Shooting Wildlife with the Nikon D7000 + 300mm f/4 + TC-14EII

I figured it was time to put the D7000 back into action for shooting wildlife since I keep wishing for a tighter field of view (fov) than, say, the D600 + 300mm + TC-14EII = 420mm.  With this combo attached to the D7000 it is 630mm equivalent fov.

Hatchlings - Days 8 - 12

Day 8

It's time to update what's going on in the nest with the robins so I'll show up to day 12, which is today.  I left off with days 5 - 7 here in case you missed it and want to have a look.  I'm expecting the nest to be empty sometime later this week as these little one's leave the nest to make their own way in this world.

Barred Owl

A brief trip to Johnson Woods today proved very efficacious and I wish to thank Ron Schaefer for the tip he offered me yesterday as to where I might see this owl.  I keep coming back, in part, hoping to see owls here for a better shot than I got over the winter and was rewarded with this one.  Next on my list is to get a nice action shot of one of these birds.

The outing was cut short because of a tornado warning that popped up in the area so as much as I wanted to stick around the better course of action was to seek safety.  So, till next time.....

Hatchlings - Day 5, 6, and 7

Day 5 - they're filling out nicely with feather features, beaks, and limbs.

Day 6 - starting to look a little more aware.  It's obvious now that the fourth egg is not viable.

Day 7 - as soon as I moved the leaves out of the way for a quick shot this is the response I got.  At least one of three is conditioned for eating.

Hatchlings - Day 4

Not much in the way of action here.  Just doing a lot of what babies do.  One of the things I've noticed and been impressed with is how clean momma keeps the nest - no left-over egg shells, no waste, no leaves, no scraps of food on the floor, etc.

Hatchlings - Day 3

This is day 3 since these little one's started hatching.  There are still only three birds with one egg left.  Mother robin has been busy nesting with and feeding her young so I popped in for a quick photo and got out of the way so as to not disturb the little family.

Ohio Wildflowers - A Walk in the Park

After getting off work a couple days ago I just had to get outside for some shutter therapy so went to a nature park not far away.  This time I wanted to keep the brown ground, leaves, and sticks to a minimum in the photos.  The sky was very overcast much of the time and it was late in the day so I attached the speedlight to the camera and took my time looking for the tiny flowers and plants that are springing up from the forest floor.  

Hatchlings - Day 2

When I checked on the hatchlings this morning I found three of them in the nest leaving one egg to go.  They're a little difficult to count because they're laying on top of one another, but knowing the nest had four eggs to begin with and there is still one in there makes it a lot easier to determine.

After checking on them three different times today they still looked like one mass so this picture will have to suffice.  I've seen the adult Robins entering the nest with little morsels in their beaks so I know these little one's are eating.  Shouldn't be long before we're picking out individuals.

Hatchlings - Day 1

This is a first for me.  Mindy pointed out a Robins bird nest with eggs in a holly bush outside our front door.  She had taken a picture to show me and I noted four eggs in the nest.  By the time I was able to grab my own pic I noticed a hole in one egg and two others that were cracked.  My immediate thought was that something had gotten to them and they weren't going to make it.  But as I looked at the photo on the computer screen it dawned on me that a critter had not gotten to them - they were hatching.

Change is coming - just look around.

After coming home from shooting a couple weeks ago my son-in-law asked if I had seen anything exciting - to which I replied, "not really".  The immediate thought on my mind when asked the question was more like, had I seen anything new, different, strange, etc.  But after uploading the images to the computer and looking through them it occurred to me that my response was not entirely correct.  We had endured a long, cold winter and it seems to still want to hang on.  We're currently about 15 - 20 degrees cooler compared to this same time last year.  The dreary gray and everything is brown or snow white days are fading and color is slowly taking over.  So, what I'm seeing and shooting now IS exciting in the way of new plant growth and animal activity not to mention cheerier attitudes among people - though I haven't  photographed any people lately.