Fraser Valley Birding

Nov 11/14 Sumas Prairie Abbotsford BC Cold 1c

American Pipit (Anthus rubescens)

Driving around Sumas Prairie in sub zero temperatures looking for raptors can be a frustrating experience. On calmer days American Kestrels, Red-tailed Hawks and even the odd Golden Eagle can make it an exciting place to bird. We did find a dark phase intermediate Red-tailed Hawk but the buffeting winds made holding the camera still somewhat of a challenge. The American Pipit (above was shot from the car window from about twenty-five metres with the Tamron 150mm-600mm. I bought the lens for situations like this when a larger lens would have been too cumbersome to set up in the cramped quarters of a small car. With no Black-backed Gull to be found we headed toward Mission to find Bald Eagles that had congregated to feed on spawned out salmon.

Varied Thrush (Ixoreus naevius)

Another car window shot with the Tamron. The lens is so light and agile it can be very useful in situations where a wary bird like the Varied Thrush can only be approached by using the car as a blind. Plus it was really windy and cold outside.

Bald Eagle (Haliaeetus leucocephalus)
An adult Bald Eagle (left) clashes with a 2nd year bird on Nicomen Slough. The spent salmon the eagles were fighting over can be seen in the water below the birds.

"It's never too late to start birding"

John Gordon

Langley Cloverdale

A Few Hours at Blackie Spit.

 Nov 6 Blackie Spit, Boundary Bay Cloudy 7c

The next day I accompanied Andrew Foxall around Blackie Spit. There were number of Western Sandpipers, Dunlin, American and Eurasian Wigeon as well as a few hybrids. A Bald Eagle flew overhead and sent the ducks in the air, as the flock circled we also observed five Marbled Godwit and one Long-billed Curlew. The 'six amigos' flew off to the Farm Slough next to the railway track.
Around the tidal pond a Sharp-shinned Hawk was hunting. This is the first shot I took. I eventually moved around to get a 'cleaner' shot without so many intersecting branches. I do however like the Fall colours and the intense look of the bird.

Sharp-shinned Hawk (Accipiter striatus)

The Farm Slough/Blackie Spit.
The spit became a park in 1996 as the result of a Surrey-wide referendum.

The same Sharp-shinned Hawk but standing a few away from the original shot. I prefer this composition for the clean and darker background. Others might prefer the first shot that includes some Fall colour.

"It's never too late to start birding"

John Gordon

Langley/Cloverdale 

A Few Hours Birding/Thoughts on Composition

July 31/14 Boundary Bay 104 St Delta B.C. Temp Sunny 26c. 

There were two hours of daylight left and due to a heatwave here in BC the best place to be was outdoors. With this in mind I took off to Boundary Bay where a welcoming cool breeze accompanied the flood tide. Out in the bay perhaps a hundred Black-bellied Plover fed on the flood tide.

There were a few small flocks of Western Sandpipers, among them a mixture of juvenile and worn adults. There were also a few Killdeer foraging along the foreshore.

Western Sandpipers

Along the dyke were flocks of immature Red-winged Blackbirds. As I scoured the bay for shorebirds a chepd, chepd sound behind me caught my attention. A pair Common Yellowthroat fledglings were feeding on insects.

Vertical crop (Fig 1) Common Yellowthroat (Geothlypis trichas)

Some Thoughts on composition:

I recently found a three catalogues of Robert Bateman's work at a SPCA thrift shop. Looking at his work he sometimes but not always has the subject looking out of or entering from the very edge of the frame, he often breaks every rule in the book, over and over again.

I just thought I would mention that because the more I concentrate on bird photography the more I want to explore the compositional elements that Bateman and others execute so brilliantly in their work.

I recently attended a talk by well known naturalist John Neville. John is blind and gave the presentation using braille and supplemented the presentation with the art of Robert Bateman.

Until that night I hadn't really taken a close look at Bateman's work. 

The three images of the Common Yellowthroat were all originally taken horizontally or in landscape format. The first (fig1)I have cropped the file vertically eliminating some unwanted foliage and making it suitable for the cover of magazine. I use this image only as an example, not that it would grace any magazine cover I know!

The second shot (fig 2) is horizontal with the subject in the two-thirds zone with lots of space for the subject to move into. This technique is used to draw the viewer into the picture. On average people spend about 3 seconds looking at images, images are everywhere, on our TV's, out smart phones. The idea is to draw the viewer in just a little longer, that is all we can ask.

Horizontal shot (Fig 2)

(Fig 3) below  is the most interesting for me. I would have never cropped the tail so close the edge of the frame but in Batemans's 'Peregrine Falcon and White throated Swift' painted in 1985 he used the same technique I have applied here, in his notes he explains his rationale.

"In the painting, I wanted to convey plummeting, unstable feeling. I deliberately made one of the peregrine's wings almost touch the edge of the frame so that the line of the frame adds force to the hawk's dive"

Does it work with my Yellowthroat ? I'm not sure but I will be applying some of Bateman's ideas to my photography to see how I might improve my own work. Another artists to check out is Canadian legend Freeman Patterson who compositional skills are second to none.

Fig 3

Last Shot of the Day

Northern Harrier/ Sweet Light

The 'sweet light' just before sunset lights up this Northern Harrier (Circus cyaneus)

Thanks for looking!

It's never too late to start birding!

John Gordon

Langley /Cloverdale