Boulders And Birds

Dale Matson

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3rd Year Bald Eagle

This time of year, I prowl and stalk the shores of Millerton Lake looking for raptors of this or that sort. I fine tune the settings on my Sony A7R3. Those settings are quite different and more complex than the landscape settings which are essentially default and “Auto” on the mode dial.

 For birds, I usually use “silent shutter”, “continuous auto focus”, “shutter priority”, and “high speed frames per second”. As I get closer, it is only a matter of time before they fly off and there is always a chance for a good photo at that moment or soon thereafter. I have to continually remind myself not to let my legs get ahead of my eyes as I walk the trails. I have to continually remind myself to look down below to the boulders along the shoreline in addition to the tops of trees. The birds tend to prefer the tops of dead trees on points of land that jut out into the lake but that is not always the case. Unless there is a known nest site that you can approach, seeing these birds is hit and miss. The problem however is that the nests are almost impossible to get near because of terrain or private property.

I have found that mornings seem to be the time when the birds are most active and observable. One of the most important factors is light for photographing birds. Sunlight is almost essential for revealing the eyes of the birds. It doesn’t matter how well illuminated and sharp the feathers are if the eyes are not visible.

Yesterday I was searching for birds in vain and decided to turn my attention to the individual boulders and boulder fields illuminated so well by the afternoon winter sun. I thought how wonderful and unique these boulders looked. Was I that desperate for photographs? No, I had just not fully appreciated them before. Any why not? Don’t I have collections of hundreds of mountains which are really enormous amalgamations of boulders? Anyway, this report is an assortment of recent bird photos combined with yesterday’s boulders.

Just a quick comment about mountain bikers. It seems like the mountain bikers have increased (along with trail runners) on the trails. It would be helpful if they would give a ‘heads up’ or a ‘shout out’ to let me know they are approaching from the rear. Even though pedestrians have the right of way over mountain bikers, I am happy to get out of the way and appreciate the advance notice to find a wider spot to step off from the single-track trail.

I used my A7R3 with my 100-400 GM lens. The landscape photos are in the 100mm range and the wildlife photos are at the 400mm end with the 1.4X teleconverter.   

 2nd Year Bald Eagle

 Coopers Hawk

 Hawk

Red Shouldered Hawk