Another Day in Paradise Pt 2/Robert Bateman

Dec 3/4 2013 Boundary Bay, Delta B.C. Sunny and Cold.

What can I say, the sun was out and there were birds everywhere. For starters, there were three long-eared owls all perched in one tree. The birds were sunning themselves while trying to sleep. Everyone loves an owl, passersby on horseback, construction workers, joggers, dog walkers all stopped to view the birds. I heard later that everyone kept a respectable distance EXCEPT for a few overzealous photographers who in their rush to secure the perfect pose eventually forced two of the birds to re-locate to another tree. Shame on you! We all get hyped when we see a new bird but take a hint from the birding community and respect the bird's space. This type of asinine behaviour gives us photographers a bad name.

Long-eared Owl (Asio otus)

Here is my shot taken from a respectable distance after which I left for 72nd Ave where the following images below were taken.

 My target bird was the American Tree Sparrow which I found just east of the 72nd Ave parking lot. I 'phissed' it to the tree in front of me with the sun on my back.

American Tree Sparrow (Spizella arboreo)

Fox Sparrow (Passerella iliaca)

On composition and Robert Bateman

Last week I attended the Langley Field Naturalists monthly meeting and a very interesting talk by B.C. Nature President John Neville. His talk centred around the calls and behaviour of the raptors of Canada. The talk was fascinating and we all had many questions.

As you may know John has spent years recording birds many of which can be found on his excellent Cd's.

As a sidebar to his presentation, which he delivered in braille were artist Robert Bateman's finely detailed paintings. 

For years I have stuck quite closely to photographic compositional principles such as the two-thirds rule, use of leading lines (like the Fox Sparrow shot above) and other ways of making images more pleasing for the viewer. However, I was really struck by Bateman's use of space within the picture frame. In some of the images, the bird would be right on the very, very edge of the photo and I mean almost touching the edge or other times smack in the middle. The result were quite different from the close crops many of us fall into the trap of producing time and time again. Both have their merits but sometimes we forget in our rush to get the perfect close-up view that the bird's environment is often forgotten.

 I learnt much that night, not only from John but about how my personal vision may be being stifled by always trying to conforming to the 'right kind of composition' as well as shooting too tight.
This something that I will work on in the new year as a self assignment.

Great-blue Heron (Ardea herodias)

Female Northern Harrier (Circus cyaneus)

"Perfect symmetry" Trumpeter Swans (Cygnus buccinator)

White-crowned Sparrow (Zonotrichia leucophrys)

I photographed this Cooper's Dec 4 on 64th Ave. It was chasing down songbirds.

Cooper's Hawk (Accipiter cooperii)

Good Birding

John

In the right place at the right time

Serendipity
Serendipity means a "happy accident" or "pleasant surprise"; specifically, the accident of finding something good or useful while not specifically searching for it. 

The fog had cleared by the time I reached  Reifelbirdsanctuary.com
 Black-capped chickadees, Golden-crowned kinglets, Spotted towhees, Song sparrows and Dark eyed junco's flit from branch to branch. Further along the trail, three northern saw-whet owls sleep the morning away after what I am sure was a successful nights hunting. Remarkably two of the birds were within five feet of the ground. Having observed them for a few minutes it was clear that all three were sound asleep and were not going to oblige for a 'eyes open' photo. On a previous visit I had been lucky enough to find one of the birds wide awake and in the process of disgorging a pellet. Images from that visit can be seen in a previous blog.
The morning walk around the sanctuary was somewhat uneventful so after making some sound recordings I decided to visit 72nd and Boundary Bay.
There I hoped to find the American tree sparrow which I had photographed a few weeks earlier but under very low light and foggy conditions. Those images have a wonderful 'feel' to them but now the sun had come out from behind the clouds which I knew would give an added dimension to any photographs I could manage.

American tree sparrow (Spizella arborea)

 After an hour of searching I noticed a solitary bird dive down into the ditch, it was the same behaviour that had given away the sparrows whereabouts on my first visit. Sure enough I was able to slowly approach the colourful sparrow before it flew up to a post and later into a tree. 

Look for the bicolored bill and dark spot on the breast for positive identification.

Cooper's hawk juvenile (Accipter cooperii)

Out of the corner of my eye I noticed a flock of White-crowned sparrows scatter and hide themselves in a thicket of brambles, the culprit, a juvenile Cooper's hawk had landed about a hundred feet away. Above is a far, far away shot, cropped and then cropped some more. This is where a D800 would come in handy! All my cameras are 12 megapixels.
Anyway, it was time make my way back to the car only to find the parking lot crammed with birders and photographers, all of whom were pointing their lens at a long-eared owl. Being in the right place at the right time was one of the thoughts going through my mind as I looked through the viewfinder. 
At first the bird was too far away to get a detailed images so I put my 1.4 extender on my lens, at that precise moment the bird flew right in front of a group of us, I am now so close I have to back off.
Below are the images which may not have ever happened had it not been for the sparrows, a little bit of serendipity perhaps, I'll just call it Karma!

Long-eared owl (Asio otus)