra large morning coffee and all kinds of birds come by. in fact i have some photos of not ospreys, that i need some identification help with, i know gulls, egrets, ospreys and some others, but i want to update my data base on shore birds. impressions today, bird eye focus on the A1 is everything sony says it is, i;m shooting away in card full mode, and that little green square keeps on showing up around the birds eye. i am going to have to see how fast the buffer overruns fast sd cards, i have a handful of 128 gb fast cards that did occasionally slow the buffer writing down on the A9, and i have one high speed 256 gb that i purchased late fall, before the a1 dropped, so next outing i will load that into a slot and see how speed writing goes. 2952 shots later i hit the dreaded card full, with my only CFexpress type A card, the sony card that costs too much but is the only 1 available right now. but prograde has announced already that they expect to be in the game this fall, and i expect sandisk and lexar to get in soon. i'll see how the current sd cards i have do, i'll plan on having another CFexpress for pixelmania, and i have plenty of time to figure out how to switch slots in good time saving the CFexpress for speed shooting. i might have to use a custom button for the switching, or put it into one of the function button slots until i can get more CFexpress cards. i'll have some more shots up here later, i have a couple of things to go do this afternoon, it takes some time to cull 2952 shots, although i have gotten pretty good and speed running through the strings of same subjects, finding one to keep and batch deleting the rest. already down to under 2000 by now.

so here is a bird i need identification help with. this bird did not show up last week that i saw, this week a couple of visitors dropped into the marsh between me and the osprey nest pole. next trip i'll try to remember to take a shorter lens and grab a shot showing the area right in front of where i sit for perspective.

 

Don't ask me how, but I knew this is a Plover. I can't remember why I walked into a room but I remembered that.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plover

What did I win? (Please say a Sony A1!)

~Joanie

 

i'll let sony america know on tuesday we have a winner, they'll be in touch with you on delivery

 

looks to me like it's the little ringed neck plover (charadrius dubius), we have a winner, but again, in the small print on the bottom, article authors not responsible for distribution of prizes.

 

here is my other unknown today, not sure if this isn't some type of gull??

 

Yes, I do believe this is the Gull-ible
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/gullible

 

5 minutes later and I am still laughing at your post.

 

most of the gulls around here are white/off white. what we think of when someone mentions seagull

 

We used to have multiple pairs of mourning doves in our back yard at the feeder. Now I'm lucky if I see 1 pair.

Same with house finches, but I know about 20 years ago they had a bad virus wiping them out. Now thankfully they are making a comeback. I love the song of the house finches the best!

I wonder if the same thing happened to the morning doves or if the hawks just got better at hunting them.

~J

 

it's funny , i never see these around the house or barn, i have to go down to the marshes to see them. now that it's not raining i have a couple of yard/horse chores to do, if i can squeeze out some time this afternoon i may go back to the inlet for awhile

 

ok, i decided i needed a guide, so i ordered a laminated birds of the mid atlantic coast, via amazon, it arrived today and i believe that unknown bird 1 is a semi-palmated plover, "small with short stubby bill, gray-brown back, and single band across the chest". this is a great guide, it's laminated and folds up small enough to easily fit into my various camera bags.

 

made visits to my osprey place yesterday and today, so here is the setup, that's the nest, on top of that pole off the front of my car








need some id help, no idea what this bird is, it flew in and perched on the sawed off pole not too far in front of me setup, same area i got the plover last week.



and 3 chicks, almost flight ready, they were stretching wings and feeling the wind/uplift today a few times

 

I'm going to go with Juvenile Chipping Sparrow for your wooden pole bird. Sparrows give me identification nightmares but I'm pretty sure that that's what we're looking at here.

These are the books that I've used for years to identify birds. The "Naming the birds at a glance book" is actually only in black and white and it divides up the birds first by descriptions of the color combinations, which is extremely helpful if you have no idea what you're looking at.

You can think "This bird is yellow and brown" and go to that section in the book And narrow it down from there.

You wouldn't think a book that was only in black and white would be helpful but it's the key to getting started and if you can still find that book I highly recommend it.

From there I look at my "Birds of North America" book which has images of juveniles, as well as adults and males and females in full color.
~Joanie

 

I found a much older version in case you are interested. Like I said, I highly recommend this book.

https://smile.amazon.com/dp/B000NRAVT0/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_glt_fabc_ZS8VNE92JE52X914GAT9

 

thanks, i also got told about a free app for the phone, called merlin bird id, by cornell lab, you can play a pice of the bird singing, or take a phone photo of the bird, or your photo. it has an email conformation to activate the app, so you end up on their email list, but i somehow doubt being on cornells email list is that bothersome. i put my unknown bird up on the fredmiranda.com site in the sony forum, A1 photo thread and asking for id help, a member replied that he thinks it is in the song sparrow group, and told me about the app. if you do not belong to fredmiranda.com i heartily recommend that site. it is a huge site, with many forums, including a dedicated nikon forum, forums for photos by subjects, such as landscape, nature, etc.i find it a great source for sony tips. and there is a trip advice forum where if you are considering a trip somewhere you can get opinions on places and not to miss shots.