The Bird Conservation Blog
January 13th, 2008 — Photography
On Saturday the Birdfreak Team decided to drive around Winnebago County with a “hit list” of birds to photograph. Several interesting birds have been sighted in the recent weeks: Snowy Owl, Black-legged Kittiwake, Eurasian Tree Sparrow, etc. We had seen the Snowy Owl but with a brand new lens thought it would be fun to try for a better shot.
New toy: Canon 100-400mm IS USM lens
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December 27th, 2007 — Photography
The Birdfreak Team has been working on a Photo Lifelist for awhile now and we finally reached 177 species! We were going to celebrate the 175th, but due to faulty counting, we passed it already! So here is number 177 on our photo lifelist!
This Rough-legged Hawk was “shot” while out on our first Christmas Bird Count of the year!
The photo life list can never end, because even if we photographed 10,000 species, (we wish!) we know you can always take a better picture so our work is never done!
Listing is so fun, and there is no end to what you can list! County lists, state lists, year lists, month lists, life lists, North American lists, forest preserve lists, backyard lists…..or no list! Just one more reason birding is so great!
September 13th, 2007 — Photography
A few months back, we were invited to post our Great Blue Heron pictures on a group called Citizen Science: Great Blue Heron. We checked them out and found that their idea was to gather knowledge of the Great Blue Heron by collecting a database of photos from people on flickr. What a cool idea!
This is a group devoted to collecting photographs of great blue herons. Our ultimate hope is to build a database that can be used for scientific studies of great blue herons. We are built on the model of citizen science projects in which the existence of large numbers of amateurs can become a significant aid to scientists by collecting data that could not otherwise be collected. The idea originally was developed at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, with their Project Feeder Watch. We thought we would follow up with a new project based on the power of flickr.
So we try to add all of our Great Blues to their group and sometimes even invite a few others to join. There are a lot of cool birding groups out there, some feature solo birds and others are questing for I.D. help such as The Bird Identification Help Group (which we have used).
Here are a few other birding groups found on flickr:
September 12th, 2007 — Photography
The Birdfreak Team has been using Flickr to post and organize photos since January of this year. By the end of May, we already had 1000 photos! They add up fast and we love how easy it is to put them on the blog or send them to people.
Photo number 1623
We even started two of our very own flickr groups called The Secret Life of Birds and Birds as Art.
The Secret Life of Birds currently has 115 members, who have added some really great photos depicting bird behavior.
One photo shows a Swallow-tailed Kite carrying two frogs. Another shows a Ruffed Grouse drumming during a courtship display and one shows a Black Skimmer…well skimming!
Lots of different birds have been added so far, from Acorn Woodpeckers to Great Blue Herons to Saltmarsh Sharp-tailed Sparrows. There are hundreds of other great photos in this group showing off bird behavior.
We were so lucky to have captured this Sedge Wren singing proud.
It’s a bit overwhelming that so many have joined, but it is great fun!
Our other group, Birds as Art has 68 members and accepts all kinds of cool photos related to birds. Three Roseate Spoonbills in a row? Sure! A gorgeous banded Black-throated Blue? Of course! A perfectly perched Red-winged Blackbird? Absolutely!
We have added a few of our own photos to the groups, including one of our favorite warblers, the Ovenbird.
Flickr is a great resource for finding tons of great birders and bird photos. Now if only the site would adopt a Flicker as its mascot….
May 22nd, 2007 — Photography
We started using Flickr back in January of this year and have reached 1,000 photos!!
Our 13-year-old Blue Healer mix–Socks!
Flickr is a wonderful place to find cool photos and to share your own photos. We’ve met many great photographers and birders through Flickr and have enjoyed wonderful comments on some of our photos. Over the years we’ve taken many more photos than 1,000 but a lot of them never made it past the electronic trash can.
After 1,000 photos, here are a few of our favorite shots!
An Ovenbird in our backyard (2005)
Grand Teton Mountain Range, Teton National Park, Wyoming
American Golfinch at our backyard bird feeder
Arizona Doberman, our new puppy
Question: Do you think he caught the frisbee??
Blue Mockingbird in Texas
Feel free to check out all our photos at the Birdfreak Photostream on Flickr. We don’t pretend to be professionals, but just like carrying a camera while out birding!
Also, we offer ALL our bird photos to be used free of charge for bloggers, websites, print media, etc. They aren’t all the greatest quality, but sometimes it is nice to be able to add a picture to a post or use a photo while giving a presentation. We would like them to be credited to our website, but nothing else. No prior permission needed.
Here’s to thousands more photos on Flickr!
April 2nd, 2007 — Photography
Here’s a double photo quiz - your only clues are that they were taken on April 2nd in northern Illinois…
These are what we refer to as “burst rejects” - the load of pictures you get with a digital camera, set on burst, to catch a moving bird. (The second picture is mostly bad lighting and poor angle.)
February 24th, 2007 — Photography
The snow is coming down at a fair rate and I can’t wait till Spring. I’ve been busy creating a website for the Rockford Bird Club including a Winnebago Birding Guide so haven’t had as much time to post. When those projects are further along, I’ll post about them. Northern Illinois has some suprisingly good birding.
I’m looking forward to when our backyard visitors return:
