Comparing New to Old Camera Lenses

      These are all pictures from my first trip to Barnegat Lighthouse State Park with my old camera lens (Canon 300mm) and from my most recent trip to Barnegat Lighthouse State Park with my new camera lens (Sigma 500mm).  However I had much better lighting on my second trip, the photo quality is still much better.
      The are my two favorite pictures of Harlequin Ducks from the trips.

Harlequin Duck with new lens

Harlequin Duck with old lens

 

 

 

      These next two pictures are of adult male Long-tailed Ducks.  These photos really show the difference in quality of the two lenses.

Long-tailed Duck with new lens

Long-tailed Duck with old lens

 

 

 

      The difference in photo quality of Red-breasted Mergansers was also very evident.  One with the new lens was clear enough to see the serrations on the beak for firmly holding onto fish.

Red-breasted Merganser with new lens

Red-breasted Merganser zoomed in on beak with new lens

Red-breasted Merganser with old lens

 

 

 

      Finally, I saw a large difference in photo quality of the Common Loons.  With my new lens I was able to zoom in on their beautiful red eye and really appreciate it more.

Common Loon with new lens

Common Loon zoomed in on eye with new lens

Common Loon with old lens









A Great Day at Barnegat Lighthouse State Park

      On 2/17/14 my mom, my aunt, my brother and I went to Barnegat Lighthouse State Park for the day.  As soon as we parked in the park's parking lot, we saw a Hermit Thrush on the fence right in front of our car and a few Yellow-rumped Warblers.  As soon as we got on to the jetty, the first bird I saw was an adult female Long-tailed Duck followed by an adult male Red-breasted Merganser.

Yellow-rumped Warbler

Adult female Long-tailed Duck

Adult male Red-breasted Merganser

 

 

      After this, we watched an adult male Surf Scoter fly in and land near us.  We also got good looks at a very close adult female Red-breasted Merganser and a very close adult Common Loon that showed us his spectacular red eye in the sun light.

Female Red-breasted Merganser shaking out its feathers

Female Red-breasted Merganser

Adult Common Loon close to the jetty

Adult Common Loon zoomed on red eye

 

 

 

      Further down the jetty, I saw my first male Long-tailed Duck of the day, but it was only an immature male, and I also spotted a lifer Red-necked Grebe far out off of the jetty.  I soon lost sight of the Red-necked Grebe but kept heading down the jetty.  A few minutes later I saw the Red-necked Grebe again, but this time it was very close to the jetty.  I crept up on the grebe and got only about five to ten feet away from it.

Immature Male Long-tailed Duck

Red-necked Grebe

Red-necked Grebe

 

 

 

      We soon then after saw a large group of Harlequin ducks further down the jetty.  They put on quite a show being only five feet away in the bright sunlight.  They would swim around and splash their wings in the water and hop on and off of the rocks.  I also saw one eating muscles from on a rock.

Harlequin Duck Bathing

Harlequin Duck Swimming

Harlequin Duck Swimming

Harlequin Duck posing on the rocks

Harlequin Duck eating muscles off of the rocks

 

 

 

      Once we got out to the very end of the jetty, I saw only my second and third adult male Long-tailed Duck along with a (new for the day) Horned Grebe and again saw the Red-necked Grebe.  I also finally got a picture of Harlequin Ducks in flight.

Red-necked Grebe (left) Horned Grebe (right)

Adult male Long-tailed Duck

Harlequin Ducks Flying

Harlequin Ducks Flying

 

 

 

      On the way back to the main beach, we saw many Dunlin, a Black-bellied Plover, and a few Brant in shallow pool from the water coming from the ocean seeping through the cracks of the large rocks forming the jetty.  We also saw four White-winged Scoters fly by us to give us all three species of scoter for the day.  I also got great looks of a Great Cormorant and a large flock of Purple Sandpipers.

Dunlin in shallow pool

Dunlin on rocks

Purple Sandpipers

White-winged Scoters

Great Cormorant's blue-green eye

 

Great Cormorant

Black-bellied Plover

 

 

 

      At the end of the day, we finished with 28 species, 8 new birds for the year, and one new lifer.



 





 



  

The Great Backyard Bird Count

Day:  1

          
        On the first day of the Great Backyard Bird Count, we were only seeing the common species for the first half of the day such as Song Sparrows, White-throated Sparrows, Northern Cardinals, etc.  However, I was still having fun practicing with my new Sigma 50-500mm lens.

Carolina Chickadee making a stop at our Burning Bush before coming to our window feeder.

 

Tufted Titmouse also making a stop at our Burning Bush before coming to our window feeder.

 

        So my mom and I decided to go to Peace Valley Park for a few hours with the good light to try to get a better look at a Red-headed Woodpecker that had been continuously seen there for over two months or to just see a rarer sparrow like a Fox Sparrow or a Tree Sparrow.  That was a total bust.  All of the parking lots were snowed in except for one, and from there on it was very hard to access anything else.  So we went back home and as soon as we look out our back windows my mom notices a larger and darker sparrow.  I crept over and identified it a Fox Sparrow.  A first for the year, and for our backyard!

These are all photos of the Fox Sparrow seen in our snowy backyard eating seeds from on top of our table that we scattered out there.

 

 

Day:  2

 

 

       Although the first day was exciting getting a new year and yard bird, the second day had even more excitement.  Today I woke up early to see if I could get anything different in the morning.  Sadly I did not, but later on at around 10:30 am, our new resident Fox Sparrow came back.

Fox Sparrow with his tongue out eating seeds. 

Fox Sparrow

 

 

       As I was letting my older brother try to take some good pictures with our new lens, he took the picture directly above, I heard a noise coming from the opposite direction.  I turn around and see a Sharp-shinned Hawk tumbling to the ground with a European Starling in its talons!  I tell my brother to turn around and start taking pictures.  After he takes about a dozen photos, I take back the camera and sneak over to a back door closer to the crime scene.  From past experience I know that the hawk will not pay as much attention to me because it is eating.  So I open the door slowly a quietly to get a crisper picture.

Sharp-shinned Hawk guarding his prize.

Sharp-shinned Hawk eating

Sharp-shinned Hawk guarding his prize with his back to us.

Sharp-shinned Hawk with the European Starling still fighting for his life.

 

      Over-all, so far it has been a very exciting Great Backyard Bird Count.

  





Birds in Flight

Waterfowl

 

Ducks are challenging birds to get photographs of flying.  They do not leave the water very much and when they do, it is usually for a brief, fast moment.  These are some pictures of various species of ducks in flight.

All of the above are pictures of Bufflehead flying.  These pictures were taken along the Delaware River.  They are such small ducks that when I first saw the large group in the top picture, I couldn't figure out what they were.

This is a picture taken at Greene Lane Reservoir of two Northern Pintail (Female left; Male right).  These were two ducks of a large group that were keeping their distance from me.

This is a Long-tailed Duck taken at Barnegat Lighthouse.  There were so many there but it was hard to get this shot because they were mostly staying in the water.

This is a Brant taken at Barnegat Inlet.  As you can see it is carrying a piece of seaweed in its mouth.  Luckily, this bird flew from far away, to right in front of me.

This is a mixed flock of Black and Surf Scoters (Surf Scoters front; Black Scoters Back).  These were my lifer Surf Scoters right outside the back porch of my beach house in Avalon NJ. 

This shows how massive some flocks of Snow Geese are.  Taken at Featherbead Lane in Salem Township NJ.  They were scared by some raptor and/or gunshots.

This is a close-up of Snow Geese also at Featherbead Lane in Salem Township NJ.

 

 

Raptors

Raptors are a much easier species of bird to get a picture of in flight because you mostly only see them in the air.  Also, some soar slowly, but it can also be very difficult, because some are very fast and make sharp turns through the woods.  These are some pictures of different species of raptors in flight.

This is a picture of a resident Red-shouldered Hawk taken in my backyard.  It stayed in my backyard for about two weeks continuously but it has been coming on and off for about a year and a half.

This is a picture of a Red-tailed Hawk taken at the Churchville Nature Center.  Sadly it was in poor lighting, however we did get some very good looks.

 

This Peregrine Falcon at Heislerville NJ spread its wings for about three minutes before finally taking off.  This bird allowed me to get incredibly close to him because he was too busy eating a Dunlin that he stole from a Merlin.

This is the same bird as above just after taking off.

This is the same bird as above later on in its flight.

This is another species of Falcon, an American Kestrel (Male top; Female perched below).  This picture was taken in Philadelphia.  I got very lucky here because originally I saw the lone male on a telephone pole further down the road.  In about two minutes, he took off and landed on a street light right in front of me.  Later the female showed up.

 

These are both pictures of a Rough-legged Hawk at Peace Valley Nature Center.  This was a life bird that gave us some great views.  it was only in one area flying back and forth between trees that were at most only twenty feet away.

 

This Osprey was at Avalon NJ hovering above the ocean looking for fish below the surface of the water.

 

This Osprey was at Edwin B. Forsythe NWR with a fish that it had just caught.  They hold the fish head first to make them stream-line so that they don't slow them down.

This is an immature Bald Eagle (left) compared to the size of a Turkey Vulture (right) at Cape May, NJ.

This is an immature Bald Eagle at Cape May, NJ.

 

 

 

 

 

Gulls, Terns, Skimmers, and Pelicans

 

These birds, like raptors, are also in flight a lot, however they are fast and do not usually soar around in one area for a long period of time. 

This is a Brown Pelican at Chincoteague NWR that flew over the marshes.

This is the same bird as above.

This is a Black Tern that was changing plumages at Chincoteague NWR.

This is a Least Tern at Chincoteague NWR.  This bird is an endangered species.

This is an adult Forester's Tern hovering above my head at Edwin B. Forsythe NWR.

 

This is a Black Skimmer at Fowler's Beach in Delaware.



This is a large flock of Black Skimmers flying around at Fowler's Beach.

This is a Great Black-backed Gull that was flying behind our boat on the way over to Cape May, NJ from Cape Henlopen, DE.

This is a Ring-billed Gull flying along the Delaware River.  They are very plentiful there in the winter.