A day for the birds

Lets brighten up peoples live with all those lovely pictures of the world around us!

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MapleRidge
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A day for the birds

Post by MapleRidge »

Hi all...

Today's weather went form one extreme to another...sun, cloud, snow, repeat :bow

By noon hour the snow had tapered off, and while out meeting customers today there were lost of birds to be seen and photographed. The first was a large flock of Sandhill Cranes that spent the day in the alfalfa field next to our house, and I was able to get within 150 feet of them at times. The mosaic below shows some of the pics I took over lunch:
Cranes_v2.jpg
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My return trip in the late afternoon found numerous swans and Canada Geese in a small lake north of our house:
Waterfowl.jpg
Waterfowl.jpg (1.15 MiB) Viewed 1033 times
I passed a Red Tailed Hawk that was perched in a tree along the road, but it took flight before I could get stopped and grab the camera. These pics were taken at a distance, but some of the feather patterns still show up:
Hawk.jpg
Hawk.jpg (318.03 KiB) Viewed 1033 times
As I pulled into our driveway a half dozen Blue Jays took flight form the bird feed, and I caught this one hiding in a crab-apple tree in the front yard:
Bluejay.jpg
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I used my old Canon 350D and a 70-300mm zoom lens for the pics.

There is always wildlife of some sort near home and on my travels...hope you enjoy these pics form today.

Brian


Brian Colville

Maple Ridge Observatory
Cambray, ON Canada

Photos: https://www.flickr.com/photos/185395281@N08/albums

10'x15 Roll-off Roof Observatory
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Deep Sky Work - ASI294MM Pro+EFW 7x36/Canon 60D (Ha mod), ONAG
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Montana
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Re: A day for the birds

Post by Montana »

I thoroughly enjoyed these Brian, what a great start to the day :hamster: :hamster: The Cranes are amazing birds and look at the colours on the Jay's wing :) I must go and look up these Swans though, they have totally black bills? of to get my book!

Alexandra


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Re: A day for the birds

Post by Montana »

Very interesting! they look like Trumpeter Swans (never seen one before). However, they don't show on the map as being in Canada, unless my book is very old (which it is :) )

Alexandra


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Re: A day for the birds

Post by MapleRidge »

Alexandra...

The swans look to be Trumpeter based on the beak.head transition. These are all black with a smooth curve of white feathers to the beak, but the Tundra swan has a small yellow flash at the corner of their eye (like a yellow tear) and these don't have that feature.

Trumpeters were hunted to extinction here, but re-introduced...so these swans may be descendants of the introduced ones or a hybrid with the Tundra swans. Speculation on my part.

Brian


Brian Colville

Maple Ridge Observatory
Cambray, ON Canada

Photos: https://www.flickr.com/photos/185395281@N08/albums

10'x15 Roll-off Roof Observatory
Takahashi EM400 Mount carrying:
C14 + Lunt 80ED
Deep Sky Work - ASI294MM Pro+EFW 7x36/Canon 60D (Ha mod), ONAG
Planetary Work - SBIG CFW10, ASI462MM

2.2m Diameter Dome
iOptron CEM70G Mount carrying:
Orion EON 130ED, f7 OTA for Day & Night Use
Ha Setup: Lunt LS80PT/LS75FHa/B1200Ha + Home Brew Lunt Double Stack/B1800Ha on the Orion OTA + Daystar Quantum
WL, G-Band & CaK Setup: Lunt Wedge & Lunt B1800CaK, Baader K-Line and Altair 2nm G-Band filter
ASI1600MM, ASI432MM, ASI294MM Pro, ASI174MM, ASI462MM
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