Yesterday was a great day for “watching”. Minnesota Point is really beginning to turn on in terms of birds near the Park Point Recreation Area. In fact, while I was enjoying close-up viewing of hundreds of Bohemian Waxwings, a Red Fox had obviously been watching me! When I refused to move, it finally just walked around me to reach its den area. It was really quite comical … the fox forced me out of my zone and I enjoyed taking some quick photographs as it walked by my car at a distance of ten yards.
In addition to spending time on Park Point, I took an early morning hike along the Western Waterfront Trail. My hike was rewarded with viewing some early returning migrants. Once again, similar to the fox incident, I was rewarded with a rare sight while I was observing some much more common birds (new returns … American Goldfinches and Yellow Shafted Flickers). Glancing up from the goldfinches I was trying to photograph I spied a cool looking bird at the top of a nearby tree, a Townsend Solitaire!
My day ended with another trip down to Minnesota Point. While my original goal was to hike out towards the Superior Entry and see what kind of late afternoon ducks were resting and avoiding the ever present strong winds off Lake Superior, the birds had other ideas. My old “Nemesis Bird“, the Bohemian Waxwings were back in flocks easily numbering in the hundreds. Better yet, these birds were so hungry from their migration efforts, that they let me observe their berry feeding frenzy from a distance of only a few feet.
I’ve also included both a video and photograph of a Northern Shrike. Needless to say, with all these songbirds migrating through the area, predators have also arrived! The shrike looked well fed!
I watch birds. The red fox watches me!
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Bohemian Waxwing Bonanza
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American Goldfinch
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Townsend Solitaire
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Yellow-Shafted Flicker
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Common Grackle
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Northern Shrike
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Video
I love the video of the Northern Shrike! How do you hold the camera so still when shooting video?
Laura … my secret weapon for all images and videos is a monopod. Without the monopod taking videos would be much more difficult. Finally, after uploading to YouTube, I go into the YouTube video edit mode and use the stabilize function. Finally, I download a mp4 from YouTube such that I have my own copy of the improved video.
One more thing I’ve found in addition to the items noted previously, when taking videos I try not to pan. Even the motion as slight as turning the camera on a monopod introduces shake when filming birds at the extent of my camera’s zoom lens. I plan on a post in the near future which reviews how I take and process photographs. Stay tuned!