Laughing Gull Lunch

While I was sitting out on our pier this past weekend, this Laughing Gull came around the bend following a piece of food flowing in on the tide.  I never did figure out what it was after; bread maybe? But if so, who throw it in as it didn't come from a direction with much access?

The gull circled around four or five times snagging little pieces but never able to get the whole piece.  I like the shape and pattern in this next image as the gull pulls up and away after another missed approach.

Finally the gull managed to get a pretty large piece off right before it disappeared under our boat dock. It then flew up and landed on a piling to eat in peace.

Enjoy your lunch today and be sure to check out fabulous bird photos at World Bird Wednesday and Tuesday's Tweets.

A Little Snack

There is nothing quite like the taste of a fresh berry right from the vine or a warm fig with the sticky sap still leaking out.  And luckily, I get to enjoy these pleasures throughout the year.  While we have not had a rousing success growing vegetables in our yard, there are plenty of fruits to enjoy: some planned and some not.
Last week we finished the first crop of strawberries from our yard.  The sunniest place we have is in the front garden but since this is the spot that everyone sees from the street we haven't turned it into a vegetable garden yet.  Plus, it is where all of my wife's sun-loving plants are.  But we do try to stick a few food plants in there.  And one is the strawberry plant.  There is a little sliver of dirt between the fence enclosing the patio and the main part of the garden and the sidewalk leading from the driveway to the front door.  It is a small spot so we don't get many at a time but during strawberry season there is usually enough to top our cereal. 
Across the front patio is a Serviceberry tree.  It was chosen since it is a native tree and offers plenty of food for the birds.  But the crop is large enough that we are able to grab a few bowls as well.  The berries are small but quite sweet.  Again, wonderful on cereal or ice cream or just straight to your mouth.  This year the tree has received a lot of attention for a Robin family.  They nested in the oak tree about 20 feet from the serviceberry and are often stopping by for a snack on their way home.

Serviceberry fruits ranging from quite ripe to green.

Pear fruit just starting to get color

When we bought the house there was a small "orchard" in the back.  We were never quite sure how it survived since the area only gets about 4-5 hours of direct sun, even during the summer.  There is a line of tall trees running down both sides of the yard.  But there they were.  Several apple tress, a few pears and even a peach if I remember correctly.  In our first fall in the house Hurricane Isabel stuck and took down many trees including most of the fruit trees.  We have been left with just one pear tree that had been poorly pruned for years and one apple tree that was tilted over in a subsequent thunderstorm. 

A bunch of early apples

The apple tree is a favorite of the local deer and now that it is leaning, they can get to most of it.  So we have had to try and cage it.  But after given our tithes to the deer and bugs, we are still left with plenty of apples and pears.  The pears need to be cooled before ripening so every fall we pick them, stick them in the refrigerator for several weeks and then slowly take them out to ripen.  It is hit-or-miss but when they turn out good they are very sweet and tasty.  Not like the large, firm things that past for fruit at the grocery store.  The apples are cooking apples, Grannie Smith, perhaps, so they usually go into deserts or a nice fall soup that we have. 

Just a start to figs; still a few months to wait

The previous owners also left us with a few fig trees.  These are wonderful.  About mid-summer the figs will ripen and we are out every morning grabbing the new ones before the birds or squirrels can get to them.  The figs we will fight for.  I had never really had figs before moving here and I don't think you can really understand figs unless you can pick them.  They don't keep long and I have never seen fresh figs in a market.  But I understand why they were the foods for the Greek and Roman gods.  The whole combination of the texture, the flavor and the warm, even if they have been inside all day, is heavenly. 
All of the fruit trees are late summer fruits so they have only proto-fruits right now.  But those proto-fruits hold the promise of a tasty summer. 

Ripening Mulberries

Green blackberries

One final relevant legacy of previous owners are the weedy mulberry trees and blackberry vines.  Both are a bit invasive and we try to keep them under control. But the fruits are nice when they come.  We had tried having a veggie garden in the back yard but the lack of direct sun always doomed our attempts.  But the blackberries have moved in and they are doing fine.  So we are quite content to let them have the beds (as long as they stop grabbing me while I mow).  They have just finished flowering and the berries are starting to take shape.  A few more weeks I hope.  And there are usually enough of these that we can use them for ice cream or even pancake syrup as well as a healthy snack.  The mulberries are ripe right now.  We had one weedy tree that was getting too big for where it decided to grow so we had it taken down this past winter.  But there is a smaller one further back that has fruit on it.  The birds are quicker to that one than we are so we usually just settle to grabbing a quick bite as we walk by. 

