Turkeys on the Tracks

It's taken me a while, but here are the turkeys I saw back in October. Photos taken from the car window in Midlantic Park, on the way home from West Deptford Park.

"It's coming from that way."
"No, that way."

"Can I get a little privacy here?"

"Where's that train? We've gotta get out of town fast!"

Taken 10/10/15, Canon 7D Mark II with Tamron 150-600mm zoom lens, at about 200-300mm. Leaning on my car window for stability. Cropped and corrected with Photoshop "smart fix."

Killdeer!

The other day I took a walk around the neighborhood, including around the middle school. I got over there around 6 p.m. and was shocked to see about 8 killdeer in the grass of the athletic field there.

Of course I didn't have a camera, just my phone. I took a lot of pictures, but none of them were good enough to get a positive ID. Here's the best one:

So I went back over in my car the next day at about the same time. Nothing. Disappointed, I drove around the school and then decided to give it one more go.

Just two of them, but I got some awesome pictures!

The setting sun highlighted them perfectly!

I love that you can see their golden eyes!

Such cool birds!

I saw some turkeys that evening, too. Some of those pictures another day.

Canon 7D Mark II with Tamron 150-600mm zoom lens. All at 600 mm leaning on my car window. Cropped, sharpened and corrected with Photoshop "smart fix."

Burning question

I grew up in Northern NY State, and we always had bird feeders. One of our more common visitors was the Black-Capped Chickadee.

So when we moved to South Jersey, set up our feeders and the chickadees came, it never occurred to me that they weren't the black-capped variety. But they aren't!

Even though they look almost exactly alike, and I can't tell them apart at all, apparently our chickadees are the Carolina type.

Here's the Sibley guide to telling them apart:
http://www.sibleyguides.com/bird-info/black-capped-chickadee/black-capped-carolina-chickadee/ . It doesn't help.

All my pics are Carolina Chickadees.

Who knew?

Canon 7D Mark II with Tamron 150-600mm zoom lens. Taken at 250-350mm on a tripod. Cropped but otherwise uncorrected.

Surprise!

From our trip last week to Parker River National Wildlife Refuge, Plum Island, Massachusetts:

We were at the Hellcat Wildlife Observation area, and I was taking pictures of a greater yellowlegs taking a bath across the water. Bathing yellowlegs on the left, but look at the right side of the picture.

When I got home and blew up the pictures, I found a plover was there, too! A first for me.

I love my new lens!!

Canon 7D Mark II with Tamron 150-600mm zoom lens. All at 600 mm on a tripod. Cropped and corrected with Photoshop "smart fix."

Are you lookin' at me?

Got a new lens for my camera, and it's great! Tamron 150-600mm zoom telephoto. Used it yesterday on a great blue heron at Parker River National Wildlife Refuge, Plum Island, Massachusetts.

So here are some of my first shots, for the bird group theme, "Eye Contact."

Awesome, eh?

Canon 7D Mark II with Tamron 150-600mm zoom lens. All at 600 mm on a tripod. Cropped, but otherwise uncorrected.