Tag Archives: MN North: Amity

Cyborg Birding

Year 8,

My adult children say better a Cyborg, than a Borg! Events over the past three days have been interesting:

  • 3 mornings ago: Watch Great Gray Owl hunt just after sunrise (bike ride in afternoon)
  • 2 days ago: Rest day prior to surgery when it was moved up by almost 7 weeks
  • Yesterday: Surgery

Without going into all the details, I am doing fine this morning (post surgery). My planned Ablation (blocks extra electronic signals in the heart) turned into a Pacemaker Replacement to get a new model implanted which 100% controls your heart. Some pacemakers assist the heart, but the more complex “3 lead” versions totally control the heart. Shut my pacemaker down now, and you shut me down.

I am beginning to feel like the “6 Million Dollar Man” for those of you that remember the TV show from the early 1970’s (TV video trailer link for email subscribers). You would need to be a “sci-fi freak” (which I am) to understand my Cyborg / Borg opening sentence. The statement was sent by one of my kids after I texted them this video clip last night. Towards the end of the video, the narrator talks about all the operations and devices installed in “Colonel Steve Austin”. (Wikipedia link)

Over the next 7 to 14 days after recovery from surgery I will learn my new normal. Prior to this point, I got tired very easily but was still pushing my myself to hike, bike and bird. Birding and blogging will be part of the new equation.

Now on to some birding. As noted three mornings back I had the good fortune to watch a Great Gray Owl hunt just after sunrise. Given the combination of ground fog and forest fire smoke, the light was a bit subdued which kept my friend out past sunrise. The owl’s feathers were quite wet from diving into sopping wet grasses. Here are a few of the images I took …

How many of you have Guard Dogs? or at least does Fido let you know when strangers appear? While I don’t have a dog anymore, I do have a “Guard Hummingbird”. Apparently my Bee Balm is prime stuff and worth guarding from other hummingbirds. This female or immature male has set up shop in a small dead tree ten yards from my flowers. Any other hummingbird which appears get quickly chased away! I like these photos because it gives a clear view of the hummer’s feathers.

Begging Blue Jays

Year 8

The official winter migration south begins today, August 1st. Although it may seem like we are still in the midst of summer, the food sources will soon get scarcer. Birds know this fact, and many species are already working their way south:

Current migration conditions for today. Hummingbirds and Arctic Shorebirds are already well into their migrations. Birds that eat bugs will be next. While Spring migration is a quick affair, during the Fall, birds will pause their movements southward and linger if a good food source is apparent.

The latest to fledge in the Amity Woods are Blue Jays. Here are three photos … one of an adult flanked by two “begging kids”. Do these juvenile Blue Jays ever remind you of your own children?!

Bee Balm Beauties

Year 8

Soon January will be here with its -30F degree weather, but for the moment it is summer and all our garden’s  perennials are ablaze in their glory. In addition, the Black-Eyed Susans in our yard’s tall grasses do the landscape with lots of yellow. Thus, I spent another evening with Chardonnay and Hummers!

The trend continues that I have not seen any male Ruby-Throats for several days. I suspect they have begun their long migration to South America. However the youngsters are madly fighting over the Bee Balm. On quiet evenings (not much wind), I can even hear the hummingbirds singing!

This one hummer hides in a tree ten yards from the flowers. If another Ruby-Throat ventures to close to our garden, this bird enters attack mode.

Surrounding our Bee Balm are lots and lots of Purple Cone Flowers

Finally some camera notes … while I do very little post processing of my images, these are the basics which I often tweak:

  • Open JPG file in Camera Raw (I do not shoot in raw)
  • Push clarity up to about 40. Helps brings out feathers
  • Increase Shadows by about one degree (+12 in Photoshop Elements). I tend to underexpose a touch to avoid images being blown out. Tweaking the shadows helps me bring the exposure up in post processing.
  • Minor crops of images to emphasize different features of photo (never use digital zoom)
  • Use “Auto Enhance Contrast”
  • Tweak “Shake Reduction” (photo needs to first be in focus for this edit to work)

As a reminder I use a basic monopod, and “never” shoot in Auto. I tend to first focus upon my subject using Aperture Priority to learn the camera’s desired shutter speed. I often then switch to Shutter Priority and expose at a slightly faster speed. With my Canon SX-70 because of the small sensor, I tend to select the minimum ISO of 100 (need good light). With my Sony A6300 I allow the camera to choose the ISO between 100 and 800. Remember, the lower the ISO … the higher the quality of the end image.