Digiscoping Madness!

Well, I think I'm getting the hang of this digiscoping thing. Today's gray sky, dense clouds and wind didn't help my cause any, but despite the challenges I'm making progress. Today's watch platform was the roof of Kodak's building 9-- EMT duty again prevented me from joining the other watchers on the macadam below. Too bad, because there were some school children out on a field trip expressly to see Mariah and Kaver. I'll bet a spotting scope would have been handy for them to use:

Nevertheless, I heard they had a rousing good time, including a look at Mariah stooping on some prey in the gorge, and flying right in front of the kids assembled on the Pont de Rennes pedestrian bridge. From the sound of things, we've made some new young fans out of these students.

For me, the action began even before I could get my gear set up. Hardly had I emerged onto the roof from the stair tower than both Mariah and Kaver leapt off the Kodak tower and went into a synchronized power dive over the the Kodak Visitor Parking Lot! I was too far away to see the chase, but they both came rocketing up on the south side of the office complex and neither had anything clutched in their talons. I dove into my bag for my camera, and managed a couple of shots of Mariah as she flew nearby:



Kaver continued flying out over the city, and after making brief sport of chasing a hawk he landed on the First Federal building. Mariah, meanwhile, landed on the A in the KODAK sign:


I took this as a good omen, deployed my scope and camera adapter, and started shooting. Despite my best attempts to find a spot sheltered from the wind, it continued to be a problem throughout my watch. I suspect there's no help for it given the local weather conditions, but it does make getting a steady shot harder. Nevertheless, perseverence won the day:


I continued to shoot pictures of her until she suddenly took off. I got a nice shot of talons and tail just as she was leaving my field of view:


I decided to change my vantage point while she flew around the area. I lined up on the nest box to see what kind of shots I'll be able to get when the eyases start branching:

Just imagine that with 5 eyases hopping around and testing their wings!

Anyway, after some time, Kaver flew back and landed on Camera 1's mounting arm. Mariah joined him a few minutes later, atop the Camera 1 mount:


I can't tell if they took any notice of me, but you might think so from the look on Mariah's face:


Kaver, too, looked inquisitive:


I spent the rest of the watch playing with the digiscope, trying different settings-- Macro mode; Landscape mode; burst shooting vs. single shots with the self timer; different exposure compensation. I changed the lens adapter too, shortening the barrel to see if I could eliminate some of the vignetting. Mariah flew off, headed around the back of the tower, and I didn't see where she landed. Undaunted, I focused my lens on Kaver and kept shooting. Here are some of the better pictures for your perusal:

This one's not the clearest, but he was calling a bit, and I liked his expression:


Isn't he a handsome tiercel? Here are a few more...


I backed off the zoom a bit to get this shot:


Back to a tight frame for the finish as Kaver seemingly trains his hunter's gaze upon me:


Wretched lighting didn't help, but I think the shots are passable. With some brighter light these could have been even better, since I could be shooting with faster shutter speeds, which would help stop the action and minimize blurring from wind and the bird's movements. I have plenty of time to look forward to that kind of work, though. The best part of falcon photographing season hasn't even begun yet!

More Mariah and Digiscoping

Another day of sun and warm temperatures tempted me outside at lunchtime today despite a schedule filled with meetings. Equipped with my scope, camera, and binoculars, I found Shaky across the street from the Kodak Visitor parking lot, where he was keeping an eye on Mariah. I had just set up my scope and after yesterday's missed opportunities, I was debating whether to connect the camera for some digiscoping when Mariah made the decision for me. She threw herself in the air and treated us to some overhead flying. Much of it was right in the bright sun, but between her solar-crossing forays I was able to get a few pictures:



Greg S arrived and we had 3 cameras clicking while Mariah continued her circling flight. As with yesterday, she flew toward downtown and our view was often obscured by the area buildings, but a few minutes later she returned to the tower, accompanied by Kaver:


Mariah landed on the east railing of the playpen while Kaver headed out over the river. By this time, Lisa McKeown, Sue, Grannywood and Carol P had arrived. Mariah looked content enough on the rail, so I switched to digiscoping mode. My results were slightly better this time around, but I think I still have some work to do. Here's a shot of Mariah on the railing:


I was able to shoot quite a number of pictures of her, using both burst mode and the camera's self timer. Between the wind, passing truck traffic, and the poor balance of the camera/scope combination, I'm still getting blurry pictures even after careful focusing. After a few minutes of inactivity, she took off again. It was pure seredipity that I was able to get this shot, since I used the self timer for it:


She flew around a bit, but decided to land again, this time on the Main camera's mounting arm:



It was about that time that I noticed Kaver had landed on the steeple above the nestbox. Back to digiscoping I went to capture shots of both falcons on their perches:



I think this is my best digiscoped shot of the day:


I'll keep working on the clarity of the digiscoped shots. I think I could get more steadiness out of the camera/scope combination if I could balance it better on the tripod. Kowa sells a mounting system that accomplishes that very thing, but it's an expensive piece of equipment, so I think I'll try a little more practice before I shell out more money...

