birds and birds

Trev4

Trev4

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Trev
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After a pleasant few hours on Cannock Chase I managed a few different varieties of bird shots, surprising who turns up when there's food about. What do you think of these, there has been some PP work but it was kept to a minimum. All are taken with a 100-400L IS.
I think I am correct on the identities, but there's one I am unsure about.

1) Willow Tit
3908693997_e25f3ef0f7_o.jpg


2) Great Tit and at the back, a Coal tit
3909475328_280bfc592b_o.jpg


3) Chaffinch
3909468690_a6b80db997_o.jpg


4) Chaffinch (female)?
3909468688_496bd6a13e_o.jpg


5) Nuthatch
3909468678_cd0b2bc309_o.jpg


6) And as always when foods on the table, the squirel
3909468682_b180d49f96_o.jpg


Thanks for looking and any comments are appreciated.
Cheers guys
Trev
 
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All well ID'd Trev except your Coal Tit looks like a Willow Tit, and you do get them at that location.
 
Another couple from this shoot.

7) Greater Spotted Woodpecker (male)
3909468676_581b61c760_o.jpg


8) Blue Tit, not happy with this one though.
3909468672_43fe95ae13_o.jpg


Cheers again :)
 
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CT said:
All well ID'd Trev except your Coal Tit looks like a Willow Tit, and you do get them at that location.
Click to expand...

:agree: and your second Chaffy is indeed a female... (y)


The Great Spotted Woodpecker is a male... :D ...but I am not totally sure you've got No. 6 100% correct... ;)






:p
 
CT said:
All well ID'd Trev except your Coal Tit looks like a Willow Tit, and you do get them at that location.
Click to expand...

Thanks CT, you are spot on, I appreciate that and have changed the title (y)
 
Nice shots Trev, I must try and get back up there before this nice weather runs out (y)
 
Venomator said:


:


The Great Spotted Woodpecker is a male... :D ...but I am not totally sure you've got No. 6 100% correct... ;)

:p
Click to expand...

Thanks Rog. You know, I spent hours with my Hamlyn Bird Guide trying to ID number 6, but no... I failed, so in the end I just had a stab in the dark, just hope I was near :D
Cheers for your support though (y)
 
CT said:
All well ID'd Trev except your Coal Tit looks like a Willow Tit, and you do get them at that location.
Click to expand...

While were talking ID, do you have any thoughts on the out of focus bird behind the Great tit in number 2, my thoughts are a Coal tit (again), but am unsure. :thinking:
 
GarynLea said:
Nice shots Trev, I must try and get back up there before this nice weather runs out (y)
Click to expand...

Yes, I'll look out for you. I was surprised by the amount of different makes and models that were there, but they were all very skittish and fast, I missed more shots than I like to admit to, but still a good couple of hours (or more lol) out.
 
Venomator said:
Yep... (y) ... that's definitely a Coal Tit this time Trev... ;)

:p
Click to expand...
Thanks again for that, I got it right :runaway:

I wonder if anyone has any views on the processing, its something I am working on but still unsure if I'm getting near yet. Would appreciate any views or opinions please.
Cheers
Trev
 
The white bits on most of these birds are either blown or on the edge of being blown, but that's not unusual Trev in what looks like contrasty light which does make exposure difficult. You may be able to recover some of that detail in the white areas using the highlight control in RAW processing.

Other than that, there's not much wrong with your processing - they're perhaps a little on the bright side, but you're not far away at all. (y)

Here's a quick edit on your Nuthatch shot...

3910073671_1c69b325dc_o.jpg


Try to keep the seed etc out of your shots if you can - either put it in crevices where they have to work for it, or put it in little piles and try to catch them on the approach without the seed in shot. Bread is really unsightly and causes blown highlight problems as you can see.
 
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CT said:
The white bits on most of these birds are either blown or on the edge of being blown, but that's not unusual Trev in what looks like contrasty light which does make exposure difficult. You may be able to recover some of that detail in the white areas using the highlight control in RAW processing.

Other than that, there's not much wrong with your processing - they're perhaps a little on the bright side, but you're not far away at all. (y)

Try to keep the seed etc out of your shots if you can - either put it in crevices where they have to work for it, or put it in little piles and try to catch them on the approach without the seed in shot. Bread is really unsightly and causes blown highlight problems as you can see.
Click to expand...

Thank you for that CT, some good pointers. As you suggested, the light was a little difficult on the day, there was very bright sunlight which threw dark shadows from the tree foliage, so yes, it was contrasty.

The good lady Maureen was with me and brought the bread, given a chance she would have been making sandwiches for them :), but I hadn’t thought about the problems it causes with the pictures, I can see it now in the results though.

Looking at the two versions side by side, I can see you have darkened the picture, applied some NR to the BG, and perhaps a little more sharpening? There doesn’t seem to be anything else changed that I can see.
It has improved it a lot, and thanks for the time you took to do it. Seeing your result gives me a guide as to how far to go with PP. As you can tell, I am still learning, more by trial and error, without people pointing out my errors, I won’t learn.
Thanks again (y)
Trev
 
You're welcome Trev, and you're correct on all counts on my processing except I didn't sharpen it.

Re. the bread - you'll find different opinions on whether it's harmful to birds or not. Personally when I do use bread I toast it first and break it up into crumbs so it's more digestible. I think white bread is a very real danger when it's likely to be fed to youngsters who could easily choke on it.

Watch out for Maureen wanting her own camera!! ;)
 
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CT said:
You're welcome Trev, and you're correct on all counts on my processing except I didn't sharpen it.

Re. the bread - you'll find different opinions on whether it's harmful to birds or not. Personally when I do use bread I toast it first and break it up into crumbs so it's more digestible. I think white bread is a very real danger when it's likely to be fed to youngsters who could easily choke on it.

Watch out for Maureen wanting her own camera!! ;)
Click to expand...

Tooooo late CT, cost me one last week :LOL: Got away with a Lumix DMC-TZ6 (her choice), but she has been looking at the 50D in a funny way and asking about white lenses, oh dear, the poor bank account :help:

I will add that for a point and shoot the Panny is rather good with the Leica lens. Please back me up and tell her how excellent her shots are :whistle:

Seriously though, I wasnt aware of the discussion about white bread, its something I will be aware of now, thanks.
 
PMSL! :LOL:

On a positive note if she gets really interested it's a lot easier to swing any new kit you might want. ;)
 
I believe it is generally accepted that bread has pretty much nil nutritional value for any birds... :shrug:


It is just a gut filler and, if fed at all, it should always be wetted as it can expand in their little guts and cause problems... ;)


IMHGO if in doubt... :cautious: ... don't feed bread of any kind there are plenty of much better alternatives... :D







:p
 
Venomator said:


IMHGO if in doubt... :cautious: ... don't feed bread of any kind there are plenty of much better alternatives... :D

:p
Click to expand...

Checking on the RSPB site, it has the following advice:

Bread
Although you can leave out bread crumbs you should only leave small amounts. Brown bread is better than white.

I read this as partially agreeing that it’s questionable if it’s a useful food or even a safe food, there's certainly some doubt in the above short statement. This follows on with the comments here, and so I have to agree with you that it seems best to not use it when there are more favourable and natural alternatives.
Thanks CT and Venomator for highlighting this (y)
Trev
 
I think Ven summed it up really Trev. Lots of well meaning people feed bread to birds and while it may not do them harm directly, it contains no nutritional value whatsoever for them, and it's far to easy for them to fill up on bread especially in harsh weather. Fed bread regularly, then the lack of nutrient is bound to have an effect on the birds.
 
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