A Nest Update, A Survival Tale

If you have been following my robin’s nest story, this is an update that I will tell you right now is not all good news, in fact there is very little good news.  I just thought that I would put that out there first so that you can click away if you would like.

Here are the five healthy hatches on Thursday morning:

ISO 800 4mm 0ev f/2.7 1/200

On Friday morning a few of the birds had their eyes open:

ISO 800 4mm 0ev f/2.7 1/250

It was Saturday when we first noticed the falcon, or Cooper’s Hawk?  I say falcon, but the truth is we are still debating which type of bird this is that is preying on the robins. We were working in the yard and the birds around started going nuts.  We looked around and saw the falcon on the corner of our roof.  The robins and a few blackbirds chased it off and everything calmed down.

This afternoon we were again outside when we again heard the birds and saw the falcon.  My oldest child got this video of the falcon attacking the robin nest:

Here is the nest moments later:

ISO 800 4mm 0ev f/2.7 1/640

This robin could not have been any flatter or more still.  It was our guess that the falcon took one baby at this time.  It is not clear what happened to the three unaccounted for birds.  Sometime between Friday morning and Sunday afternoon they went missing.

Then the adult robins came back:

ISO 320 50mm 0ev f/5.6 1/200

Half an hour later here is the nest again:

ISO 800 4mm 0ev f/8 1/200

Empty.  I had my Canon 50D set up during the time that the last bird went missing.  My pictures do not shed any light on what happened to the baby. We also had a window open and didn’t hear anything.  Did the adults relocate the last baby?  At this point, that is what we suspect, so we go looking.  We notice an adult bird flying low into our hedgerow and we find the surviving baby.  When the adult leaves, I get a photo in the hedgerow:

ISO 800 50mm 0ev f/5.6 1/50 flash used

I left the hedgerow and so did the robin, so I got this picture also:

ISO 640 50mm 0ev f/5.6 1/200

I told the robin to get back into the hedgerow, but more convincing was the fact that the adult robins came back and told the baby in no uncertain terms that it was to get back into the hedgerow.  So it did.

Well, I will be keeping an eye out for this little baby.  Our hedgerow is about the best place it could be right now, but until it can fly, it is still pretty vulnerable.  I will take pictures and write an update if I have anything further.

If you are new to this story, here are the other posts:

The story begins here and I explain how I am getting the pictures. The first update with five hatchlings is here.  The second update featuring a very crowded nest is here.

Comments? Questions? feel free to leave them below.  If you have a guess to what bird of prey we have in the video, feel free to say so and explain why you think so.

Same Harris Hawk, Different Day

It all started with this post when I first wrote about this Harris Hawk and asked for your opinion on how you would have handled it if you were the photographer.  I got some interesting feedback, and I have tried most of the suggestions, with the exception of this,  “I might try an unorthodox approach of treating a relatively still subject like it was in motion: ISO 400, 1/400 – 1/500 @ f/4.5 – f/4.”  An interesting idea considering the bird is pretty still as birds go. The author of the suggestion writes, Modes of Flight Blog, which covers many types of photography so check it out if you are interested.  So I went this morning to give it a try.

Didn’t work, and I’ll tell you why.  The 50mm lens I sometimes borrow, is in the camera bag of its actual owner.  Without that, I really don’t have a lens that can  handle the shutter speed/f-stop combination that had been suggested.  So, I will have to try again when I have the 50mm lens on me.  Here is what worked out today:

ISO 320 105mm f/5.6 1/30

This was my best overall color and clarity of feathers shot.

ISO 160 135mm f/5.6 1/6

And this was the best in terms of an interesting bird shot. Both photos were taken using a tripod and have been cropped and sharpened.

I will go back to reshoot at some point.

Cheers!

 

Harris hawk with Flash

Those of you who read my blog (thanks) know that I have been working on some photos of a Harris Hawk.  You can see my previous posts here and here.  The picture in this post was taken using a flash.

ISO 200 50mm f/2 1/250

This was the best shot of the morning, and I like that you can see the various shades of brown in the bird.  When I put it up to 200% magnification, it holds up pretty well in terms of clarity with the exception of the tail feathers.

This shot was taken using a 50mm lens.  It was also handheld because I forgot my tripod (umm, hello!) it was a bit early, but still.  I do usually pack up my camera gear the night before, for exactly this reason.

From the comments in the original post  I have one more way that I am going to approach this bird.  Thanks to all who left their thoughts!  So far this flash version is my favorite, but what do you think?

Cheers!

Harris Hawk in Black and White

Last week I wrote this post about a photo I took of a Harris Hawk.  I asked for some feedback; thanks to all of you that wrote a comment.  One of them was a suggestion that I post process in black and white.  It just so happens that I was back to see the hawk a few days after I had taken the original photo, and I actually took it in black and white.  Here is what I consider the best of that series:

ISO 160 50mm f/3.5 1/40

I’m just not crazy about it, because of the lack of detail in the face.  Here is the picture from the first post, just so you can see them near one another:

ISO 125 50mm f/5 1/25

Thoughts?

Cheers!

 

How would you approach this?

This is a Harris Hawk:

ISO 125 50mm f/5 1/25

I used the 50mm lens because I thought it would give me a more detailed shot.  I am trying to show the lovely variations of brown that are in the feathers of this bird.  They are nice, but it is hard to get enough contrast to really show what is there.  The fact that it sits mostly in the shade is working against me too.  Any thoughts on how you might approach it?

Cheers!