It sucks to be stuck without a camera!! until now my faithful rebel XT has served me very well for past two years... and honestly i have been very happy with it.. its considered an entry level slr camera, but with patience and good technique you can do quite well (atleast until its limitations become more apparent).. Image quality is great, my only gripe was its high ISO performance beyond 400 suffers badly, has only 3 fps, and focusing speed could have been better. What is considered as the entry level workhorse,I even managed to get few decent bird in flight shots with it, which are usually in the domain of ID Mk III's that costs 10 times more.
Unfortunately my XT died last week and wouldn't even power on, its now out of warranty period too.. i've sent it to canon repair center in Virginia but looks like its going to take another couple of weeks with no camera for me!! :( me thinks, now that its limitations are quite visible to me, may be its time to upgrade!
Saturday, July 19, 2008
Sunday, July 6, 2008
El Polin Spring
Let say if you could talk to the hummingbirds and you asked them what was their favorite hangout spot in the bay area, I'm sure many would unanimously say that its El Polin Spring.
Thanks to my Flickr friend Kitundu through whom I came to know about this place. This place is like magic! You will find several bird species from tiny shaped hummingbirds to medium sized Robins that come here every day to take bath and drink from the natural spring water that arise from a rock wall at the head of the riparian valley in Presidio, San Francisco.
What was so special for me about this place was that, this was the only place where I have seen the hummingbirds take a bath. When I was there a few days ago, the Allen's were seen more often than the Anna's hummingbird. The latter is actually a permanent resident in the bay area. In the pic above, you can see that the Anna's hummingbird is trying to chase away the Allen's that had just landed to take a bath. Both hummingbirds are very territorial and they often chase each other and other birds that uses its water.
Among other regular visitors like Goldfinches, Chestnut-backed Chickadees, Pine Siskin, few surprise visits were made by Ruby-crowned Kinglet, Wilson's warbler (see right), Pygmy nuthatch and there was one recent report of Clark's nutcracker as well.
The bathing sequence of hummingbirds are so beautiful to watch, I thought photographs just don't do enough justice. Fortunately, I also had my video camera with me. So I captured some hi-definition footage of these beautiful birds. As you watch it, you'll notice the music is synchronized to birds action. I also kept the original sounds in the background. There is no editing magic here, as I continued to edit the video, everything started to fit together nicely. I think that was just a bit of luck and nothing else :). And thanks to WhiteEyes for making the wonderful music available under creative commons license.
Video:
Thanks to my Flickr friend Kitundu through whom I came to know about this place. This place is like magic! You will find several bird species from tiny shaped hummingbirds to medium sized Robins that come here every day to take bath and drink from the natural spring water that arise from a rock wall at the head of the riparian valley in Presidio, San Francisco.
What was so special for me about this place was that, this was the only place where I have seen the hummingbirds take a bath. When I was there a few days ago, the Allen's were seen more often than the Anna's hummingbird. The latter is actually a permanent resident in the bay area. In the pic above, you can see that the Anna's hummingbird is trying to chase away the Allen's that had just landed to take a bath. Both hummingbirds are very territorial and they often chase each other and other birds that uses its water.
Among other regular visitors like Goldfinches, Chestnut-backed Chickadees, Pine Siskin, few surprise visits were made by Ruby-crowned Kinglet, Wilson's warbler (see right), Pygmy nuthatch and there was one recent report of Clark's nutcracker as well.The bathing sequence of hummingbirds are so beautiful to watch, I thought photographs just don't do enough justice. Fortunately, I also had my video camera with me. So I captured some hi-definition footage of these beautiful birds. As you watch it, you'll notice the music is synchronized to birds action. I also kept the original sounds in the background. There is no editing magic here, as I continued to edit the video, everything started to fit together nicely. I think that was just a bit of luck and nothing else :). And thanks to WhiteEyes for making the wonderful music available under creative commons license.
Video:
Brandt's Cormorant Nesting Colony
Brandt's Cormorant are endemic to North America and they breed along the west coast of North America ranging from Alaska in the north to Mexico in the south. The pictures below are from a nesting colony where I saw them in large numbers at the Monterey's Breakwater cove.
The young cormorant feeding behavior is quite dramatic and interesting to watch.
Here a young Brandt's Cormorant requests his parent to feed him.
Mom opens her mouth to let the young one in..
Young one dives deep into mom's throat to get nourished.
A Brandt's Cormorant takes flight.
Nesting Colony
The young cormorant feeding behavior is quite dramatic and interesting to watch.
Here a young Brandt's Cormorant requests his parent to feed him.
Mom opens her mouth to let the young one in..
Young one dives deep into mom's throat to get nourished.
A Brandt's Cormorant takes flight.
Nesting Colony
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