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Welcome to the Pine River Review. Our sight is dedicated to our little homestead located along the Pine River tucked inside the Chippewa Nature Center's 1400 Acres of wild in Michigan's lower penninsula. We love to share our pictures, video, comment, and our own homespun music. Step inside our world as we celebrate this beautiful nook!


Tuesday, January 11, 2011

World Bird Wednesday VIII

The Wild Turkey (Meleagris gallopavo)
I have been off this week and have had a wonderful time taking a ton of photos and never has my lack of knowledge of the DSLR camera been so apparent. After months of practice my stellar average is still about one really good bird picture per thousand shots taken. I lucked into this turkey shot while struggling with a razor thin depth of focus, the low light and my shaky cold hands. How is it possible to consistently focus accurately on the birds eye? I wait for that glorious day when my ratio doubles to two keepers per thousand!  




It has been a spectacular week for eagle watching. Many times I have seen three or four birds in the sky chasing each other. Two adult Balds have been landing together way out on the lake ice rather than lazing in the trees between their fishing forays. The haggard young eagle on the ice has been getting his tail feathers ripped to shreds by the older eagles. Still he persists dauntlessly.  





A female American Kestrel (Falco sparverius), 
 The long suffering Suzanne was admonishing me to keep my eyes on the road and out of the trees when I drove off the asphalt after spotting this Kestrel swooping by. We sat on the side of the road for twenty minutes while I popped my head in and out of the sunroof taking pot shots. It was 15 degrees Fahrenheit out and Suz's so badly wanted to get to the resale shop. Since Suzanne likes moon shots, I will include this weeks crescent in honor of her new role as official bird expedition driver!



  Now it's time for World Bird Wednesday VIII 

This is the home of World Bird Wednesday. A place for bird photographers from around the world to gather and share their photographs and experiences as they pursue Natures most diverse and beautiful treasurers, the birds. The Blogosphere connects like minded people from around our planet like no other technology can do. World Bird Wednesday will be open for posting at 12 noon Tuesday EST North America through noon on Thursday.


You are invited to link your blog with other bird photographers in a weekly celebration of these most diverse and intriguing of Earth's residents, the BIRDS


                                                      

Three easy steps!

#1. Simply copy the above picture onto your W.B.W. blog entry. It contains a link for your readers to share in WBW. Or you can copy this link on to your blog page to share W.B.W. http://pineriverreview.blogspot.com/


#2. Come to The Pine River Review on Tuesday Noon EST through Thursday Noon and submit your blog entry with Linky.

#3. Check back in during the course of the next day and explore these excellent photoblogs!


The thumbnails below are links to our contributors blogs where you can view their beautiful posts. The idea of a meme is that you will visit each others blogs and perhaps leave a comment to encourage your compadres.

               Please in your linky description give a clue to your location like U.K. or Bolivia.
                And hey, it's okay to link one of your older posts that you worked so hard on.


                                      Come on, it's your turn!


30 comments:

  1. All are great but the turkey shot is brilliant! Love the composition and contrasting colours! ... And the moon image, well, WOW!

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  2. Your bald eagle shots are much better than mine! Still a thrill to see one though...

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  3. If this post represents 4,000 to 5,000 shots, then you are VERY busy indeed!! The turkeys, especially, are excellent!! And I love the moon!!!

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  4. The turkeys are great!!! And any shot of an eagle is an experience. Boom & Gary of The Vermilon River.

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  5. Cracking Turkey shots. Love the moon as well.

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  6. Re: Your question. Crab apple trees would work- the more the better. Boom & Gary.

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  7. I share your frustration, it's hard to get sharp shots with cloudy days and the sun low on the horizon. Auto focus isn't that accurate and birds often move to quick for manual. I'm still experimenting to find optimal iso, aperture and shutter speed. A better lens would help in my case.

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  8. Very interesting photos! The wild turkey shot is incredible! I have looked at it several times! And o wow that moon shot!

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  9. Best shot ever of a Kestrel! Wonderful also the turkeys. Are they gossiping? Great post, Springman.

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  10. Niiiice stuff here! I really like that turkey photo, what a perfect setting for them. Looks the two on the left are having a serious discussion. Awesome kestrel too ( I have no luck with getting their photos, so flushy!), really pretty background on that shot too. Good stuff!

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  11. What a superb shot of the American Kestrel. A real beauty.
    Love the moon shot too.

