Fall Warblers and a New Nikon

Last month, I received a terrific 18th birthday present from my parents — a Nikon D610 with 50mm and 70-200mm lenses! I’d like to thank my parents very much for my new camera and also my good friend Nicole for her camera expertise and helping me to narrow my choices.

I went for a drive earlier this week with my Swarovski scope and binoculars, and Canon SX 50HS. I was thinking about bringing my new camera along, but the battery was a little low and I wasn’t expecting to see anything close enough to photograph with it.

At the first clump of willows I stopped and rolled down the truck window. I heard lots of “chips” coming from the bushes so I pished for a few seconds and then Palm Warblers, Lincoln’s Sparrows, Yellow-rumped Warblers, House Wrens, and a Orange-crowned Warbler came into view. The Palm Warblers were very inquisitive and came particularly close, so I was immediately regretting not bringing my new camera.

Yellow-rumped Warblers were all over and they were very easy to get photos of as they didn’t move around as much as the other warblers.

A Yellow-rumped Warbler or as some like to call them, “butter butts”,

I was very excited to get this photo since the coverts, alula, and other feathers you usually don’t get to see are visible,There were a number of palm warblers that afternoon. Palm Warblers have bright yellow undertail coverts, and they bob their tails, After 45 minutes, I decide to head back home and grab my new camera, better late than never. This is the first time I’ve photographed birds with this camera, so I still have lots of learning to do. The second time around, the warblers weren’t as cooperative, but I’m very happy with the shots I got.

Yellow-rumped Warbler, Nikon D610, handheld, f5.6, 1/800, ISO 250, Nikkor 70-200mm, natural light

Yellow-rumped Warbler, Nikon D610, handheld, f5.6, 1/800, ISO 250, Nikkor 70-200mm, natural light

Yellow-rumped Warbler, Nikon D610, handheld, f5.6, 1/640, ISO 250, Nikkor 70-200mm, natural light

Yellow-rumped Warbler, Nikon D610, handheld, f5.6, 1/640, ISO 250, Nikkor 70-200mm, natural light

The Orange-crowned Warblers moved incredibly quickly through the willows making it almost impossible for me to get photos. I was able to capture this photo which I cropped just a little,

Orange-crowned Warbler, Nikon D610, handheld, f5.6, 1/640, ISO 250, Nikkor 70-200mm, natural light

If you have any suggestions/tips for me on taking photos with my new camera, I would love to hear them. Please leave any suggestions in the comments or email me at cnafarm AT gmail DOT com. Thank you!

The Warbler Guide App, and a Giveaway

I’m very excited to be a part of The Warbler Guide App blog tour in partnership with Princeton University Press, to promote the new Warbler Guide app, which will be released soon. And please be sure to head over there to see the other blogs participating in the tour.

Some of the exciting features of the new app include 3D models of birds in all plumages; under-tail views; and the ability to find birds by filtering by colour, alphabetical order, song type, and taxonomic order.

Now for the giveaway!

Below are five photos of unidentified warblers, all taken by me at the Long Point Bird Observatory, Long Point, Ontario, in 2012 and 2013. The photos are labelled #1, #2, #3, #4, #5, #6, and #7.

To enter the contest, just leave a comment in this post with your bird ID for each number. The person who correctly guesses the most species wins a copy of both The Warbler Guide book (print edition) and the new app as well!

Thanks to Jessica at Princeton University Press for providing me with the book and app.

The deadline to enter the contest is December 24th, and I’ll announce the winners on Christmas Day.

Good luck everyone!

#1:

#2:

#3:

#4:

#5:

#6: 

#7:

Volunteers needed for Warbler Survey

A Canada Warbler I photographed last August at the Young Ornithologists’ Workshop at the Long Point Bird Observatory, Ontario, 2012

The other day the following message came across the Albertabird listserv [as a reminder, take out the “(at)” and “(dot)” and replace with the necessary bits!]:

I am conducting a study of geographical variation in song characteristics and I am looking for volunteers to take a 10-minute online survey. Participants will rate the similarity of the songs of several species of warbler.

If you are able to volunteer to take this survey, please e-mail me at
nathanbwarbler (at) gmail (dot) com, and I will send you an e-mail with the URL to the survey and more information.

Thank you in advance,

Nathan Burroughs
Department of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology
University of California, Los Angeles
nathanbwarbler (at) gmail (dot) com

If you’re able to take the survey to help Nathan with his study, please email him.

Nathan is an undergraduate student at UCLA, and this is the second part of his study; the first, in the autumn, was about  geographical variation in plumage characteristics. Part two examines the similarity of the songs of several warbler species, as the students examine aggressive interactions between species.

When I emailed him to offer to take the survey, I asked him to please keep me posted on the results of his survey and study. Nathan wrote back that the study could take anywhere from a month to multiple months to finish, but he will keep me posted. And I’ll post any information he sends here, too.