Mariah's Day in the Sun

Mariah was the star of the show today. She kept us running during the lunch hour, but our efforts were rewarded with some terrific viewing and opportunities for many pictures. Unfortunately I missed some of the best pictures, because I had decided to try my new digiscoping setup, and my camera was attached to the scope. More on that later.

Mariah was on one of the support arms of the Main camera when I got outside. I met up with Carol P and we walked to the far corner of the Kodak visitor lot. There, we met up with Larry and Joe. Greg S showed up a few minutes later, carrying his Canon Digital Rebel camera equipped with a Canon 100-400mm image stabilized zoom lens. This is an excellent combination for taking pictures of fast-moving peregrines, which my DX6490 regrettably can't match. I continue to hope that Kodak will apply some of its technology to a "prosumer" model digicam along the lines of the Canon, Nikon D12, or Olympus eVolt, all of which seem to be very well suited to the type of photography that I often engage in...

But enough of that. No sooner had I verified her ID in my scope than she was off the tower, flying south. The buildings of the High Falls district blocked our view of her quite often because she was flying fairly low. Many of the shots I took of her were the result of snap shooting, which doesn't always produce the best results. Here's one of her just before she passed behind the Bru building:


And another when she emerged from near the BeeBee station:


We thought she was just enjoying the warm sunny weather, since her soaring didn't appear to have much of a purpose other than to circle through the sky:


At one point she landed on the Main camera housing:


It was only a few seconds before she took off again. This time, she headed south with a will. Soon we found out why. As Lisa McKeown and Cathy Steeb joined us, Kaver arrived with a lot of kacking and Mariah gave chase, intent on taking the prey that he had clutched in his talons. As they appeared and disappeared amid the buildings, I managed to get this (rather blurry) shot of the chase, just as Kaver dropped the prey:

Mariah went talons up to grab the prey according to Carol, who captured the moment with her camera. Greg too, got some fine shots of the food transfer, but from my vantage I was unable to see what happened. Hearing was another matter, though. The kacking continued as Mariah and Kaver flew over the gorge, Kaver apparently displeased that he had to relinquish his catch. Mariah wasn't to be denied, though, and Kaver gave up his pursuit. Mariah flew around with the food for a while. She was nearly in the sun here, which accounts for the backlight in this shot:

Here the prey, a black and white bird, is tucked beneath her tail:



After her flight she returned to the nest box area. Kaver had gotten there ahead of her, landing above the nest box level on the narrow steeple ledge. He greeted her arrival with more kacking. After a few minutes, it seemed both falcons were going to stay put, so I set up my scope again, and attached a lens adapter I'd recently purchased. The Kowa TSN-VA1 is designed specifically for use with long zoom digital and video cameras. It's basically a long eye-relief (57mm!) lens that gives my Kowa TSN-664 scope an 8x magnification. When combined with the 10x zoom on my DX6490, I have an 80x scope. In 35mm equivalent, that comes to a staggering 3040mm focal length!

Needless to say, that's a lot of magnification. It comes at a cost, though. Any small vibration will cause the picture to blur, and the use of a remote shutter release (not available on the DX5490) or self timer (yep, got one of those) is pretty much a requirement. Accurate focusing of the scope is also important, and as you'll see, I wasn't quite up to the task on this outing. I'm taking it as a learning experience, and I expect that as I gain more experience with the scope/camera combination my results will improve. I did get a few pictures worth sharing, though. Here's Mariah on the Main camera housing:


Kaver's sitting above her on the ledge of the steeple:


Interestingly enough, I took both of these shots using the camera's burst mode, which requires me to manually actuate the shutter. I suspect if I'd been more precise focusing the scope, the pictures would have been clearer. As I recall, these were shot with a 1/125 sec. shutter speed at f3.7. My final picture is of Mariah on top of the nest box after she fed the eyases. For this one I used the camera's self timer:


That shot is a bit clearer, but still not satisfactory. Focusing the scope using the camera's EVF or LCD screen is tricky, particularly in the bright light. I'm going to have to work on that. I did some testing on still subjects out of the wind, and I'm sure the scope/camera combination is capable of greater sharpness and clarity than these pictures demonstrate. I just need to learn how to use the equipment better, so I can achieve those results under actual viewing conditions. Time, and practice, will allow me to improve.

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I'd like to finish with a picture I took a few days ago. It's completely unrelated to the falcon watch above, but I liked the composition and the subject, so I'm including it here for you to take as you will:

Potpourri

Over the past several days I've had the opportunity to get some shots of Kaver from around the Kodak tower and some birds closer to home. I don't have a complete narrative for any of them, so I thought I'd toss them all together for your viewing pleasure...

