AMNH Winter Walk

Today was the first Winter Walk with Paul, and it was pretty awesome!  I mean, it could have been more awesome if we had found the owl.  But with two kinds of hawks and all the rest that we saw, that's being just a bit picky, even for me.  :-)

On the way to the walk I checked for the great blue heron, who I did not see.  Hopefully it's at the pond feasting there, since those tourists broke up the ice for it.  I did however see two hawks flying together towards the south end of the lake, and later this one hunting near the ladies pavilion.

Red-tailed Hawk

Also nearby were some white-throated sparrows and cardinals foraging on the ground.  I love how these two look like they are hanging out in the office, chatting about who did what over the weekend.

Northern Cardinal, White-throated Sparrow

Then it was about time to join the group, and right away we saw this downy woodpecker.  They are so cute!

Downy Woodpecker

Another hawk, we saw it perched for a few minutes and then it soared nearby.  Hope it finds some lunch soon!  We did see one fairly spectacular dive, but it was aborted before it reached its intended target.

Red-tailed Hawk

Continuing with a series of great woodpecker sightings, we saw this red-bellied woodpecker.  We saw quite a few of these throughout the walk, especially towards the end.

Red-bellied Woodpecker

Song sparrow!  Someone in the group spotted it and shouted it out, and I think everyone got to see this little guy.

Song Sparrow

House finch!  This guy was just singing away, staying still in the branches.  Took a few minutes to find him!

House Finch

This is probably the female oriole that's been hanging out in the park, but we didn't get close enough to be at all certain.  Definitely and orange-ish tinge, definitely the right size, definitely something an oriole would do.  So, we might have seen her!

Mystery Bird

Chickadee!  .........there is really not much more to say.

Black-capped Chickadee 

What?  Another woodpecker?  Yes, among the downies and red-bellies there was this yellow-bellied sapsucker.  See the yellow belly?  It's there!  Yes it is.  Yes, that's yellow.  Okay, maybe not really a bright clear yellow, but yellow-ish.  Right?

Yellow-bellied Sapsucker

Cooper's Hawk!  I spotted this hawk though some branches, and Paul asked if I ever saw Cooper's hawks around, and I said no, not very often.  Then he looked and realized that this was in fact a Cooper's hawk!  Hahahahaha, so I guess once in a while I see them.....  We walked around to get a view from the front.

Cooper's Hawk

On to the reservoir in search of fancy ducks.  On the way we looked for the owl.  I looked and looked and all I could see was pine cones, none of them extra-large.  Aaauuuughghghghgh........ Oh well, hopefully I'll see the owl again another day.  Today, it was fancy ducks.  And boy did we find them! This pied-billed grebe was just close enough to make me hope I could get a good picture, and just far enough away to prevent a good picture.  Well played, grebe.

Pied-Billed Grebe 

This hooded merganser was nice and close, and possibly having a Bad Feather Day.  Hahahaha, mergansers are crazy!

Hooded Merganser

His lady friend looks nothing but elegant.

Hooded Merganser

Someone in the group noticed that this female merganser was bigger, and once he pointed it out to me I noticed that its face looked different too, so we called Paul over for a look.  Well it looks different because it's a different kind!  My first red-breasted merganser.  Yay!

Red-breasted Merganser

Further up the mud path that the reservoir jogging trail has become, we saw a nice group of wood ducks.  Five males (one is grumpy because his molting did not go as planned) and one female.  I suspect this scene is played out often: "Get away from my woman!"

Wood Ducks

That was about it for the group.  After breaking away and heading back home, I found this hawk hunting near the falconer statue.  It's probably one I already saw today, but of course I followed it anyway, and snapped away until I ran out of pictures.  A great way to end!  :-)

Red-tailed Hawk

Herons at the Pond

Today I ventured out for the first time in a while, heading to the pond basically to stretch my legs and practice with my camera.  So much practice is still needed!  Anyway, I was expecting lots of ducks, and hoping for hawks.  As I was walking along the edge of the frozen section, I was thinking that I wouldn't be seeing the black-crowned night herons that day, surely they wouldn't be around the pond when it was this frozen.

Black Crowned Night Heron

Boy was I wrong!  As I was walking along this black-crowned night heron flew in and landed just above me and ahead of me, and then it hunkered down and stayed still the whole time I was there.

Black Crowned Night Heron

 Even when this great blue heron flew in a couple of circles over the pond and settled into a pine tree!

