Articles

Jul 30 2018

POTD – American Bittern “hiding”

Author: DakotaBirder • Discussion: No Comments

Photo of the day, for a bird that gets high marks for trying, but failing, to hide. I didn’t have much luck shooting birds yesterday, but did run across this American Bittern along the rip-rap bordering a huge wetland area.  The ol’ stick-my-head-up-and-they-won’t-see-me approach Bitterns use may work when they’re standing in the middle of a bunch of dry cattails, but kind of falls apart when they’re out in the open, particularly next to red quartzite.

American Bittern - Botaurus lentiginosus

American Bittern “hiding” at Weisensee Slough in western Minnehaha County, South Dakota.

 

Apr 26 2017

Bird Photography 101 — Getting close enough

Author: DakotaBirder • Discussion: No Comments

Birders or photographers new to birding sometimes ask me how I get some of my bird photos. Sunday was a great example of one tool I use! It’s not the camera. A LONG, expensive lens is definitely a huge asset in bird photography, but no matter what lens you’re using, the challenge is to get close enough to a wild bird for a frame-filling photograph.  With “only” a 400-mm lens (the lens that 99+% of my bird photos have been taken with), if means I typically have to be about 15-20 feet away from a songbird for it to fill a large portion of the image.  How does one get close to a wild bird that’s often skittish and shy around human  beings?

Hide yourself.  Often for me, that’s meant using my car as a blind, but on Sunday when I was shooting shorebirds, that wasn’t an option.  The shorebirds were all foraging in the shallows in a portion of a wetland that was far from the road.  In the back of my pickup I always have the perfect piece of equipment to help in a situation like that…a chair blind.  It has a low profile and doesn’t spook the birds once you’re set up, and it’s actually quite comfortable inside. In this case, as I approached the shoreline, all the birds scattered. No worries…set up the chair blind, make yourself comfortable inside, and after a little while, the birds will forget you’re there and will come back.

The photo below is one a birding friend took of me and my chair blind on Sunday.  Note shorebirds are calmly foraging in the shallows RIGHT in front of the blind.  They were actually too close for my camera to focus on many occasions (my 400mm lens has a 12-foot minimum focusing distance). A great tool, and one of many ways to get close enough to birds to get great photos. For more help on how to get great bird photos, click below to check out a “Bird photography tips” page from my main website:

Bird Photography Tips – South Dakota Birds and Birding

Chair Blind - Photographing Birds

My “chair blind”, one invaluable tool that allows you to get close enough to birds for photography.

May 03 2015

Photographing a Ghost

Author: DakotaBirder • Discussion: No Comments
Virginia Rail - Rallus limicola

Virginia Rail
May 3rd, 2015
Lake County, SD
Canon 70D, 400 5.6L
(Click for larger view)

5 years. Until this week that’s the last time I’d actually seen a Virginia Rail.  I actually think they’re pretty common around here, as you do hear them quite a bit when you’re around wetlands with a lot of cattails and shallow water.  Actually SEEING a Virginia Rail though?  That’s a treat.

I admit I cheated in getting this photograph.  I rarely do it any more, but I did use a digital call of a Virginia Rail on my iPhone to attract this bird.  I was birding in Lake and Kingsbury counties, trying to concentrate on shorebirds and other water birds.  In a very large wetland on the Lake/Kingsbury county border, I heard one, then another, then another Virginia Rail.

Virginia Rails have several vocalizations, but whenever I think of Virginia Rails, I think of the Three Stooges.  Yes, the Three Stooges.  Why, you ask?  Because their grunting call to me always reminds of Curly doing his “Nyuk, Nyuk, Nyuk, Nyuk!!!  That’s what I was hearing on this morning, multiple Virginia Rails doing their very best Curly imitations.

What’s so dang frustrating about these guys, and Sora, another species they always seem to be found in conjunction with around here, is that sometimes when you hear them, they’re vocalizing mere feet from your location. You’re staring at the source of the sound, and instead of “bird”, all you see are cattails and other wetland vegetation.  After 5 years of not actually seeing a Virginia Rail, I did indeed pull out the iPhone to see if I had a Virginia Rail call.

I did, and after a few Curly-style “Nyuk Nyuk Nyuk Nyuks”, I saw a twinge of motion in the cattails.  He was only perhaps 20 feet away, peering out from amongst a stand of cattails.  He was obviously interested in whatever fellow Three Stooges fan was making that noise, but he also made it quite clear that he wasn’t going to come out into the open.  Not wanting to disturb him any further, I took what photos I could and stopped playing the tape.

5 years, but I got my Virginia Rail fix, and a photo that turned out better than I expected.  It does a great job of showing how these guys like to stay hidden.  Unless I’m incredibly lucky, now I’ll wait another 5-10 years or so before again trying to get a photo of one of these guys.

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