Hackberry Tree

And our final snack tree is a hackberry that is growing at the entrance to our pier.  Hackberries are very small fruits that are very sweet but with very little flesh.  They are the size of a BB and about 80% of their volume is the seed.  But you can pull it off the tree and scrape the flesh off the seed with your teeth and get quite a sugar rush.  Because of the big seeds they are only good for eating a few on the run.  They are also a favorite of the raccoons in the yard.  During hackberry season we seen raccoon scat that is very little beyond hackberry seeds. 
Well, writing this has made me hungry, see you at the blackberry bush.

Red-headed Woodpecker

Last week I went out photographing in hopes of getting some photos of bluebirds. Earlier I had been to the spot birdwatching and there were several bluebirds, including some recent fledglings, and I thoughts it would be a great place to focus on the bluebirds.  But when I arrived it was dead quiet.  I waited around about 20 minutes and all I saw were a couple of goldfinches flying overhead.  I was about 2 hours earlier than I had been there birdwatching so I decided to try a different part of the park and return in hopes of finding more bluebirds later in the morning.

I never did find much bluebird activity.  When I returned to the spot there was one bird that perched on top a house but then left and didn't return.  But in between I encountered some red-headed woodpeckers.  Two birds came in to a couple of snags that were close together.  I had a pretty good view of one of the two.  One of the two occasionally visited a hold in a third tree that looked like a nesting hole.  I didn't hear or see any sign of babies but it surely looked like one.

Unfortunately the birds were at the top of some pretty tall snags and I was too far away and too far under the bird to get really good photos.  Maybe that means I need a longer lens!!!

After enjoying this pictures, be sure to stop by Tuesday's Tweets and Wild Bird Wednesday for more great bird photos.

Marco - Behind the scenes

Today for Macro Monday, I decided to talk a little about the equipment that goes into making a macro photograph.  The focus will be on what is reasonable for the typical amateur, like me, and not get into extremely specialized equipment or cameras larger than 35mm.

I'll start with clarifying a little terminology.  While no precise definition exists for macro and close-up photography, macro is usually understood to be a photograph where the image projection on the film/sensor is at least as large as the actual subject (a 1:1 magnification).  Close-up photos have smaller image sizes but are still subjectively close.

Mushrooms in Shenandoah National Park; taken with
Canon 100mm macro lens

The best option for making high quality macro images is a lens designed for macros.  These types of lens are designed to have a maximum magnification of 1:1.  Most DSLR manufactures have several options.  The two major advantages macro lens have are that they can change focus for the nearest point (which gives the 1:1) to infinity without any modification to the lens.  This makes them usable as a standard lens also.  The second benefit is that the designers work to make sure that at the closest focus distance, the focal plane is flat.  Normally, the region in focus is slightly curved.  This is because the points that are equal distance from lens form a sphere and not a plane.  But with sophisticated lens design, the focal plane can be flattened.  If you are really into macro photography and will use the lens for macro more than about a third of the time, this is probably the lens for you. 

Fungus; taken with Olympus Stylus 600

Many point and shoot cameras have a macro mode.  This is a pretty good option if this is the type of camera you own.  The major disadvantage is that the cameras usually have a large depth of field so you are not able to get the background well of of focus to make the subject jump out or to have selective focus on the subject.  This is because point and shoot cameras have much shorter focal length lens than 35 mm or APS cameras do.  The smaller sensor in these cameras allow the back of the lens to be closer to the sensor as the image circle from the lens is only as big as the sensor.  This allows for a smaller focal length lens.  For example, my Olympus Stylus 600 has a wide angle focal length of only 5.8 mm.  But since the depth of field is inversely related to the focal length of the lens, this lens will make basically everything in focus.  For comparison, a typical SLR macro lens is between 100 mm and 180 mm.  But if you are willing to give up on having shallow depth of field, a point and shoot can make very good macro shots.