Great Blue Heron

Great Blue Heron

 This guy was thrilling to see, he gave me quite a show flying circles over the pond, and hanging out in the tree for a while.  Then he was off, maybe heading up to the upper lobe where one has been hanging out.

Great Blue Heron

 The black-crowned night heron pretended that it didn't see anything, no, nothing at all, and just waited it out.

Black Crowned Night Heron

 Other than that, there were the usual suspects.  Photogenic ducks, assorted woodpeckers and nuthatches, and three soaring hawks.  A great walk, even though I should have worn my warmer boots!  :-)

Mallard

Yellow-bellied Sapsucker

Red-tailed Hawk

Wood Duck with Mallards

Today's big lesson with the camera: when wearing gloves, it is very easy to be manipulating the focus ring instead of the zoom.  As usual, when something is not working properly, the problem is most likely me, not the camera.  :-)

A funny thing happened on the way to the movie

We went to see a movie on 84th Street (we don't need to go back to that particular theater again) and decided to walk up through the park.  It was a dismal day, so I just brought my pocket binoculars, and no camera.  Guess who was at the upper lobe again?

Great Blue Heron

Yes, it's the great blue heron!  I was able to line up my phone camera with my binocs and get Jack to press the button, and this was our best result.  Hahahahaha, it's a terrible picture, but it's a good memory!  :-)  Jack also spotted a hawk perched above us, but we didn't try to digiscope (digibin?) that.

Nobody expects a great blue heron

Well I took the new camera to the park, on different settings, to see what happened.  It feels like the start of a long period of learning and experimenting, I hope I get a decent handle on it before going to Costa Rica!  Oh well, the pictures will almost certainly be better with this camera, so there's really no down side.  Overall I had the same problems with autofocus as with the superzoom - it doesn't like to focus on the bird.  Also the depth of field is much smaller, which I love if the camera manages to focus on the bird....... Sometimes of course it's not the AF at all, it's my hand movement.  I suspect there is plenty of room for improvement on several fronts.  :-)

Anyway I mostly took pictures of common birds, and I am quite happy with the results.  I happily spent a while with a juvie red-tailed hawk learning to hunt, mostly lunging around clumsily and wishing the squirrels and birds would just stay still!  Hahahaha, it was pretty funny to watch, and it's fun for a hawk to buzz me.

Red-Tailed Hawk, Juvenile

Red-Tailed Hawk, Juvenile

Red-Tailed Hawk, Juvenile

As I was on my was out, I was surprised to notice this great blue heron at the upper lobe.  Is it heron week?  I ~love~ heron week!

Great Blue Heron

Great Blue Heron

And here are the pictures of others that I liked.  I have lots to learn, but I'm quite happy so far!

Squirrels

White-throated Sparrow

American Goldfinch

Hairy Woodpecker

Northern Cardinal, Male

Northern Cardinal, Female 

Black-capped Chickadee

Blue Jay

Blue Jay

American Goldfinch

Hello Nex 6!

I got a new camera!  It's much more serious than the superzoom I've been using.  It's a mirrorless system, the Sony Nex 6, which has a real DSLR sensor in a mirrorless body.  I got the basic lenses - a 16-50 and a 55-210.  Even with the 210 it doesn't have the reach of the superzoom, but the image quality is so much better.  Rich and gorgeous!

I took it out today to compare some simple shots to the superzoom, which I also brought along.  As expected, the superzoom was able to get closer to the bird, and the nex6 had better images.  I have a lot to learn, I'm very happy that even on day 1 when I basically don't know what I'm doing, the images look so good to me.

I didn't expect to do any birding really, I thought I'd just take some easy shots of some ducks on the pond, but on the way I saw this kestrel!

Kestrel

 Over to the pond where I was quite surprised to see this juvie night heron.  I wonder if it will just try to brave it out over the winter here.

Black-crowned Night Heron (juvenile)

Mallards!  Yes, yes, I know.  But look at those pictures!  Definitely my best pictures of mallards yet.

Mallards

 Yes, I like mallards.  But I might be in love with my new camera, just a little.  I will try to rein it in.

Mallards

The wood duck is unimpressed.  It stubbornly stayed out of the good light, except when it was really quite far away.  I'll get you, my pretty!

Wood Duck

Walking back around towards my exit, 2 red-tailed hawks were circling above.  I love watching them fly!  I don't know if these are a lot better than they would be with the superzoom, but they are definitely not worse.  Since I don't know how to use the camera properly yet, I consider this very promising.  :-)

Red-tailed Hawks

 Look at that tail!

Red-tailed Hawk