Turkey Vulture Passes Over Front Yard

Denise was out walking with David. She called home excited about a couple of huge birds circling above their heads. Then she called again. She was on our street and the birds were right over our house. So, out I went with the camera and sure enough they were turkey vultures. We get a lot of them around here, but it is rare I get a shot as good as these.

The bird flew very close to the angle of the sun, so I was a little worried about tracking it. But I did and as it passed over the trees in our front yard, I got these rather pleasing shots. I'm sure it was the angle of the sun that made the lighter feathers look so white.

Blue Jay in Backyard

Yesterday, Pam spotted a blue jay in the backyard. I rushed to the back window, camera in hand, and there was the bird in clear sight. But opening the window is noisy -- perhaps I should try some oil -- and the bird clearly heard me. But all it did was swivel around to face me.

Still, it seemed skittish and there is some motion blur in these images I took. But it wasn't me that was worrying it. A pair of robins suddenly materialized and attacked the blue jay. Oddly, so it seemed to me, the blue jay stood its ground and rather than fly off, it moved from branch to branch of the small tree. Eventually, when it was near the top of the tree (impossible to photograph from my window), peace was restored.

Presumably, the robins were protecting a nest and considered that the blue jay was now out of range.

New Camera Inspires More Bird Picts

It's been a long time since I've posted here. The Konica-Minolta camera was disappointing. It just did a terrible job in low light. It was also slow to focus. So, after much dithering and some analysis, I entered the world of DSLR with a Pentax K-x with two lenses, the 18-55mm and the 55-300mm. These are equivalent to 27-82mm and 82-450mm in 35mm terms. I'm taking most of my bird shots with the longer lens at full zoom.

Here are some pictures of a tufted titmouse getting nesting material from the top of a pole just across the street. At first, I thought it was building the nest in the top of the pole, but then I realized it was gathering material and taking it around the back of Ruthie's, our neighbor across the street.

I'm particularly pleased with the last shot with its wings spread. One of those fortuitous images for which I can thank my new camera's rapid fire mode which takes over four images a second.