I was up on the roof of Bldg 9 last week, when a Turkey Vulture (Cathartes aura) wandered a bit too close to the nest box. Kaver was perched on the east side of the tower, out of my line of sight, but he flew into instant action to drive off the intruder. The harried flight of the TV happened right in front of me, and so close and fast was the action that I was hampered by the teleconverter on my camera, so I wasn't able to catch a shot of Kaver and the TV. I did get a few of Kaver though, as he drove the Turkey Vulture northeast over the river and out of his territory. Here, he passes in front of the middle RGE smokestack. The TV was just out of the frame:


After the chase he returned to the tower:


He swung behind the tower and emerged on the west side before making his landing:

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Walking the dogs continues to yield some excellent photographic opportunities, as long as the birds don't get spooked by two cavorting Malamutes. Here's a group shot during a break in the action:


The most ubiquitous bird on our walks continues to be the colorful Red-winged Blackbird (Agelaius phoeniceus). Here's one calling to his colleagues in the marshes near the Erie Canal:


My second favorite woodpecker, the Red-bellied (Melanerpes carolinus), was also out. This one's usually pretty quick to fly away when the dogs and I approach, but he stayed put this time, excavating what looks to be a nest hole:

He was very accomodating, allowing me to take several shots before he hopped around to the back side of his bough. I think this is my best shot of a RBWP to date. I like his expression, which looks to me like a sly smile, and the background worked very well. Usually I catch these birds at one of my suet feeders, and while I can get a nice close shot from them, the context is a bit artificial, so I'm always happy when I can get a good picture of a bird in a natural setting.

The foregoing shouldn't be construed to take anything from this next shot-- I'll take them where I can get them! Dawn happened to spy this male Hairy Woodpecker (Picoides villosus), a frequent visitor to our back yard suet cage. My camera was close at hand, and she got a nice shot of him snacking:


This past weekend we were sitting on our porch looking for birds in the beeches and maples in our front yard when we spied a pair sitting on a branch beneath the sparse leaves. I saw crested heads, and thought immediately of the Tufted Titmouse, a common enough sight at our home. I was surprised to look through the binoculars and see that they were, in fact, Cedar waxwings (Bombycilla cedrorum)!

I think these are first year birds, because they appear to lack the red lined wing feathers of an adult bird. We don't usually see waxwings in our neighborhood because there aren't many fruit tress around, so this was a real treat.

All Kaver All The Time?

Well, Mariah's five eggs should begin hatching this weekend-- Everyone's hoping for the first eyases to break out of their shells on Mother's Day, so Mariah's been spending a lot of time on the eggs (though as I write this, Kaver's taking a turn). Today the weather was too nice to pass up, with the temperature at 61°F/16°C, blue skies from horizon to horizon, bright sun, and a few well-distributed clouds. I was on duty with Kodak's Medical Emergency Response Team today, so a trip out to the bridge was not in the cards, but that just meant that I was unable to join all the watchers who gathered on the Pont de Rennes during the lunch hour:

If you look carefully, you can spy Cornpoppy, Larry O'Heron, Grannywood, Zummobird, Carol P, and Andrea, along with a couple of others whom I was unable to identify. I believe Shaky may also have been there, but I didn't get him in this picture. Sorry I didn't get to see you, folks, but I had to stick close to the office. An EMT's work is never done!

I missed the comraderie of the watch, but it wasn't all bad. I had as close to a front row seat as one can get for some smart flying to come:


Most of the hour was uneventful, but, as so often happens, Kaver seemed to appear out of nowhere (I swear I only looked away for a second!). Here he is pulling his wings in as he begins his landing approach:



He swooped up and landed on the east side of the playpen railing, where he held a vigil for a while:


He didn't have long to enjoy the spring sun, though. A Red-tailed Hawk (Buteo jamaicensis) flew over the tower and Kaver gave chase, his kakking battle cry ringing in the clear air:


He climbed in tight circles, flapping wildly, and drove straight down onto the hapless buteo. He made several passes at the hawk, driving it to the north west. Here's the best of several shots I took of the action:


The advantage was Kaver's from the beginning, and the hawk had no choice but to withdraw. A few moments later, the airspace around the nest box secured once again, Kaver returned, landing on Camera 1's mounting arm:


He left a short time later and I believe he headed toward downtown Rochester, though I didn't see where he went. The hour was winding out, and I had to return to the office.

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For many days we've seen a pair of Canada Geese (Branta canadensis) perching on a derelict concrete footing that juts out of the river bed just north of the pedestrian bridge. We thought it strange for the two of them to be sitting up there, but yesterday we found out why they've had such an affinity for the place:

Notice the egg just to the right of the goose in the front. The rear goose may be brooding more eggs, though we haven't seen any evidence of that. I'll keep my eyes open, though. I imagine they're going to have quite a time getting the little goslings off that precarious platform...

Whilst walking Quest and Tessa this afternoon, I was hoping to catch a glimpse (and perhaps a picture or two) of an elusive Belted Kingfisher that I saw last week hunting on the banks of the Erie Canal. Of course, when I saw him I was sans camera, and since then, he hasn't reappeared. Instead, today I came upon this female Red-winged Blackbird (Agelaius phoeniceus):

I'm not used to seeing the females, though the males are quite a common sight around here. It caught my eye because of its orange throat, to which my photograph does poor justice. I've included it here for no reason other than that I liked the picture of the bird perched amongst the cat-tails. The good weather promises to hold all weekend, so hopefully Dawn and I will get in a bit of birding. If we see anything interesting, I'll bring it to you here. And of course, there's Mariah's eggs to watch...