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  12. Just plain awesome Springman! We saw a huge flock of Turkeys this morning numbering at least 50-60 out in a corn field. They are definately making a come-back in our area.
    Wonderful shots of the Eagles. That Kestral is gorgeous and so clear. Love the moon shot. I've been practicing on this too.
    B.

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  13. the Kestrel is such a sweet bird. Love it.
    I was afraid of turkeys when I was a child, the feeling still stands. :(

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  14. Great kestrel capture! One thing I've learned about DSLR's when shooting birds is to set the camera to the AV mode and set the aperture as low as possible, that way you get the maximum shutter speed, which you know is important when shooting birds. Although like you noted it will cut down on your depth of field.

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  15. It seems I have the same problem...file 13 gets most of my efforts...BUT you found some real keepers for this post, the turkeys are super!...I love the Moon shot incredible---, Im a Moonwatcher too!

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  16. Are you kidding me? 18 entries at 3:30pm EST! I am only four blogs in. Wow. It is snowing today here on the river Pine and a Pileated Woodpecker landed in my tree this morning, only the second one I've ever seen.
    I will try the AV mode idea Ryan, I've been using M and TV mostly.
    Gary, I will plant two Crab apple trees to attract Waxwings after the ground thaws and I will name one Gary and the other Boomer!
    Thank you all for the wonderful comments I certainly appreciate every one and everyone!
    Now! Back to the blogs.
    Springman

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  17. Another frivolous contribution amongst all the hi-tech scientific entries.
    So glad your long-suffering lady at least got a golden crescent moon for her patience.
    I love Kestrels and this one has a lot more white than I am used to seeing over here in the UK. Probably a slightly different species?

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  18. Great pictures this week, I especially loved the Kestrel and the moon shots

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  19. I love the kestrel. I've only seen them via Word Bird Wednesday and they are beautiful!

    I am not brave enough to take the camera completely off automatic yet...by the time I figure out what to do the dang bird has flown 100 miles away.

    Oh, I had a picture of the moon that I was going to post--a crescent moon which is on our state flag with a palmetto tree. Until I saw your shot...geez, how'd you get THAT?!

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  20. The Kestrel capture is very special! Dang...all your photos are super!!!

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  21. EmptyNester,
    Its time to get brave and take that camera off auto. I find that I seldom use it anymore except for a quick reference shots. I'm taking much more consistent landscapes these days but the bird shots are still challenging beyond belief. I never know if I'm getting a good one till I get home and pixel peep.
    The moon shot was taken with my 400mm 5.6L birding lens and then cropped down. A tripod is a definite must and super clear skies doesn't hurt either!

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  22. Great shots! I wish I could get a moon shot as detailed as yours. I saw your reply above and maybe with a teleconverter I can get a little better shot.

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  23. All good shots Springman. The Turkeys and Kestrel (of course) are my favs. The moon shot is awesome too.

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  24. So many interesting entries, I'm looking forward to checking them out. And man, you have to be quick to get in there -- I'm on Wednesday morning my time and at #35! Glad to see so many submissions, this is a great idea!

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  25. Your photos are fantastic! I love all the eagle action. I've tried to get a good kestrel shot so many times, but they always fly away if we even act like we might stop. Frustrating! Wonderful moon shot!

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  26. Your photos are always excellant,I really like the wild turkey shots,& the moon.
    I planted prairie crabapple trees hoping to get some waxwings,but no bird except maybe the robin ever eats them.My neighbor used to have cherry trees & the waxwings came for those,I did see one then,phylliso

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  27. LOL, long suffering Suzanne... you crack me up :D
    And the shots are incredible. Turkeys and eagles and Kestrel. Love them!
    The part with focusing on the eye, right,... it depends too on what lens you are using.
    If the birds are 100meters or more away I have some slight trouble with that too, using my 18-200mm lens ;)
    I get always green with envy when I see the shots of some birders here (or on the web) and then I see their huge 400 or 500mm lenses,...
    :-)
    Keep it up, the shots are great!

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  28. Hi Springman.
    Glad I have found your site... very well presented!
    Nice set of images from your last post, but the Moonscape is just superb

    I will keep,popping in :)

    Dave

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  29. Love these photos... especially the turkeys still standing. Most of the ones I've seen up to now were in the middle of the table with their legs sticking up... or like the one posted back at Thanksgiving in middle of the road...

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