Moon Flower; taken with Canon 15-85mm lens with
12mm extension tube

The third option, and the one I use most often, is to add an extension tube to a regular lens.  An extension tube is an empty spacer that is inserted between the back of the lens and the camera body for an interchangeable lens camera.  By moving the lens further away from the sensor, the extension tube changes the focus range of the lens.  This allows you to focus closer to the lens than before.  And by getting closer, you increase the magnification.  The main benefit of extension tubes is that you can do macro photography with just about any lens.  And since the extension tubes are just spacers, there is no glass and very limited electronics, they are extremely light.  The disadvantages are that the lens can not focus at infinity with the extension tube attached.  So if you are mixing your subjects between close up and further away, you will need to keep taking the tube on and off.  And since the tube makes the image circle on the sensor larger, in also makes it darker.  For thinner tubes, it doesn't make much difference, but if you use a thick tube on a long lens you will lose a noticeable amount of light.

Close-up of Palamedes Swallowtail; taken with Canon 400 mm lens
and 20mm extension tube.

Carolina Chickadee; taken with Canon 400 mm lens
and 12 mm extension tube from window.

I use extensions tubes for a couple of reasons.  First, my camera bag is already full and I really didn't want to carry around another lens just for macros since they are not yet a major part of my portfolio. The extra weight and space of a dedicated lens just wasn't worth it.  Second, I can use the extension tube to let me focus closer with my 400mm and that's great.  The Canon 400mm f/5.6 lens is a great wildlife lens but has a closest focus distance of about 14 ft.  So I just add on a 12mm extension tube and can focus much closer which make those shots at the feeder all that much easier to get. 

And finally, extension tubes are an inexpensive way to get into true macro photography.  I bought a set of Kenko tubes that come in three sizes (plus they can be stacked) for a little over $100.  And don't worry about getting name brand tubes.  As was pointed out in one review I read, "the cheaper ones have the same 'low dispersion' air as the manufacturer's."  Just make sure there are not a lot of complaints about the autofocus not working.  If the electronics are not well designed, autofocus might not work. But otherwise, there really is no reason to pay for the name brand extension tubes.

Prothonotary Warbler

This past weekend I went birding with the Hampton Roads Bird club at Newport New Park.  One of the great sightings of the walk was the number of Prothonotary Warblers.  So this week for Tuesday's Tweets and Wild Bird Wednesday, I will share several of my photos of this gorgeous bird. 

Prothonotary Warblers are pretty easy to identify: they are bright yellow in front getting darker towards the back on on the wings.  Plus they are very loud singers and are willing to sit out in the open.  That last characteristic makes them good photo subjects.

A garden walk

For Macro Monday this week I took a short walk around the garden looking for some unusual subjects.  And by unusual, I mean not flower blooms; I wasn't feeling so creative to do something totally off the wall. 

We have a rose bush that is starting to get get ready to explode in color.  It is a native Virginia Rose and in a week or two will be heavy with pink blooms.  But for now we have to live with the anticipation of what is to come.

Anticipation

 

 

 

In the spring time our lawn hosts hundreds of these small berry plants.  They are right at eye level for the turtles living in the yard and make a good turtle snack so we affectionately refer to them as turtleberries, although most people call them False or Indian Strawberries.  The flowers and berries are reminiscent of strawberries and they are edible but they are unrelated to the human food and do not have much of a taste.

Turtleberry (a.k.a. False Strawberry)

And our final stop is in our overgrown vegetable garden where the asparagus has moved beyond the edible stage.  But I thought the find foliage makes for a nice image.

Enjoy and be sure to stop by the other macro photographs at Lisa's Chaos.

Cooper's Hawk

A few weeks ago we had this Cooper's Hawk that, several times a day, would bring its prey to the yard to eat.  This went on for about a week and then stopped. There was a male and female that would sit in the trees calling to each other also.  Hopefully they nested somewhere nearby.  We still see Cooper's Hawks around, just not eating in the yard.

I like how in the third photo you can see the hawk taking off with a starling in tow.

Enjoy other birding photos at Tuesday's Tweets and Wild Bird Wednesday.

And be sure to check out the Mourning Dove babies.

Copper's Hawk

Cooper's Hawk with Starling in talons

Taking lunch from one branch to another